Business:
Library Resources

This guide was developed for students doing general company and industry research. Related research guides include Advertising and Marketing Resources, Public Relations Resources, and Researching a Company Workshop (for jobseekers).

• Reference Sources
• Industry Information
• Company and Brand Information
• Production and Distribution
• Advertising and Marketing
• Finding Books in the Pace Library
• Finding Articles
• Finding Web Sites
• Citing Your Sources

Reference Sources

Use these to find background information on an industry.  Many of the reference books on this list contain information that is not available elsewhere.

Industry Information

Encyclopedia of American Industries    Ref HC102.E53 1998 (v.1-2)

Provides industry snapshot, background and current conditions, industry leaders and more.  See also the Encyclopedia of Emerging Industries (Ref Reserve HD2324 .E54  2001).

Dun & Bradstreet / Gale Group Industry Handbook     Ref Reserve HF5035 .D86 2000 (v.1-5)

Profiles of U.S. industries arranged by broad industry category.

Standard and Poor's Industry Surveys    Ref Reserve HG4961.S682

Provide detailed profiles of specific industries, with key industry ratios and statistics, and brief comparative data on selected companies in the industry.  Ask for the index at the Reserve/Circulation Desk. **Available Online in Standard and Poor's Net Advantage database.

U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook    Ref Reserve HC106.5 .A17 2000

Describes economic and trade terms, world market share, and forecasts for various industries; arranged by SIC code.

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Company and Brand Information

Business and Company Resource Center

Profiles 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.

Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns    Ref Reserve HF5387.E53 2000

Contains 500 entries, each focusing on an important campaign of the twentieth century. The arrangement is alphabetical by company.  Each entry includes company contact information, overview of the campaign, historical context, target market, competition, marketing strategy, and outcome. 

Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands    Ref Reserve HF5415.3.E527 1994 (v.1-3)

This three volume set covers 600 popular American brands, which have been popular since 1950. Provides detailed background, history and current status accompanied by photographs and logos for each item.

Hoover's Online

Provides industry and company profiles for approximately 14,000 companies worldwide.  Company profiles include a brief history of the company, the names of the top executives in the company, a list of key competitors, industry snapshots, and some key financial data about each company.

International Directory of Company Histories    Ref Desk HD2721.I58 (vols. 1-58)

This multi-volume, ongoing set, describes company histories in detail. Entries include company goals, marketing strategies and a bibliography. Check the index in the most recent volume to identify which volumes contain your company. As company information changes, updated articles are added.

Market Share Reporter     Ref HF5410.M37 (1991- ; most recent on Reserve)

Compiles market share data from various sources. Indexes information by source, place name, products/services, company name and brand name.

Mergent Online

Includes U.S. and International company data and a selection of annual reports.

Books about individual companies.  Use the Pace University Library Catalog to find books written by or about major companies.  Conduct subject and keyword searches using your company's name.  For more information about searching the library catalog, see the section below on finding books in the Pace Library.

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Production and Distribution

How Products are Made   Ref TS146.H67 1994 (v.1-7)

Describes the process by which various products are made.

Manufacturing and Distribution USA     Ref Reserve HD9721.M364 2003 (v.1-3)

The subtitle of this set is Industry Analyses: Statistics and leading companies.  Arranged by SIC (classification code).

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Advertising and Marketing

Ad $ Summary     Ref Reserve HF5801.A18

Reveals the amount of money spent by a company on advertising. Ranks the top 100 companies by money spent on different types of advertising/media.

Best Customers    Ref HC79.C6 R87 2001

Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, this source provides demographic profiles of customers who purchase particular types of products.

Brandweek Superbrands    Ref Reserve HG 5801.S77 2002

Special issue of Brandweek magazine. See what is actually happening with America's top 2000 brands.  This journal is indexed and full text in the ABI-Inform Global database.

Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns    Ref Reserve HF5387.E53 2000

Contains 500 entries, each focusing on an important campaign of the twentieth century. The arrangement is alphabetical by company.  Each entry includes company contact information, overview of the campaign, historical context, target market, competition, marketing strategy, and outcome. 

 

Household Spending: Who Spends How Much on What    Ref HC110.C6 H6 2003

Look for information on who uses your product, how they use it, and how much they spend.

Lifestyle Market Analyst    Ref Reserve HF5415.33.U6 L54 2003

Essential source for demographics and lifestyle activities.

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Finding Books in the Pace University Library

You can find books on your topic by searching the online Pace Library Catalog by subject or keyword. Subject searches target the specific Library of Congress Subject Headings that have been assigned to the books that the Pace Library owns.  Unless you know the subject headings that pertain to your topic, you may want to begin with a Keyword search.  Once you have found a source that you think might be useful, look at the Library of Congress Subject Headings towards the bottom of the catalog record to determine the best terms to use in a Subject search for further materials. For additional tips on searching the catalog, see the library's guide to Using the Pace Library Catalog.

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Finding Articles

To access news article databases through the Pace Library, go to the library home page (http://library.pace.edu/), click on Databases, and use the pull-down menu labeled "Subject Research Area" to select Business.  You may also choose a specific database from an alphabetical list.  For news articles on your company/industry, we recommend:

ABI-Inform

Abstracts and indexes over 1,000 management, marketing and business journals from 1971 to the present. Also includes Full Text coverage of more than 500 major publications from 1991 onward.

Business and Company Resource Center

This database contains 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.

Business Source Premier

Provides full text for over 2,710 scholarly business journals covering management, economics, finance, accounting, international business and much more.

Lexis-Nexis Universe

Full Text database of news, business, medical and legal resources, including highly specialized trade journals, leading national and international newspapers, SEC documents, state and federal statistics and case law.

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Finding Additional Web Sites

The Pace Library maintains lists of high-quality resources in various subject areas.  To find these topical lists, go to the Pace Library home page (http://library.pace.edu), then click on Reference Resources.  Use the pull-down menu provided to select a subject research area.  For industry research, select the Company/Industry category.  In particular, you should look at the web sites of specific companies in your industry (click on Company Webpages to locate them).  These often contain annual reports and company histories, and may include information on brands and products.

To search for additional information on the Web, you will need to use a subject directory or a search engine.  For more information, see the library's page on Using the Internet for Research.  If you are using resources from the World Wide Web, it is especially important that you evaluate their accuracy, authority, currency and objectivity. For more information, see our page on Evaluating Resources.

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Citing Your Sources

Once you have found your information, you will need to cite the sources that you used. The library has prepared some information on citation styles for print and electronic resources. You can access it on the Pace Library web site at http://www.pace.edu/library/pages/instruct/citing.html.  Please check with your instructor if you are unsure of which citation style to use.

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