Hi! I am Jennifer Freer, your business librarian! I can help you navigate through the library business resources to find information, articles, and books. I can also help with citation in APA, MLA and Chicago plus I can help you use Zotero. The green button above has links to book an appointment or try to catch me on chat. Email jlfwml@rit.edu to ask questions if that works better for you!
Information has value. Monetary value. Strategic value.
Knowing about your company, product, industry and customers will help justify strategic choices.
RIT Libraries subscribes to some information products to help current students practice searching for and working with premium information. Below are some of the products that can help with finding premium business information to help make informed decisions and recommendations. Some demographics are not covered at all in market research. When looking for demographics related to disabilities try non-profit and advocacy agencies or government data.
The overarching themes:
-industry
-specific market of product or service (if available)
-demographics
-news
Not all industries, markets and demographics are represented in databases so you work with what you can get and be flexible in adapting what is available. For example: Can't find demographics for people who use the public bus system in Rochester? Find out what demographics you can get for Rochester and surrounding areas. See if you can find national information on public bus systems for public transportation. The look at what you have, think about what it tells you and do some analysis around your specific research goal.
Industry (the big picture aka a macro view)
Market & Demographics (a little more narrow view around who might buy or use a product)
News and Trade Magazines (a very, very narrow view about a product, service, trend, customer)
We do not. Instead we offer secondary access through ProQuest, EBSCO and Nexis Uni. The available articles represent the majority, but not all, of the articles published in the print versions of the publications. Most include text only with occasional images. For full and unrestricted access or subscriber only content look at subscribing directly. Most of these publications offer student or educational discounts. That said library access does provide a majority of the content.
Many public libraries do offer temporary direct access to nyt.com and/or www.washingtonpost.com. If you live in Henrietta, NY (this is where the RIT Campus is) You can get a Henrietta Public Library card. As of January 2024 HPL offers residents remote access to both nyt.com and www.washingtonpost.com. If you live in another area check your public library to see what they offer.
NOTE: Articles available appeared in the print edition. No access to via library to articles only published on the web.
Consumer statistics and demographics in the United States for niche groups are not available through traditionally consumer research products usually. These markets are small relative compared to the entire population. Most market research products offer demographics for large, broad amounts of the population and major consumer products.
For statistics for niche parts of the population look for statistics from entities which may do counts or offer support for those areas. Availability and currency will vary.
If issues are medical the CDC is a great starting point.
For associations try key words in Google with a combination of site:.org to pick up non-profit sites.
Also try trade magazines for various populations.
Use of RIT resources is reserved for current RIT students, faculty
and staff for academic and teaching purposes only.
Please contact your librarian with any questions.
