GUIDES & RESOURCES

iLibrary
MEMORY EXHIBIT
At Central Library through Sunday, September 7

Reference USA Searching and Downloading

SEARCH INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Set your Web browser to www.ilibrary.org.
  2. Scroll down and choose ReferenceUSA in the list.
  3. On non-Library computers Type your library barcode and pin (last 4 digits of the barcode).
  4. Click on the Logon button.
  5. Once you are authorized, click on Continue.
  6. Click on Business Data.
  7. 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 yellow page heading or geographic area.
  8. If using the Custom Search, select the criteria for your search and click on Create Search Form in the black box.
  9. Enter the data and click on Refine and Search. 

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 75 companies , the easier and faster your printing or downloading will be. If you search one or two SIC's at a time and find 75 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 75 from Library computers, 10 from non-Library computers. 75 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 Lotus) or a database (Microsoft Access or D-Base, etc.) with which you are knowledgeable. If you are not familiar with, or do not have access to, any of these types of programs, downloading is probably not a good option. 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, click on the gray "all" box at the top of the first column (from library computers--twenty five is too many to download from a non-library computer). Since there are 25 companies per page, go to the second page by clicking on the circle beside the word "next." Continue tagging until you have tagged 75 companies. If you have tagged more than 75 companies, when you attempt to download, you will see a message that says: "You are not permitted to download more than 75 records. You have currently selected __ records." To continue the download, you must deselect enough records to keep the number of records selected at 75 or less. To untag individual records click on the check in the box in the left-hand column next to the company name. To deselect an entire page of records (25 records), double click the "ALL" button at the top of the column.

Step 2: After tagging the companies, go to the bottom or top of the screen and click on the black "download" box.

Step 3: In the format box, choose the format (comma delimited, fixed length or tab delimited). If you are not sure, choose comma delimited. Next, pick the platform that you will be using (Windows, UNIX or Macintosh). Finally, pick the level of detail (summary or detailed--a summary record contains the company name, address, city, state, zip code & phone number while the detailed record is the full profile). Click on the download button.

Step 4: Make sure you have a floppy in the 3-inch Floppy A: drive. Click on "Save File."

Step 5: Make sure that the top line in the "Save In" box has the 3-inch Floppy A: drive highlighted, or you will save this to the library's computer and you will take home a blank floppy disk. Assign a name to the file. If you have more than 75 companies, you must give each file you download a different name, i.e., florists1, florists2, florists 3). If you don't assign different file names, each successive download will write over the original download. Click on save.

Step 6: If you have more companies to download, click the "Back" button. Click on "All" in the tagged column. It changes to "None." Click "None" to remove tags. Do this for records 1-75. When all are cleared, page forward by clicking on the "Next" button or use the "Go to page" button to find the next 75 companies. Tag record 76 through record 150. Remember that each file must have a different name.

EXCEL RETRIEVAL INSTRUCTIONS:
NOTE: You must use a computer that has access to Excel for these instructions.

Step 1: Open Excel. Make sure the floppy is in the proper drive and make sure that the "Look in" box at the top of the Open box has the "3-inch inch floppy drive" highlighted. Also, make sure that the box in the lower left labeled "Files of Type" has "All files (*.*)" highlighted. If not, click on the down arrow, arrow up and click on "All files."

Step 2: Highlight the file name you wish to open & click on "open."

Step 3: You should be looking at the data in the format you requested. In Excel, change the column widths (highlight the columns, click on format, column, auto fit) so that the information is legible.

For Help from InfoUSA call 1-800-808-1113, Monday through Friday, 9-5.