Dewey Data

The library has a subscription to Dewey, a platform that provides access to quantitative and geospatial datasets from multiple sources, including Safegraph, Veraset, ATTOM, Wagescape, and others. Topics include consumer information, company data, and point of interest data, and include series on real estate property and transactions, consumer behavior, corporate finance metrics, labor market indicators, foot traffic, internet traffic, and the weather.

Most of the data is tabular and can be downloaded in bulk from the platform, or via API.

Visit https://app.deweydata.io/ and sign up for an account using your Brown email address.

Brown users can create accounts for research purposes: ongoing academic research, a dissertation or a thesis, final course projects, and internal administrative research. You must be a current Brown student or employee with a valid @brown.edu email address to create an account.

Once you have an account, you will be prompted to log in with your email, and authenticate via Duo using your university credentials.

When downloading data from Dewey, always make sure to filter records to capture just the data you need. In the example below, in the menu on the left columns of interest are selected, and rows are filtered by region (state). You can also filter by NAICS codes, and by attributes that are distinct to the dataset (brands in this example). A bar at the bottom of the table indicates the percentage of total records you are downloading. Please note that repeated, excessively large downloads could result in the suspension of your account.

Copyright:

• All datasets hosted in the Dewey platform are copyrighted and licensed for academic, non-commercial use by current members of Brown University.
• Redistributing or republishing the original datasets, or significant derivatives of the datasets, is strictly prohibited. Read Dewey's guide on post-term use and data derivatives.
• Sharing datasets with researchers outside of our institution is also prohibited (unless their institution or research team has their own subscription).

• To cite Dewey data in publications, you specify the creator of the data module as the author, and Dewey as the platform. Dataset citations should include the DOI number as a url. For example:

  • BrightQuery. (2022). 504 Data [Dataset]. Dewey Data. [https://doi.org/10.82551/6ZNZ-0150](https://doi.org/10.82551/6ZNZ-0150)
• For more information on licensing and our subscription, visit the Dewey FAQs.

Download limits:

• Download just what you need. Use the filters in the download screen to create an extract of records you need. If using the API, do a test run on a smaller extract first to ensure that it works as planned before executing it on the entire set. When writing scripts, separate the download process from any data processing or analysis that you're doing; don't run the download process repeatedly.
• Under no circumstances should any user download quantities of data that would be unnecessary for completing a specific, targeted research project. Downloading entire datasets from multiple modules can result in your account being flagged and suspended, and may result in disciplinary action.

Account Renewals

• There is no need to renew an account as long as you are a current student, faculty, or staff member at Brown, have a valid @brown.edu email address, and are actively using your account.
• Accounts will be cancelled for the following reasons: graduating or ending employment at the university, not appearing in the university directory, and possibly if there are long periods of account inactivity.