Finding information on local or privately held companies

Try ABI/INFORM DATELINE by going to the Databases by Subject or Type page.  Click on ABI/INFORM .  In the database dropbox click on ABI/INFORM Dateline.  Now you can enter your search terms and/or company to retreive the information you want.

ABI/INFORM Dateline  delivers over 190 journals, with more than 170 available in full text. It includes hard-to-find local and regional business publications with news about local companies, analysis, information on local markets, and more. ABI/INFORM Dateline allows users to research employment opportunities, compile data on benefits and compensation, learn about corporate strategies, and other topics from a local and regional perspective. ABI/INFORM Dateline includes major business tabloids, magazines, daily newspapers, wire services, and area business publications.

Can I find out how much people in a certain area (like Bloomington) spend every year on certain things (like eating in restaurants)?

Yes!  One very good source for data like this is the Woods and Poole MSA Profile.  This is a print resource located in the reference collection, at HC 106.82 .M8.  In it you can find statistics on population, employment, income, and retail sales in MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) across the country.  They also provide projected data to the year 2030, in five year increments.

Securities Mosaic Database

Securities Mosaic provides comprehensive disclosure and regulatory information for securities professionals. The website features suites of data in six areas: disclosure, laws, rules, guidance, news, and compliance centers.  The full-text website includes all SEC filings, forms, regulations, and news releases.  The site permits downloading financial data in spreadsheets and saving documents in RTF or HTML.

http://www.knowledgemosaic.com/net/home/default.aspx

How do I find advertising rates for consumer magazines?

Advertising rates for magazines and business publications can be found in the Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS) volumes located in the Business/SPEA Information Commons’ current periodical shelves.   SRDS is a multivolume set which includes sections on consumer magazines, business publications, newspapers, radio, and TV & cable. 

Business & Company Resource Center Free Trial

From now until May 7, we have a free trial of the Business & Company Resource Center.   Let us know what you think! Send Steven Sowell (sowell@indiana.edu) your thoughts on this database by May 7.

The Business & Company Resource Center is a comprehensive research tool that meets core curriculum requirements in undergraduate and graduate case study work as well as the business research needs of the job seeker or casual investor. It offers dynamic, accurate, and up-to-date topical business information and company and industry intelligence on thousands of global companies. It brings together in a single database company profiles, company brand information, rankings, investment reports, company histories, chronologies, and periodicals. Search this database to find detailed company and industry news and information.

Take Our Survey!

This semester we added tools to our website that enable you and us to create a virtual information commons. What do you think about these changes? What should we change or add? You can give us your feedback by completing a short survey. 

As a reminder, we added bookmarking links on each page as well as news feeds to the headlines from the Wall Street Journal and Greenwire on our main page. You can keep up with changes in the Business/SPEA Information Commons by reading and/or subscribing to our blog. We also added the Business/SPEA Information Wiki to assist you in your research for good information resources. Lastly, we added an instant messenger service, Meebo.

Can I get a list of companies in a particular city or region?

Sounds like a job search!  Dun and Bradstreet’s Million Dollar Database is a good tool to generate company lists based on variable criteria.  Let us say, for example, that you wanted to get a list of all companies in the Chicago area, in a particular industry, and of a certain size.  Furthermore, you would like to get contact information for each company. 

Enter Dun and Bradstreet, and click on “Advanced Search”.  On the Advanced Search page you will see many search fields.  Click on the field name, enter your criteria, and hit the “Add to Criteria” button.  Continue adding criteria until you have created the search you want, and click on “Run Search”.  Once the search results screen comes up, you can download the records into a spreadsheet.

TIP:  to do a city search, use either the MSA (metro Area) field or the Zip code plus radius field to cast a wider net.

New Database: GreenFILE

GreenFILE offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact on the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles include content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments, and what can be done on each level to minimize negative impact. Topics covered include global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for approximately 295,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,600 records. GreenFILE is multidisciplinary by nature and draws on the connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology.

Give GreenFile a try!