Resources: CRL Reviews
CRL gathers and provides information here about commercial and open access digital resources of interest to the CRL community. This information is intended to inform library decisions on investment in electronic resources and related services.
Social Explorer - Direct
Social Explorer database contains the entire U.S. census history as well as numerous other demographic and environmental study reports, as well as mapping tools. The website seamlessly integrates spatial and numeric data through an easy-to-use interface and makes working with socio-demographic data simple even for a novice user.
Social Explorer was previously provided by Oxford University Press (OUP). In April 2019, OUP announced that OUP and Social Explorer, Inc. mutually agreed to end its partnership. Beginning on April 22, 2019, Social Explorer, Inc. began to provide subscriptions and services to Social Explorer directly with subscribers.
Planet
Planet Labs provides a series of products of satellite images and data for research using geospatial data. The products utilize the imagery produced by Planet Lab's Triple CubeSat miniature satellites, programed to capture different swaths of Earth.
According to Planet's company site, the products serve a wide range of markets, including: agriculture, civil government, defense and intelligence, education and research, emergency management, energy and infrastructure, finance and business, forestry and land use, insurance, mapping and maritime.
Europa World Plus
Europa World Plus is the online version of The Europa World Year Book and The Europa Regional Surveys of the World. The database includes economic, political, and geographic background information and statistical data by country.
Platts Map Data Viewer
The Platts Map Data Viewer is a web-based database of spatial and operational data and information with a user-friendly map interface. The product's map layers cover natural gas, electric power, and NGL markets that enables analysis of operational data and spatial relationships between infrastructure.
Platts Map Data Pro
Platts Map Data Pro is a geographic information system layer service that facilitates data visualization, analysis, modification, and printing of geospatial data layers with commodity spatial views. The product features a user interface for project assistance and can be used with other GIS datasets and applications.
Mergent Online
Mergent Online is a web-based suite of financial information and data offered through various modules including: U.S. Company Data, U.S. Company Archive Data, International Company Data, International Company Archive Data, Global Company Financials, Dun & Bradstreet Private Company Database, Annual Reports, Executive Profiles, Industry Reports, Global Equity Pricing Data, and others. Mergent Online is the flagship project of Mergent, Inc., a major company information publisher.
World Bank Open Data
World Bank Open Data is an online database that provides free and open access to global development, statistical data.
Natural Earth
Natural Earth is a public domain map dataset featuring integrated vector and raster data.
Gallup Analytics
Gallup Analytics is an online platform that provides subscribers with access to public opinion data aggregated through the Gallup World Poll, which annually collects opinions on issues from approximately 160 countries. The data-types covered in the product include: economics, wellbeing, employment, religion, freedom of media, entrepreneurial energy, and politics.
Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS)
Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) is a business research platform and intelligence tool widely used by academic, corporate, government, and nonprofit researchers.WRDS provides users a single online location for access to terabytes of data across multiple disciplines including: accounting, banking, economics, finance, ESG and statistics.
WRDS aggregates and retains content from a variety of data sources, and serves as a source of historical data from a number of vendors that themselves maintain only current information. Sources of data aggregated by WRDS include CRSP, S&P Global Market Intelligence, NYSE, and Thomson Reuters, as well as more specialized sources such as BoardEx, FactSet, Hedge Fund Research, Markit, Ravenpack and GSIOnline.
AmericasBarometer
The AmericasBarometer database includes open access datasets, as well as subscription-based "merged datasets", from public opinion surveys conducted periodically in Latin America and the Caribbean beginning in the 1970s, focusing on matters of governance, politics, and democracy in the region.
DigitalGlobe
DigitalGlobe is the primary commercial provider of very high-resolution (VHR) geospatial images and data for all world regions,from satellite and aerial capture. DigitalGlobe Basemap is a subscription service that provides access to customized collections of data sets from the DigitalGlobe repository tailored to the needs of individual client libraries.
Financial Times
FT.com is an English-language, online business news portal, produced by London-based Financial Times Ltd. FT coverage of financial markets and interests is global, with extensive coverage of Western Europe, North America, China and Japan, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. FT was one of the first newspaper publishers to successfully charge for access to its website.
FDsys
FDsys is an open access repository of U.S. federal government agency and legislative branch publications. According to a 2006 GPO presentation, FDsys "will be a world class system for managing official Government content. The system will verify and track versions, assure authenticity, preserve content, and provide permanent public access." The system was largely developed by Harris Corporation under a contract let by the GPO in 2006. In 2016 the GPO announced that "govinfo", a new system in beta, will eventually replace the FDsys website.EIU Country Analysis
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Subscription Services provide several distinct sources of information on global political and economic trends, based on original EIU research and analysis. One set of subscription service products,“Country Analysis and Forecasting,” consists of data, reports and analysis from in-house researchers, freelance contributors from a range of countries worldwide, and from open sources such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Country Analysis and Forecasting includes five main titles.
A selection of databases included in this resource are:
Country Commerce Financial Services Reports Country Reports Country DataEIU Data Solutions
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Subscription Services provide several distinct sources of information on global political and economic trends, including original research and analysis. One group of subscription services products from the EIU is “Data Services,” presented as both regular reports themselves and as distinct, web-based tools.
S&P Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ provides real-time data, research, and analytics on both public and private capital markets.
PrivCo
The PrivCo database provides extensive private company financial information for over 500,000 companies. It includes data on private company investors, M&A deals, private firm valuations, venture capital funding, private equity deals, private and family ownership breakdowns, bankruptcies, restructuring, and more.
Bloomberg Professional Service
A comprehensive, premium financial information platform used by finance and investment professionals, journalists, economists, and other researchers, Bloomberg Professional Service provides access to current and historical news and information relating to financial markets and financial activity worldwide.
Global Financial Data Series
In the Global Financial Data Series, the publisher (GFD) provides deep historical data on a wide variety of securities, price indices, exports, imports and more from around the world. This resource is unique in that it is the only resource, at this point, that provides easy access to many historical time series.
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While CRL makes every effort to verify statements made herein, the opinions expressed and evaluative information provided here represent the considered viewpoints of individual librarians and specialists at CRL and in the CRL community. They do not necessarily reflect the views of CRL management, its board, and/or its officers.