Reference USA Users Conference 2013

I was recently invited to Omaha, Nebraska to attend the Reference USA Users Conference.  The conference was a great opportunity to learn more about a database that has a great deal to offer to our customers, but is often underutilized in my experience. If you've only ever used the Reference USA database as a telephone directory, you may be surprised at the amount of data it places at our disposal, and the growing variety of tools that can be used to process and display that data.

 

The first day was largely taken up with a tour of the facilities and a demonstration of the existing tools offered by the database. I was surprised to learn how much effort goes into keeping Ref USA's business listings up to date. They employ over 300 call center workers to individually contact businesses to confirm, update and expand the information in the listings. They have a goal of contacting each of the 24 million businesses in the database at least once per year. In addition, when an employee visits any other city, they typically check a random collection of listings to ensure that the electronic data matches up with the physical reality.

 

(Note: In spite of this effort, the actual data still appears to be more of a suggestion than hard fact. They try pretty hard to keep the names and phone numbers current, but a quick browse through the Metro Library listings will show that the employee numbers and other statistics are pretty hit-or-miss. As with Wikipedia, most of the entries serve better as a place to start than a resource to cite.)

 

You may be familiar with the business listings as the place to find phone numbers for corporate CEOs for the library patron who wants to go straight to the top. However, they can also be a great help to job seekers. In addition to providing a good starting point for doing research ahead of a job interview, Reference USA has recently integrated their database with Indeed.com to provide in-line job listings. So when you look up a business, it'll automatically display any job openings they currently have posted.

 

The second day was spent going over the new and experimental aspects of the site. Over the past several months, they've been quietly added a number of charting and mapping tools to help users more clearly visualize their data. This could be especially helpful to customers trying to put together mailing lists, trying to find donors, or any of the other data-mining projects that cause them to want to photocopy pages of the Criss Cross Directory. Since we're not allowed to make copies of the Criss Cross, pointing these customers to the charts, graphs and heat maps of Reference USA is a welcome addition to the reference toolbox.

 

The company representatives say that they are currently working on finding good ways to incorporate business hours of operation, websites and even official social media pages into their business listings. Oh, and one more thing: if you or any of your customers get creeped out at having your name and contact info paired with your consumer profile, you can ask them to remove you from the list by sending an email to their Content Feedback email inbox. By the same token, if you're just irritated that their information on you is out of date or incorrect, you can send an email to the same address setting the record straight.