BU Libraries Business Blog

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June 19, 2006

Business Ratios

Students are often required to find business ratios for their projects. Ratios for individual companies can be found in Thomson Research database. Simply bring up the record for your company, then click on Fundamental Ratios. Industry ratios are available in three print sets available in the Reference area:
Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios Ref HF5681.R25 T68
Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios at Ref HF5681.R25 I54
RMA Annual Statement Studies Ref HF 5681.B2 R6

Posted by chailey at 10:15 PM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2006

DVDs and Videos for Your Presentations

Do you need a DVD or video to spice up a class presentation? The BU Libraries do have management/economics related videos and DVDs. To pull them up, go to Advanced Search in infoLink, the Library catalog. Then type your keywords in the search box(es). Go down to the bottom of the page, and limit the format to Visual Materials. This will bring up a list of audiovisual materials. The Libraries collection of business related audiovisual resources is not very large at this point, but it is growing every semester. Some recent titles include The Corporation, Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room, Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, In Brands We Trust, Tales from the Global Economy, and E-Commerce in Business.

Posted by chailey at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2006

When looking for statistics....

Want to know the homeownership rate in Binghamton? Do you need to find the number of Korean owned businesses in the United States? What is the health insurance coverage in 2004 compared to 1994? What are the sales figures for furniture last April? The answers to all of these questions and much, much more are available on the Census Bureau's web site at http://www.census.gov/ In addition to the detailed population figures that it is known for, the Bureau also collects an enormous amount of economic and business information. The Bureau does not release information on individual businesses, but it does cover information on an industry level. For links to the answers to the above questions, click on the link below.

Homeownership in Binghamton http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36000.html
Korean owned businesses http://www.census.gov/csd/sbo/KoreanSummaryofFindings.htm
Health insurance http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/cps.html
Furniture sales http://www.census.gov/mwts/www/currentwhl.html

Posted by chailey at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2006

Database of the Month--Investext Plus

This month's featured database, Investext Plus, includes investment, company and industry reports from over 500 brokers in North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. All company and industry reports are provided in full page PDF image. The reports are updated daily and can range in length from 1 to 35 pages.

Posted by chailey at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)

Data Source for June

This month's data source is World Bank Africa Database, which is on CD-ROM. This CD-ROM contains over 1,200 indicators of macro-economic, sectoral, and social data for 53 African countries and 20 regional country groups going back to 1970. Data can be downloaded into Excel. To use this product, go to the Reference window at the Information Commons desk. The call number is HC800.A1 W677. The library owns the 2002, 2004, and 2005 editions.

Posted by chailey at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)