Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

MEL’s Database of the Week for 9/10/10

September 10th, 2010

Welcome to Database of the Week — a feature from the Management & Economics Library (MEL). These database snapshots will give you basic information about our most relevant and beneficial online resources.

This Week’s Featured Database: SimplyMap from Geographic Research, Inc..

Link: www.lib.purdue.edu/mel, in the pull down Quick Access to Business Databases alpha list right below the Libraries’ search box.

Description/focus: SimplyMap provides demographic, business, and marketing data.

Start with this hint: Create a personal workspace on your first visit to SimplyMap. Begin with a Location, such as Florida, narrow to Pinellas County, and hit Go. To select elements to display on the map, click the Variables tab and start expanding categories (click the +) to narrow your choices.  You can pick Census Data, Consumer Expenditure (for example, expand Housing Related to see Child care), Business Counts (narrow by SIC Code), Market Segments (including, for example, In the Armed Forces), Quality of Life (showing crime, earthquakes, temperatures), (Consumer Price Index, MRI Consumer Data, Life Stages; and Simmons Data (formerly Choices 3).  Click Add Selected Variables.   The information that is represented on the map but can also be presented in a spreadsheet: click on the top tab Reports and then Update Report. Each side tab offers a different way of finding information.  For example, in Points if you enter Starbucks the map will show you the locations of the Starbucks coffee shops in the area.

Why you should know this database: SimplyMap has such an incredible amount of data that there is the potential for it to be overwhelming, but it definitely warrants exploring. The Tutorial Videos are excellent guides to help get you started with this database and are recommended.  In addition, one-on-one training is available from the vendor.

How this database can be integrated into the curriculum: SimplyMap online workspaces can be shared.  This database can be used for any class that requires a business plan or forecasting.

Compared to Google: Google does show a list of demographic maps, but we were not able to find any that were interactive.

Cost:  2 simultaneous users, paid annually by the Libraries.

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Database of the Week comes to you from the Management & Economics Library (MEL). Our intent is to give you a brief introduction to a database that you may not know.  If you would like more information about this database, or if you would like a demonstration of it for a class, contact kranlib@purdue.edu.  Database of the Week is archived  at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/MGMT/.  For more Purdue Libraries news, follow us on Twitter (@PurdueLibraries).

If you would like us to promote your favorite database, send an email to mdugan@purdue.edu.