This examination of the ability of Westlaw and Lexis to answer statistical questions about judicial decision making shows that the two databases have failed to achieve an adequate level of record segmentation and data integrity to answer questions reliably, and that editorially supplied text is not an adequate substitute. (MES)

This description and comparison of the major economic statistical database services discusses such factors as public and proprietary data, value-added services, user training and support, data specialties, and pricing. (CLB)

Focuses on problems in making machine-readable data files (MRDFs) accessible and in using them: quality of data in MRDFs themselves (social scientists' concern) and accessibility--availability of bibliographic control, quality of documentation, level of user skills (librarians' concern). Skills needed by social scientists and librarians are…

This second installment covers online sources to be used for searching current events questions on "who" (identification or background of a particular name), "where" (geographic areas, statistical databases), and "what" (international trade, foreign aid, international relations, crime, and disasters). A list of 139…

Because the publication of census data on CD-ROM has expanded the capabilities of users, librarians need to consider issues involved in providing census and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services, selecting GIS software, and providing user support. (JMV)

Information from the U.S. Government is appearing with increasing frequency on the Internet. In many cases, the Internet is the only place to locate important government information. Virtually all agencies maintain their own web pages, which include linked statistical data, news releases, and other full-text publications. In the future, more data…