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It's a Jungle Out There! Simplifying the Hunt for Government Information: Business

Resources for a presentation at the Florida Library Association annual conference, May 8, 2009

Data Sources Available in Federal Depository Libraries

STAT-USA is a subscription service accessible for free at all federal depository libraries. It pulls together information from many different sources, some of which are available from other government websites.

  • State of the Nation - "The Federal Government's best resource for monitoring the U.S. economy."
  • GLOBUS (Global Business Opportunities) "offers daily trade leads from the Trade Opportunities Program (TOPS), as well as the Department of Agriculture. GLOBUS also offers daily procurement activity from the Defense Logistics Agency, the United Nations, and the Commerce Business Daily leads."
  • NTDB (National Trade Data Bank) "provides access to Country Commercial Guides, Market Research reports, Best Market reports and other programs. The International Trade Library is a comprehensive collection of over 40,000 documents related to international trade. All are full text searchable, as well as keyword searchable by country or product."

USA Trade Online is a subscription service accessible for free at all federal depository libraries -- "provides current and cumulative U.S. export and import data on more than 18,000 export commodities and 24,000 import commodities worldwide... with annual data from 1992 and monthly data from 2002."

Other Federal Data Sources for Business

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

  • U.S. Economic Accounts - national, international, regional, and industry
  • Survey of Current Business - "Articles in the Survey present the latest national, international, regional, and industry estimates; describe the methodologies used to prepare the estimates; provide information about major revisions; discuss on-going innovations; and generally keep users up to date on relevant BEA issues and initiatives."

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

 Other Business and Economic Information from Government Sources

Florida Agencies & Departments

Professional License Information (Florida Dept. of Business & Professional Regulation)

Sunbiz (Florida Division of Corporations) - provides online searches for corporations, trademarks, limited partnerships, fictitious names, etc.

Florida Research & Economic Database (FRED) - provides labor market information, economic, and demographic data for the state.

Small Businesses

Business.gov "helps small businesses understand their legal requirements, and locate government services supporting the nation’s small business community."

Florida Small Business Development Center Network - "a statewide economic development partnership between higher education and other stakeholder organizations dedicated to providing entrepreneurs and established businesses with the assistance needed to start, grow and succeed, contributing to the Florida economy."

U.S. Small Business Administration

U.S. Census Bureau

  • Statistics about Business Size
  • Nonemployer Statistics - "summarizes the number of establishments and sales or receipts of businesses without paid employees that are subject to federal income tax. Most nonemployers are self-employed individuals operating very small unincorporated businesses, which may or may not be the owner's principal source of income."