The Business Library and How to Use It: A Guide to Sources and Research Strategies for Information on Business and Management (Business Library and How to Use It)

Revised and updated for the first time in 12 years, The Business Library and How to Use It is your key to timely and relevant business information. For more than 40 years students, teachers, librarians, and business people have been using this standard source to prepare business plans, topical reports, financial analyses, government surveys, investment strategies, marketing campaigns, and other research projects.

Arranged in 16 easy-to-use chapters, this work is an informative guide to conducting business research from start to finish. Each chapter features an introduction to the topic, an in-depth descriptive list of relevant sources, and tasks the sources can be used to accomplish.

The book begins with an introduction to business research and the library. Then follows a section devoted to research strategies and general sources of business information. In the third section separate chapters cover these specific sources of business information: handbooks and almanacs, yearbooks and encyclopedias, directories, dictionaries, government publications, audiovisual aids, international sources, and research foundations and associations. The final section shows readers how to use what they've learned by describing how to write a research-based business report.

This newly revised and updated edition (formerly titled How To Use the Business Library), the first in 12 years, is a key to timely and relevant business information. Written by two marketing professors and two librarians, this work is divided into four main sections: Introduction to Business Research and the Library; Research Strategies and General Sources of Business Information; Sources of Business Information; and Using What You've Learned. Each of the 16 chapters features an introduction to the topic, an in-depth descriptive list of relevant sources, and research tasks the sources can be used to perform. Expanding coverage on new and emerging technologies in business sources, this edition also provides new methods of accessing this information. Additionally, subject, author/title, organization, and association indexes have been included as well as more international sources, databases, and government publications. The final chapter/section guides the reader through the preparation of a research-based business report. A necessary purchase for academic libraries and very useful in public libraries.?Susan C. Awe, Jefferson Cty. P.L. System, Arvada, Col.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is the first new edition of this work in a dozen years. The emphasis of The Business Library and How to Use It is on research strategy rather than on detailed descriptions of individual sources. Principal author Maier is professor of marketing at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan. Among his collaborators are two librarians.

The book is arranged in 16 chapters divided over four broad sections. Section 1 provides an introduction to business research and the library. The second section is devoted to outlining research strategies and describing general sources of business information. Among the topics covered here are indexes to periodicals, databases and database searching, and database vendors. Specific sources of business information are covered in section 3. Categories of sources discussed include "Yearbooks & Encyclopedias," "Directories," "Government Publications," "International Sources," and "Associations." The final section shows readers how to use what they have learned to write a library research^-based report. Each of the 16 chapters features an introduction to the topic, a description of relevant sources, and the tasks the sources can be used to accomplish.

The authors' preface accurately notes that this handbook can be used very effectively by the business student who works through it chapter by chapter. However, it is less accessible for the practitioner seeking suggestions for a quick strategy or a specific source to answer a question. For example, a helpful flowchart illustrating a strategy for finding company information is found in the chapter titled "Strategies & Types of Materials," but neither the subject index nor the table of contents alerts the user to its presence. Attempts to locate a source of information specific to insurance companies uncovered a number of important A. M. Best publications, but not the long-standard Best's Insurance Reports.

Seasoned business librarians will appreciate the expertise reflected in this book and will readily sympathize with the authors' attempt to encourage researchers to learn to use library resources in a systematic manner. Indeed, the researcher who takes the time to digest the volume will be rewarded with a substantial foundation on which to build library research skills. Users seeking business information strategies without the time required to effectively use this volume might consider instead Diane Strauss' Handbook of Business Information: A Guide for Librarians, Students, and Researchers (Libraries Unlimited, 1988, currently being revised) or Michael Lavin's Business Information: How to Find It, How to Use It (Oryx, 1992).

The Business Library and How to Use It is recommended for academic and public libraries serving business students and serious business researchers.