Finding Statistics
Introduction
Statistics can be very difficult to find. It isn't always obvious which resources might contain the statistics that you are trying to find or even if the statistics you are looking for exist in the first place. Remember that it takes money, time, and a lot of effort to gather and produce statistics. You may have an interest in how many cars pass through Lewisburg in a day, but unless an individual or an organization had the same interest, the motivation and the resources to do the work necessary to gather and publish these statistics, the information will not be available anywhere. Another thing to keep in mind is that some statistics serve as valuable sources of information and those who have gathered them may decide not to make them publicly available.
Despite these obstacles, there is a large amount of statistical information available to the public and to current faculty, staff, and students at Bucknell University. This Statistics website is meant to serve as a guide to some of the most commonly used statistical resources available to you (see About Statistics for more information). However, if you do not find what you are looking for using Statistics there are other resources, such as the library catalog, that you can use to search for statistics.
The two basic ways to search for statistical information in the library catalog are by Keyword or by Subject
Searching the Library Catalog by Keyword for Statistics
Searching by keyword is the most flexible way to search the library catalog because you can use any word or phrase that you want to as your search term. Say for example that you are looking for statistics on how much earnings have risen in the United States for a particular occupation over the past twenty years. You could use the words "earnings and statistics" as your search term. (The word "and" between the two keywords forces the catalog to only retrieve items that have both words in their record.) Be sure the "keyword" setting is selected and click on "Everything" to run the search.
"Statistics" is generally a good choice for one of your keywords, although you could truncate it and type in "statistic$" which would retrieve items containing: statistic, statistics, statistical, etc.
The search for "earnings and statistics" retrieved 52 items. If your search retrieves too many items you may want to add another keyword to your search or change one of your keywords to a more specific term ("Asia" to "Japan", for example). If your search retrieves too few items, try taking away a keyword or changing one of your keywords to a broader term ("Japan" to "Asia", for example).
Searching the Library Catalog by Subject Heading for Statistics
Searching by subject can retrieve a more focused set of results than searching by keyword might. Unlike keyword searches where you could choose pretty much any word or phrase that you wanted, with subject searching you must use the terms in the subject headings themselves or you will not retrieve the results that you are seeking. For example, the word "earnings" is not a part of subject heading in the Library of Congress classification system (the one used in our library catalog), so a subject search using the word "earnings" would not retrieve any results. A word that would retrieve results is "wages" because it is a subject heading under the Library of Congress system.
So how do you find out which words are part of a subject heading and which aren't? You could type in word or phrase in the catalog and click on subject. If the word or phrase you have chosen isn't part of a subject heading, you still may be redirected to the correct subject heading (the results of a subject search for "earnings" would redirect you to use the term "wages" instead). However, a more precise way would be to do a keyword search, find an item that looks like it will provide the information that you are looking for, and then click on it's "Full Details" link. Doing this will take you to a screen that provides more information about the item, including it's subject headings.
This is part of the full details of item #4 from the keyword search example, which judging from the title, might provide some relevant information. From this screen select the subject heading that best describes the information that you are looking for (in this example it's probably "Wages--United States--Statistics") and click it. This causes the library catalog to do a new search using the subject heading you clicked on as the search term. All of the items returned in this search will be focused on the subject you selected (as opposed to a keyword search which can return items that are only marginally related).
If you are still unable to locate the information you are looking for after using this Statistics website or the Library Catalog try another resource listed on this page or contact a librarian for help.
Searching Databases for Statistics
The library's collection of databases are another good source for finding statistical information. The first step is to choose the appropriate database based upon the statistical information you are looking for. The library's Research By Subject contain a listing of the databases available from ISR organized by subject. An alphabetical list of these databases is also available.
The vast majority of these databases can be searched in a similar manner to the library catalog using keyword and subject searches. If you are doing a keyword search, try using the word "statistics" or some variation, to narrow down your results to items that are related to statistics in some way. Similiar to the library catalog, many databases also organize the items the contain by subject headings (although they may not use the Library of Congress system as the library does).
If you are still unable to locate the information you are looking for after using this Statistics website or the Databases try another resource listed on this page or contact a librarian for help.
Searching the Internet for Statistics
The internet is another resource that you can use to find statistical information. However, the internet is not nearly as well organized as the library catalog or the databases provided by the library, which can make it difficult to locate the information that you want. Some internet resources (such as Yahoo!) are organized by some kind of a subject classification system, however these systems are generally not as tightly organized as the ones used by the library or databases.
There are sites on the internet that are devoted to directing viewers to statistics of all types that are available online. Some of these sites are linked from the Other Statistics Sites page in this Statistics website. These sites are more likely to provide you with the statistical information you are looking for than a general search of the internet.
If you do use a search engine to try and find statistical information, be sure you know the search capabilities of the search engine that you have chosen. Each search engine has different methods for retrieving results and different search capabilities that may improve your chances of finding what you are seeking. This information can be found in a search engine's "Help" or "About" pages.
Most importantly, be sure that you evaulate the information you receive from the internet. Anyone can publish on the internet and it's not always easy to determine if the information has been reviewed for accuracy or not. Some guidelines and suggestions for evaluating information from the interent can be found here.
If you are still unable to locate the information you are looking for after using this Statistics website or the Internet try another resource listed on this page or contact a librarian for help.
