Databases to Look At

I will be looking at the issue of the return on investment (ROI) of literacy programs from a variety of viewpoints dealing with people's quality of life and the overall health of the community: personal finances and spending, government, healthcare, corporations, the banking industry, the justice system, education, etc. Here is a list of some of the databases I think will be helpful as I move forward with my initial information gathering/literature review:

METHODOLOGY & RESEARCH MEASUREMENT TOOLS

HAPI - Health and Psychosocial Instruments

• "provides ready access to information on measurement instruments (i.e., questionnaires, interview schedules, checklists, index measures, coding schemes/ manuals, rating scales, projective techniques, vignettes/scenarios, tests) in the health fields, psychosocial sciences, organizational behavior, and library and information science"

GENERAL STATISTICS

US Census Bureau

• "Includes the Census of Population and Housing, Economic Census, Census of Governments and other Census Bureau surveys, data and publications"

SCIway - SC Census Information

ACRL Metrics (this is only available to people on the EJournals TDnet listing, so I'll have to look into that)

• "Create reports from statistics gathered by the Association of College and Research Libraries and the National Center for Education Statistics' academic libraries survey."

Lexis Nexis Statistical Universe

• "easy access to statistics produced by the U.S. government, major international intergovernmental organizations, professional and trade organizations, commercial publishers, independent research organizations, state government agencies, and universities"

Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition Online

• "This thoroughly revised and updated resource, including thirty years of new data and scholarship, is available online and in a five-volume print version. User can graph individual tables and create customized tables and spreadsheets reflecting their own particular areas of interest."

CensusCD + Maps 1990 (CD-Rom) (Only available at GOVDOC02 computer in TCL - ask staff)

• "1990 Census of Population & Housing data & maps down to the block group level along with more current estimates (1998) & projections (2002) with data analysis & mapping software. Also includes estimates & projections of consumer spending at the neighborhood level & statistics going back to 1969 on Banking, Building, Crime, Employment, Federal Spending, Industry Earnings, Personal Income, Retail & Service Businesses, & Vital Statistics for every county in the US, & historical population counts by county back to 1790"

SCHOLARLY RESEARCH -  EDUCATION & LITERACY

Dissertations and Theses

• "citations and/or abstracts for over 2 million dissertations and theses. The database accepts over 90 percent of doctoral dissertations in North America and contains thousands of international titles. Additionally, the database provides 24 page previews for many recent titles as well as numerous full text documents

Education Full Text (and ERIC)

• "the premier U.S. national bibliographic database of education literature. Sponsored by the US Department of Education, ERIC consists of two files: Resources in Education, covering document literature, and Current Index to Journals in Education"

JSTOR

• "offers full-text on-line access to back issues of more than 100 scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Issues are entered on-line after having been published for 2-5 years. The entire printed matter of the journal as published is included, and coverage for most titles begins with their starting numbers"

Library Literature and Information Science Full Text

• "a bibliographic database that indexes articles and book reviews of key library and information science periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere"

Educator's Reference Complete

• "a selection of more than 450 full-text academic journals, hundreds of full-text reports, and many premier reference sources. Included content focuses on educational principles, child development and psychology, and best practices in education. Majority of the full-text titles included are also found in the ERIC database"

Sociological Abstracts

• "provides access to the latest worldwide findings in theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science"

General OneFile (periodicals)

Academic OneFile (magazines and scholarly journals)


BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

OECD iLibrary (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)

• "online library of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Best known for its publications and its statistics, the OECD’s work covers economic and social issues from macroeconomics, to trade, education, development, science and innovation"

Global Trade Atlas

• "access to merchandise trade data of over 35 of the world’s major economies. Users can view over 90 percent of the world’s trade in any commodity classified under the Harmonized System"

Mergent Online

• "provides global business and financial information. The database includes current and archival U.S. Company data, international data, full text annual reports, SEC filings and historical stock prices. Also includes executive biographies, competitive landscape data, global industry profiles, and equity research reports"

Standard & Poor's Net Advantage

• "a comprehensive source of investment and business information and analysis on industries and companies including financial data and market trends"

World Bank Data

• "comprehensive set of data on living standards around the globe—some 2,000 indicators, including hundreds that go back 50 years— through its new data portal. This new site currently contains the full World Development Indicators (WDI), Global Development Finance (GDF), and Africa Development Indicators (ADI) as well as several other World Bank databases such as Global Economic Monitor (GEM), Education Statistics, etc."

USA Trade Online (How could SC trade be increased through higher literacy?)

• "U.S. export and import statistics for more than 18,000 commodities. Annual, year-to-date and monthly statistics by quantity and value. Reports include: trade by commodity, commodity market ranking, commodity profile, commodity time series and country by commodity." 

Ferguson's Career Guidance Center

• tool for career exploration and development contains helpful articles and videos on industries, jobs, skills, and resources. Areas covered by this database include:
• Job & Industry Profiles
• Job-Hunting & Workplace Skills
• Career & Industry Resources
• College Planning & Financial Aid

CRIME AND JUSTICE

National Criminal Justice Reference Service

• "contains summaries of more than 180,000 criminal justice publications"