[Publib] Reference USA

[Hubert Thompson]

Our library has had Reference USA for some time. At my location, it gets used mutliple times each week, mainly for two purposes: salesmen looking for lists of contacts, and new entrepreneurs looking for lists of competitors or similar businesses in their line in order to write a business plan (for their funder).
I must add that we get more questions about how to use it than for all of our other databases put together. It's not so much the search options which are confusing the patrons, as how to report and then print or download the data. It doesn't have an option to print the lists of companies you create, which is exactly what the patrons always want; instead, you have to select each company from the set and view its individual record, and then there seems to be a limit of 50. Patrons do seem pleased with the results, once we show them how to use it and they understand the limitations of how to retrieve the information.
A comparable database for these purposes might be Gale's Business and Company Resource Center, which is the online version of Ward's and Brands and their Companies (and it will do so much more besides). It's much easier to use, but it doesn't have nearly as many small local companies in its universe (e.g. only two auto dealers in Chicago). Both of them are larger than Hoover's Company Records, which only covers 40,000 companies.

Hubert Thompson
Sulzer Regional Library
Chicago Public Library
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