Category: Online Resource (Free)

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Online Resource (Free)

Don’t forget IGOs when looking for sources

Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) conduct surveys; publish  research findings; collect and disseminate high quality statistics;  produce reports, articles, newsletters, and much more.   In short,  IGOs can be a terrific resource for you when conducting your own research.  Examples:

Imagine you are looking for articles and data related to education and gender inequality.

  • You wouldn’t want to miss the World Bank’s “Key Issues” page on Girl’s Education.   This part of the Bank’s site offers links to its (freely downloadable) publications and statistics on the topic.
  • Also: check out UNICEF’s “Basic Education and Gender Equality” section.   Provides press releases, publications,  and podcasts.
  • The United Nations has established a special initiative to tackle girls education in particular – the  “Girls Education Initiative.”  Provides press releases, publications, video & audio programs, and links to findings from the GAP Report (Gender Achievements & Prospects in Education).
  • While these groups don’t have subject pages for this topic, they are all working on related projects, conducting research and publishing materials on gender and access to education: the International Labour Organization (ILO); UNESCO; and the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Another Example:  Imagine you are looking for facts & figures related to telecommunications/broadband access and usage around the world.

  • The OECD has a “Broadband Portal” that brings together all the organization’s statistics related to broadband – including number of subscribers per 100 inhabitants, penetration rates, cable modem coverage, DSL coverage, broadband pricing, speeds and more.   Also links to OECD telecommunication indicators and telecom reports.
  • The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has a wide array of free telecommunication  statistics
  • UNESCO maintains a portal for websites that provide statistics related to our “information society.”  Includes links to the OECD and ITU as noted above, and other useful sites such as country statistical agencies; related EU/Europa sites and sites from scholarly societies/institutes

For further information on IGOs and what they can add to your research efforts check out our guide to Intergovernmental Organizations. Features a Google Custom Search Engine that will allow you to search the sites for more than 30 high quality/reputable  IGOs from a single search box.

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New databases from UN system organizations

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)  is “the oldest international organization in the UN family….(providing leadership) for information and communication technology issues.”  The ITU has just launched its “History of ITU Portal” which contains ITU historical documents from radio, telegraph and telephone conferences.  Note, the process of digitization is currently underway and as of this date much of the proposed content has yet to be launched online.  Still, it’s worth noting for now and will be a terrific resource once the project is complete.   The site also provides a link to ITU statistics, which are freely available.

The FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization) has just launched a Gender and Land Rights Database which “puts the spotlight on one of the major stumbling blocks to rural development – widespread inequalities between men and women in their access to land….. (It)  offers up-to-date information on how men and women in 78 countries differ in their legal rights and access to land (and)  provides policymakers and other users with a better picture of the major social, economic, political and cultural factors which affect access to land and enforcement of women’s land rights.”

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US Freedom of Information Act Documents

Need to look at US government documents that don’t seem to be publicly available?  All may not be lost!  Thanks to the tireless efforts of journalists, researchers, and average citizens thousands of documents that would otherwise remain closed to public scrutiny are made available each year through Freedom of  Information Act (FOIA)  requests.  Even better:  many of these folks  have contributed their FOIA documents to freely searchable web archives.  Here are a few of the best:

  • National Security Archive at George Washington University: “collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States.”
  • GovernmentAttic: “provides electronic copies of hundreds of interesting Federal Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act….(including) fascinating historical documents, reports on items in the news, oddities…and government bloopers.”
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation:  This site focuses on collecting and disseminating documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act “on controversial government surveillance programs, lobbying practices, and intellectual property initiatives.”
  • American Civil Liberties Union:   This portion of the ACLU website provides access to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act “relating to the abuse and torture of prisoners in U.S. detention centers overseas.”

Note,  some US Federal Departments and Agencies also have well-organized and fairly comprehensive collections of their own FOIA documents, such as

Huge kudos to Sheryl Adam for suggesting this topic and for finding these sites!!!  Watch the blog for a future entry on similar Canadian sources of FOI documents.

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Food and Product Recall Database

After discovering this morning that a brand of potato-leek soup might have undeclared clams in it….this seemed like an appropriate database to highlight.   The Healthy Canadians website has played host to a database of recalled food and consumer products since 2007.  You can search by product or by food and the site also provides links to lists of recalled foods and products by month,  and articles on various food/product safety topics.

A related site you may be interested to look at is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.   This provides you with a great deal of  information related to food & food chain safety in Canada.  Also links to the various authorities in each region that are responsible for handling restaurant complaints and  inspections.

  • For Vancouver, this is the Coastal Health Authority.  The Health Authority has a very handy database that will allow you to search for and view restaurant inspections for food establishments in Vancouver,  North Vancouver, West Vancouver,  “Bellas,” Richmond and Bowen Island.  Just may be more information than you wanted to know!
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2010 Olympics Research Resources

Now seems like a good time to look at government sources of information regarding the upcoming winter Olympics.  There is an impressive array of information freely available on the web from government sites: reports, contracts, statistics, financial accounts, media releases etc.

2010 Winter Games Secretariat:  From the BC government this site is a rich source of BC Government press releases, reports, business plans/budgets and contribution agreements between government(s) and venue providers!

  • Hover over about us to click on the reports and publications link – which will bring up contribution agreements as well as reports

    • Note, reports include Pricewaterhouse Coopers reports on the expected economic and social benefits of hosting the games
    Latest news releases are available on the homepage or you can take a look at the entire archive of releases here.

Vanoc’s site also has some interesting reports:

Canada2010 is the federal government’s Olympics website.  You can find:

You can also check out the media room on the city of Vancouver site – with links to news releases and quick facts/backgrounders

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Atlas of Canada: 2010 Winter Olympics

The online Atlas of Canada from Natural Resources Canada has recently added a theme page covering the upcoming 2010 Olympic games.

“In advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Atlas of Canada is pleased to provide to the public a special series of maps on the following themes.

The maps in the 2010 Winter Olympics series include:

  • the general physical activity of Canadians by health region
  • the sports participation rates of Canadians in downhill skiing, ice hockey and ice skating
  • the place of birth of past Winter Olympic medallists and when known, new Winter Olympic and Paralympic medalists
  • geography of the Vancouver region showing the population, climate, physical environment and economy of the region”

Maps come with extensive documentation explaining various map features.  The site also includes articles on Olympic medalists, winter sports, the geography of the Vancouver games region and physical activity.

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American Community Survey- Latest Release

The US Census Bureau conducts an official census every 10 years, with the next one coming up in March 2010.  In between years the Bureau conducts a variety of smaller-scale nationwide surveys, including the American Community Survey (ACS).  The ACS is sent to approximately 3 million households.  The most recent 3 year estimates based on surveys conducted from 2005 – 2008 have just been released for public use.

“The ACS collects information such as age, race, income, commute time to work, home value, veteran status, and other important data…. These 3-year estimates are available annually for geographic areas with a population of 20,000 or more, including the nation, all states and the District of Columbia, all congressional districts, approximately 1,800 counties, and 900 metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, among others.”

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In Obama’s words

The Washington Post has a very useful site up for anyone interested in reading/watching President Obama’s key speeches.  It provides a free database of speeches – the transcribed text as well as video clips of the speech being delivered whenever possible.  You can search for speeches by keyword, click on an issue-based tag or browse all issues from most recent to oldest.   Note, tags are a bit arbitrary – the President’s speech reacting to the attempted terrorist attack on December 25th, 2009 was not tagged under “national security and intelligence;”  “homeland security;” or even under “crime and judiciary.”  As of today, it’s tagged under “issue: other”?!!!  Apart from this anomaly, the speeches are easy to find and read.  You can sign up for an RSS feed of President Obama’s speeches, and you can use the Post’s Potus database to “track how Obama is spending his time, what issues are getting the most attention and who is influencing the debate.”

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Free Access to European Commission Public Opinion Poll results

While not a new resource, I only just came across this one today and it’s a terrific source of public opinion in Europe.

“Since 1973, the European Commission has been monitoring the evolution of public opinion in the Member States, thus helping the preparation of texts, decision-making and the evaluation of its work.

Our surveys and studies address major topics concerning European citizenship: enlargement, social situation, health, culture, information technology, environment, the Euro, defence, etc.”

The site provides free access to the full analytical  reports as well as summaries and factsheets arising from the polls that the Commission conducts.   Topics currently include public attitudes towards: the Euro, corruption, climate change, social security, tourism, economic crisis, higher education, employment and EU enlargement.  Most documents are available in several languages – almost always including English – and coverage extends back to 2000.

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World Bank public data now available in Google search

Google.com has had some US public data embedded in its search results for a while now, but as of November 11 the World Bank’s public data has been added to Google search results.  According to the Official Google blog, “17 World Development Indicators  are now conveniently available to you in Google search….

Complete list of World Bank indicators currently available:

CO2 emissions per capita, Electricity consumption per capita, Energy use per capita, Exports as percentage of GDP, Fertility rate, GDP deflator change, GDP growth rate, GNI per capita in PPP dollars, Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Income in PPP dollars, Imports as percentage of GDP, Internet users as percentage of population, Life expectancy, Military expenditure as percentage of GDP, Mortality rate, under 5, Population, and Population growth rate.”

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