Reference USA Searching and Downloading
Tutorial for how-to-use the Reference USA database, including how-to download and how to access the Library's databases from home.
Search Instructions
- Set your Web browser to www.ilibrary.org.
- Select "Alphabetical" in the left-hand column.
- Scroll down and click on the "Go" in front of ReferenceUSA in the list.
- On non-Library computers Type your library barcode and pin (last 4 digits of the barcode).
- Click on the Logon button.
- Once you are authorized, click on Continue.
- Click on US Businesses and then Search.
- Use the Quick Search for locating a company by name or for searching by city or state, or click on Custom Search to search by business type (Keyword/SIC/NAICS) or geographic area.
- In the Custom Search, select the criteria for your search and from the left-side menu boxes.
- Enter the data and click on Update Count to see the number of hits. Then View Results to see the company listings.
Tips: The results for large searches appear alphabetically by state, then alphabetically by company name within each state's listing. If you search for companies from several states, and each state has several hundred companies listed, you should limit your search to one state at a time. The same is true if you want to search for several SIC's. The closer your results are to 250 companies, the easier and faster your printing or downloading will be. If you search one or two SIC's at a time and find 250 or fewer companies, you will be done with those SIC's and you can move on to the next SIC's in your list. The smaller the results and the less complicated the search, the more efficiently you will spend your time.
Downloading Instructions
NOTE: Download limit is 250 from Library computers, 100 from non-Library computers. 250 is used throughout these instructions.
Tips: Before downloading, consider what type of program you are going to use to access the downloaded information. You should use a spreadsheet such as Excel or a database such as Microsoft Access. Although you can use a word processor (Microsoft Word or WordPerfect), this is in no way ideal.
Step 1: Tag the companies you wish to download. If you want all of the companies on a page, click on "all" box at the top of the first column. Since there are 25 companies per page, go to the second page by clicking on the forward button. Continue tagging until you have tagged 250 companies.
Step 2: After tagging the companies, go to the bottom or bottom or top of the screen and click on the blue Download box.
Step 3: In the Download box, choose the format (Excel, Comma Delimited, or Tab Delimited). If you are not sure, choose Excel. Next, pick the level of detail (summary or detailed or custom (select fields to download). Click on the blue download button.
Step 4: In the dialog box, pick Save, choose location (hard drive, flash drive, floppy, etc.) and either accept default name or type a name of your choosing, click Save. If you change the name, pick different names for subsequent saves (i.e. florists1, florists2, florists3).
Step 5: If you have more companies to download, click the Back button. Click on top box in the tagged column to remove tags. Do this for records 1-250. When all are cleared, page forward by clicking on the forward button to find the next 250 companies. Tag records 251 through record 500. Remember that each file must have a different name.
Excel Instructions
Step 1: Open your files normally in Excel.
Step 2: If you want to combine several files into one, cut and paste all records from several files into a single file.
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