Mann Library is pleased to announce a major new upgrade of the Economics, Statistics and Market Information System (ESMIS), a heavily used public archive containing thousands of federal agriculture and commodity reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Undertaken by a team of Mann librarians and web developers to better accommodate the needs of a growing user base, the upgrade has made the ESMIS website significantly easier to use. Notable improvements include:
- A better user interface that makes reports more easily and more efficiently discoverable
- An API for faster access to the ESMIS / USDA publication and release data
- The ability to download multiple files at once to help support data synthesis.
ESMIS represents a decades-long agreement between Mann Library and the USDA. Over the years, this collaboration has grown to involve the participation of five USDA agencies, including the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Economic Research Service, the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Foreign Agricultural Service and the World Agricultural Outlook Board. Providing free access to historical reports and current agricultural data for thousands of users worldwide, ESMIS is unique among other agricultural data repositories in the scope and depth of USDA-published information offered. Some of the more popular reports—such as the monthly World Agricultural Supply & Demand Estimates report—receive more than 1 million page views. Given such reach and traffic volume, our recent enhancement of this online information service is poised to benefit many users. We invite all members of the public—whether you’re a power user of agricultural data, a citizen-scientist or a even just a data novice interested in learning where you can get reliable info about trends in agricultural development—to visit the new site and take it for a spin!