These two directories, New Jersey Business to Business Directory and New Jersey Directory of Small Businesses, are published by Corfacts, a local competitor of InfoUSA. Check out their website here http://www.corfactsonline.com/ You can see that their online product aims to do the same things as RefUSA. This is their printed product. Each directory costs approximately $250.
Each directory has two volumes, and the format is the same for both. Volume 1 has an alphabetical index which lists only the name of the business, the county and the city. This is followed by a geographical index listed by county and then by town. Information given is brief and includes, in addition to contact information, number of employees by range (e.g., 1-5; 6-10, etc) and revenue also by range, plus a very brief description of what the company does. Volume 2 has the companies arranged by SIC code.
Previously in this blog, I have tried not to influence you with my opinion on a particular title. However, for this one it will be hard to do that, because, for the life of me, I cannot see that it has any advantages over RefUSA, which does everything better, and is much more extensive. For example, when looking for companies in Pennington with under 10 employees, RefUSA had 627 and this directory had less than 100.
Another problem is the sloppiness of the data. For example, in each set there is a handy zip code directory by county before the geographical section. Handy, that is, if the zip codes were correct. The first two I checked, Pennington and Camden, were both incorrect. Also this past year we had a great deal of difficulty in getting a good set. The first shipment had a whole section of incorrect data, as did the second shipment. The third was finally correct.
So, what I want to hear from you are any reasons you may have for keeping this that I may have overlooked.
10 comments:
I personally have not used either of these directories in recent memory. Still, I am not entirely sold on letting them go for the following reasons:
I can think of two instances in the last year where patrons have come in looking for this particular title. In both cases I offered to show them RefUSA, but they wanted to be able to sit down and either just take notes or make photocopies.
RefUSA is more complete, but saving the entries for printing can be confusing for many uses and often requires a lot of librarian intervention.The Corfacts directories can be used independently.
Let me think on this some more... this was my first thoughts on this and I might be persuaded to change my mind.
I like the idea of having a print alternative to ReferenceUSA for New Jersey companies for the reasons Janie mentioned, and the price of the Corfacts directories seems reasonable. The accuracy issue is troubling, though. I’d like us to spend some more time checking it for errors. If what Jane found is consistent with the quality generally, I’d say drop it. (I’ll be glad to do some more spot checking if you like).
It seems that ReferenceUSA does everything and more that the NJBusiness Directory does---I'm not sure if it's worth keeping given the problem with inacuracies that Jane cited. Also, I think that keeping this subscriptions is somewhat contingent on whether or not we will have access to RefUSA--will the NJKnowledge initiative be funded and include RefUSA? If not will we buy a subscription to RefUSA out of our budget? If yes, then it seems that the $250--although a little bit, should be allocated to that larger purchase.
There was a time I actually used these directories and it wasn't too long ago; however, resource is only good as long as it is accurate. I love flipping through actual printed pages, but if the information is faulty, what good is it? Out the door, Corfacts... sniff.
I had a request for this title on Saturday. I think we should keep it for the moment with the caveat to users that there may be some inaccuracies. Janie's rational suggesting that this is an alternative choice when necessary is worth considering.
You sent it back three times for inaccuracies? Are you saying they had to go through three print runs and send out the directories three times to all of their subscribers? If so, that must have been very costly to them and one would think that they have learned their lesson. I checked my hometown info (Hillsborough) and the zip is incorrect in the zip code index, but the actual business listings look accurate enough. I am for keeping as many NJ specific print resources as possible. My assumption is that there is nothing else out there comparable in the print market. If Corfacts continues to put out a faulty product, they will go out of business and the decision will be out our hands anyway. My vote is to keep it for now and tell patrons we have better resources for zip code look-ups.
GS says: OK, this one is going to be difficult for me to part with because I do think that people like to have printed directories where you can get a list of business by town name in a simple, straight forward manner. Many folks don’t like to wade through the many pages you can get as a result in REFUSA. So I decided to expand on Jane’s search for Pennington businesses. I can’t imagine that Pennington has over 600 (as in REFUSA) and the 100 number for Pennington seems too little. So I looked at the businesses listed in the Business to Business Directory. The inaccuracy rate of what I found makes me question the other data for places I know nothing about. For example, the Montessori School has a listing but the Cambridge School does not. Pennington Quiltworks, which is across the street from the Montessori School, has no listing and neither do the other stores in the Tree Farm Village shops. Pennington Quality Market is not in there and no stores and restaurants from that shopping center are either, as well as Jann’s Sweet Shoppe and Vito’s Pizza but Sumo Sushi is. The Electrochemical Society is no longer at that address, Peyton Associates Real Estate is no more, Hopewell Valley Community Bank is listed but no other bank is and the list goes on. What I can’t figure out is who makes the cut and why. There are other business listed in the Directory of Small Businesses but still none of the ones I mentioned earlier. The directory says that retail stores are not included but quite a number are. Very inconsistent. And as an extra aside, the entry for the Princeton Public Library is also incorrect. So I guess the question is, is there any value to having a printed source that is so inconsistent, inaccurate, and confusing just because that is what people want. Even though it is not expensive, I would almost hesitate to send anyone to it now that I know of some many errors. Toss.
I do like the idea of keeping as many print sources for New Jersey as possible. That said I have not used Corfacts for a long time.
Bottom line - I give this a pass.
I don't like the errors being reported. I will say that Tree Farm in Pennington, which has the best yarn shop in the area, opened after this directory went to print.
Still, I like having paper alternatives and the price is nice. I would keep this, but not pay for a new version without seeing it and doing some checks--if there are still lots of errors, I would ask for a further discount.
Basically what I'm hearing is that we like to have print NJ reference sources available, but that we are concerned about the errors and omissions. GS's checking really made my decision. I think the errors outweigh any usefulness it may have. I also have a feeling that they are not paying as much attention to their print product as their online product (and their online product pales in comparison with RefUSA). I plan not to reorder, but will keep these volumes around for a year or two.
Post a Comment