Getting the Most out of Business Information Roberta Tipton and Wen-Hua Ren Business Librarians Dana Library

Questions to Ask Yourself Who is interested in this information? Who has the means to collect and publish it? – Commercial or academic publisher – Federal, State, or local government – International association or governing body – Trade association: local, state, national, or international – Individual expert – Company

RUL Business Guide

Build the Basics A little of everything: Business Source Premier Company overviews: Mergent Online Industry overviews: – IBISWorld, Marketline, Mintel (for consumer only)

Business Source Premier Scholarly articles Trade publications News articles Company reports, often including SWOT Industry reports International in scope Includes all management, for profit and nonprofit

Mergent Online Public companies, US and international Used to be Moody’s—Moody’s manuals go back to 1915 Informative company overviews 15+ years of financials Supply chain info for some US companies (Mergent Horizon) Much more!

Industry Sources Overviews Forecasts Quantitative and qualitative information— ”numbers and narrative” Sometimes cannot address your industry, especially if it is emerging or very specialized

News Sources Business Source Premier Factiva – Has Wall Street Journal articles, text only – 14,000 sources, including business publications and world newspapers Westlaw – Thousands of both legal and business publications – Our source of Hoover’s More news sources exist—just ask! News guide at

Web Searches Google can lead to timely, useful industry reports—sometimes even for free! Social media can yield useful info Check any free web info carefully to see if you find it credible and reliable—no one is editing or looking out for you! Always consider the source of the information.

Questions?? Roberta Tipton Wen-Hua Ren