I. A carefully worked out search strategy
- a logical, systematic and comprehensive approach to locating information
- will save you time and should provide more than
enough material for the research paper. As you locate your resources, keep
notes and full bibliographic information on them. For help in planning
your search strategy, or
if you need assistance along the way, ask a REFERENCE
LIBRARIAN.
II. Choose your topic. You need a good
understanding of your business, so choose a business that really interests
you!!! Are you researching a company (Coca Cola), an
industry (Electronics) or a particular small business opportunity
(Bookstore)? If you know little about the business go to Research
Library (Part of GALILEO) and read
some popular type articles on the business.
III. Looking at the External environment,
what types of information do you need?
A. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Some books which may help you find information online, include:
-
Finding Statistics Online : how to
locate the elusive numbers you need /...
-
(HA33.5 .B47 1998) in the Stacks on the 2nd Floor
- Business Statistics on the Web
-
(HF1016 .B47 2003) in the Stacks on the
2nd Floor.
- International business information : how to find it, how to
use it /
-
(HF54.5 .P33 1998) in the Stacks on the
2nd Floor.
If you are unsure where to find
information about your project, try Business Information: How to Find
It, How to Use It. (HF5356 .L36 1992) Shelved on the 2nd
Floor.
Another good source is Encyclopedia of
Business Information ( HF5351.E52X [Year]). Shelved in the Reference
Area.
If you are researching a company, you
need to use
Mergent Online . Mergent Online covers 10,000 public companies and their SEC
filings. It offers International Company Data on more companies from more
countries than any other international database.
A source for finding brief information and list of competitors is
Hoover's Company Capsules
You will also need to know about
the industry and how the company is positioned in the industry. This is
available in Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys. (HC106.6
.S741) Business Ref. Shelf.
To
determine how a company performs within the industry, you need to check
Industry Norms and Key Business
Ratios by Dun & Bradstreet (HF5681 .R25 I53) The latest 5 years
are at the RESERVE DESK. Also Robert Morris Associates Annual Statement Studies
are used to compare company business averages across 640 industries.
The Rand McNally Commercial Atlas
& Marketing Guide (G1019 .R22 [Year]) in the Atlas Stand in the
Reference Area provides estimates of population (7/1/03),
Effective Buying Income, retail sales, passenger car registrations, etc.
The maps show Basic Trading Centers, cities which serve as a center for
shopping goods purchases
for the surrounding area.
Sales & Marketing Management: Survey of Buying Power
offers information by
city and county, such as population by age group, retail sales by store group and
Effective Buying Income (Gross personal income less taxes).
An annual supplement to the Sales & Marketing Management periodical,
previous editions are shelved in the Periodicals Area under the journal title. The latest available is Sept. 2006.
Associations collect and provide an assortment of information for their
members. To find the association pertinent to your business consult the
Encyclopedia of
Associations on the Ready Reference (Main Floor) Shelf at Call Number:
AS22 .E5 2000.
For information about advertising media, the Gale Directory of Publications
and Broadcast Media, Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook and Editor &
Publisher International Year Book lists newspapers and radio and television
stations for geographic areas.
B. PERIODICALS
At the Ingram Library periodicals include
our journals and magazines. Business Periodicals Index (HF5001
.B8x) covers your basic business journals such as Business Week,
Forbes, and Far Eastern Economic Review. Business
Periodicals Index is on Index Shelving in the Reference Area.
Also
on the Index Shelving in the Reference Area, you will find the PAIS:
Public Affairs Information Service (H96 .P8x). PAIS indexes
journals and government
documents.
On the computers in the Reference Area,
you will find the University System online
reference service: GALILEO.
GALILEO may be searched in the computer labs on campus
that have browser software and are linked to
the Internet. You may also search it
from home or your dorm room by going to the Ingram Library homepage at
http://www.westga.edu/library
(Choose GALILEO)
If you are using an Internet Provider such as America Online
or Charter, you must have the password which is available from the
Library Homepage
http://www.westga.edu/~library/.
Follow the instructions under Access Your Library Account and
Current Passwords. Your
917 number from your student ID is your barcode.
The password is good for one semester.
The pass word for this semester is _____. Accessing GALILEO from the Library
Homepage Databases button can be faster and allows access to more databases.
In the Library Homepage >Datebases>Business, Economics, Finance
section,
you find that
ABInform ,
Lexis-Nexis
and
Business Source Complete (at EBSCOhost)
offer the full-text of many journal articles.
You may view and
print these articles 24/7. Other indexes in the
Business and Economics section such as
Econlit
give you a great list of
sources. These indexes offer the bibliographic citations and abstracts of
journal articles and research documents. You may make your list of
references and be prepared to
retrieve them from the library or request on Interlibray Loan.
Perhaps the most extensive full-text file
will be
Lexis-Nexis.
If you look under the Reference
tab, you find other sources of information.
Many full text international newspapers
Country Profiles - Concise facts & statistics about countries
Index and access to Legal journals and cases
Index and access to medical journals
C. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
By choosing the GALILEO>News/Facts/Reference>Census and Government
Publications section, you may use the electronic index to U.S.
government documents
GPO [Government Printing Office] Catalog.
The
Ingram Library is a U.S. Government depository for documents from many
government agencies. This index helps you find those documents appropriate
for your project.
Statistical Abstract of the United
States http://http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/
is a basic reference for anyone searching for secondary data. It
includes over 1400 tables,
presenting social, economic, political and demographic data. There is also
a copy in Ready Reference Documents (C3.134:2003)
Other government documents that may be
helpful are Employment and Earnings, CPI Detailed Report,
and Producer Price Indexes.
On the LIBRARY HOMEPAGE>DATABASES page go to "Find Resources by Keyword"
and type Statistical to go to the Statisical Universe database.
Enter a subject, type or name.
Examples:
-Subject of biography: enter "biograph"
-Type of dictionary: enter "dictionar"
-Name of "Books In Print": enter "books in print"
|
Statistical Universe
( A Comprehensive guide and
index to the Statistical
Publications of the United States government ) is helpful in locating
government statistics.
The Ingram Library Government
Documents Dept. has links which are helpful. http://www.westga.edu/~library/depts/govdoc/
D. BOOKS
Use the
Ingram Library Catalog
at http://gil.westga.edu . Type in words
that describe the type business that interests you. Note the publication
dates of the books that
appear. For this paper you are looking for recent references. Notice that
you may search several different ways.
-
Relevance Ranked Keyword - Search any word(s), phrase(s), name(s). Results are ranked
by relevancy
- Title/Author/Subject - Find items by exact title, journal title, author, subject
heading, or call number
- Boolean/Command - Construct searches using Boolean AND, OR, NOT; field codes can be
used (More Options)
If you are having trouble find the right subject heading, ask a
Librarian or check the Library of Congress Subject Heading Guide.
(BIG Red Books near the Reference Desk)
E. INTERLIBRARY LOAN & GIL Express
GIL Express allows you to request a book from any
University System of Georgia library. Within 4 days you may pick it up at the Circulation Desk of the Ingram Library.
Allow yourself at least 2 weeks to receive a book or article on Interlibrary Loan.
THINK AHEAD!!! If you find books or articles mentioned that are
critical to your paper, you may request them on Interlibrary Loan. You may make
requests via the Library Homepage under
Student Requests for ILL
Articles/Books.
F. INTERNET SOURCES
There are many Internet sites. Your responsibility is to determine the validity
and reliability of a site and the information before using it. Anyone may post
information to the Internet representing his own biased view. You should identify the
source and discriminate between that which is propaganda and that which is
true information.
Librarian's Index to the
Internet -
http://lii.org
Associations on the Net -
http://www.ipl.org/ref/AON/
A collection of over 1100 Internet
sites providing information about a wide variety of professional and trade
associations, etc.
Virtual Library - http://vlib.org/
A categorized site, that allows you to find links to information on the web.
At Arbitron , a national survey company, you
find the Radio Survey and Commuter Profile for metro areas.
At KnowThis.com: Knowledge Source for Marketing
there are lots of tips for doing market research.
Advertising Age has
some
interesting free articles
although they charge for statistics.
Standard & Poor's.
Although the free version is not as complete as the printed, it
does offer investment ratings and industry information.
G. NOTES
- Take careful notes.
- Do biblliography cares as you go.
- If you just photocopy the article, be sure to write the necessary information for
you bibliography on the photocopy.
-
BOOK - You need:
- Author's name
- Title
- Place of Publication
- Publisher / Year
- JOURNAL - You need:
- Author's name
- Title of the Article
- Title of the Journal JOURNAL OR MAGAZINE
- Volume #, Issue #
- Date
- Page #'s
- INTERNET SOURCE - You need:
- Name of the publication
- Author or Publishing entity
- Internet Address
- Date of your access
F. FOOTNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- Follow the style: The Chicago Manual of Style.
- (Z253 .C57 2003) Ready Reference (Main Floor)
- There are also Internet locations for styles for citing electronic
sources:
- Citation Style for Research Papers http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm
- Online! Citation Styles http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html
- Columbia Guide http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html
