Handling Data - Data Points: Visualization That Means Something - page 23

SEArCh ENGINES
How do you find anything online nowadays? You Google it. This is a no-
brainer, but you'd be surprised how many times people email me asking
if I know where to find a particular dataset and a quick search provided
relevant results. Personally, I turn to Google and occasionally look to
Wolfram|Alpha, the computational search engine.

 See Wolfram|
Alpha at http://
wolframalpha.com .
The search engine
can be especially
useful if you're
looking for some
basic statistics on
a topic.

DIrECT FroM ThE SourCE
If a direct query for “data” doesn't provide anything of use, try searching
for academics who specialize in the area you're interested in finding data
for. Sometimes they post data on their personal sites. If not, scan their
papers and studies for possible leads. You can also try emailing them, but
make sure they've actually done related studies. Otherwise, you'll just be
wasting everyone's time.

You can also spot sources in graphics published by news outlets such
as The New York Times . Usually data sources are included in small print
somewhere on the graphic. If it's not in the graphic, it should be mentioned
in the related article. This is particularly useful when you see a graphic in
the paper or online that uses data you're interested in exploring. Search
for a site for the source, and the data might be available.

This won't always work because finding contacts seems to be a little eas-
ier when you email saying that you're a reporter for the so-and-so paper,
but it's worth a shot.

uNIVErSITIES
As a graduate student, I frequently make use of the academic resources
available to me, namely the library. Many libraries have amped up their
technology resources and actually have some expansive data archives.
A number of statistics departments also keep a list of data files, many of
which are publicly accessible. Albeit, many of the datasets made available
by these departments are intended for use with course labs and home-
work. I suggest visiting the following resources:

a

http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/DASL/) —An
online library of data files and stories that illustrate the use of basic
statistics methods, from Carnegie Mellon

Data and Story Library (DASL) (