Reference Solutions – Reference at Newman Library

ReferenceUSA Is Now Called Reference Solutions

I just renamed the database asset for “ReferenceUSA” to “Reference Solutions.” The interface remains the same, although the branding of the parent company, Data Axle, is more prominent than ever in the header.

For now, the historical ReferenceUSA data that is also listed as a database (it’s available only special request, as it is a local data file), will remain with the original name.

Trial Access to Historical Data in ReferenceUSA

Through the end of the month we have trial access to historical data in ReferenceUSA. Here’s how to get to it:

Go to link to ReferenceUSA on the “Q-R” tab of the main databases page
On the lower right corner of the page, click the tiny link for “Admin Log On”
On the Admin Log On page, use the credentials listed on the “Databases Overview” page in the Library Services Wiki
Once logged in, you’ll see the usual ReferenceUSA menu now includes a link to the historical data:

Please share any comments with Mike or Frank.

Demographic Data for Place of Work

I’ve had a number of questions from students looking for demographics for the city based on where people work. Most demographic data that’s collected is based on the geography where people LIVE – finding information about where people WORK in a given place is difficult, especially for small places (below the state and county level).

Rather than fixating on finding a specific statistic, you may have to evaluate several different sources to serve as a proxies to indicate areas of interest (i.e. areas that have a higher density of people engaged in commercial activity during the day). Each source is a trade-off where you’ll sacrifice one element (currency, small geography, or compilation by industry or occupation) for another.

Many sources with industry data classify businesses using the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), a hierarchical system of codes. For definitions and a breakdown of codes visit the NAICS site. Federal and state sources will use county names (Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond) instead of borough names (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island).

Industry / Occupation data (in order of recommendation):

County and ZIP Code Business Patterns – a census survey, use it to find a summary of the number of businesses and employees by industry for a county or zip code. Industries are classified using NAICS. An alternate source is the Economic Census, but the latest data for 2007 is not available yet for ZIP codes.
Workforce Trends in the NYC Region – the CUNY center for Urban Research has produced county and zip code level maps of establishments and employees by NAICS sectors. Change the drop down box from NYC Metro to NYC and Nassau to see the zip code level maps. (The map doesn’t label the zip codes – for a basic zip code map go here).
Reference USA – a library database that allows you to build lists of specific businesses by name based on geography (county, zip code), industrial classification (NAICS), and business name. For each business you’ll get data for the number of employees, sales, square footage of store, and more. Data can be summarized or downloaded into a spreadsheet.
2006-2008 American Community Survey – get detailed info about people based on where they LIVE (use the map under the Neighborhoods tab of the NYC data guide to access profiles for neighborhood-like areas called PUMAs), but place of work questions are far fewer and not available below the county / borough level. For county/borough place of work data via the American Factfinder look at the American Community Survey 3 year data tables for Journey to Work data by workplace geography – the data will be broken down by transit method to work, occupation, and industry.
2000 Census – definitive in that it provides work place population by all geographies (counties, ZIP Codes, census tracts) by occupation and industry, but it’s rather old for doing current research. Rather than going to the census directly, you can access compiled reports from the NYC Dept of City Planning.
Exisiting Reports – New York City Labor Market Information Service has detailed reports on different industries within the city, which may provide some breakdown of the data. The NYC Department of Planning has several special projects and neighborhood studies, which may include special surveys or statistics on business, traffic, and land use conducted particularly for that study.
Search for news – someone may have conducted their own research at some point and did a survey – search the library’s databases; Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, Factiva, and ABI Inform are good places to start.

Proxies for density (transit and land use)

Transit Data – data on bus ridership by route and subway passengers by station from the MTA and pedestrian counts (foot traffic) and bicycle counts from NYMTC are available online.
Land Use Maps – use these to identify areas based on prevailing land use – commercial, residential, industrial, etc, from the NYC Dept of Planning.

Final note – many of these sources, and others, are available via the NYC data guide.

Healthcare and Demographic Data for NYC

Students in the MBA in Healthcare Admin program are currently working on capstone projects – I’ve helped a few students already, Louise has had several, and Rita provided some details of a consultation she had in a recent email. Many of these projects involve site selection for different kinds of medical facilities and doctors offices. While the focus of each project differs and will require them to use different sources, there are a few common, core resources that will be useful to all of them:

For neighborhood demographic data:

You can use the US Census Bureau and the NYC Dept of Planning site, which has aggregated much of the census data into convenient profiles. To use these sources, you’ll have to use geography other than ZIP codes, because zip code-level census data is only updated every ten years (thus, the data is from the decennial 2000 census, and is out of date). You can get more recent data if you look at the Census American Community Survey (2006-2008) if you look at special areas called PUMAs (public use microdata areas), which are statistical areas that are similar to neighborhoods within NYC.

The charts and maps on this page will show you the PUMA numbers for each neighborhood (for example, the Upper East Side is PUMA 03805). Once you know the PUMA # for your neighborhood, you can browse the NYC population profiles here to get reports for that area (note – these are NOT the community area profiles, which generally contain just 2000 census data), or you can visit the Census Bureau’s page directly to build detailed tables for your PUMA / neighborhood from the 2006-2008 ACS.

For data on the number of doctors / medical practices in a neighborhood:

Go to the library’s databases page and select ReferenceUSA from the list. Once you’re in, select the US Healthcare database. From there you’ll be able to search by the doctor’s specialty and by ZIP code to generate a list of all doctors in that area who specialize in a particular kind of medicine. You can download a complete list using this database.

For medical information for specific neighborhoods:

Look at the neighborhood profiles created by the NYC Department of Health – they will give you an overview of health-related issues (smoking, obesity, insurance coverage and rates, some vital stats) for each neighborhood (the neighborhoods resemble the PUMA areas that you can download from the census). The site has a lot of additional information so students will want to dig through it thoroughly – one key resource is this map and table of health insurance coverage by neighborhood.

For market research of a particular aspect of the medical industry:

Go to the library’s databases page and select MarketResearch.com.