Historical Statistics of the United States (HSUS) is the latest online miracle added to the University Library collection. The standard source for the quantitative facts of American history, the site includes the capability to customize and download tables of data. So, you can:

* Download tables in Excel or CSV; also download entire groups of tables as a zip file.
* Create custom tables; merge columns from multiple tables to create custom tables, which can also be downloaded, printed, or graphed.
* Advanced searching of the tables, their documentation, and essays.
* Full citation downloading in RIS, text, or CSV format.

Click here to learn more about HSUS. You never know, you could get hooked and become a specialist -- a Dr. HSUS.

The innumerate among you ought not to flinch, because the spreadsheet you likely have already (Excel, for example, which is usually bundled with MS Word) means, in essence, that you have a machine that can do the math for you, thereby putting the power of quantification at your fingertips. Feel the power!

If you are new to spreadsheets, by the way, your friends at Google are beginning to make available their own free Google Spreadsheet, which is very easy to use. Being internet-based, it allows you to share your number crunching activities with all designated Google-spreadsheet-equipped friends (or colleagues or students or classmates, whether friends or not), and it is also a simple matter to save your work to your own hard drive for smooth integration in and out of Excel and other heavier-duty terrestrially-based spreadsheets. You probably need one of Google's e-mail (GMail) accounts to use the spreadsheet, but that is free too, and worth having if only for this purpose. Click here to learn more.