Campuswide Access to the IMF eLibrary
The Official Senate CIA Torture Report
Yesterday the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its "Study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program - Foreword, Findings, and Conclusions, and Executive Summary." (BIG PDF!) The report is 525 pages, heavily redacted, and includes graphic details about the torture techniques used by the CIA. The study found that American torture was not confined to a handful of aberrational cases or techniques, nor was it the work of rogue CIA agents. It was an officially sanctioned, worldwide (over 1/4 of the world's countries participated in some way!) regime of torture that had the acquiescence, if not explicit approval, of the top members of both political parties in Congress.
Online Access to International Historical Statistics
Faculty, students, and staff now have online access to the three volume set titled: International Historical Statistics.
UN Day 2014: Faces of the World's Refugees
October 24 is United Nations Day.
Visit the exhibit: Faces of the World's Refugees on display at the Green Library Lobby
Conference heads up: "Beyond the Numbers: Economics and Data for Information Professionals"
This looks to be a highly interesting conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis this September 29-30, 2014 for anyone interested in historic economic data. Keynote speakers include Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, and Neil Fantom, World Bank manager who leads their Open Data Initiative.
Q&A: population figures for various countries for the 19th century
Question: I need population figures for various countries starting at about 1850. Is there a resource I can check for such data?
Answer: You should start with B. R. Mitchell's International Historical Statistics: 1750-2005. It's shelved in the Information Center Statistics area and there are three volumes: 1) Africa, Asia and Oceania; 2) The Americas; 3) Europe.
Q&A: Average Tariff Levels
Question: I'm looking for data on the average tariff levels of various countries from 1962-1989. Any version of the average tariff (weighted average) would be fine.
Q&A: Historical Social Security forms
Question: I am doing research on the social security application (federal document #SS-5), and how it has changed over the years. Where can I look for historical versions of this document?