Numeric Data Services and Sources for the General Reference Librarian

✍ Scribed by Lynda Kellam and Katharin Peter (Auth.)

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 235
• Series: Chandos Information Professional Series
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The proliferation of online access to social science statistical and numeric data sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau's American Fact Finder, has lead to an increased interest in supporting these sources in academic libraries. Many large libraries have been able to devote staff to data services for years, and recently smaller academic libraries have recognized the need to provide numeric data services and support. This guidebook serves as a primer to developing and supporting social science statistical and numerical data sources in the academic library. It provides strategies for the establishment of data services and offers short descriptions of the essential sources of free and commercial social science statistical and numeric data. Finally, it discusses the future of numeric data services, including the integration of statistics and data into library instruction and the use of Web 2.0 tools to visualize data.

• Written for a general reference audience with little knowledge of data services and sources who would like to incorporate support into their general reference practice
• Combines information on establishing data services with an introduction to available statistical and numeric data sources
• Provides insight into the integration of statistics and data into library instruction and the social science research process

✦ Table of Contents

Content:
Front matter, Pages i-iii
Copyright, Page iv
Dedication, Page v
List of figures and tables, Pages xi-xii
About the authors, Pages xiii-xiv
Acknowledgements, Pages xv-xvi
1 - Introduction to data services and sources, Pages 1-23
2 - Supporting statistical and numeric data services and sources, Pages 25-65
3 - Reference and instruction for data sources, Pages 67-87
4 - Basic sources for supporting numeric data services, Pages 89-150
5 - Data librarianship: a day in the life, Pages 151-160
6 - The future for numeric data services, Pages 161-171
Appendix A - Respondents’ institutional profiles and full responses, Pages 173-213
Appendix B - Selected annotated bibliography, Pages 215-222
Index, Pages 223-229