Industry Canada's mandate is to "promote jobs and growth in Canada" and
to "provide policy advice, industry sector information and business services."
The role of Industry Canada is to create a marketplace that is efficient,
competitive, supportive, fair, and driven by informed consumers.
3 Strategis is
characterized as Industry Canada's Business Information Site.
Business information covers a wide range of subject matter and this fact
is reflected in the size and scope of "Strategis." The creators of the site
assert that they are committed to gathering, assembling, analyzing, packaging,
and delivering hard-to-get information. Reviewing "Strategis" is a daunting
task because of the shear magnitude of the information available. I will
concentrate on the usefulness of the site from the perspective of an academic
audience.
Technical
From a technical point of view the site developers have presented a
pleasing home page with a judicious and intelligent (meaning
limited) use of graphics. The pages load quickly and the background
colour is a generic grey. Each page provides the reader with a button to
provide feedback and to report any problems. Using a non-graphical browser
such as Lynx can be time consuming and somewhat confusing but this may be
a reflection of the writer always using a graphical browser.
Content
After the viewer chooses either the English or French stream, the main
menu presents eight choices: company information; international business opportunities, trade
and investment; business information by sector; micro-economic research and
statistical analysis; technology, innovation, and licensing; business
support and services; consumers and the marketplace; and human resources and
training. To get a good overview of the site, it is best to choose the site
map button, which provides a table of the choices available in a clear and
concise format.
Company
Information: Provides a database of Canadian companies
(Canadian
Company Capabilities), which is fully searchable by
keyword, company, or province. Searching for a particular product or a company
leads to basic directory-level information such as the mailing address, phone
and fax numbers, business type, number of employees, year of establishment,
export information, products and services, and contact person. Canadian
businesses may register in this database online and update the information
when necessary. The other information available in this area is a link to the
Corporations Directorate's home page, where information kits and
administrative forms are available.
International Business Opportunities, Trade and Investment:
Under this category are three links.
International Business Information Network includes information about
exporting from Canada. This information is
comprised of market research, key Canadian export contacts, and a listing of
export related activities and events.
Investments
in Canada gives information about
investing in Canada and provides documents relating to the opportunities
available in Canada.
Trade
Data Online provides links to the Statistics Canada and the U.S. Department of
Commerce Web sites.
Business
Information by Sector: Provides detailed information
such as industry analysis, market research reports, associations, and more by
industry sector. Some of the industry sectors are Plastics, Transportation,
Rubber, Automotive, Aerospace and Defence, Consumer Products, etc.
Micro-Economic
Research and Statistical Analysis: Provides a
link to research and analysis of trends and changes in the Canadian economy.
A quarterly newsletter, research publications, and monthly economic indicators
are available. Quarterly provincial industrial overviews are also provided.
Technology,
Innovation and Licensing: For entrepreneurs,
exporters, and inventors this page is a real find. It provides links to the
Canadian
Patent Database, which is fully searchable (a search on the word
baseball retrieves 33 hits). You may also search a database with over
35,000 licensable technologies (the word baseball nets nine possible
baseball-related products to license).
Business
Support and Services: Provides information regarding
aboriginal businesses, a listing of the
Canada Business Service
Centres, and information about Small
Business Loans Administration. It also links to
a site with business management advice and small business success stories.
Consumers
and the Marketplace: Services, Laws and Regulations:
Provides documents for and about consumers from the Office of Consumer
Affairs and information from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office,
information about Bankruptcy, and information about business rules and
regulations. A link for lobbyist registration data is also provided.
Human
Resources and Training: Provides links to SchoolNet
and a very interesting site for new graduates, the National Graduate Register,
which allows recent graduates to register in the database when looking for
employment. Other links include the Student
Connection Program and the Computers for
Schools Program.
Searching
One of the best methods to locate pertinent information is to view the
Site
Map. The default graphical version of the page takes a bit of time to
load but the textual version loads quickly. The site map gives an excellent
overview of the content of "Strategis."
The site developers have made it very easy to search the database, and
include a link to searching the site from almost every page. The button
states that the search is acting on 300,000 documents. The search engine,
Fulcrum, uses a strict Boolean logic and ranks results based on the number
of hits. The operators used are "all", "any", and "phrase", which
parallels "and", "or", and "phrase within the same title", respectively.
The choices for searching the text of "Strategis" are many. You may search
the full texts or only titles. Upon choosing Advanced Text
Search you may limit the search by topic, sector, information product,
and geographic region. Although the subject of the limits may not be
self-evident, an alphabetical listing of the choices is provided. For
example, limiting by "information product" presents choices such as
automotive, bankruptcies, Canadian patent database, Competition Bureau,
and more.
The online help screens are constructive and detailed.
There is a separate search function used for the Canadian Company
Capabilities database. The choices for searching this database are keyword,
company name, and provincial location.
Conclusion
From the perspective of an academic community the most important
features of this database are the Canadian company information, the market
research reports, small business information, and industry reports. Finding
Canadian industry information has been a haphazard proposition in academic
libraries for years. Library patrons are always searching for the Canadian
equivalent of the Standard and Poor's Industry Surveys. They want expert
industry analysis all in one location. One-stop-shopping, you could say. The
Strategis industry profiles and market research reports, written by experts in
the field, are valuable in trying to fill this information gap. The market
research reports are particularly relevant for patrons with international
interests.
This site is not generally for finding quick facts, with the exception of
the directory-level information from the Canadian Company Capabilities
database. Perhaps the one major criticism I have with "Strategis" is the
staggering amount of information available, which is, however, quite
inevitable in our information-drenched society. Even though the search engines
have proved adequate, one should be prepared to spend a considerable amount of
time when visiting this site.
Developers of "Strategis" and the content providers should be commended
for providing this excellent Canadian Web site.
Notes
[1] May be cited as/On peut citer comme suit:
"'Strategis': Review," Daphne Flanagan Government
Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada 3, no.
2 (1996). [http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v3n2/flanagan/flanagan.html]
Back to text.
[2]
Daphne Flanagan
Reference Librarian
Business and Government Publications Library
York University
dflanagn@yorku.ca
Back to text.
[3] http://info.ic.gc.ca/ic-data/ic-eng.html
Back to text.