Business and Management Tutorial

Vast amounts of information for the study of business and management have been published in print and electronic formats. Much of the information is free, such as market research reports and industry ratios. Other information may be found in specialized databases to which the library subscribes.

Internet (Internet glossary)

To find information try the following search techniques at search engines. A search engine searches documents by keywords and returns a list for linking to the documents. Four search engines are Google, Alltheweb, Yahoo and Altavista. Notice that the advanced search tool allows choices for language, domain, etc. If you choose to use the basic search tool, i.e. Google,you must use the + sign, quotes, and an asterisk with your keywords to refine a search: +"national trade databank" +stats*

Different engines have different techniques so it is best to click on "Help" for detailed search instructions for the engine you use. Try typing in " business clearinghouse" to retrieve a list of Internet sites that link to many other sites. Other samples of clearing house sites are IBCH, and BizTech. Internet terms that are interchangable with "clearinghouse" are "gateway," "metasite," "pathfinder" and "directory." Valuable information may also be obtained from the deep web content of PDF files, i.e. "entrepreneurship" +white paper +filetype:pdf

Search engines are useful to find lists of journals, newspapers, businesses; business rankings and case studies; companies, industries, and more. Some valuable lists are found by typing in the name of a familiar resource, such as "fortune magazine"; or by typing in specific keywords for topics you may need: "business rankings" , "case studies" + "business" , "annual reports" + "companies" . Beware that not all fulltext information you retrieve is free. A list may just point you to a for-profit source for obtaining fulltext. If one search engine does not retrieve satisfactory results, switch to another search engine. Or use the search engine of a specific company to obtain results of a more defined nature. Whatever data you find, it is always wise to evaluate.

Listed below are miscellaneous search strategies that you may tailor to the search instructions of the engine you use.

Need speech by former President Clinton on budget: +"budget" +"Clinton" +speech
Need bibliography on Christian business ethics: +"Christian business ethics" +bibliography
Need a poem that has the line "Each of us pursues his trade: +"each of us pursues his trade" +poem
Need an online language conversion dictionary for Spanish: +language dictionary +"Spanish"
Need to find a picture, video or audio? Use Altavista search engine's Search screen and click choice at top


Specialized Databases

The university library subscribes to numerous databases which you are encouraged to use during your studies. Scroll through the list of databases to familiarize yourself with the resources you may use for class assignments and research projects. Full text books and journal articles, as well as bibliographic citations are available if you use your southern.edu login and password. ABI-Inform and Lexis-Nexis are the premiere journal databases for business and management. Digital Dissertations is an excellent full text source. NetLibrary contains full text of books.


Other Resources

Best Business Web Berkley Site BizEd Index Bubbl Link Off-Sites Business Terms IPL LSU Online Books & Journals

More information, contact Ann Greer