An interesting and sometimes frustrating part of the business librarian’s job is the sheer amount of information out there to be found. Saying you’re a business librarian is like saying “I live on Earth.” There are so many facets to the business reference world that it seems like it would take more than one lifetime to learn everything you’d ever want to know!
Sometimes, though, you discover great information sources almost by accident. Here’s how the formula goes–or at least, how it recently went, when I was asked if I knew about a source for traffic count data for South Carolina:
Google smarts + SCDOT’s niceness = Free traffic count info from SCDOT!
Of course, as you might have guessed, free = not comprehensive. I’m sure there are companies out there who can count traffic for your specific location, but I’m sure they cost a lot of money, so see if you can find a way to use the state-created data instead. It’s your tax dollars hard at work, so you might as well give it a spin!
