Stanley Lyle's blog

Business journal databases like ABI/INFORM Global provide a way to limit results to academic (or scholarly or peer-reviewed) . This method does not work perfectly, but it will get you to academic journals faster. In the case of ABI/INFORM, check the box for Scholarly Journals at the bottom of the search box, or click the Scholarly Journals tab after you get the search results.

Let's say the management concept is social responsibility. If you want articles that deal with some specific company, such as Nike, enter the term like this in Basic Search in ABI/INFORM:

nike and social responsibility

If you want to find articles on social responsibility in regard to a specific company, and it doesn't matter which company, enter the search like this:

case studies and social responsibility

This tends to get articles that discuss a specific company or companies and the other specified topic.

The search can be tightened up in some cases by going to Advanced Search and looking for
cases studies [dropdown: in Subject]
and
social responsibility

ABI/INFORM is available from the Rod Library home page under Databases A-Z and also from the Rod Library Business Portal.

Rod Library recently subscribed to an electronic journal package from the American Accounting Association (AAA). It contains the latest six years of the 13 journals listed below. AAA says it does not plan to drop any coverage, so the number of years covered will grow.

Use the UNISTAR Journal Title index or the Article Finder on the Rod Library home page to get to the electronic versions of these titles. Electronic versions of some of these journals are available for other years in other databases. For example, The Accounting Review is available electronically from 1926 - 2002 in JSTOR.

Print copies will no longer be collected. The ones already received will not be withdrawn, though, and can be found in the periodicals areas of the bottom floor of the library.

•"The Accounting Review"
•"Accounting Horizons"
•"Issues in Accounting Education"
•"Accounting and the Public Interest" (e-only)
•"AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory"
•"Current Issues in Auditing" (e-only, open access)
•"Behavior Research in Accounting"
•"Journal of the American Taxation Association"
•"Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting"
•"Journal of Information Systems"
•"Journal of International Accounting Research"
•"Journal of Legal Tax Research" (e-only)
•"Journal of Management Accounting Research"

Rod Library recently subscribed to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Papers.

NBER is a prominent economic research organization. Numerous Nobel prize winners and past chairs of the President's Council of Economic Advisors have conducted research at NBER. See this page for more details about NBER.

Working papers are preliminary manuscripts designed for quick publication and to stimulate debate. NBER says its working papers "have not undergone the review accorded official NBER publications."

The NBER Working Papers includes papers done from 1973 to the present. The NBER Working Papers are listed in UNISTAR, the library catalog.

Rod Library has purchased two additional copies of the CPA Examination Review, by Irvin N. Gleim. This makes a total of three copies; all are available at the Rod Library MultiService, located at the bottom of the front stairway. Volume 1 of the CPA Examination Review contains outlines and study guides; volume 2 contains problems and solutions. This purchase was in response to student requests. Please let me know if you would like the library to consider adding other print or online resources.

The interface for LexisNexis Academic was revised earlier this semester. New content was added, too, such as Company Dossier. Company Dossier has three main parts: Company Dossier (look up a company); Dossier Create a Company List; and Dossier Compare Companies. Company Dossier searches look for known companies in more that 60 sources from organizations such as Hoover's, Standard & Poor's, and Disclosure. Financial data can be downloaded to a spreadsheet. The Create a Company list search can be used to create a list of companies, for example, in a certain industry and state that employ more than x thousand people. In Compare Companies, one can enter up to five company names or ticker symbols and get a table that compares them on various financials. LexisNexis Academic can be accessed from the Rod Library home page under Databases A-Z and also from this Rod Library Business Portal page. After connecting to LexisNexis Academic, click on the Business tab and then look for the Company Dossier option.

Rod Library does not subscribe to the version of the Wall Street Journal at http://www.wsj.com. Some articles and important features at this address are free, though, such as the Markets Data Center, listed under the Markets Data & Tools tab. Rod Library DOES subscribe to Wall Street Journal articles via ProQuest ABI/INFORM Global; the full text of Journal articles from January 2, 1984 to the present are available online in this way. Use this address to go to an ABI/INFORM link to a list of Wall Street Journal issues that can be browsed and searched. Wall Street Journal articles also may show up in searches of ABI/INFORM Global. Rod Library also subscribes to a print edition of the Journal, available at the MultiService Desk. Older issues are on microfilm back to 1958. Update on 2/7/08: News Corp. completed acquisition of Dow Jones in December. The News Corp. chair said at a recent conference that the free portion of the WSJ will be greatly expanded but there will continue to be content available only to subscribers. See this 1/25/08 article from the WSJ for more details.

Rod Library has 20 group study rooms that will be helpful for students working on team projects. Six of the 20 have desktop computers with Internet access and programs such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Rod Library also has several laptop computers available for student checkout at the MultiService Center on the first floor of the Rod Library. The laptops can be checked out for three hours of use in the building. They have wireless network access and standard Microsoft programs. A student's own laptop can be used to access the UNI network in the Rod Library building, via wireless or hard wired connection, after registering at the ITS Consulting Center in the ITTC. See this page for more details. Rod Library also is setting up computers with two monitors for group work. The first two to be set up are located on the main floor of the library, south of the reference collection, and on the west side. Finally, group study areas have been arranged in locations on the first, second, and third floors. You will find the greatest change in furniture arrangement in the main study area on the west side of second floor.

Rod Library presents a new resource for teaching faculty that promotes a positive approach to understanding copyright. The brochure, "Know Your Copyrights - What You Can Do", provides tips for faculty and teaching assistants in higher education about how they may legally use works in their teaching without requesting permission or paying additional fees. An Association of Research Libraries brochure was modified, with permission, by Rod Library to include local information. The brochure can be found at http://www.library.uni.edu/copyright/copybroch.pdf

Privately held companies are not required to file financial disclosure documents with government regulators such as the SEC, so detailed financials usually are not readily available to the public.

Company profile sources may provide private company information such as sales, number of employees, number of stores if a retailer, and other general indicators. Journal and newspaper articles about a given company may give some general financials.

LexisNexis Academic, which can be also be accessed from the Business Portal and the Rod Library home page, includes general information on private companies. After connecting, click the Business tab, then enter the private company name, such as Kwik Trip, and then click the Financial Information link on the resulting company profile.

Industry average sources, such as RMA Annual Statement Studies (UNI Reference HF 5681 B2 R6 ) provide median figures for companies in particular industries. For the convenience store industry, for example, median figures are provided for the sales/total assets ratio and other key income statement and balance sheet values.

If you already have the citation to a journal article and are wondering if it is online, try Article Locator, listed on the Rod Library home page under Journal and Magazine Articles. Enter the journal title, such as Journal of Marketing, and other details about the article, such as date of publication, volume number, and starting page number.

Clicking the Go button will bring up a window that indicates whether Rod Library has rights to an online version of the article or journal. "Get Electronic Copy" links on this window sometimes lead directly to the article; in other cases, you may have to do a little hunting around for the right year or volume and page number. If Rod Library does not have an electronic version, try the link for looking up the journal title in the library catalog, UNISTAR. The article may be available in print at the Rod Library building.