DawgBlog

Finding Industry Information

To find basic industry information about the industry in which your company operates in please follow these steps:

1. Go to our subject-based list: http://www.butler.edu/library/index.aspx?pg=287
2. Click on “business”
3. Review the “info. icons” because the business-related ones are “value added.”  Pay particular attention to what areas of the business environment each database deals with. For example, Business Source Complete can be used to gather information for the following business environments: Economic Environment, Industry/Competitive Environment, Market Customer Analysis, & Global Environment.

Two databases with industry information are Business Source Complete and Market Insight.

Using Microsoft as an example…

Business Source Complete:

1. Type "Microsoft" (or your company's name) in the find window
2. Click on the blue “Industry Profile” link
3. You should see several reports
   

Market Insight:

1. Click on the “Company” tab
2. Click “lookup”
3. Type "Microsoft" (or the name of your company) in the “Name” window and click search
4. Select Microsoft in the list and click on the Go! button.
5. Close the search box by clicking on the X.  At this point the interface should have changed to “Microsoft” (upper left corner)
6. Under “Related Links” click on “Systems Software” (will be different for each company)
7. Top middle of screen should say “Industry Research” which indicates you are in the Industry Portion of this database
8. Look for bottom left under “S&P Industry Surveys” and you will see a report titled “Computers: Software” in .pdf format. (not all companies will have an industry report; usually 90% do)
9. Clicking on the report will open it at which point students can print, save, or e-mail.

Business Source has shorter reports while Market Insight’s are more thorough. Please review both if they are available.  

Questions? Contact one of the business liaisons or the Reference Department.

Thanks,

-Brad

Wall Street Journal: Eastern Ed. vs. Western Ed.

Irwin Library subscribes to the Wall Street Journal Eastern Edition. Current issues are in print format while older issues are in microfilm format.

We currently do not subscribe to an electronic database that provides full-text access to the Wall Street Journal. Databases like Business Source Complete, Lexis-Nexis, etc., provide access to abstracts only. (i.e., a brief description of the actual article)

The confusing part is that some of our databases will contain abstracts from the Western Edition.  Seeing this, students and faculty often think that the article they are looking for will not be in our Eastern Edition print or microfilm holdings.

However, often this is not true. The majority of feature articles, opinion pieces, etc., are the same no matter which edition you are reading. The only thing our Eastern Edition may not have is a story or information that is specific to the Western half of the country.

So, before submitting an Interlibrary Loan request for Wall Street Journal articles be sure to 1) Read the abstract with care and 2) Check our print and microfilm holdings to see if the article you seek is there. More often than not it is.

If you have any questions please contact the Subject Liaisons for Business or Ask a Librarian.

Thanks,

-Brad

Open WorldCat

Want to find a book, but don't know what libraries it's in? Checked the Butler Library Catalog and couldn't find that book or CD? Try OpenWorldCat.

WorldCat has been available to Butler students, faculty, and staff via the Library Website for quite a while. But now WorldCat is available to everyone via http://worldcat.org/. Just do a search like you normally would, type in your zip code, and they'll show you libraries near you that own the item. "Books, videos, downloadable audiobooks... if it's in a library near you, you can find it in WorldCat no matter where you are on the Web." You'll even get links to the libraries' websites and services like "Ask A Librarian."

If you want to search Open WorldCat right from your browser, you can download one of their toolbars. You have the options of the WorldCat versions of the Yahoo Toolbar or Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer or a Firefox browser search extension. All of these include installation notes and "how to use" notes.