Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

MEL’s Database of the Week for 4/30/10

April 30th, 2010

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

Database name: TableBase, from Gale Cengage Learning.

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: TableBase is a database of tabular information.

Start with this hint: TableBase is the companion to Business & Industry, an articles database.  The records in TableBase, however, are just the tables and have been stripped of the accompanying text.  In this database it is best to start with a simple search.  For example, enter coffee (or another term of your choosing) in the search box and notice that the titles displayed in the results list are precise and descriptive, aiding in more exact selection.  In addition to describing the subject of the table, the title usually includes the country and date. If you click on a record link, you can see the record of the article from which the table has been pulled.  You can, of course, go to advanced search and narrow the results with additional terms.

Why you should know this database: TableBase company and industry records cover market share, market size, capacity, production, statistics and demographics..

How this database can be integrated into the curriculum: TableBase is the source for students looking for a list, whether it is the top producers of a product, a forecast in dollars and percentage, market segmentation, sales, or other parameters.

Cost: Paid annually by the Libraries.

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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/.  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.