In November I attended a workshop sponsored by the Upper Midwest Chapter of the Marketing Research Association, on conducting secondary research on-line. While the talk was aimed at researchers here in the Minneapolis area (and even more specifically. those with a Hennepin County Library card), I thought I might share some notes from the program with you. Because while we have an exceptionally good library system here (finally. A tangible benefit from aJl those taxes!). I'm sure there are libraries all across the country, perhaps one close to you. offering a similar wealth of free or near-free information sources.

Featured speaker Tom Fortin of the Southdale branch of the Hennepin County Library system focused on introducing us to the resources available by clicking on the "Reference Tools" button at Hennepin County Library's Web site. Sadly, the sites he showed us were available free of charge only to those with a suburban Hennepin County Library card. But the library's home page offers useful links in another section that anyone with a Web browser can access. First, on the Hennepin Library home page, click on the Dilbert button called "The Web," which is one of four buttons surrounding the "Search" icon on the upper left side of the page.

One of the first entries on the resulting "Search the Web" page is a nice list of search engines. Along with brief descriptions of what/how they search. which are helpful because the search engine providers don't always speJl that out clearly.

Also on the "Search the Web" page, check out the "Hennepin County Library Recommended Web Sites" section for an eclectic list of sites in a variety of categories selected by library staff. Some of the most useful links are found under the "Business & Investments" section, including:

  • a site offering corporate information (the aptly named www.corporateinformation.com). which has sub-lists of Web sites offering data by country and by U.S. state;
  • Michigan State University's Center for International Business Education and Research's MSU-CIBER International Business Resources on the Web site (http://ciber.bus.msu.edu/busres.htm), which provides access to business newspapers, periodicals. company directories, and government resources, along with information on international trade shows and business events;
  • Fedstats (www.fedstats.com), which offers convenient access to a range of statistics from more than 70 federal agencies;
  • the JobStar page of salary information (www.jobstar.org/tools/salary/index.htm), with links to hundreds of salary surveys from newspapers, periodicals, trade and professional organizations;
  • the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers (www4.thomasregister.com), which lets you access information on 155,000 American manufacturers of industrial products and services;
  • a link to the good old Census Bureau (www.census.gov);
  • and www.dismalscientist.com (one of the best-named sites around), which gives visitors economic analysis by recognized economists at the metro, state, and national levels, along with business articles and global economic data. (Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Cadyle tarred economics with the term "dismal science.")

The Web has placed a wealth of facts at our fingertips. The information you need is out there, it's just a matter of finding it. Happy hunting!