Sources of factual information - Resources

Many of the tasks performed by an engineer in the course of his or her work generally consume very little time, but are repeated many times over the course of a day... or a week. Among these, the search for factual data (textual or numerical), to feed a calculation or interpret a result, takes pride of place.

Habit-induced automatisms lead us to consult a few well-known and readily available sources. Unfortunately, this approach is not always fruitful. Sometimes, locating the source of information to acquire data or assess its quality is complex and takes an unreasonable amount of time, especially when searching via the Internet. As a result, it's always difficult to determine the cost of this documentary operation, so as to better control it. Answers to the question "How much time do you spend searching for data?" give rise to largely underestimated estimates.

The development of the Internet has multiplied the number of sources of information. It has particularly facilitated identification (directories and portals) and contact with organizations of all types (including those described in this article) via their websites.

The aim of this article is to guide the reader's approach to data collection. It is not intended to deal with factual data banks, which represent only one means among others, often limited despite the significant developments made possible by the performance of micro-computing. Among databases, bibliographic sources, despite their shortcomings (indirect access to data, lack of criticism of its value, etc.), will continue to be used for a long time to come. Readers should therefore bear in mind the fundamental distinction between "factual data" and "factual databases".

This article will be supplemented by the article [K31] "Sources of factual information. Overview and data validation" and will be accompanied by a joint documentation booklet [Doc. K 32].

For further information, readers can also consult other articles on information published in Techniques de l'Ingénieur [1][2][3][4][5].