FreePint Newsletter

Wednesday 18 January 2012

5 sites from my bookmarks bar


I was recently asked if I had any recommendations for 5 sites that I used regularly. At the moment my most frequently used sites are all careers-based job sites and I will write some thoughts on those shortly.  However, as a librarian in the commercial sector, I have had to research some bizarre questions where the only stipulation was that the sources should be free. I found myself doing a lot of macroeconomic statistics research and regularly monitoring the UK political landscape  and in doing so, I discovered sites that I still visit regularly out of personal interest in the topic.
Housepricecrash  Great for real estate or banking projects in the UK.  Collating statistics on the housing market from a number of sources. Having recently moved house, I made great use of the resources section with links on buying/selling, neighbours from hell, etc...
The World Bank  made their data freely available a while ago so this is the source I recommended most frequently to staff. The World Bank DataFinder app for iPhone/android, lets you access fifty years of World Bank data on global economic indicators, chart and visualize that data, and share those charts.
Health Policy Insight  is a great place to go for insider commentary on policies and news in the UK public health sector. Every time the UK government go through a phase of 'change' for the NHS it is essential reading.  It has frequently cut through the jargon in White Papers and commented with authority. 

Politicshome The re-branded epolitix site filters parliament, press releases, radio, TV, newspapers, websites, blogs and Twitter. They also write many newswire articles making this a very comprehensive site for UK political current awareness.
 Phil Bradley’s Blog  is a must-read for me. He covers themes such as search engine developments and applications that do clever things on the web which saves me the time researching them myself.

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