Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

MEL’s Database of the Week for 1/29/10

February 1st, 2010

Welcome to Database of the Week — a feature from the Management & Economics Library (MEL). These database snapshots will give you basic information about our most relevant and beneficial online resources.

This Week’s Featured Database: IBISWorld, from IBISWorld.

Link: www.lib.purdue.edu/mel, in the pull down Quick Access to Business Databases alpha list right below the Libraries’ search box.

Description/focus: IBISWorld provides access to domestic and global industry reports.

Start with this hint: The IBISWorld opening page lets you select a search box for a key word, links to domestic Industry Market Research, Global Industry Research, and Business Environment, or scroll through the reports listed by SIC code. A key word search for a company will generate a list of all the industry reports and Business Environment reports that name that company.  As an example, enter steel in the search box and select one of the listed market reports, such as Iron and steel manufacturing in the US to see the major players; sections of the report are on the left.  The entire report can be downloaded in either PDF or MSWord or the sections can be viewed separately.  Go back to the list of steel reports and select from the Business Environment reports for historical analysis, trends, and outlook.

Why you should know this database: MEL has subscribed to IBISWorld US reports for 2 years, but the Global Industry Research reports  are a recent purchase, added just this week.  Reports are updated 3 to 4 times a year with additional updates to reflect important changes in an industry’s market.

How this database can be integrated into the curriculum: The IBISWorld industry intelligence reports include a section called Market Characteristics which illustrates how industries are connected.  For example, the above named report, Iron and steel manufacturing in the US, provides links to reports on 8 industries that depend on steel manufacture and 3 industries that supply to the steel industry.

Cost: Academic subscription paid by the Libraries annually.

——————————

Database of the Week comes to you from the Management & Economics Library (MEL). Our intent is to give you a brief introduction to a database that you may not know. If you would like more information about this database, or if you would like a demonstration of it for a class, contact kranlib@purdue.edu. Database of the Week is archived at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/mgmt/database/. For more Purdue Libraries news, follow us on Twitter (@PurdueLibraries).

If you would like us to promote your favorite database, send an email to mdugan@purdue.edu.