Welcome to week 6 of MARVELous Maine Invitational!
When I first read the assignment for this week it seemed daunting! I took it a step at a time, and managed to work my way through most of it. I will come back to it to complete it. Nice that we have an extra week for Make-up work!
Business Source Complete
Discovery Exercise:
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Do a search for available information on FM radio. Pay attention to the types of sources found.
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Do a search for available information on FM radio. Pay attention to the types of sources found.
I typed in the term FM Radio. The result was that my initial search query did not find any results, but the program used SmartText Searching, and came up with 3952 results. The sources were predominantly from Academic Journals and Periodicals. I later limited it to newspapers and the results were 72.
2. Look for the visual search option and try it. Does it make searching easier or harder?
Using the same search term, it came up with nothing . . . unless I did something very wrong! So I decided to do a visual search for L.L. Bean. That produced results! I learned that the block display style worked best for me. The results showed a lot about their telemarketing plans.
EconLit
Discovery Exercise:
In your blog post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Complete a search to find resources for small business owners.
In your blog post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Complete a search to find resources for small business owners.
Using 'small business owners' as my search term, I stayed with the visual search. This produced lots of information, and I noticed how the relevance was scored in each of the blocks in the visual block style format. The Relevance Key is in the upper right corner, and there is a nifty little map where you can drag the red outlined box to different areas of the search results. That was fun to play with! The resources included demographics, entrepreneurship, retirement plans for small businesses, and so much more.
2. Complete a search for items that pertain to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and small businesses.
Found an article which focuses on the Star Energy program for small businesses.
(American Medical Assoc.)
Reference List
Trimming bills to improve profits. Aftermarket Business [serial online]. April 2004;114(4):8. Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 5, 2012.
3. Complete a search for items that pertain to tax policy and small businesses.
I used the term 'tax policy' and 'small business' and 'United States', even though I thought I was in EconLit, the results were for all data bases, so I had to scroll down to the lower left and select EconLit, that greatly reduced the number of references. I had already limited my search to include only the past 10 years, so I had 9 results with those limiters.
References
Bruce, D., & Deskins, J. (2012). Can State Tax Policies Be Used to Promote Entrepreneurial Activity?. Small Business Economics, 38(4), 375-397. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ursus-proxy-9.ursus.maine.edu/10.1007/s11187-010-9262-y
Regional Business News
Discovery Exercise:
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Pick a nationally known company. Search under the company’s name and look at the results.
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Pick a nationally known company. Search under the company’s name and look at the results.
I searched Home Depot. They recently merged with USHS.
Works Cited
Works Cited
PR, Newswire. "The Home Depot and U.S. Home Systems Close Merger Transaction." PR Newswire US 29 Oct. 2012: Regional Business News. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
2. Narrow the regional search to something more appropriate for this area of the country.
L.L. Bean was my search term. It produced 102 results.
(American Psychological Assoc.)
References
PR, N. (2012, October 17). HealthFitness lauds employee health focus of L.L. Bean, Inc., 2012 C. Everett Koop Award recipient. PR Newswire US.
3. Choose a Maine company to see what information is available about either the company or its industry.
I entered Roy Toy, a Machias based log building toy company. Only two results came up.
Reference List
Timothy Jack W. CURRENTS: LOG CABIN KIT; A Keeping-It-Simple Toy. New York Times [serial online]. December 25, 1997:3. Available from: Regional Business News, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 14, 2012.
I tried a different company, looking for more results. Stonewall Kitchen only produced 6 results, and the most current was February 2012.
I was disappointed in the results of these searches, to me it shows that Maine business, for the most part, is not world news.
Value Line
Discovery Exercise:
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Look at the current issue of Value Line. Explore the various links for the “Investment Survey,” which is the primary tool available to public library users. Start with “Description,” which gives a good description of the site.
I found the 'description' to be very helpful. The Investment Education page is priceless for anyone who is new to investing, and using investment sites.
2. Look at the various reports offered: Ratings and Reports, Selection and Opinion, Summary and Index, etc. Familiarize yourself with the information contained in each report and how they differ.
1. Ratings and Reports: provides full page stock reports, past, present and predicted.
2. Selection and Opinion: provides Value Line's views on the economy and stock market.
3. Summary and Index: provides the latest quarterly, summary and most recent data on stocks
4. Standard R&R Cover Page: provides page numbers for various industries and a few Noteworthy tidbits regarding specific companies. For example, Microsoft was mentioned in regards to Windows 8 being well received, but needing to catch up in the tablet area.
5. Standard R&R Supplementary: provides brief reports on selected companies.
3. Pick a well-known stock such as Starbucks, General Motors, Apple, etc., and do a company search using either the general search box at the top of the page or “company look up.” Familiarize yourself with the type of information provided by linking to the various tabs at the top of the report. Also look to see if there is a “full research report” available for the company.
SBUX is the symbol for Starbucks. There is a "full research report" available as a single page PDF document. Back to the quotes page, the graph tab showed that the company took a dip in August. The news tab showed that they were opening a second location in Costa Rica.
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Look at the current issue of Value Line. Explore the various links for the “Investment Survey,” which is the primary tool available to public library users. Start with “Description,” which gives a good description of the site.
I found the 'description' to be very helpful. The Investment Education page is priceless for anyone who is new to investing, and using investment sites.
2. Look at the various reports offered: Ratings and Reports, Selection and Opinion, Summary and Index, etc. Familiarize yourself with the information contained in each report and how they differ.
1. Ratings and Reports: provides full page stock reports, past, present and predicted.
2. Selection and Opinion: provides Value Line's views on the economy and stock market.
3. Summary and Index: provides the latest quarterly, summary and most recent data on stocks
4. Standard R&R Cover Page: provides page numbers for various industries and a few Noteworthy tidbits regarding specific companies. For example, Microsoft was mentioned in regards to Windows 8 being well received, but needing to catch up in the tablet area.
5. Standard R&R Supplementary: provides brief reports on selected companies.
3. Pick a well-known stock such as Starbucks, General Motors, Apple, etc., and do a company search using either the general search box at the top of the page or “company look up.” Familiarize yourself with the type of information provided by linking to the various tabs at the top of the report. Also look to see if there is a “full research report” available for the company.
SBUX is the symbol for Starbucks. There is a "full research report" available as a single page PDF document. Back to the quotes page, the graph tab showed that the company took a dip in August. The news tab showed that they were opening a second location in Costa Rica.
Wall Street Journal provides indexing to and full text coverage of the nation’s leading business daily from 1984.
Discovery Exercise:
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Using the advance search feature, look for articles on small business and health care.
In your blog, post your findings and observations regarding the following:
1. Using the advance search feature, look for articles on small business and health care.
I searched for (small business) AND (health care) and below my search were some suggested subjects, including health insurance and health care policy.
2. Look at how the results are returned and the suggested limiters offered by the site. What might a small business person be interested in?
I limited the articles to 2012. This narrowed the results to a manageable number. It is interesting that the number of results are 991 for Wall Street Journal (Online) and 593 for Wall Street Journal. Under document type, one can limit to commentary or editorial, which might be something a business person would be interested in to find out the thinking of the readers. The Person tab allowed options to select political figures such as Obama, Romney, and others. 2. Look at how the results are returned and the suggested limiters offered by the site. What might a small business person be interested in?
3. Familiarize yourself with the options available to follow up on your search, such as creating alerts.
One could create an alert to be notified daily, weekly monthly or quarterly. Another way to receive notice of newly published or newly added material is by setting up an RSS feed. If you choose to create a research account, you can also save your search.
Well, I do believe that I have completed this assignment. It was a challenge for sure, and I am happy that I am not in business or accounting!
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