Country Statistics and Information

by Lorraine Heffernan

Are you trying to do research on a particular country? You may be interested in their political or economic climate. You may be interested in their history. Or you may be interested in working or building a business there. Government data and statistics are often published in publicly accessible platforms and private companies help to analyze and organize that information. The library has access to up-to-date country reports and can direct you to numerous government sources and others to fill in the picture.

Ebsco’s Business Source Complete (BSC) database is the first stop. Enter the name of your country of interest, select “country report” under Publication Type and then hit Search. You will find monthly risk updates from S&P’s Country Monitor, lengthy analyses from Marketline, single page summaries and more. ProQuest’s ABI/Inform Trade & Industry database also has country reports with 10-year forecasts. Search for Fisk Report (name of country) and you will get reports for the country and reports for that country’s industrial sectors.

If your research is business related, Marketline does industry reports by country that are also found in BSC. You will find reports such as Marketline Industry Profile: Haircare in China or Marketline Industry Profile: Savory Snacks in India. The database IbisWorld also profiles industries for some of our largest trading partners, such as Oil & Gas Extraction in Mexico or Commercial Banks in China.

There are numerous .gov resources available. The first stop should be the State Department (https://www.state.gov/) where you will be given travel risk information and a description of US relations with the country of interest. From here you can link to many other .gov resources including the Commerce Department’s guides. The next stop is the Office of the US Trade Representative (https://ustr.gov/). Then on to the CIA (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/). You can also go directly to the Country Commercial Guides without going through the State Department site (https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides).

For an international perspective, use the OECD (https://www.oecd.org/), the World Bank (https://www.worldbank.org/en/where-we-work) or the United Nations (https://data.un.org/en/index.html).

If you are researching an Emerging Markets nation, get a Boston Public Library eCard and use their database EMIS. “EMIS operates in and reports on countries where high reward goes hand-in-hand with high risk. We bring you time-sensitive, hard-to-get, relevant news, research and analytical data, peer comparisons and more for over 197+ emerging markets.”

And finally, don’t forget to check on the country’s own government agencies and websites. Most have at least some access in English and if you can read the local language can offer great depth of information. Google Ministry of (Finance? Economy? Health? Labor?) (country name) and you will usually find the .gov you are seeking. For example, googling Ministry of Economy Argentina gets you this result: https://www.economia.gob.ar/en/ which has some information in English and offers English speakers help with material only available in Spanish.

Image source: www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-globe-335393/

Research and Publishing Roundup

Here is the latest news in UMD faculty, staff, and community publishing and research:

Professor Brian Williams (History) was featured in an article that discusses the response to a drone attack in Jordan that resulted in the death of three American soldiers. Williams stressed the complexity of responding to such attacks, considering the delicate geopolitical situation in the region.Professor Kenneth Manning (Political Science) was featured in an article that discusses the political landscape leading up to the November 2024 election, focusing on the potential candidacy of former President Donald Trump and the challenges he may face.

Professor Chad McGuire (Public Policy) published Considering Ecosystem Integrity and Resiliency in U.S. Federal Policy. The article overviews how recently proposed and implemented changes to major U.S. federal policies are attempting to incorporate better the effects of climate change and sea-level rise on coastal ecosystem integrity.Professor Doug Roscoe (Political Science) was featured in an ABC News article about the current issues within the Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia state republican parties. This dysfunction within these crucial general election swing states could have significant ramifications during November’s election.Associate Professor Nikolay Anguelov (Public Policy) was interviewed on KCBS radio about fast fashion related to the Super Bowl—particularly, the impacts of pre-printed merchandise for each team in case of victory

Do you need help accessing any of these publications? The librarians have you covered. Contact our reference staff: https://lib.umassd.edu/about/staff-directory/contact-rils/

Virtual Panel to Showcase the OER Work of UMassD Faculty

Open Education Week is March 4th – 8th, and one excellent way to celebrate is by attending this virtual panel. This is an opportunity for faculty to learn about OER Commons, a repository for Open Educational Materials (OER) and 3 exciting textbook projects at UMass Dartmouth. Open Educational Materials are teaching and learning tools such as textbooks, tests/quizzes, and classroom activities that are available free of charge. At UMass Dartmouth we have an OER Creators program through which 3 open textbooks were created in 2023. The textbook projects are E-Commerce and E-Business by Shouhong Wang, A Guide to Analyzing Arguments in an Academic Setting by Jackie O’Dell, Joshua Botvin, and Yuan Zhang, and Women’s & Gender Studies by Catherine Gardner. Each author will give an overview of the book they created. This panel will also include a demo of OER Commons by Repository Coordinator Rachel Oleaga. We welcome faculty who are curious about OER, open publishing, digital texbooks, open repositories, or who are just interested in the topics covered by these free textbooks. Register here: https://schedule.lib.umassd.edu/event/12057953?hs=a

A Shift from Print to Digital for UMassD Master’s Theses

by Judy Farrar

The University has required graduate students to deposit two physical copies of their Master’s thesis in the library since 1990. The library then had them bound as hardcover copies.  One copy went to the Archives and Special Collections as the record copy that did not circulate, and the other went to the shelves of the library for circulation.  The College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) and the College of Engineering began depositing them in the library years before the requirement. Currently there are over 2,000 hard copy theses and dissertations in the Archives and Special Collections, 1970-2017. These can be viewed at anytime during Archives and Special Collections open hours.  In 2017 the University shifted to accepting theses and dissertations in digital form only.  The library makes them available, full text, in the Digital Archives.  The record copies are preserved by the Archives. To browse the collection, see the landing page at https://umassd.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/collectionDiscovery?vid=01MA_DM_INST:umassd_library&collectionId=8187867480001301

For a convenient way to browse by College and Department, see the library’s page on UMD Theses and Dissertations at https://lib.umassd.edu/find-borrow-request/theses-and-dissertations/

For a specific title or author search Primo, the library’s online catalog at https://lib.umassd.edu/

If you need help finding a thesis published before 2017, contact the Archives and Special Collections at libarchives@umassd.edu