News | SimplyAnalytics

Release Announcement

Posted on November 28, 2023 by GRI Admin

Hello readers! We are happy to announce that SimplyAnalytics has successfully migrated to the Census 2020 boundaries on Sunday, November 19th. This blog will talk about what that is, what it means for you now, and what it means moving forward. Let’s get into it.

What is this migration all about?

The United States Census Bureau provides updates to location boundaries every 10 years. They do this based on population changes, and to ensure fair representation for locations that have changed over time. For example, maybe a Census Tract or Census Block Group has grown in population over time and once it reaches a certain population threshold, that Census Tract or Block Group will get split up and new Tracts or Block Groups will be created.

Check out the example below that highlights the same area in Arizona in 2019 (green), and then with updated boundaries in 2020 (orange).

If you’re interested in a more detailed overview of this feel free to check out the video here:

https://vimeo.com/user68002385/simplyanalytics-historical-mode?share=copy

What does it mean for SimplyAnalytics?

2023 BRASS Student Travel Award sponsored by SimplyAnalytics

Posted on June 8, 2023 by GRI Admin

We are excited to announce Mansi Nishit Trivedi as the winner of the 2023 BRASS Student Travel Award sponsored by SimplyAnalytics! Mansi, a Master of Information student at Dalhousie has been chosen for their exceptional accomplishments and dedication to the field.

Each year, the BRASS Student Travel Award acknowledges a single winner enrolled in a master’s program who has demonstrated interest in a career as a business reference librarian and has potential to be a leader in the profession. The award includes a travel grant to attend ALA Annual and a one-year membership in the Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS) of RUSA

The awards presentation will take place during the BRASS Discussion Group at the ALA Annual Conference on Sunday, June 25th in the Hilton Chicago, Boulevard Room at 1pm.

Full press release here: https://rusaupdate.org/2023/03/2023-brass-student-travel-award/

Congratulations to Mansi on this well-deserved recognition!

SimplyAnalytics Exhibiting at ALA Annual 2023!

Posted on May 24, 2023 by GRI Admin

The ALA Annual Conference in Chicago is just around the corner, and the team at SimplyAnalytics is excited to attend. Swing by booth 1733 for a brief demo, and discover how our user-friendly demographics, business, health & marketing data analytics and visualization application can benefit your library.

If you’re already a customer, please visit our booth for some Ghirardelli chocolate and to learn about our new features and datasets.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Exhibit Hours

Friday, June 23

5:30pm – 7:00pm

Saturday, June 24

9:00am – 5:00pm

Sunday, June 25

9:00am – 5:00pm

Monday, June 26

9:00am – 2:00pm

The Location Query Report

Posted on March 13, 2023 by GRI Admin

Hello readers! Today, we’re excited to officially introduce the Location Query Report in SimplyAnalytics. The Location Query Report is a powerful feature in SimplyAnalytics that allows users to quickly and easily identify target locations. This report is especially useful for businesses, researchers, and marketers who are looking to find some locations based on their desired conditions. Think of this report as a reimagining of the data filters, where we’ve put that functionality into a report and made it easier to understand what you are viewing. Let’s take a look at an example..

How to Create this Report:

In your project, click on New View > “Create” Under the Location Query report

The Location Query report appears. Some tips in the image below of the layout:

SimplyAnalytics Attending SCELCapalooza 2023!

Posted on February 24, 2023 by GRI Admin

We are excited to attend SCELCapalooza 2023, a three-day conference for academic and research librarians in Southern California. The Vendor Day showcase will take place on March 1st, 2023, at Loyola Marymount University.

If you’re attending SCELCapalooza, don’t miss our session on March 1st at 1:50pm. We’ll be demonstrating how to do market research and planning using SimplyAnalytics.

We can’t wait to see everyone!

American Community Survey Data in SimplyAnalytics

Posted on June 21, 2022 by GRI Admin

Hello readers! We hope you’re having a great day. Today we are featuring 5 commonly asked questions about the American Community Survey dataset that’s available to all customers in SimplyAnalytics. Let’s get started.

What is the American Community Survey?

The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing monthly/annual survey of over 3.5 million households in the US conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The ACS asks questions about topics such as education, employment, internet access, transportation, disability and more. These topics and the reported answers are useful to understand communities, and to help determine funding/programming needs. Here’s a wonderful explanation of why the ACS asks about each of these topics: https://www.census.gov/acs/www/about/why-we-ask-each-question/

What Years are Available in SimplyAnalytics?

Every SimplyAnalytics user has access to the following years of ACS data: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 (estimate), 2021 (estimate), 2025 (projection), 2026 (projection).

How can I access the ACS data in SimplyAnalytics?

You can jump directly to the ACS data folder by clicking on Browse by Data Folder from within the Data block at the top left of SimplyAnalytics.

From the Help Desk – Population Data Filter

Posted on May 16, 2022 by GRI Admin

Hello readers! We hope you are having a wonderful day. Today we feature a question from the help desk that we think many users would find useful. Let’s get started.

The question: How can I identify all cities in the US that have a population of 25K to 100K?

The answer: This is a great question, and a perfect use case for the data filter feature in SimplyAnalytics. Here’s how to do that: In your Project, select New View (1) > Create Ranking Report (2),

next, set your Location to: USA (3) – then add in the Total Population data variable (4) that is found under the Popular Data Category. Click Done (5).

At the top of the Ranking Report, set the dropdown to be “Cities” such that it is displaying: Cities in USA

Variable Menu Improvements & More

Posted on December 7, 2021 by GRI Admin

Hello readers! We hope you are enjoying the holiday season as much as we are. Today, we are happy to announce a couple of improvements to SimplyAnalytics designed to help you get your research done more efficiently. Let’s check it out!

Variable Menu Changes

This first of two changes to the variable menus is rooted in customer suggestions that revolved around the same sort of question, namely: is there a way to quickly add in additional years or the # or % version of this variable? As of this week, the answer to this question is yes!

Now, when you are in a report and want to add in other years of data quickly, simply click on the variable name and refer to the Add Other Years text in the menu that displays.

In the example below, the chosen data variable is # Hispanic or Latino Population for the year 2021, but notice in the Add Other Years option, you are now welcome to instantly add in years from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2025 and 2026.

Introducing Histograms to SimplyAnalytics

Posted on September 14, 2021 by GRI Admin

Welcome readers! Today we are excited to welcome histograms to SimplyAnalytics. We hope you enjoy this wonderful new visualization as much as we do. Let’s take a look.

What is a histogram?

In short, a histogram is similar to a bar chart, but instead groups values into ranges (referred to as “bins”). The height of each bar displays how many values fall within that bin.

Example

Let’s take a look at an easy to read example. The histogram view can be found under New View > Histogram in the program. The example below is showing the % of adults (pop 25+) with a bachelor’s degree or higher in States in the USA.

Each bin size, or bar width along the X axis represents a 5% range – so, 20-25%, 25-30%, etc. (zoomed in below)

SimplyAnalytics Swag-a-palooza for ALA Attendees!

Posted on June 9, 2021 by GRI Admin

Hello (virtual) ALA attendees! Thank you for dropping by our booth to learn more about SimplyAnalytics. Please email us if you have any questions or would like a live demo or free 30 day trial of our database. We are always happy to chat.

This year, we have two awesome Swag items for those who participate in our sweepstakes.

Our GRAND PRIZE is a $250 Amazon Gift Card!

And ten lucky runners-up will win their choice of SimplyAnalytics socks!

How to Enter:

There are two ways to enter:

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimplyAnalytics
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SimplyAnalytics

OR you can follow and like us for two entries in the sweepstakes!

Winners will be randomly selected from our new “Twitter followers” and “Facebook likers” who follow and like us between June 22nd, 2021 and June 28th, 2021.