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Steve Cramer
Business Librarian
smcramer@uncg.edu
AIM: stevebizlib
336-256-0346
Databases:
- Mergent Horizon: a database for product, customer, supplier, & stock research (added June 2008)
- DemographicsNow: Covers population, age, race and ethnicity, income, housing, employment characteristics, and consumer expeditures (added June 2008)
- Osiris: detailed financials and descriptions of 55,000 US and international public companies.
- SimplyMap: U.S. demographic, business, and market data as maps or tables, down to the Census block level.
- Hoover's Company Records (via LexisNexis Academic): profiles of public and major private companies. [Ok, we've always had access to Hoovers via LNA, but now it's easier to get to.]
- OneSource Global (select "International Businesses" in ReferenceUSA): descriptions of 3 million non-US companies.
- Business & Company Resource Center: one-stop shopping for company and industry research (early January)
Reference ebook:
- Manufacturing & Distribution USA 2008 (5th edition): industry analyses, statistics, and leading companies on 460 industries, listed by NAICS codes.
New interfaces & content:
- Mintel Reports: new portal-like interface, with improved browsing options for reports.
- Euromonitor Global Market Information Database (GMID): also a new portal-like interface.
- LexisNexis Academic: The new company dossier is an improvement for the company info. The other parts of LNA also have new search interfaces.
A. Business Databases for Articles
i. The Big Two:
- Business Source Premier
- General OneFile
- These are our biggest and most popular databases for business articles.
- Both include articles from journals, trade magazines, popular magazines, and newspaper.
ii. Databases for Regional Business News
- LexisNexis Academic
- Regional Business News
- America's Newspapers
- These are the best databases for articles from regional business news sources (ex. regional papers or local "journals" like the Triad Business Journal).
iii. Databases for Local News
- See the Newspapers Guide for an up-to-date list of sources for local newspapers.
B. Journal Finder
- Used to look up a journal title (i.e. when you already have the citation for the article you need.)
- Covers over 38,000 journals, magazines, and newspapers available online and/or in print.
Mintel Market Research Reports
- Provides fulltext market and consumer research reports for many consumer sectors.
- International in scope, but with emphasis on the U.S. and Europe.
- Many reports cover market distribution.
Euromonitor Global Market Information Database
- Provides marketing statistics and reports on countries, companies, markets, and consumers from over 200 countries.
- Particularly strong for the apparel, retailing, food, drink, personal care products, and consumer electronics industries.
Business Insight (Reuters)
Other databases for market research
- Provides full-text market research, analysis, and forecasts.
- Covers five industries: e-commerce and technology, consumer goods, energy, finance, and healthcare.
Provides 25 to 45-page industry reports for all 5-digit NAICS codes.
- Reports are updated three or four times a year.
- Each report includes statistics, industry structure, product & customer segmentation, performance analysis, major players & market share, external drivers, 5-year forecasts with forecast analysis, and more.
- Includes the S&P Industry Surveys, which provides analysis, descriptions, and data on 52 industries. Updated twice a year.
- Also provides over a hundred short Sub-Industry Reviews, and many Global Industry Reports.
- Provides full text investment reports and forecasts for more than 11,000 US and international companies and for many industries.
- Covers market statistics, analysis, trends, forecasts, and economic indicators.
Euromonitor Global Market Information Database
- Many of its market reports can also serve as industry reports.
A. For Private Companies
- Provides descriptions of 14 million U.S. companies.
- Complex searches, based on any combination of 27 values (location, SIC and NAICS codes, line of business keyword, sales, number of employees, etc.), are possible.
- Search results can be downloaded.
- Niche database for researching corporate structures on 65,000 parent companies and 135,000 affiliates, subsidiaries, divisions, and outside service firms.
- But also provides officers and brands.
B. For Public Companies
- Provides detailed financials and descriptions of 55,000 US and international public companies.
- Covers product, service, and business lines, sales by continents and product lines, balance sheets, income and cash flow statements, ratios, stock, bond, and earnings information, top shareholders, subsidiaries, board members, senior executives and their salaries, and merger and acquisitions.
- Provides detailed descriptions of most U.S. public companies.
- Includes detailed "line of business" descriptions, as well as officers.
MarketLine Business Information Center
- Provides 10,000 company profiles (many including a SWOT analysis).
- Includes some officer information and some biographies.
C. Comparisons

Best for officer names & biographies:
Best for brand names & products:
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Provides the full text of the following reference books, among others:
- Business Plans Handbook (many volumes)
- Encyclopedia of Small Business
- Gale E-Commerce Sourcebook
- Manufacturing & Distribution USA
- Provides over 49,000 ebooks, including many in business and technology.
- Includes scholarly, professional, trade, and reference books.
- You can read the books online, search for keywords through a single book or all the books, and build your own virtual bookshelves.