Introduction to the Statistical Abstract of the United States.

1. STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE
UNITED STATES

2. What is the Statistical Abstract of the United States?
The word “abstract” has many meanings, the two definitions that apply
here are:
• a summary of a text, scientific article, document, speech, etc.;
epitome.
• something that concentrates in itself the essential qualities of
anything more extensive or more general, or of several things;
essence.*
So the Statistical Abstract of the US is a summary of statistics about the
United States giving the essential qualities of the country.
* From dictionary.com
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3. What is the Statistical Abstract of the United States?
Another way to think about it…
An abstract of a journal article is an
overview of the entire article.
The Statistical Abstract of the United
States is an overview of the United States
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4. Where does the information come from?
A lot of people think the information in the Statistical
Abstract comes from only government sources.
The 2015 edition contains 1400+ tables and the
information is obtained from 195 sources.
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Of these 195 sources,
almost 15% of the
sources were licensed,
and 85% was from
government.
Licensed
Sources
Government
Sources

5. How do libraries use the Statistical Abstract of the United
States?
• The Statistical Abstract provides information about how many, how much,
how often for a variety of topics
• The Statistical Abstract can be used to answer questions at the reference
desk
– For example, how much is spent on dental care in the U.S.?
• The Statistical Abstract can be used as a starting point to see if statistics
exist for a topic
– For example, who earns more money? Cat owners or dog owners?
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6. How does it work?
Search for a
term and use
the facets on
the left side to
create a
smaller
search set.
So (in this
case) you
could see
income by
state or by
total US.
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7. How does it work?
Once you’ve
selected the
table, you can
download the
spreadsheet
too.
Look for the
download icon
in the top right
hand corner
and click on it
to get a
Download
XLS option
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8. How does it work?
Under the table is information about the table
including the source (with a link) and a two citation
styles you can copy and paste.
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9. How does it work?
Within each table, all of the row and column information is
searchable, so if you want all of the tables showing charter
schools or solar power or snowboarding, you can find them.
The search results tell you where the information is found.
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10. Want to browse?
Want to just look around? Click on a chapter you’re interested in, and
all of the tables be retrieved along with the PDF Section with the
chapter as it appears in the print version.
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11. Our fans are saying…
In addition to consistently good product
reviews, the ProQuest Statistical Abstract of
the U.S. is the recipient of the 2014 SIIA
CODiE Content Award for Best General
Reference Service, representing the
information industry’s best products and
technologies!
Details here:
http://www.siia.net/codies/2015/pw_2014.asp
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12. For More Information
http://proquest.libguides.com/statisticalabstract
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