Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

MEL’s Database of the Week for 11/12/10

November 12th, 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: Associations Unlimited, from Gale Cengage.

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: Associations Unlimited is a source of information about associations, professional societies, and organizations.

Start with this hint: Associations Unlimited begins at the main menu, where you select a search form based on what you know about the subject.  If you know the name or acronym of an organization, choose that option.  Try NRA, for example, and you’ll find there are 9 organizations with that acronym.  To see a sample of the entries provided by Associations Unlimited, click on the National Restaurant Association.  You’ll find contact information, including email and URL, a description of the organization’s purpose, awards, publications, and meetings, the SIC code of the industry, and promotional material from the association.  Return to the main menu and try the options for Location, Custom, or Subject/Any Word to find organizations committed to almost any subject or issue from economics to politics, charitable organizations to fan clubs. Categories include educational, trade, and social welfare groups, and coverage can be limited to national, international, or regional.

Other common tools available in this database: save selected hits for a mailing list; menu for selecting subject categories. For more on use of these tools in this database, contact Mary Dugan

Why you should know this database: Associations Unlimited is not a mere directory of organization names and addresses.  It  provides details on over 150,000 associations, and includes IRS information on over 300,000 nonprofit organizations.

How this database can be integrated into the curriculum: Students should become familiar with the professional societies that support the interests of their chosen careers.  Many of these societies offer student memberships. In addition, many research projects can benefit from information offered by special interest organizations.

Cost: Paid by the Libraries annually.

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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.