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ACCESSING ONLINE DATABASES FROM YOUR

HOME OR OFFICE

REFERENCE USA

Reference USA is an extremely powerful database. It has ten component databases including US

and Canadian Businesses as well as a Historical Business and specialty ones like US Healthcare,

New Businesses, New Movers/Homeowners, US Consumers/Lifestyles and US Jobs/Internships

and White Page Phone Directories. The US Businesses database covers 23 million US

businesses. The information given includes name, address, contact, phone, fax, toll free number,

number of employees, sales, latitude/longitude, credit rating, public/private, stock abbreviation,

and website address as well as SIC and NAICS (type of business) codes, officers and their titles

and gender and biographies. It will tell you the number of personal computers, whether is it

home based, year established, yellow page ad spending, square footage, hours of operation,

credit cards accepted, competitors locally, nearby businesses, business expenditures and UCC

filings. It also gives a map if you need to locate the business on a map. It also includes public

filings and magazines and newspaper articles for the larger companies. They have also added the

capability of getting annual reports and 10k’s and press releases if it is a publicly traded

company. The US Consumer/Lifestyles database covers 262 million households and includes

name, address, phone (if not unlisted), median household income, median home value,

latitude/longitude and percentage of owner occupied housing. It also includes Lifestyles (135

characteristics and consumer snapshot information. US Businesses identifies surrounding

businesses by tenths of a mile up to a mile away and by miles up to 150 miles away. This

information can be used to create mailing lists of the surrounding neighborhoods. US

Consumers/Lifestyles will identify surrounding homes by tenths of a mile up to five miles away.

Pikes Peak Library District patrons have remote access to this database if they have a library card

from us that starts with the number 4. The 4 indicates that you are a resident or property owner of

El Paso County (excluding residents of Security-Widefield.) If you have a card that starts with a

7, you are participating in the Colorado Library Card (CLC) program, which involves a network

of libraries throughout the state. State residents may obtain library cards at any participating

library. A PPLD 7 series card will be issued with full borrowing privileges; however, access to

licensed databases is only available to taxpaying cardholders or at PPLD facilities.

To find Reference USA Information

1. Go to the library’s homepage at ppld.org.

2. Choose Research

3. Choose Business/Finance

4. Choose Reference USA

5. Type in your library card number for the password and your pin number

6. Choose US Businesses or US Consumers/Lifestyles (or another) Database.

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The screen has you select your database to search. Click on the one you wish to search.

The US Businesses database contains information on United States businesses and international

businesses, if they have a physical US presence, not just a PO Box address. You can do two

basic types of searches in this database, a quick search or a custom search.

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A quick search allows you to type in the name of a specific business that you need information

on. You can type the name and hit view results or you can also add city or state if this

information is known. Your search will produce a list of the businesses that fit the criteria you

selected. For example, Hewlett Packard and California produces:

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If you then select the record for Hewlett Packard for the parent company by choosing the name

of the company with the arrow pointing up and then by clicking on the name in blue you will get

the complete record for that company that will look like this:

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Do not use the search terms “company”, “corporation” or “limited” or any of the accepted

abbreviations, unless you have looked it up before. The database looks for exact hits and will not

find the company if there is a difference in the abbreviation or way it is spelled. If you have a

long company name try and search it using the first two or three words, if you get no hits shorten

it to two words more unique (i.e. not Colorado Springs) only. The field is a specified length and

it will cut off a word in the middle of it and if you don’t have it exactly it will not display.

To do a custom search, click on the custom search icon. You can then do searches on specific

criteria or you can do combination searches on multiple criteria at the same time.

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The fields for a custom search include Company Name, Executives, Business Type, Geography,

Phone, Business Size, Ownership, Financial Data and Special Selects. The Name category

includes company name, and brands and products. Executives includes Executive name, title,

gender and ethnicity. The Business Type includes keyword/SIC/NAICS or major industry group.

The Geography allows you to search by street address, zip code, state, radius, metro

(metropolitan statistical area), city, and county or neighborhood or map based. In this category

you can combine address or neighborhood with anything else otherwise if you choose two, for

example – city and state you will retrieve the results for the state alphabetized by company name

because it defaults to the largest geographic field. The Phone searches by business phone, toll

free numbers, area code or fax. Business Size allows you to choose the size of business by

number of employees or amount of sales; both of these figures are given in ranges. Ownership

allows you to search by public companies/private, foreign parent, home based business,

government office and headquarters/branch. Financial Data searches stock exchange, ticker

symbol, credit rating or business expenditures. Special Selects allows you to search by year

established, number of PCs, years in database, yellow page ad size, web address, Fortune 1000

companies or square footage or professionals. You can also choose verified businesses (have had

personal contact within a year), unverified (no personal contact) or closed (out of business.)

For example, if you wanted all of the companies in the Colorado Springs area that or sell or

manufacture computers, have more than 100 employees and make at least 10 million, you would

choose business type. You would then click on the word lookup next to “computer” which you

type in the box shown and choose computer equipment whol/mfrs and computer equipment and

dealers and then choose Colorado and then Colorado Springs under Geography. (When there are

two boxes on the screen you must put something into the right hand box or lower box by clicking

on the choices in the left hand box or upper box to complete your choices. If the second box is

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empty you get zero hits.) To choose more than one entry under number of employees or sales,

hold the control key down as you click on the entry you want. Currently, this will produce a list

of six hits.

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You can select up to 250 entries to print as one search in-house. (From your home or office this

database only allows you to print 100 entries as one search. To do this, click on the box next to

the entries you want and then hit the blue print or download button at the top of the page. You

will be asked if you want summary (which is name, address and phone) or detailed (which will

give you the complete record with a blue line separating them on screen.)

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To send it to a printer and not the screen, you must click on the blue print button at the top of the

screen. If your search gave you more than 250 hits, you will need to mark records for printing

and then unmark them to be able to choose additional records. The limit of 250 has been

established by ReferenceUSA to discourage users from breaking copyright. If you wish to

download you will be asked what format and where to save to. Choose Comma delimited or

Excel to download unless you know how to use the other choices or it will not be readable on

your system. Save to your computer (at home or office) or flash drive (E or F) as anything saved

to the computer at PPLD (C) is erased when you log off and is not retrievable later.

If you need assistance using this database from your home or office, call 389-8968 during library

hours. The biggest problem home users have is getting asked for user name and password twice.

If this happens your firewall is blocking Reference USA and you will need to disable it to get in

and then turn it back on. Once you are in the database you should be recognized by your

computer for future searches and let in again without having to disable the firewall.

U. S. CONSUMERS/LIFESTYLES

This product of Reference USA allows you to create mailing lists or charts of your ideal

consumer customers. It uses buying patterns to identify those who spend the most money in 115

different lifestyles. It only identifies those who purchase more than the national averages with

credit card purchases. If a person buys only with cash or debit card they are not going to be on

these lists.

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To find U. S. Consumers/Lifestyles

1. Go to the library’s homepage at ppld.org.

2. Choose Research

3. Choose Business/Finance

4. Choose Reference USA

5. Type in your library card number for the password and your pin number

6. Choose U.S. Consumers/Lifestyles

You can search this database by name if you are looking for a specific person or you can do a

custom search and search by Name, Geography, Phone, Phone, Housing Selections, Lifestyles or

Consumer Snapshot. Consumer Snapshot is considered privacy information and will return

results as a chart, matrix or table only, not as individual addresses. This information can be

sensitive such as child in the house or age of individual and therefore you can use this to

determine good locations to do the lifestyle or geography search to get individual information.

Other categories will be given in list of people which you can use to create a mailing list.

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You can create lists for specific streets or zip codes by doing a custom search on geography and

then using the date retrieved for your list.

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The individual record will give name, address, phone (if listed), zip code, county, gender, years

in home and marital status. You can also do a radius search from this record by tenths of a mile

up to a mile away or by miles up to five miles away. It does a concentric circle around the

identified address.

This also includes a Google map to the location as well as household income (from census

tracts), and home value from the 2000 census as well as latitude and longitude coordinates and

percent of owner occupied housing. It also gives updated (2010) information for the home

income and home value fields.

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It then shows which lifestyle categories the person spends above average on. Everyone is ranked

on a lifestyle scale of 0 to 9 and only those who rank 6 or higher are included in the list of people

indentified for this lifestyle.

You can also do combination searches looking for people who fit your customer criteria. For

example people who camp and live in a specific area or make a specific income. Your list will

return to people who fit those criteria. You can add criteria to narrow down your results list. If

searching under lifestyles you want to search for one lifestyle at a time as it treats it as an

either/or search and you get a combined list. Since the results can be saved in an Excel format

you can first identify one lifestyle (the main one) and then other lifestyles that the results list also

shares. For instance you can find charitable donors who are book lovers or history buffs.

Under Consumer Snapshot you can identify zip codes with the highest number of households

with children present of specific ethnic backgrounds. These results are given in table formats.

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When you click on view results it asks how you want it displayed. You choose the type of data

you want to see and the type of chart to show it. This is by zip codes and in an area chart.

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This shows data points with numbers when you put your cursor on the data points. To print this

you must first save as a pdf at the top of the page and then save to get the chart and the data

otherwise the outline is there but the data is not. This chart shows a comparison by ethnicity.

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Identifying the zip codes or other geographic areas of highest concentration allows you to

identify the areas you want to create the lists for. You will not be able to tell which home has

children but which areas have the highest concentration of children. You can choose lifestyles

and choose under purchase behavior those who buy child and family related products to identify

households. By combining the two types on data found you can identify where your best

customers are likely to be located.

If you need assistance using this database from your home or office, call 389-8968 during library

hours.

ALL-IN–ONE SEARCH

The All-In-One Search database is a series of individual magazine and newspaper indexes that

you can search to find articles that are either full text or citation only.

You may choose to click on any or all of the databases that come up when you choose this

database. It allows you to simultaneously search multiple databases thereby saving time and

typing, as you don’t have to repeat your search strategy by entering the databases individually.

This includes 17 different databases. The business databases are Business Source Premiere

which covers business and trade magazines, MasterFILE Premiere which covers general

magazines, Newspaper Source which covers newspapers including 30 national and international

newspapers, and Regional Business News which covers business journals, newspapers and

newswires. You can choose other areas of interest as well.

Pikes Peak Library District patrons have remote access to this database, if they have a library

card from us that starts with the number 4. The 4 indicates that you are a resident or property

owner of El Paso County (excluding residents of Manitou Springs and Security-Widefield.) If

you have a card that starts with a 7, you are participating in the Colorado Library Card (CLC)

program, which involves a network of libraries throughout the state. State residents may obtain

library cards at any participating library. A PPLD 7 series card will be issued with full

borrowing privileges; however, access to licensed databases is only available to taxpaying

cardholders or at PPLD facilities.

To find the All-In-One Search database:

1. Go to the library’s homepage at ppld.org

2. Choose Research

3. Choose Business/Finance

4. Choose All-In-One Search. To select the individual databases that you want to search, click

the box next to the title and click continue.

5. Type in your library card number as the password and your pin number.

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There are two main searches in this database: keyword search and advanced search. The

keyword search is a basic search for a one word or phrase. Type in the information you want and

it will retrieve everything that it finds. You can denote a specific magazine or newspaper that

you want to search or a date of publication if you want. You can also specify full text, though

this may exclude articles because some publications, like the Wall Street Journal are not full

text. Your search word(s) will be highlighted when you bring up the articles retrieved.

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HTML documents allow you to translate them to another language or listen to them or download

them for listening to.

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You can also do an advanced search which allows you to do Boolean searching using the and,

or, and not capabilities of the system. You can then identify the fields you want to search such as

author, keyword, subject, or journal. This will pick up search terms when they appear in the same

article, but not next to each other.

One attribute that the database has allows you to translate the full text article to another language

if your first language is not English. Currently you can choose from over 20 languages. The

citation remains in English but the text of the article is translated to the language chosen by you.

You can also listen to or download to listen to the article in three accents and speeds. These are

free services and can be used by you in many different ways to benefit your business.

If you need assistance using this database from your home or office, call 389-8968 during library

hours.

BUSINESSDECISION

To find BusinessDecision.

1. Go to the library’s homepage at ppld.org.

2. Choose Research

3. Choose Business/Finance

4. Choose BusinessDecision

5. Type in your library card number for the password and your pin number

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BusinessDecision is a database that allows you to search for GIS, demographic and

socioeconomic information on consumers in El Paso and Teller Counties or nationwide. The

searches that are created are saved by BusinessDecision for you to access or edit at a later date.

Searches are saved for six months. If you log on as an express session everyone gets to see the

searches you did and can re-run by clicking on edit and see all of the data you have. You can also

create a new user account and then login as a returning user with your email and password to

hide your searches from others. To start searching in this database you accept the End-user

licensing agreement. Then you log in to use the database. You can choose to log in as an express

user or you can set up your own account by choosing to log in as a new user. To do this you must

set up an account by giving a zip code and a password and providing an e-mail address. Anyone

can edit searches done in the express user log on, but only you can edit or view the searches done

when you log in as a new user and then as a returning user.

The first screen shows past searches and allows you to start your new search or choose an old

one you want to update and run.

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The searches are fairly easy once you do one. You can search on an address, intersection or

choose preset area such as census tract, city, county, state or zip code. To start a search you click

on Start a new project and then name your project. More complicate searches are also possible.

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You put in the address or other information you wish to search and then click on the retrieved

address. A standard map will come up showing the area you have chosen. If the address chosen

could be misinterpreted it will come up with the possible addresses available in the database as is

shown below because using a direction in the address will bring up potential other addresses in

El Paso and Teller counties because we have many streets that are designated north, south, east

or west.

Click on the address shown if it is correct and click on refresh map, then choose the distances

you want in your search. This can be done in miles and you can choose up to three distances.

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The above map shows distances of 1 mile, 3 miles and 5 miles which are the default for the

database when rings are chosen. Click on save and choose reports to go to the next screen and

continue picking your criteria.

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You can choose to put your name or a project name on each page or just leave the default

BusinessDecision statement. Scroll down and click on the box with your search criteria and click

run reports.

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Click on run a report or run a batch of reports and choose the ones you want.

These reports are provided free to users. These include the Landscape report which details 15

groups and 72 segments and tells you which one occupy the search area designated. The

Landscape report includes Segment code, group name and segment name, This Landscape

Segmentation manual which includes the one page summary for each group and the

methodology of the database is available from Terry Zarsky by calling 531-6333 x2308 or e-

mailing tzarsky@ppld.org and asking to have the 162 page pdf file sent to you by e-mail or

printed out for pick up at one of the library branches.

Each segment name is one page in length and includes: key characteristics, narrative description

and examples of common consumer choices. Key characteristics include median age, family

status, household income, urbanization, education and occupation. The narrative description

includes demographic overview and preference overview. This section fills in details about the

key characteristics and common consumer choices sections. It gives details on specific jobs,

salaries and how and why they spend their money. It covers the driving forces behind this

segment of the community. It will tell you what they watch on TV, media choices, purchasing

items and categories and vacation and leisure time activities. It also gives comparisons to other

groups and segments that might be similar or dissimilar from them that might be in your area.

Finalize your report by clicking on the site address given. Then click on run reports.

The next screen shows report status:

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Click on report status and the following screen will appear until the process is complete and your

reports show up as retrievable.

You then click on each link and save the data shown. A complete report with three distances

chosen is approximately 70 pages in length.

Sample screens for each of the reports follow. Data is given for 2000, 2010 and 2015 so you

have figures for the past, present and projections for the future on which to base your decisions

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The following reports are shown: landscape, 2010 census, demographic and income, detailed

age, household income and housing. They also include expenditure reports for automotive

aftermarket, house and home, household budget, medical, recreation and retail goods and

services. Information included covers population, housing, gender, age, income, labor force,

travel time, number of cars owned, education levels and much more. For assistance with this

database please call 389-8968 during library hours.

Landscape

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Census 2010

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Demographic and Income

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Detailed Age

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Household Income

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Housing Report

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Automotive Aftermarket Expenditures

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House and Home Expeditures

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Household Budget Expenditures

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Medical Expenditures

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Recreation Expenditures

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Retail Goods and Services Expenditures

If you need additional assistance with this database please call 389-8968 during library business

hours.

3/2015 TZ