Although North Philadelphia Neighborhood Libraries (NPNL) is supposed to be, and should be, people driven a fair amount of statistics need to be looked at in order to justify and support what we are trying to do. Early on, I talked with the library managers about becoming familiar with the various databases the Free Library subscribes to that provide statistics and demographic information. (Described below.)
Asset mapping became a frequently used term, along with Asset Based Community Development (ABCD). In other words, what are the assets that already exist. I found two .pdf documents on the internet and printed copies for each of the library managers.
http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/mfh/nnw/resourcesforcenters/assetmapping.pdf
http://www.abcdinstitute.org/docs/Diane%20Dorfman-Mapping-Community-Assets-WorkBook(1)-1.pdf
These two documents combined give you a good sense of what this exercise should entail.
Two databases were used extensively in compiling data for each of the branches.
"BusinessDecision is a consumer market database for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and non-profit organizations that helps businesses to succeed by increasing their market share and growing their clientele." (From the BusinessDecision "About" page.)
Reference USA is a database of 14 million U.S. business includes company name and phone number, complete address, key executive name, SIC Codes, employee size among other items of information. It also contains geo-codes for mapping, which will help with asset maps.
The U.S. Census website has a new tool called Census Explorer. It is a quick and easy way to get basic demographic data about a specific geographic area.
http://www.census.gov/censusexplorer/
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