1 BUSINESS INFORMATION SOURCES MODULE 2: SEEKING FOR BUSINESS INFORMATION – SELECTED WEB-BASED INFORMATION RESOURCES EnIL International School on „Business Information Literacy”, October 2008, Rome, Italy Dr. Sabina Cisek Associate Professor Institute of Information and Library Science, Jagiellonian University Krakow, Poland

2 The Module 2 structure and content Seeking for business information – selected Web-based information resources Part A: Getting started Part B: Company information Part C: Financial information Part D: Markets, marketing and international trade information

3 Part A: Getting started Web searching tips General Internet resources Business information „starting points” Business dictionaries, encyclopedias, glossaries

4 Web searching tips Do not rely on a single source –You need to cross-check information –What if it would be out of service? There are millions of search engines and other search services – global and local, general-purpose and specialized – not only Google Do not believe in everything – evaluate information and Websites Use searching functionalities – advanced search, Boolean connectors, help, operators (+, -, define), phrase searching, etc. Discussion: How to decide whether a website contains reliable information? Criteria for information evaluation?

5 General Internet resources and services (I) – may be useful for business information General-purpose, global in scope, search engines/services –AltaVista –AlltheWeb –Dogpile –Google –Mamma –Yahoo –and many, many more …

6 General Internet resources and services – … (II) Quality-controlled subject/information gateways –Digital Librarian: a librarian's choice of the best of the Web librarian.com/ librarian.com/ –Intute –Librarians’ Internet Index –RefDesk

7 General Internet resources and services – … (III) Deep Web / Invisible Web search tools –CompletePlanet –Deep Web Research (weblog) –IncyWincy: The Invisible Web Search Engine –The SearchSystems.net Public Records Directory Scholarly search services –Google Scholar –INFOMINE

8 Open Access full texts – archives, digital collections, full-text databases, e-journals, repositories … DOAJ – Directory of Open Access Journals Fulltext Sources Online online.com/home_login.cfm?sid= http:// online.com/home_login.cfm?sid= OAIster: OpenDOAR – Directory of Open Access Repositories

9 Business information „starting points” – specialized search engines, subject gateways and Web directories – business, economics, management (I) AllBuziness: BRINT the World's No. 1 Resource for Business Technology Management and Knowledge Management: Business.com:

10 Business information „starting points” – … (II) CEOExpress: European business directory: globalEDGE: Inomics® EconDirectory:

11 Business information „starting points” – … (III) Intute: Social Sciences: Krislyn’s Strictly Business Site: RBA Business Information on the Internet: The WWW Virtual Library – Business and Economics:

12 Business dictionaries, encyclopedias, glossaries Finding dictionaries, encyclopedias, glossaries: –EuroTermBank –Glossarist – Business –OneLook Dictionary Search About.com: Economics About.com: Business and Finance Answers.com – Business globalEdge – Glossary

13 Part B: Company information Information about different types of organizations: –publicly trade companies (listed on stock exchanges) –private companies –state-owned companies –not-for-profit organizations –government bodies Information about: –Company background – name, address, website, contacts, identification number; managers; line of business – products, services; legal status and type of a company; size, number of employees; corporate affiliations; basic financial data (income, profit or loss, turnover) –More in-depth information – company finances, competitors, history, perspectives, policies (ecological, social, etc.)

14 Company information sources Directories, yellow pages, databases National/official registries Business/industry/product classifications Lists/rankings Annual reports and other formal documents Stock exchanges’ websites and services Trade magazines, journals, news services Companies’ websites …

15 Company directories, yellow pages, databases globalEdge – Company Directories: s.asp s.asp Central & Eastern European Directory On-Line: Hoover’s: Europages, the European Business Directory: Kompass: ThomasNet (USA): Short assignment: find on the Web the yellow pages / business telephone book for your country and describe its information content

16 Company identification numbers – come from: official / governmental company registers (in most countries companies and other organizations have to be registered with a government agency or a court or a statistical office – and get a national registration number); examples – Company registration around the world (links to registers) RBA – Official Company Registers UK Companies House – Worldwide Registries #reg #reg commercial information providers; the most important is DUNS Number by Dun & Bradstreet

17 Global, international, local lists/rankings of companies Gary Price's List of Lists Forbes Fortune Short assignment: What type of information one can get from rankings? Check Forbes and/or Fortune lists and their information content.

18 Part C: Financial information Financial information ≠ company finance Financial information = investment information Financial info: stock exchanges, quotes, charts; financial instruments – securities, bonds, shares, etc.; investment funds; bank products, credits; currencies, money, rates of exchange; insurance, retirement To understand financial information one needs to know specialized, technical terminology – importance of glossaries!

19 Financial information in general-purpose search engines Google Finance: MSN money: Yahoo! Finance:

20 Securities, stock exchanges, quotes NYSE, New York Stock Exchange Quote.com U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – Investor Information World Federation of Exchanges exchanges.org/WFE/home.Asp exchanges.org/WFE/home.Asp

21 Currencies, currency converters OANDA, The Currency Site FXConverter – multilingual currency converter for over 164 currencies and 3 metals Universal Currency Converter

22 Dictionaries, glossaries and investor education Investopedia NYSE – Glossary tml tml NYSE – Investor Education: html html

23 Part D: Markets, marketing and international trade information encompasses: information about markets – local, national, international, global – background, people (demographics, consumer behavior, income), economic indicators and statistics, etc. information about industries, market sectors and market share of a brand, firm, product information about market research, marketing, advertising, promotion, etc. information about international trade, exports/imports

24 Markets, marketing and international trade information (I): National markets – countries and their economies –country background geography, climate, environment, natural resources, etc. government, administration, political system people – demographics, population, age structure, geographical distribution (urban? rural?), ethnic groups, family income and consumption, etc. culture, tradition, religion, ethics and values, lifestyle, healthcare, social problems

25 Markets, marketing and international trade information (II): –country economy economy basics – type of economy, level of development, unique areas of specialization, major economic events, currency, fiscal year national accounts, indicators and statistics – GDP, inflation rates; labor force, unemployment; budget, investment, public debt; risk; etc. industries – structure and characteristics international trade – exports/imports, balance of trade, trade partners

26 Markets, marketing and international trade information (III): –country infrastructure and technology communications (internet, phones, radio, TV) transportation (airports, railways, roads, etc.) –country legal system advertising regulations copyright and intellectual property regulations fiscal policy, taxes labor laws patents, standards, trademarks

27 Countries’ background – finding local search tools Search Engine Colossus – International Directory of Search Engines European Search Engines, Directories and Lists engines/ engines/ Baltic Sea States – Web directory for the Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe

28 Official sources offered by international organizations EU – Eurostat: 090, ,1090_ &_dad=portal&_schema=P ORTAL 090, ,1090_ &_dad=portal&_schema=P ORTAL OECD: _1_1_1_1_1,00.html _1_1_1_1_1,00.html the International Monetary Fund: the World Bank – Countries & Regions: the World Bank Group – Doing Business:

29 Official sources offered by national authorities CIA – The World Factbook: factbook/index.html factbook/index.html Chambers of commerce and industry: –World Chambers Network National statistical offices: –ISI – International Statistical Institute – Directory of Official Statistical Agencies & Societies –National Statistical Offices – data sources and links: –Statistical Sites on the World Wide Web:

30 Non-official but useful information sources BusinessPatrol.com – Country Links Inside World, InsideCountries