Day Two introduces you to “circulation”.
When books are checked out and checked in by borrowers, they’re said to be “circulating” — like blood cells carrying the oxygen of knowledge through our student body :-).
Here’s the second survey link. Thanks for your participation!
Day One of the 5 Days of Ford invites you to engage with our social media outlets. Get to know our presence on these sites and connect with us!
Here’s the first survey link. Let the games begin, and thanks for your participation!
Founded in 1916, The Conference Board is an independent research group that focuses on corporate leadership; economies, markets and value creation; high-performing organizations; and human capital. Their reports are considered by corporate decision makers to be the best on key issues such as economic analysis as well as management, leadership, and corporate citizenship best practices.
In addition to their white papers, The Conference Board is also known for its Consumer Confidence Survey as well as its annual executive salary report.
Though not a resource used by our students daily, it is one that is essential to business leaders looking for trusted, thorough analysis on today’s most important issues.
Continuing the focus on international resources, I thought this would be a good month to highlight Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands (KBS), a database of dos and don’ts around the world.
Searchable by country, KBS provides you with a look at the country’s history, government, key phrases, views, protocol, business etiquette, and more. If you need to know what’s expected of you if hosting a dinner party or what you can expect during a deal negotiation, this will be a useful source for you. In addition to business settings, you will also learn about cultural norms and safety tips thus giving you a better insight on why dinner starts after 9pm or when to be wary of volcanoes. This is an entertaining and informative resource whether you’re traveling to Europe this summer or staying home.
Last month I posted on the language program Byki, this month I’d like to highlight ISI Emerging Markets, a database that covers the world’s most dynamic economies. Several times a year, Fuqua students study about and travel to locations such as China, South Africa, and India. On these trips, they tour major companies which allows them to witness how business is conducted, products are made, and strategies are planned.
One of the resources I point them to when they’re planning their visit is ISI Emerging Markets, a database covering more than 30 countries. Pulling their content from current economic data, company and industry information, news both in English and non-English, and financial market reports, this source is a one stop shop for much of their research. In addition, our international students find it a useful repository for current and past news from familiar sources which may be hard to locate when abroad. While much of this information might be found on the open web, ISI’s ease of use and scope make this an essential database for anyone interested in global economics, news, or business.
Many Fuqua students travel – hmm – scratch that and replace with all Fuqua students travel.
Over the years we’ve collected a number of Pimsleur language instruction CDs which have been extremely popular campus-wide. And though we have CDs for French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, and Hindi, there were languages we didn’t have.
However, all that’s changed. The Duke Libraries have recently subscribed to a new online language instruction resource called Byki Online. With over 70 languages, from Afrikaans to Zulu, you’ll find blogs, flashcards, words-of-the-day, and many other tools to speed your conversational skills.
You can locate additional information here, and after signing up, start your new language adventure.
Tomorrow is the first day of March, and in honor of the In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb month, I decided to feature Zephyr, the Bureau van Dijk corporate deals resource. Of the M&A databases the Ford Library subscribes to, Zephyr is the easiest to access, search, and download current and historical deals worldwide. In addition, the user can create league tables on deal vendors such as the firms providing legal representation or acting as the financial advisors.
Located on the Ford Library database page, users can either perform a simple company search or can select the expert search link to locate deals according to geographic location, deal type, industry, or financials. Then the user can select from the tabs located at the top of the page to list the deals, see them as a brief record or in full.
If you have questions about using Zephyr, let me know. Happy searching!
What was once a series of advertising related directories became an online source a few years back. Regrettably, the publishers of SRDS hasn’t figured out how to integrate all these directories into a more integrated search platform, leaving the user to trawl through each publication rather than being able to search them all at once. To me, this is unfortunate because deep within this hodgepodge of directories are details not found anywhere else.
Wondering how many cooking magazines there are, how much it would cost to advertise in them, or how many subscribers there were for each? Then use SRDS Consumer Media Advertising Source. Or my favorite gem, Local Market Audience Analyst includes demographic and lifestyle information on the city/county level, so if you’ve wondered what the average person in Greensboro thinks about buying locally this would be your source.
Hopefully the publisher will upgrade their search engine, but use patience, you’ll be glad you did.
If you’ve seen the movie The Iron Giant, you know it’s about a boy and his enormous robot which is capable of doing just about anything and doing it loudly. In a nutshell, that’s how I describe Bloomberg. Where most news services are pulling back on coverage, Bloomberg is expanding. Name an esoteric market instrument and Bloomberg probably carries its data. From around the world to your town’s latest bond offering, Bloomberg covers just about everything market related, which may be why this Goliath commands an estimated third of the $16B global financial data market.
Used by our finance students, Bloomberg is also popular with faculty performing research due to the system’s large data footprint and its easy-to-use Excel add-in. Initial training on the system can take no more than 20 minutes for the new user to be up and searching, or they can enroll into Bloomberg University through the system to gain more expert knowledge. An added bonus, it provides a responsive help desk via chat.
There are drawbacks for the academic user. Because its software is loaded on individual computers, it can’t be accessed through the web. And though it contains an enormous data warehouse, it’s hard to say exactly what’s in there other than to dig through the search engine. Like the Iron Giant, Bloomberg is not the nimblest resource out there, but in terms of comprehensive news and financial information, it’s hard to beat.
S&P NetAdvantage, had you seen it before it was a database, would be shelf upon shelf of directories, stock guides, and industry reports. Respected for years, S&P NetAdvantage provides users information on broad industries, company financials and stock performance, as well as executive biographies. Whether you need to find trends within an industry or looking for investment information, this would be a good choice for your research.