International Statistical Data: Trends, Sources and Issues

Bobray Bordelon

Princeton University

July 9, 2000

GODORT Program - American Library Association Annual

We will examine:

Examples of Commercial Publishers

When one should turn to commercial publisher

What to look for

Missions of International Organizations

If you look at organizational missions such as those of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, UNESCO, OECD, and the Asian Development Bank, you will find that most do not mention supplying free documents as part of their mission. Their misssions are typically to provide documentation and data to its member organizations to aid in their decision making.

Depositories (United Nations and partners)

United Nations - 44 in the USA FAO - 14 in the USA ILO - 2 in the USA UNESCO - 2 in the USA World Bank- 3 in the USA

Asian Development Bank Depository Program

“introduced in January 1994 in response to a growing public demand for information about its activities. Under the program, selected ADB publications are deposited regularly in key libraries in its member countries.” (8 in USA)

Types of Commercial Services

Distributors Indexing/Abstracting/Full

text Repackagers Aggregators

Distributors (select examples)

Oxford University Press (African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, UNIDO, UNDP, UNEP)

Bernan (various UN, IMF, UNESCO, World Bank, ILO, EC, OECD publications)

Edward Elgar (UNIDO’s International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics)

Indexing/Abstracting/Full text

Congressional Information Service’s Index to International Statistics/Statistical Universe– States what publication is about

– Indexes and identifies source

– Provides a consistent accession number

– Documents presented “as is”

– Currently no full text online - this begins to change August 2000

Repackagers (a select list)

Chadwyck Healey Congressional Information

Services EuroMonitor Oryx Press

Chadwyck Healey

Gathers publications and puts them into large sets (primarily microform but some electronic)

“as is” publications primarily historical

Chadwyck Healey (select products)

African Official Statistical Serials, 1867 - 1982 Annual Reports of the World's Central Banks British Government Publications Containing

Statistics, 1801 - 1977 European Official Statistical Serials, 1841 - 1984 Latin American and Caribbean Official Statistical

Serials, 1821 - 1982 Yugoslav Statistics, 1834 - 1919

Congressional Information Services

Current National Statistical Compendiums on Microfiche

– “Comprehensive” collection of international statistical yearbooks

EuroMonitor

International Marketing Data and Statistics

World Consumer Income and Expenditure Patterns

World Economic Factbook China Marketing Data and

Statistics

Oryx Press

Statistical Handbook on Poverty in the Developing World

Aggregators (a select list)

RDS - TableBase DRI University Program Datastream International Economist Intelligence Unit Country Watch

RDS - TableBase

Pulls together many different publications (over 1,000 sources)

fully indexed by specific categories with keyword searching also available

problem: finding original sources sometimes tricky since name of table and not article is often given

DRI University Program

Fully identifies source in online and printed documentation

On screen only gives databank item is derived from

Allows mixing and matching of many sources

Allows user to download into multiple formats

DRI University Program

Very strong on USA coverage Contains a number of IGO

sources Contains few sources directly

from countries time series do not go away

Selected DRI Databases

DRI International Economic Database DRI Canadian Primary Source Database IMF International Financial Statistics

Database IMF Direction of Trade Database IMF Balance of Payments Database OECD Main Economic Indicators Database OECD National Accounts Database

DRI contains data directly from the following countries:

Belgium, France, Germany Italy, Netherlands South Africa, Spain United Kingdom United States

Datastream International

Strong country coverage Limited IGO data Allows complex downloading

through the use of macros time series do not go away

Datastream International

Minimal source identification pay per simultaneous user different versions allowing

differing degrees of user friendliness and manipulation

THIS PROGRAM ENABLES THE MNEMONIC FOR A REQUIRED ECONOMIC TIME SERIES TO BE DETERMINED COUNTRIES AVAILABLE: 7 CANADA 89 EUROLAND (EUROSTAT & ECB) 29 FRANCE 30 GERMANY 31 ITALY 49 JAPAN 55 JAPAN - IBJ/NIKKO DATABASE 58 SWITZERLAND 1 UNITED KINGDOM 6 UNITED STATES 70 OTHER COUNTRIES A TO M 71 OTHER COUNTRIES N TO Z 77 GLOBAL AND MISCELLANEOUS INDICATORS 82 FORECASTS - CONSENSUS ECONOMICS 84 FORECASTS - EIU 86 FORECASTS - OECD 88 OECD HISTORICAL DATA 80 WIIW EASTERN EUROPEAN DATA 97 IMF DATA SELECT COUNTRY REQUIRED:

Some of the other countries covered includes

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru,Venezuela

Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia,

Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Zimbabwe Cyprus, Greece, Turkey Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia,

Slovakia Israel, Jordan

Economist Intelligence Unit

compiled from many different sources as well as their own researchers

source identification varies; always identified but sometimes only the agency

services available in paper, on CD, and via the WEB

superb packaging but very expensive

Country Watch

compiled from many different sources as well as their own researchers

source identification varies; always identified but sometimes only the agency

available via the WEB very inexpensive

What to look for in a commercial product

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (Cost of original versus repackaging)

Can you get it otherwise? Reputation

What to look for in a commercial product

Does it add value? Interface or medium of

presentation User Friendliness

What to look for in a commercial product

Standardization Manipulation of data Downloading capabilities and

formats Is Data kept or does it roll

over?

What to look for in a commercial product

Documentation Identification of original

source Methodology Customer Service