Small business data resources

Data research goes hand-in-hand with business research. Though small businesses are a small percent of the data requests we receive at the State Data Center @ the Indiana State Library throughout the year, this data makes up an important part of the landscape of patrons served by our nationwide SDC network.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released an annual data product called Nonemployer Statistics. What is a nonemployer, you might ask? Don’t worry! I ask this question all of the time. It turns out that this is the Census Bureau’s fancy way to say: “This business is run by one person only – the business owner. They don’t pay anyone else to run the business with them.” Here is the Nonemployer Statistics Glossary definition for the term:

A nonemployer business is one that has no paid employees, has annual business receipts of $1,000 or more ($1 or more in the Construction industry), and is subject to federal income taxes.

A nonemployer business is by nature considered a small business, and this is why I’d like to share the Small Business Resources you have at your fingertips through the State Data Center network. If you are a librarian or teacher, you can share these with your patrons and students, in hopes that their enterprising spirits are inspired during this year’s busy holiday season.

Federal Resources
Census Bureau’s State Data Center Program
There is an SDC in every U.S. State and major territory. You can request data – including economic and business data – and assistance from local experts using each statewide network here.

Census Bureau’s Census Information Center Program
The SDC’s companion program, the CIC Program, works closely with local data users to provide local communities of practice and policy analysts with training on using census data. Their statewide network can be accessed here.

U.S. Small Business Administration
The SBA can help you obtain funding for your small business by way of helping with research for loans and grants. Find information about business planning, running your business, and disaster planning here. View this current SBA blog article for “5 Small Business Trends for 2025.”

The SBA Indiana District Office is in Indianapolis and serves the entire state.

SCORE
A partner with the SBA, through SCORE.org, find a business mentor, plus access to free learning resources for starting and growing your small business.

State Resources
Indiana Secretary of State
Indiana’s INBIZ service lets you do research on current businesses, file to register your business, find state forms and answer questions about legal requirements.

Indiana Business Research Center
The IBRC at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business is a partner of the State Data Center Program. Carol Rogers, a long time friend of the SDC, can assist data users in answering Indiana’s economic quandaries.

Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University
Ball State’s CBER is a partner of the State Data Center Program. The research team at CBER is dedicated not only to the Muncie area, but statewide coverage. Its director, Michael Hicks, is a frequent contributor to current literature about Indiana’s economy.

Indiana Economic Development Corporation
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation network has 10 regional Small Business Development Center offices and a University Center at the Purdue Center for Regional Development.

I hope you find these resources useful!

This blog post was written by Katie Springer, reference librarian and director of the Indiana State Data Center. For more information, contact the Reference and Government Services Division at 317-232-3678, or submit an Ask-A-Librarian request.

The Public Documents Room at the Indiana State Library

“Patience is the companion of wisdom” – St. Augustine

The Indiana State Library has been collecting federal documents for well over a century, some dating back to the early days of the republic.

All material collected by the state library and published by the Government Printing Office before 1966 is housed on the library’s third floor in what is referred to as the P.D.  – or Public Documents – Room.

The shelves are crammed with every kind of document concerned with every sort of query – from polar expeditions that surveyed the heavens to explorations that documented fauna in Asia.

Papers relating to trade with foreign countries, treaties and diplomacy can be found side-by-side on the metal shelves along with state department-issued pocket travel guides.

At first glance, so unwieldy a collection may discourage the Hoosier enthusiast, but if one is willing to burrow (imagine the ground hog), there are discoveries aplenty. Congressional hearings, bland in appearance and recorded on thin white paper, capture the thousands of voices of those called before congress.

The Coast and Lighthouse Reports record buoys and stations on domestic bodies of water, including Lake Michigan. Soil surveys contain thoughtful county essays on farming, equipment, architecture, labor, and, well, soil conditions. Cattle, sheep and horse diseases are well chronicled, as are the travails of the railroad industry in the United States, from the metal used to lay tracks to the working conditions of the men who did it.

Is the family lore correct? Did Indiana experience one of its hottest summers in 1947? Climatological summaries of the state provide the answer, as do yearbooks compiled by the Department of Agriculture.

Maybe Grandpa Fisher really did thread the Rajah through the choppy waters of Westport, Massachusetts, in 1851, hands clasped behind back, headed to the southern seas in pursuit of whales. Find out by consulting “Whaling Masters Voyages, 1731-1925,” which lists ships, captains and ports.

Home to hundreds of thousands of documents, reports, papers, plates, graphs and census material, no mere introduction can do the P.D. Room justice.

So, visit the card catalog on the second floor of the Indiana State Library – which houses information on the P.D. Room holdings – and delve into a hidden world.

This blog post was written by Kate Mcginn, reference librarian, Indiana State Library.

Digital FDLP

In February 2024, the Government Publishing Office announced their intention to transition to a Digital Federal Depository Library Program. The change came in response to two questions directed at the agency: “Can GPO transition to a digital FDLP?” and “Should they?” GPO answered “Yes” to both.

What does that mean? What will change? The biggest change moving forward is the primary medium for information will now be digital, not print. Depository libraries will no longer be able to collect everything published in print. The information is still accessible to anyone, just online. Federal document librarians can help navigate the sea of change. Accessing government information is easier than ever, one just needs to know where to look.

Two great resources for accessing federal information are GovInfo.gov and USA.gov. GovInfo, which is produced by GPO, provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. The site does more than just allow public access. GovInfo is also a content management system, designed to ensure security and integrity of information, and a digital repository that will allow information to be preserved for generations. The site is ideal for researchers looking for documents from Congress, the President or federal agencies.

USA.gov is the official website of the U.S. government, and a great resource for those trying to find information on services provided by the federal government. The site is great for finding out how to get a passport, register to vote, check the status of tax returns, apply for a government job, learn about government benefits or anything about the government. The search engine on USA.gov allows users to search for information on any government site, .gov sites, which ensures results are from trusted reliable sources.

Both resources are excellent resources to use to find government information. Government documents librarians are also great resources to assist research. Federal depository libraries like the Indiana State Library all have a full-time staff member who specializes in government documents.

This blog post was written by Indiana State Library federal documents coordinator Brent Abercrombie. For more information, contact the Reference and Government Services at 317-232-3678 or via “Ask-A-Librarian.”

‘In war, truth is the first casualty’

Any account of the first World War is grim. Battles lasted months and soldiers died by the thousands while “attacking” between enemy trenches, but for the United States Army Signal Corps – the official photographers of the American Expeditionary Forces – their task was to present the conflict in such a way that it bolstered morale both in the trenches and back home.

The thousands of images retained by the AEF suggest a history at odds with the realities of the war. The Indiana State Library houses four small scrapbooks of labeled photographs, all taken by the Signal Corps, that appear to focus on the lighter aspects of the conflict while glossing over the darker aspects of the war.

These posed images…

…stand in stark contrast to the few action shots captured from the front lines.

During the less than two years the AEF saw action in Europe, 50,000 US soldiers died in combat and over 200,000 troops were injured, yet photographs of No Man’s Land and the wounded are scarce.

There are, however, plenty of photographs of men playing volleyball, sorting mail and repairing holes.

Along side the United States Signal Corps, and despite being forbidden by their governments to do so, soldiers also photographed the war, many using a Kodak Vest Camera that really could fit into a pocket and even enabled photographers to scribble notes on the back of the film before it was developed. Photographs taken by these troops bear witness to a different conflict.

Promoting the image of a necessary and successful war, the Signal Corps also turned its lens on women serving donuts, entertaining the troops and embroidering.

There are also snaps of women more immediately involved in the conflict, French women assisting with camouflage and the Hello Girls commissioned by General Pershing to handle communications as female operators were significantly faster than their male counterparts.

The thousands of images taken by the Signal Corps to document The War to End All Wars are worthy of attention for a host of reasons, and perhaps one of those is to remind us that every picture tells a story, if not a complete one.

This blog post was written by Kate Mcginn, reference librarian, Indiana State Library.

Census Bureau director Robert L. Santos visits Indiana State Library

Last month, on Feb. 23, the Indiana State Library had the honor and privilege of welcoming Census Bureau director Robert L. Santos. He was here to visit the Indiana State Data Center and to listen to the Indiana SDC network of economists, librarians, GIS practitioners and other community partners share experiences about supporting the public with census data.

Director Robert Santos, Katie Springer and Jennifer Dublin on the stairs leading to the Great Hall in the Indiana State Library.

Director Santos grew up in San Antonio, Texas. He attended the University of Michigan, where he earned his graduate degree in Statistics, which spurred him toward a 40-year career as a statistician. He has served at many reputable institutions across the nation, including two here in the Midwest: the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

During his visit, we were happy to share with him the history of the Census Bureau’s State Data Center Program as it relates to Indianapolis. As Jeff Barnett, a former Indiana State Data Center manager, wrote in Indiana Libraries in 1986, the Census Bureau’s Indiana Census Users Service Project was started here as an experimental program to gauge the needs of Indiana data users. In the spring of 1976, ICUSP staff visited over 150 Hoosier organizations to gather information on local census data usage from data users across the state. Libraries, universities and other community organizations participated in providing information to the Census Bureau. This was the framework for what would become the national State Data Center program in 1978. State Data Centers in four other states – the “prototype” SDCs according to Jerry O’Donnell of the Census Bureau – were the first to sign agreements with the Bureau in the late 1970s, as described by Michele Hayslett in Reference & User Services Quarterly in 2006.

Over the past four decades, this national network has grown to include State Data Centers in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. We work in collaboration with the Census Information Centers to provide data access and training to communities who need us.

Director Robert Santos facilitates a discussion with the Indiana SDC Network at the Indiana State Library.

At the heart of the SDC-CIC program is the data user – who they are, what they need, how they work and what they’re thinking. We perform outreach face-to-face, by phone and online, reaching data users where they are. Here at the Indiana State Data Center, we hold our monthly Indiana Data User Group – known as IN-DUG – meetings and issue our quarterly newsletter, DataPoint. We keep the conversation going among our many partners on Listservs and social media. The State Data Center is open during State Library hours, five days per week and on one Saturday per month. The library is also available for data requests 24/7 through Ask-A-Librarian.

As Santos pointed our during his visit, actively and consistently engaging with diverse stakeholders for the best quality statistics is a continuous process throughout the decade. Data users need assistance in real time using census data that holds value for them. The SDCs and CICs are the bridge across the divide between expert and user. We help you locate, analyze and map the key data to feature in your story about your community. Ask us!

This blog post was written by Katie Springer, reference librarian and director of the Indiana State Data Center. For more information, contact the Reference and Government Services Division at 317-232-3678, or submit an Ask-A-Librarian request.

Fare thee well Ms. Marcia Caudell: A well-earned retirement

The 2024 year will begin sadly at the Indiana State Library, as beloved Reference and Government Services supervisor Marcia Caudell will retire after 20 years of service. A native of Fortville, Marcia graduated from Mt. Vernon High School before starting a lengthy career working as a federal employee at the finance center at Ft. Benjamin Harrison. After retiring from the federal government, Marcia enrolled in classes to pursue a second career in libraries. She completed her undergraduate degree and earned a dual master’s degree in Public History and Library Science from IUPUI.

Marcia started working at the Indiana State Library in 2003 as a reference librarian. Marcia honed her craft working under the tutelage of former supervisor, and Indiana State Library icon, Ron Sharp. In addition to working primarily as a reference librarian, she also spent time working with genealogy and manuscripts collections to develop a well-rounded understanding of the library’s collections. Over time, Marcia became the respected librarian, with whom colleagues could turn to as a trusted source for the tough obscure questions. In 2015, Marcia became supervisor of the Reference and Government Services division. During her tenure as supervisor, Marcia guided her division through a pandemic and helped plan the first Hoosier Women at Work conference. Her division was recognized as FDLP’s Depository Library of the Year award in 2022.

Marcia is beloved by her family and colleagues. Her coworkers would describe her as smart, hardworking, prepared and humble. Marcia is known for her love of coffee, chocolate, cheese, coffee and Sherlock Holmes novels. Her co-workers will miss her humor, her candy jar, the food oddities she would share and mostly her company. Her presence will be dearly missed at the library, though staff is excited to hear that she does promise to return to the library as a volunteer. Everyone at the Indiana State Library will miss working with you. Enjoy your retirement, Marcia.

This blog post was written by Indiana State Library federal documents coordinator Brent Abercrombie. For more information, contact the Reference and Government Services at 317-232-3678 or via “Ask-A-Librarian.”

Digitized field notes bring detail to the history of land surveying in Indiana

The United States Land Ordinance of 1785 marked the beginning of cadastral surveys in this country, the official way of preparing U.S. land to be registered for ownership. Surveyors used a rectangular survey system to divide land into townships measuring six miles squared, containing about 23,000 acres of land each. Jill Weiss Simins, of the Indiana Historical Bureau, details the history of surveying in the U.S. and its impact on Native Americans in her blog post, Democracy for Some: Defining the Indiana Landscape through the Rectangular Survey System. The ordinance established the nation’s Public Land Survey System as a replacement for metes-and-bounds surveys.

On Nov. 25, 1792, Alexander Hamilton, then first Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, wrote a letter to Colonel Israel Ludlow. It mentions an Act of Congress from April 12 of that year. This was An Act for ascertaining the bounds of a tract of land purchased by John Cleves Symmes. It discussed the boundaries of the tract of land totaling one million acres now called the Miami Purchase. Hamilton’s letter, owned by the Indiana Historical Society, made the request for Ludlow to survey the land and detailed his compensation.

Letter, Alexander Hamilton, Treasury Department, to Israel Ludlow. Nov. 25, 1792. Indiana Historical Society.

Revolutionary War Brigadier General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, namesake of Wayne County, Indiana was a victor at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in what is now Toledo, Ohio. There, his U.S. Army troops and Kentucky militia defeated members of Miami, Shawnee and Lenape tribal forces along with Canadian troops. This lead to the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 by Wayne and 13 Native American tribes where the tribes ceded most of Ohio and sections of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. The treaty created a triangle-shaped area of land that became “The Gore of Indiana,” meaning triangular piece, as described in Purdue University’s Indiana Land Surveys: Their Development and Uses. It was the first place in Indiana to use townships, sections and quarter-sections. What was referred to as “the gore” is now the counties of Dearborn, Franklin, Ohio, Switzerland, Union and Wayne.

Following the enactment of the U.S. Land Ordinance of May 18, 1796, which created the first permanent office of the U.S. Surveyor General, Indiana’s Greenville Treaty Line was surveyed by Ludlow from 1797 to 1799. This established the first treaty line in U.S. history to separate white settlements from Native American living and hunting areas. A marker from the Indiana Historical Bureau once stood on the old Indiana part of the boundary line. Following the Greenville Treaty, Ludlow surveyed the First Principal Meridian.

Erected by the Indiana Historical Bureau, 1966. No longer standing.

In the same year as the Louisianna Purchase – on April 30, 1803 – surveying of Indiana was continued by a different team of surveyors and headed by Colonel Jared Mansfield, Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory as appointed by President Thomas Jefferson.

Freeman surveyed the Vincennes Tract, a 1,600,000 acre area in the summer and fall of 1802 and established a boundary for the portion of land below the Vincennes Tract known as the Freeman Line. Native Americans sold this portion at the Treaty of Vincennes in 1804. (See the March 1916 Indiana Magazine of History article, The First Public Land Surveys in Indiana; Freeman’s Lines.)

G.C. Steinhardt and D. P. Franzmeier state in their paper Indiana Land Surveys, Their Development and Uses, “The state survey was completed about 1834. In the process, the surveyors took notes that vividly described the physiography and vegetation, location of settlements and Indian villages and problems encountered.”

These field notes have now been made available to the public with a project that has lasted more than a decade. The Historical Indiana PLSS Township Records project allows the public to view surveyors’ technical descriptions of the land from the years surrounding Indiana becoming a state.

The Indiana PLSS Notes and Plats are available on the Internet Archive. The entire team responsible for the work of the project is listed here.

The State Library and the Indiana Geographic Information Council sponsored a webinar in 2021 featuring Lorraine Wright, a Licensed Geologist and GIS Professional, which gives details about the ongoing project.

Clayton Hogston, a professional land surveyor based in Indianapolis, provides the Indiana Transcribed PLSS Records from federal, state, and county surveyors to the public for free. He distributes these records using a thumb drive. Request a copy by sending an email or contacting the Indiana State Data Center.

Explore the project on the new IndianaMap website.

This blog post was written by Katie Springer, reference librarian. For more information, contact the Reference and Government Services Division at 317-232-3678 or submit an Ask-A-Librarian request.

One document, many Hoosier voices

It is the summer of 1926, and the United States Senate is worried that money is being misused to nominate candidates, so they have established a committee to investigate. Their findings bring them to Chicago – where they interview a variety of voices from Indiana – and to Indianapolis where they interview more.

For reasons not altogether clear, the League of Nations plays a critical role in who is called to testify.

Credit: U.S. Senate Collection.

There is the engaging Mrs. Lois Thomas Lockhart, 322 N. Ritter Ave., of the Indiana Council on International Relations. A woman called before the committee because she supports the controversial League of Nations and the idea of world peace. When admonished for thinking globally, rather than locally and America First, she replies:

We feel it is improving America for America to know national and international problems. We were particularly interested in sending our speakers into the rural sections of Indiana, that our rural people might have this information without getting it from partisan sources. I do not know whether the members of our committee are Republicans or Democrats, or whether they are for the League of Nations or the World Court. I do not know. We just feel that is an educational work we are in.

After reading the testimony of Indiana attorneys and businessmen from that same summer, one understands better Mrs. Eckhart’s impulse to educate.

Her voice, for example, stands in stark contrast to those of Hugh Pat Emmons and Walter Bossert. Emmons operated in St. Joe County, and presided over the Valley Tabernacle Association, a group of 800 or so disgruntled klansmen, who left the organization for fear of having “to go down the line” for one W. Lee Smith, a candidate for the senate of the United States. Emmons achieved some renown for his depictions of behind-the-scenes operations of the Ku Klux Klan.

Walter Bossert, a lawyer from Indianapolis, with offices in Liberty, previously held the office Grand Dragon of Indiana. Like Emmons, he resigned “on principle,” refusing to be told for whom to cast his vote. His testimony underscores the deep connection between the Klan and Indiana politics and power.

Mr. Clyde Walb of La Grange, and chairman of the State Republican Committee, is outraged by the money pouring into Indiana, none of which he has seen or can trace, and programs tricking Indiana women and children into supporting the League of Nations.

Letter from Clyde A. Walb. Read the entire letter in the Indiana State Library’s Indiana Digital Collections.

Professor Amos Hersey of Bloomington, excites particular ire in Walb, but Walb’s list of Hoosiers for and against the League is revealing.

While subcommittee hearings are valuable political resources, they are also rich in genealogical information, as they include stories of individuals from every state and across the centuries. Many can be searched electronically, including this one, at HathiTrust.

Source:
“Senatorial campaign expenditures: hearings before a Special Committee Investigating Expenditures in Senatorial Primary and General Elections, United States, Sixty-ninth Congress, first session [Seventieth Congress, first session] pursuant to S. Res. 195, a resolution authorizing the president of the Senate to appoint a special committee to make investigation into the means used to influence the nomination of any person as a candidate for membership of the United States Senate. Pt. 2-3.”

This blog post was written by Kate Mcginn, reference librarian, Indiana State Library.

Explore the great outdoors with the National Parks Services

Summer has finally arrived, and it marks the ideal time to explore the great outdoors. The National Park Service is a wonderful resource for those looking for outdoor recreational activities like bicycling, camping, climbing, equestrianism, fishing, hiking, hunting, swimming, snowshoeing and more. NPS provides digital and print resources to assist in planning one’s summer adventure with all the necessary information needed to maximize a summer adventure.

In search of trip ideas or hunting for planning guides, NPS offers travelers a wealth of helpful information to explore all of America’s national treasures. The NPS website allows users to search for national parks by states and provides generalized resources for special events or groups. The image above shows the number of national parks in Indiana along with interesting factoids related to Indiana’s national parks: George Rogers Clark, the Indiana Dunes and Abraham Lincoln Boyhood.

Selecting a specific park, like Lincoln Boyhood, will cover everything needed to plan a visit. The Park Service includes resources for kids, offers tips to maximize visit experience, educational matter, guides, alerts (closures, restricted access, etc.), site history and photos. Each park has unique features for visitors to enjoy. Some national parks provide access to wide variety of recreational activities that one may not associate with a national park, such as stand-up paddle-boarding, geocaching, sport climbing, pack-rafting, e-bikes or electric kick scooters. Not every park allows every activity, so check each park’s website to see what is allowed or not, along with any potential fees or closures before visiting.

The Indiana State Library, as a Federal Depository Library, has access to thousands of federal documents, including NPS published guide maps that provide information on the park and its trails. The guides, like the one pictured above, are available to check out and can be extremely helpful when out in nature where the access to the internet is spotty at best, though that’s part of the appeal of exploring a nature park. Author Wallace Stegner in 1893 coined it best, “National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” Happy exploring!

This blog post was written by Indiana State Library federal documents coordinator Brent Abercrombie. For more information, contact the Reference and Government Services at 317-232-3678 or via “Ask-A-Librarian.”

Economic terms for the prognosticator in all of us

It’s a valuable thing – to be able to predict the future.

We all do it. We predict what might happen during our day, and we dress ourselves based on that prediction. We predict what the weekend might look like as we look forward to it. We predict which of our teams might win in the next big game.

One of the most important things statistics can do is project future statistics. We make important decisions based on projected numbers. In fact, it’s vital that we’re able to do this mathematically. It has become the basis for planning and policy.

So, what do you need to know about statistics to be able to anticipate the next month’s, next year’s or next decade’s economic forecast?

If you’re like me, you were required to take an economics course to graduate high school in Indiana, but the class didn’t delve into complex theories. Today’s lexicon requires that we know a few basic terms, even to understand the daily news. So, here is a resource guide to ensure you’re ready to read today’s market and follow its daily fluxuations.

In additional to the resources found in the guide below, researchers can consult with the Indiana State Data Center and our state partner agencies at any time by submitting a request 24/7 here.

Beige Book, formerly known as the Red Book
The Beige Book is a report published by the Federal Reserve. It summarizes economic activity and conditions by sector, and is organized by the 12 Federal Reserve Districts.

CPI, PPI, market basket
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issues the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, for each month at the end of the month. It shows the changes in prices for major consumer categories like food and energy. It can show how the buying power of the dollar increases and decreases over the years. The CPI measures a market basket of items, or purchases of goods and services that usually happen together. For examples of these goods and services, visit Content of CPI Entry Level Items.

The Producer Price Index, or PPI, was once known as the wholesale price index. It measures prices received by producers, before goods and services reach the consumer.

Cost of Living Index and Calculator
The Cost of Living Index, or COLI, differs from the CPI in that it compares basic expenses between specific geographic areas. These measures are produced by the Economic Policy Institute and the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER).

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500
The Dow Jones, incorporated in 1896, is a measure of the U.S. stock market containing the prices of 30 large cap stocks, which trade at $10 billion or more, while the Standard and Poor (S&P) 500 index measures 500 large cap U.S. stocks. Both indexes are used as general indicators of the financial health of the stock market. Current S&P 500 stocks represent 11 economic sectors classified by the Global Industry Classification Standard.

Economic Agencies and Organizations
Indiana Business Research Center (IBRC) Kelley School of Business at Indiana University
Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC)
Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD)
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
U.S. Census Bureau
U.S. Federal Reserve System, “The Fed”

Economic Publications
Indiana Business Review Indiana Business Research Center
InContext Indiana Business Research Center
Indiana Economic Digest
Liberty Street Economics Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Monthly Labor Review U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Survey of Current Business U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

GDP, GNP, NNP
The real gross domestic product (GDP) is the volume level of GDP, which is the value of goods and services produced in a year within a country adjusted for inflation. Find quarterly GDP data for the U.S. using the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) website and the FRED GDP page.

GNP is the value of goods and services within a certain country produced by the residents of that country, wherever those goods and services are. It is the GDP plus foreign investments.

NNP, or the net national product, is the GNP corrected for depreciation.

Inflation and recession
By definition, an economic recession occurs when the real GDP falls for two consecutive quarters. However, economists can differ in their descriptions of what constitutes a recession. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to the rulings of the Federal Reserve Board, also known as The Fed.

Inflation is a rise in prices over a period of time. Inflation happens naturally over time, but during certain periods, the rate of inflation is higher. You can measure the rate of inflation going back to 1913 with the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator.

Unemployment rate and labor participation
The labor force participation rate, measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is made up of the employed and the unemployed. A third category of workers are those who are not participating in the labor force (unemployed and not seeking work). See the BLS Employment & Unemployment webpage for current U.S. data and HoosierData.IN.gov for current Indiana data.

Hopefully, these resources will aid researchers as they seek out important economic information.

This blog post was written by Katie Springer, reference librarian. For more information, contact the Reference and Government Services Division at 317-232-3678 or submit an Ask-A-Librarian request.

Sources:
“A Guide to Everyday Economic Statistics,” by Gary E. Clayton and Martin Gerhard Giesbrecht.