Why government documents can you drive you crazy

[swmartin]

I spent two hours today at work pulling together information for a guide on foreign trade statistics. And sometimes I've just got to wonder WHY?

Comments

[newtoniancat]

Seems like a perfect business opportunity for someone to come in and publish a lookup table, much like you can find when you go to Pep Boys and want to know what model numbers under each brand that correspond to the correct air filter for your car...

[therrin]

Would that work Scott? From the way you describe it, it sounds like that won't work because the systems aren't 100% equivalent and in one system, 1 code is used to describe 1000 parts that are in the other system actually 1000 parts?

[swmartin]

You're right that there's no 1 for 1 matching for a lot of things. That's even more true when you compare industry codes with product codes. But you can usually go from the 10-digit H.S. codes, which are the most detailed, to one of the other systems, and there are concordance files available.

Sometimes people at the reference desk ask me why this stuff is so complicated. My usual answer is that UCLA wouldn't be giving them a college degree for learning "this stuff" if it were easy.