The starting place for your library search is through your research question. A well-articulated, focused question is required for an effective search of article databases and library catalogs. Without a good question it is difficult to determine the terminology for your search. If you don't have a well-defined research problem, don't panic! At least not yet. Use the library to come up with your research problem. Search Skyline for subject encyclopedias and browse the current periodicals area to see what other researchers are doing. With every thing you read ask, "Why?" or "How would results be different if. .?" Tip: in the discussion section of many research articles the author proposes further areas of inquiry. This means they are giving you ideas!

Business Reference Sources

Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys REF HC 106.6 S74

RMA Annual Statement Studies REF Desk HF5681.B2 R6

Almanac of business and industrial financial ratios REF Desk HF5681.R25 A45

Industry norms and key business ratios REF HF5681.R25 I525

Encyclopedia of American Industries REF HC102 .E53 (Ready Reference). This is a set that includes related volumes on Emerging and Global industries.

Directory of Colorado Manufacturers REF T12 .C6 (Ready Reference)

Ward's Business Directory REF HG 4057 .A575 - ranks sales by NAICS & SIC

D&B million dollar directory : America's leading public & private companies REF HC102 .D8

Pratt's guide to venture capital sources.REF HG65 .G83

When looking for information on companies start you research by finding the SIC and NAICS code for your company.

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System)  --  Replaces SIC, however, many databases still use SIC , so you will need to use both systems in some cases. Finding the code for your product or company will make your research easier.    REF DESK HF 1042 N6 & GOVPUB PREX 2.6/2:IN 27/ 

SIC Manual GOVPUB C3.6/2:IN2/2/987 & REF HA40 .I6U63

NAICS/SIC Correspondence Tables

Article Databases

You can search for articles using databases or indexes. Many provide the full text of the article while some databases display a link to library holdings or a full text search. The links below will list relevant resources under article databases and indexes .

• Business Databases. Business Source Premier, Business and Company Resource Center, and General BusinessFile are a few databases which are excellent for business majors and provide many full text articles. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) analyses and much more are in these valuable databases.
• Mergent database - The information resources included therein are: international company data, international company archives, and international annual reports, as well as industry reports for North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Latin America.
• SEC Filings
• Thomas Register
• Demographic databases
• ValueLine Investment Survey
• Multidisciplinary databases: Academic Search Premier and Expanded Academic Index ASAP are general databases that provide coverage of business journals. Many articles are full text. You may need to limit to "peer reviewed" or "refereed publications" when searching for business research articles.

Finding the Article

Many scholarly journal articles are not full text online. Others may be available full text, but not through Business Source Premier or other databases. Use Goldrush and Skyline to determine availability of the article. Some journals are only available online, these will be indicated in Skyline. Other journals are only available in the library. These are in the first floor Periodicals area.

• Goldrush - provides links to databases that index or have full text of the journal.
• Periodical Title search in Skyline - local journal holdings and online links if available.
• ILLIAD - If the library does not have access to the article, use ILLIAD/ InterLibrary Loan to request a copy. The article will be mailed to you.

The search statement using Boolean logic

Boolean Logic allows you to combine keywords to make a search more precise.  Databases either provide separate search boxes to create Boolean statements or a single search box where you can type in a complex statement.

Common commands:

AND - (management and personnel) - narrows a search
OR - (personnel or people) - expands a search
NOT - Removes a term from a search. Use NOT sparingly. May lose useful information.

put it all together :
management AND (personnel or people or organization)

Internet Sources

Yahoo: Business and Economy   http://www.yahoo.com/Business

Gallup Organization   http://www.gallup.com/

Search Engines

Google --  A good search engine with good coverage.  Better for users with some experience  (www.google.com) To be more specific use the Advanced Search and the Domains of edu or gov

Dogpile   -- A metasearch engine that lets you type one search on multiple search engines.  (www.dogpile.com)

Profusion.com   -- Like Dogpile, a metasearch engine.  Generally better relevancy than other metasearch engines and better at checking for broken links.