Database Updates for Improved Access


Information and Library Services
Staff of ILS
Information and Library Services

Category: » Information-and-library-services » Ils-archives

Database Updates for Improved Access to Important Business, Company, and Industry Information!

It can be difficult to access current, reliable information concerning business and industry. Industry trends that can be used for marketing forecasts are particularly challenging to locate because much of this information is competitive and proprietary and is often not offered in a single source, such as a library database. This spring Information and Library Services (ILS) made some exciting enhancements to our databases that should significantly increase your ability to access this type of information.

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Country Reports

EIU Country Reports, a major addition to our EIU databases (EIU Viewswire and EIU Executive Briefing), provides ten comprehensive quarterly analyses and forecasts of the political, economic and business environment for Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Ireland, Mexico, North Korea, and South Africa. Included in each country report is a detailed review and analysis of political and economic events, a compilation of the latest economic indicators, and a 12-24 month political outlook and economic projection.

Business Source Premier Enhancements

In the past year Business Source Premier has added two features: company profiles and industry profiles, that improve your capacity to obtain information on companies and industries. In Business Source Premier click on the Company Profiles tab at the top to get company information: overviews, history, competitors, key employees, and in some cases S.W.O.T. analysis. To get industry information: summaries, market information and forecasts, and information on the competitive landscape in an industry, perform the following basic search: name of industry AND industry profile. You can also click on publications and browse alphabetically for both company and industry profiles. The image below illustrates these different types of searches:

Ebsco Image

New Databases in the Sciences

ILS also added two new databases for scientific research: GeoRef and BioMedCentral. Both are available from the Library Databases and E-Journals page and should be especially useful for research in biotechnology and environmental science.

  • GeoRef
    ILS has a one year trial subscription to GeoRef, a database established by the American Geological Institute, which provides citations and abstracts in geology, environmental science, geophysics, seismology, and other geosciences with links to full-text articles through Find It image. It contains over 2.4 million references to geoscience journal articles, books, maps, conference papers, reports and theses and covers the geology of North America from 1785 to the present and the geology of the rest of the world from 1933 to the present.
  • BioMedCentral
    BioMedCentral is a collection of open access, peer-reviewed journals in biology and biomedical research. Subjects covered include biochemistry, bioinformatics, biotechnology, ecology, environmental science, and diverse medical and health subjects. While all the original research articles in the open access journals published by BioMed Central are immediately and permanently available online without charge or any other barriers to access, the institutional subscription offers other advantages to UMUC researchers. Researchers from institutions that are members of BioMed Central do not have to pay the article-processing charge directly during the term of the membership for any of the journals published by BioMed Central (full list of these journals).

Resources for Teaching

As the new semester begins, Information and Library Services wants to remind you of services and resources we provide to assist in your teaching:

  • Library instruction to help your students with their research
    Let ILS librarians teach your students the research skills they need to go beyond Google and Yahoo and build on the skills they learn in UCSP 610. Librarians with expertise in information literacy will be happy to work with you to design a library module or instructional session customized for your students' research needs. See the Faculty Request for Library Instruction Guidelines for more information on arranging a library instruction session for your class.
  • E-reserves
    Library staff will process electronic Reserved Readings and post them in Web Tycho or Web Tycho-enhanced classes, obtain copyright permissions, and provide instructions for your students to access them. Please submit the request four weeks in advance to give staff time to process and post your reserved readings.
  • Turnitin.com, a plagiarism detection service
    To help prevent plagiarism in your classroom, read the Turnitin.com Frequently Asked Questions page and sign up for an account.

URLs of Links Used on This Page

Rating: Not yet rated



Comments

No comments posted.

Post a Comment / Vote

You must be logged in and be a member of the UMUC community in order to comment.

If you are a member of the UMUC community and do not have an account, please register for a FREE one.

If you have a guest account but are Faculty/Staff of UMUC please send an email to the DE Oracle Site Manager so that your guest account can be updated.