April 2024
Fort Bend County Libraries (FBCL) offers free access to a variety of research tools and resources that are available online and can be accessed 24/7 from home. In April, the featured resource of the month is “Data Axle: Reference Solutions,” a national business, consumer, and residential directory that can be used to research industries, competitors, consumer demographics, job opportunities, and much more.
Demonstrations of this free online resource will take place at the following locations in April, but those who are interested may also inquire about this resource at any time at any FBCL location. The demonstrations are free and open to the public.
- Tuesday, April 2, 10:30 am – Albert George Branch Library (Needville) Registration is not required.
- Thursday, April 4, 10:30 am – Cinco Ranch Branch Library (Katy) Registration is required; click here to register.
- Monday, April 15, 2:00 pm – First Colony Branch Library (Sugar Land) Registration is not required.
- Tuesday, April 23, 10:00 am – George Memorial Library (Richmond) Registration is required; click here to register.
- Tuesday, April 23, 2:00 pm – Sienna Branch Library (Missouri City) Registration is required; click here to register.
Data Axle: Reference Solutions, previously known as ReferenceUSA, is an online resource that can be accessed 24/7, from home or office, by anyone with a Fort Bend County Libraries card.
This robust resource connects users to more than 94 million U.S. business records, 379 million U.S. Historical Business records, and 2.2 million New Business records (a total of more than 473 million U.S. business records). The raw data can be transformed into easy-to-understand summaries, charts, tables, and matrices. With the Data Visualization tool, users can view search results in the form of pie charts, line graphs, or heat maps.
The detailed company information includes company name, address, phone, website, executive contact name and title, employee size, sales volume, SIC codes, NAICS codes, credit ratings, business type, location type, news information, 10-Ks, and more.
With 45 customizable search options, as well as downloading and printing capabilities, Data Axle enables users to create lists for marketing, analyze competitors, build a business plan, identify new sales prospects or suppliers, locate home-based businesses, and even define delivery routes.
The Consumer Lifestyle module provides a wealth of consumer demographics, enabling users to conduct market research, discover customer preferences, analyze community statistics and trends, determine home values, and much more.
To access this resource, click on the Research tab, go to Digital Resources and Databases, and choose Data Axle from the alphabetical listing.
To watch a video tutorial on Data Axle, click here.
To go directly to the Data Axle resource, click here.