The Regional Economic Information System: A Treasure Trove Of Data From The Government

摘要

Experienced searchers realize that the United States Gov- ernment may produce indispensable data of top-rate quality, but it is not terribly good at packaging the results. Although federal agencies have published hundreds of CD-ROM titles in recent years, the government is not known for producing user-friendly databases. Some products, such as the National Trade Data Bank (NTDB), are daunting because of the huge amount and variety of information found on two discs. Others, such as the Government Printing Office's (GPO) version of the Monthly Catalog, are outright failures, confounding users with complicated and poorly documented search interfaces. Based on these expectations, discovering a government CD-ROM product with a fairly easy, yet powerful search engine is always a pleasant surprise. The Regional Economic Information System (REIS) is a case in point. Although REIS is far from perfect, it stands above the usual government fare.