OECD

Database Presentation Blog Post: OECD iLibrary 

By Kimi Andrew & Cara Rozzi

OECD Basics

The OECD, or Organization for Economic Co-opertion and Development is an intergovernmental organization with 38 participating countries including the U.S., Japan, and many European countries. The goal of the OECD is to “shape policies and foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all” by working with governments, policy makers and citizens to “establish evidence-based international standards and find solutions to social, economic and environmental challenges.” The OECD collects data from national statistics offices and organizations for its partner countries and then conducts thorough analyses of this data. It has more than 300 expert committees that meet regularly to review the data that the organization compiles, share individual experiences with topics like agriculture, economy and education in their respective countries, and review each others’ policy recommendations and the impact those recommendations may have on the world. All of this data that the OECD compiles is then put onto the iLibrary as reports, working papers and datasets. The iLibrary calls itself “one of the world’s largest and most reliable sources of information for millions of users.”

How to access this database

The OECD iLibrary can be accessed through the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Hamilton Library Database website. If you’re going through the UH Mānoa Library A-Z Database, you can begin by entering the Library, clicking the “Research” tab on the top left, selecting the “O” tab and then finding OECD iLibrary. We would suggest, however, accessing the OECD iLibrary through Google, since the link to the iLibrary on the Hamilton Database website is broken as of October 3, 2023. When accessing the iLibrary through Google, make sure to be on the iLibrary website and not the general OECD website. 

Material available on this database

This database offers 15 types of contents including:

Statistical series, journals, annuals, statistical publications, books, articles, key tables, multilingual summaries, chapters, datasets, working paper series, podcasts, tables/graphs, indicators and working papers.

The materials are various forms of reports and studies compiled by the OECD and its member countries. There is secondary material on this database in the form of analyses of data, as well as primary material in the form of datasets in excel spreadsheets. All surveys on OECD iLibrary are peer-reviewed.

Cost of using this database

The OECD iLibrary is paid for by the University of Hawaii at Manoa. By having a ‘hawaii.edu’ email address students, staff, and professors can create a profile with no additional costs or fees to them. OECD Publications 2023 Subscriptions Price List shows that usage of the iLibrary’s full package for a ‘Not for Profit’ institution is $25,510.

Organization

The OECD is a federated database consisting of 4,700 datasets, 10,500 articles and papers, 17,200 books, and 290,000 tables and graphs. What are the default access points? What access points are searchable pre-search, and which are available as a filter post-search? OECD iLibrary’s homepage functions more as a browsing page. There is no default access on the homepage. Instead users may do a general search browsing by author name, title, theme, or country. There is an option for an advanced search. This allows users to narrow their search by using defaults under an “all fields” tab. The advanced search enables users to browse by title, author name, affiliation, abstract only, or DOI, ISSN, ISBN. A DOI is the most modern kind of identifier, and is incredibly useful to its users. Essentially, a DOI is a registered number that identifies a specific version of the material being accessed or viewed. It points to the citable version of a source. Additionally, the advanced search function allows users to search the iLibrary by using certain keywords/phrases and by narrowing the field.

Users may sort the results of their search by filtering results by “Newest first” or “Oldest first”. The “search within” tab allows users to further narrow their search. You can also narrow search results by modifying the theme, publication year, content type, language, country, and author/editor of the results. Results can be accessed in a variety of ways. Some material is available via MP3, PDF, or just through the online interface. Users can share the results of their search easily with OECD iLibrary. The share feature allows users to copy and paste the document link. You also are given the option to post your results directly to Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. 

Pros and Cons

Exclusivity of Material

In a broad sense, this database has very exclusive material because the material is compiled by the OECD and its member nations for the purpose of contributing to the OECD’s iLibrary. If you are looking for specific statistics on topics such as agriculture, environment, nuclear energy, urban/rural development and trade – this is an awesome database to use because you can find lots of information and statistics ranging over many years and across many countries.

OECD’s Interface

This interface is generally user friendly. It has a clear search tab with an option for advanced searches. The tab across the top that allows you to search by category, theme or country is also helpful. It’s a good search engine in the sense that if you are looking for something specific, you’ll be able to look it up, but if you’re also just looking for general information, you can browse what’s out there. The OECD iLibrary has a good mobile site to use on-the-go as well.

Finding Material on OECD

If information from this database is cited in a paper, I’m confident that a reader would be able to access the material because the information will likely be coming directly from OECD research, so the reader will know to go to this database. Once on the database’s home page, a reader can use the search bar to look for the cited material. Alternatively, if the exact title of the material is not known, the reader can browse by theme and/or country to find the material cited.

Cons of OECD iLibrary

In general, there are not any major “cons” on the OECD iLibrary. The interface is user-friendly, though, if nitpicking, could be less wordy. Generally, however, the OECD iLibrary is an easy-to-use database that is a good place to start if looking for data about specific topics from participating countries.