Introduction to Doing Library Research in Business

The Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library contains many resources, helpful in answering simple questions to providing information for a report or research paper. This document will point you in the right direction for locating materials for your project, report, or paper.

Also use reference works to aid in choosing a topic, or as a starting point for research. For example, Encyclopedias give short descriptive articles on a topic, plus references that can be used to build a research paper.

General Encyclopedias

• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Compton's Encyclopedia
• Worldbook Encyclopedia
• Collier's Encyclopedia
• Encyclopedia Americana

Subject Specific Encyclopedias

• CQ Researcher. CQ Press, a Division of Congressional Quarterly, Inc. 1991- (R 070.442 Ed4c)
• Issues and Controversies on File. Facts on File, 1996. (R 070.442 IS7)
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968 (R 903 D56)
• The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Macmillan Company & The Free Press, 1967 (R 103 Emle)
• Encyclopedia of Human Behavior Academic Press, 1994.
• Encyclopedia of Sociology 2nd Edition. Macmillan Reference USA, 2000 (R 301.03 En1)
• Encyclopedia of Ethics. 2nd edition. Routledge, 2001 (R 170.3 En3)
• The Encyclopedia of Religion MacMillan Publishing Company, 1987 (R 200.321 En1)
• Encyclopedia of World Biography Gale Research, 1998 (R 920.02 W17b2)
• Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice 2nd ed. Macmillan Reference USA, 2002 (R 364.03 En1)
• Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment Sage Publications, 2002
• Encyclopedia of Communication and Information Macmillan Reference USA, 2002

• Encyclopedia of American History Facts on File, 2003 (R 973.o3 En1n)
• Beachman's Encyclopedia of Social Change: America in the Twentieth Century Beachman, 2001 (R 306 B35k)
• Slavery in America: An Eyewitness History Facts on File, 2000 (R 306.362 Sch5s)
• Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. Macmillan Reference USA, 2000 (R 342.73 En5L)
• The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America Sharpe Reference, 1998 (R 323.173 En1b)
• The Encyclopedia of Third Parties in America Sharpe Reference, 2000 (R 324.273 En1n)
• The Encyclopedia of the Republican Party Sharpe Reference, 1997 (R 324.27303 En1k)
• The Encyclopedia of the Democratic Party Sharpe Reference, 1997 (R 324.27303 En1k)
• The Encyclopedia of Foreign Relations Oxford University Press, 1997 (R 327.73 En1)
• The Encyclopedia of American Economic History. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980 (R 330.973 En1)
• The Encyclopedia of American Social History. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993 (R 301.0973 En3)
• Encyclopedia of the American Military. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994 (R 355.00973 En1)
• Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Muze Schuster, 1999 (R 781.6403 EnL3)
• Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993 (R 970.02 En2)
• Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History MacMillan Library Reference, 1996 (R 973.0496 En1)
• Encyclopedia of Rural America. ABC-CLIO, 1997 (R 973.009173403 En1g)
• Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001 (R 973.503 En1f)
• Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996 (R 973.003 En1)
• Encyclopedia of the American West. MacMillan Reference USA, 1996 (R 978 En1)
• Encyclopedia of Japanese American History. Facts on File, 2001 (R 973.004956 En1n)
• Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. (R 973.03 En1c)
• Encyclopedia of American Studies. Grolier Educational, a Division of Scholastic Incorporated, 2001. (R 973.003 En1k)

• Encyclopedia of Educational Research. Simon and Schuster, 1992 (R 370.78 En1a6)
• Encyclopedia of Special Education. John Wiley & Sons, 1987 (R 371.9 En1)
• Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Education. Garland Publishing, 1992 (R 372.2103 En1)
• The International Encyclopedia of Education. Pergamon, 1994 (R 370.3In8h2)
• Deskbook Encyclopedia of American School Law. Center for Education and Employment Law, 2005 (R 344.7307 D46)

• Encyclopedia of Business. 2nd ed. Gale Group, 2000 (R 650.103 Em1)
• Encyclopedia of Small Business. Gale, 1998 (R 658.02203 H55e)
• Business: The Ultimate Resource. Perseus Publishing, 2002 (R 658 B96B)
• Encyclopedia of Management. 4th ed. Gale Group, 2000 (R 658.003 En1h4)
• Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography. Facts on File, 1990 (R 338.709 En1a)
• The New York Public Library Business Desk Reference. John Wiley and Sons, 1998 (R 651.0973 N42n)
• Great Events from History: Business and Commerce Series. Salem Press, 1994 (R 330.9 G79)
• The St. James Encyclopedia of Banking and Finance. 9th ed. St. James Press, 1991 (R 332.03 M92g9)
• Business Plans Handbook. Gale Research, 1995 (R 658.4012 B96)
• The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States, 1860-1999. GreyHouse Publishing, 1999 (R 658 B96B)
• Encyclopedia of Emerging Industries. 3rd ed. Gale Group, 2000 (R 338.403 En1c3)
• The New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance. Macmillan Press, 1992 (R 332.03 N42)
• Cases in Corporate Acquisitions, Buyouts, Mergers and Takeovers. Gale Group, 1999 (R 338.83 C26h)
• Oklahoma Business Directory. Directories USA, 2006 (R 338.002944766 Ok4a)
• American Business Directory. Reference USA, 2006 (R 338 Am3)

• Peterson's Job Opportunities in Business. Peterson's, 1999 (R 331.7120973025 P44p )
• Occupational Outlook Handbook. U.S. Department of Labor, 2004 (R 331.702 OC1o)
Also available on the Internet at: http://www.bls.gov/oco/
• Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance. Ferguson Pub Co., 2003 (R 331.702 En1c)

When you are writing a research paper, usually you consult other resources to obtain information. If you use any of these resources in your paper, you need to give proper credit to the resources that you use in your paper. This is called citing your sources. There are several different ways to cite your sources. Each way has different rules that govern how you cite your sources. The main citing style guides are listed below:

We use the Dewey Decimal System to Arrange our books in the library. The Dewey system arranges every subject under a number system, where each number in a 1,000 number classification scheme corresponds to a specific subject. Here are the ten main classes of the Dewey Decimal System:

The United States government publishes many materials each year. Different agencies of the government publish research, handbooks, how-to-manuals, periodicals maps, statistics and reports. Congress publishes results of Congressional hearings. These are all called Government documents. Our government documents are housed in a special room on Floor 2A of the library.

Many of the government publications are now available online. See this link http://www.se.edu/lib/govdocs/businessgov.html for many online government documents that relate to business.

Unlike books, the contents of journals are not available in the SE library catalog. So where are they located? They are located in magazine and journal indexes. Magazine and journal indexes assign a subject to each article in each journal indexed in the magazine and journal index. Until the 1990's most magazine and journal indexes were in paper, now they are almost all on the Internet. Some of these journal indexes on the Internet index popular magazines, other scholarly, while others are devoted to one subject area, NO Journal Index indexes every journal that is published, so they are selective.

HOW TO FIND ARTICLES IN JOURNALS, MAGAZINES

Step 1: Look in a Periodical Index

A periodical index is a publication that indexes the content of periodicals. There are many different periodical indexes, some general and some subject specific. One thing needs to be made clear: There is not any periodical index that indexes every single periodical being published today. So each index is selective in what periodicals it indexes. Periodical indexes tend to index the most important or most popular or most respected or well known periodicals.

PAPER PERIODICAL INDEXES

For many years periodical indexes were published in paper, like a book. They would usually come out every few months with an update, and then come out at the end of the year with an annual cumulation. Paper periodical indexes are cumbersome to use and take some take to look at every year, but they can contain information on many valuable articles written sometimes years ago, and paper indexes are valuable places to search for topics in music, drama, art, literature and history.

ONLINE PERIODICAL INDEXES

Why use online databases?

• It is much easier to use online databases, and you can search years of a database with one search
• You can also find the most recent articles on any topic because most online databases are updated daily or weekly

There is a disadvantage to online databases for those who are researching topics in history or literature

• Most online databases go back only to the 1990's or the 1980's, and so many potentially valuable articles in older magazines and journals can be missed if you search only in online databases.

Some Online Databases that the SE Library Has

1. Where the Databases are located
These databases are all to be found on the SE Library's Electronic Resources Page at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm

2. What EBSCOHost and FirstSearch are
The word EBSCOhost or FirstSearch to the right of the database name in the table above indicates the name of the database vendor where you can find these databases. If you look at the list of links on the ELectronic Resources page, you will see the links organized by the type of database that they are. You will find EBSCOhost and FirstSearch under the listing of databases called Periodical Databases. When you go down the list, you will see at least two links for both EBSCOhost and FirstSearch. The first link is for those that are on the SE campus. Click on that link, and you will be taken to the list of databases under EBSCOhost or FirstSearch. The second link is the off campus link. This link is necessary to use if you are off of the SE Campus. This link takes you to a page where you will be asked to type in a userid or authorization number, and a password. The userid or authorization number and password to gain access to EBSCOhost and FirstSearch is available at the SE Library Reference Desk, and also is on the proxy server.

Step 2: Check to see if the article is available online Full-Text

Step 3: Check to see if the article is available online Full-Text in another database

Step 4: Check to see if the the SE Library has the journal in paper

Step 5: Use InterLibrary Loan to obtain the article from another college library that has the journal that you want

1. Obtain an Interlibrary loan form from the circulation desk or go to an online InterLibrary Loan form at: http://www.se.edu/lib/illjournalreq.htm for a journal article and http://www.se.edu/lib/illbookreq.htm for Interlibrary loaning a book. 2. Fill out the form, take note that those fields of the form that have an asterisk in front of them are required fields that are needed to send the information via e-mail. Click submit after filling out the form. 3. The process of receiving something from InterLibrary loan takes about 4 days to two weeks, so if InterLibrary Loans are needed,

This is a very important step. You can't write a term paper if you can't find enough sources. However, it depends on how many resources you need and what kind that you need how you will answer it. If you only need three sources, then you may find enough material on a topic, while if you need 25, you may not. So at some point you need to determine if you are finding enough material to do a term paper. This step may need to be done earlier in the process or later, depending on the topic and the number of resources available.

Researching business information sometimes requires you to look for information in other sources of information besides the ones listed above. Sometimes you must find financial information on a company or statistical information to help in your report or paper. The sources listed below contain financial information on companies or statistical information on business trends in general.

Disclosure of financial information by corporations. All corporations produce financial information, but for many corporations, that information is not public. Businesses that are public businesses, must report on their financial activity to government agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. However privately owned companies are not required to disclose any financial information, and so financial information is harder to come by.

Sources of Corporate Finances

Primary sources of financial data, for public companies, are the Annual Report to Stockholders, and Form 10-K reports
 

Secondary sources of financial data
 

INVESTMENT INFORMATION: BASIC, ADIVCE AND ANALYSIS
 

United States Bureau of the Census
    The Bureau's main job is to conduct, tabulate, and analyze the census it conducts every ten years. It publishes many volumes on each census, plus special reports during the intervening years. Here are just some of the publications of the Bureau of the Census:
 

There is much useful information on the Internet, and much information that is of little value. So when finding material on the Internet, you need to be careful. Printed books and magazines and journals go through an evaluation process before they are published. It is not the case with material on the Internet. Anybody can put out material on the Internet and there is no editorial or evaluation process at all. So when deciding to use an Internet resource you need to look at the following:

SEARCH TOOLS

GENERAL INTERNET SITES

HISTORY

BUSINESS

CURRENT EVENTS and CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES