Resource of the Week
by Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor
It's not news that Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group in the U.S. Certainly, the business community has recognized this trend. According to our Resource of the Week, "In the next decade, the U.S. Hispanic market will be a $1.5 trillion market." Not surprisingly, data about the Latino market is a hot commodity these days. Read on and learn about a new site that supplies plenty of it.
Hispanic Americans--Marketing Data
Source: American Family Insurance, the City of St. Paul, the James J. Hill Reference Library, Aguilar Productions, and Latinocreative.com HispanSource.org
HispanSource bills itself as "your one-stop source for credible, objective, and relevant information on the U.S. Hispanic/Latino market. The information sources featured in HispanSource have been chosen by the top experts in Hispanic marketing and practical business information." Once you register, everything here is free. (Although if you need professional help, fee-based research services are available from the Hill Library, a private business research library in St. Paul, MN.)
One you log in, you'll see a simple directory interface that allows you to choose from various categories of information, covering Hispanic marketing, consumer behavior, media, associations, events, and related research and white papers. Also here: general business resources, online training and downloadable tutorials. Live virtual reference help is available from a "master information specialist" during the hours of 8 am and 5 pm (CST) Monday through Friday.
When you click on a directory category, you'll find a collection of links to information located all over the web, each one succinctly annonated and rated by Hill Library research professionals. The breadth of information is staggering -- government reports, university research, association and think tank studies, rankings and lists, online directories, websites of print and electronic media outlets and more.
Under the General Business Resources category, you'll find the "Biz Site Recommender," a database of invisible web resources culled by Hill Library Business Information Specialists. The database is keyword searchable, or you can browse via a dropdown menu that allows you to choose from an alphabetical list of business-related categories, from Accounting to Web Directories. Again, all links are annotated. This, alone, is a stellar resource even if you don't need information about the Hispanic population. Great job, guys!
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