Reference USA Tutorial

Reference USA Tutorial For Young Adults of the Brownsburg Public Library By: Austin Stroud June 2010 Reference USA Tutorial Austin Stroud 2 Overview As a patron of the Brownsburg Public Library, you have free access to the Reference USA database that allows you to obtain contact information for businesses across the United States of America, Canada, as well as residential/personal contact information for individuals across both countries. Need information on a doctor or a certain type of business or lifestyle in your area? Reference USA can provide all of that for you. Of course, as with any website or database, there are some limitations. For example, you may find that the contact information you find for a person or a business is not the most recent for that particular person or business. That is just part of the Information Age we all live in, and something we have to accept with the Internet constantly changing and evolving with new information. Nothing is perfect!  However, the wealth of information that you have available in the Reference USA database far exceeds any of the free resources that are out there, although they may be good supplements to double check addresses and contact information (Switchboard, Yellow Pages, etc.) You may ask yourself, why would I need something like this? Well, maybe you just got your driver’s license and want to find things like the golf course, bowling alley, a restaurant, etc. Reference USA makes it really easy for you to find all of this information. It also can help you find a part-time job after school, on weekends, or whatever type of position you may be looking for. The help comes in locating businesses that are in a close range to your home address, or whichever starting point you may choose. You can find Reference USA linked off of the Brownsburg Public Library’s website, http://www.brownsburg.lib.in.us. Go to the “Quick Links” drop down menu, as seen in the screenshot below, and select the link that says “Research Databases.” Reference USA Tutorial Austin Stroud 3 You can also go to http://www.referenceusa.com directly, but it is good practice to familiarize yourself with the research databases available to you as a patron of this library. After clicking on “Research Databases,” the full list of the research databases available to you, as a patron of the Brownsburg Public Library, comes up. The databases are listed alphabetically by the first letter of their name. Since we are discussing Reference USA, scroll down to the section for letters P & R. Reference USA will be the only research database listed, so you cannot miss it!  Reference USA Tutorial Austin Stroud 4 Click on the little house picture, as seen here: . This will take you to the login screen for Reference USA. Reference USA Tutorial Austin Stroud 5 Next, type in your Brownsburg Public Library Card Number, and then click on the “Log On” button (as seen in the screenshot above). Reference USA Tutorial Austin Stroud 6 After successfully logging in, you will see this screen: Congratulations, you are now successfully logged into Reference USA and we can move on from this Overview section into a Tutorial/Activity of how this database can benefit you, as a young adult. Reference USA Tutorial/Activity Reference USA’s U.S. Business section contains listings for U.S. public and private companies, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and churches. Provides contact information, executive names, credit ratings, number of employees, linkages, SIC codes for the lines of business and more. The custom search allows you to specify search criteria such as company name, executive name, yellow pages heading, ticker symbol, SIC, major industry, city, state, ZIP code, area code, size of business by employees or sales and more. Residential section provides address and phone numbers for 120 million households. We will cover just a small part of these potential uses of Reference USA, but once you are familiar with the database you will be able to dive deeper afterwards. Reference USA Tutorial Austin Stroud 7 Let us go the job route first, and look up a potential employer that you may be interested in dropping by to apply for a part-time job. If you already have a job, think of somewhere else you might want to work in the Brownsburg area. As seen in the screenshot below, click on the link that says U.S. Businesses to get started. Reference USA Tutorial Austin Stroud 8 Next, you will see the screen below. This will be where you type in the potential employer you would like to work for. If you are having trouble coming up with a job/business name, here are some suggestions from the Brownsburg area: Brownsburg Library Marsh Kroger McDonald’s Wendy’s Kmart KFC Taco Bell Wal-Mart Subway Rock-it’s Pizza Pizza Hut Papa John’s Little Caesar’s Penn Station Wings etc Walgreen’s CVS White Castle Arby’s Burger King Dairy Queen Steak n Shake Applebee’s Reference USA Tutorial Austin Stroud 9 Now type in your business name, city, and state, as seen in the screenshot below, and click on the blue “View Results” button. Reference USA Tutorial Austin Stroud 10 Now that you have your business search result, take note of the information that is provided in the screenshot below. We can see the person in charge of that business in Brownsburg, the street/mailing address, as well as the contact phone number. All of this information can help you narrow who you would need to talk to in potentially getting a part-time job with the business you have selected. To view details of this selected business, you must check the little check box to the left of the business name (as seen in the screen shot above). Then, you can click on the blue button that says “Details.”