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BUSINESS INFORMATION SOURCES

FOREWORD.

MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION

EnIL International School on „Business Information Literacy”, 13-17 October 2008, Rome, Italy

Dr. Sabina Cisek Associate Professor

Institute of Information and Library Science, Jagiellonian UniversityKrakow, Poland

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FOREWORD: THE COURSE OBJECTIVES, STRUCTURE, CONTENT AND TRAINING

METHODS

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Business Information Sources: the course objectives

• Familiarize participants with the concept and domain of business information

• Give an overall presentation of the business information industry, services, sources and uses

• Introduce selected business information resources – focusing on free-of-charge and Open Access Web-based services and sources

• Show how to use business information sources (mainly – international in scope, in English) and provide opportunity for hands-on training

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Business Information Sources: the course structure and content

• Module 1: Introduction to business information

• Module 2: Seeking for business information – selected Web-based information resources

• Module 3: Web 2.0 for business information

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Business Information Sources: the course teaching-learning approach

and training methods

• Demonstration, discussion, elements of lecture, group-work, hands-on practice

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Business Information Sources: very selected additional readings

• Research guides and tutorials– BERA: Business and Economics Research

Advisor. A Series of Guides to Business and Economics Topics by Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/BERA/index.html

– Intute: Virtual Training Suite http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/

• Journals and weblogs– „Business Information Review”. Quarterly by Sage

[paid]– ResourceShelf http://www.resourceshelf.com/

[free]

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MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION (BI)

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The Module 1 structure and content

• Meaning, definitions, terminology, characteristics and importance of business information

• Business information needs and users

• The business information industry: producers and providers of BI

• General description and categorization of BI resources

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Meanings of the term „business information”

• Business Information is a domain of activity that: – involves – preparing/producing information sources;

collecting, managing and giving access to them; finding, evaluating and using information, etc.;

– includes – products (i.e. business information resources), services, systems, professionals, organizations, needs, users and uses, etc.

• Business information is a type of information

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Definitions of business information

• (1) Information FOR (doing) business– to make informed decisions – short-term,

long-term, strategic– to enhance business, products, technology

with current information– to gain profit, recognition and success

• (2) Information ABOUT business (and economics, and related issues)

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Terminology

• Business information

• Business and economics information

• Business intelligence

• Competitive intelligence

• nearly synonyms

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Business information features

• Business information should be reliable, trustworthy, authenticated, current, up-to-date; but – historical data and controversial issues may also be needed

• Business information is based on resources that are already published and made available – Note a: that does not mean – these sources

are always easily available– Note b: of course there are exceptions

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Business information areas

• General business information resources = „starting points”

• Company information • Financial information = investment

information • Product and service information • Markets, marketing and trade

information • Other

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Business information needs, users and uses

• Who needs business information? What for? Why business information makes a difference? Why business information literacy is an advantage – for organizations and for everybody?

• Discussion with the course participants

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Business information needs, users and uses – who needs business information?

• In professional life • business enterprises • associations, not-for-profit organizations, NGOs • central and local governments, authorities• journalists, writers• researchers, scientists, students• advisers, brokers, lawyers

• In private life: everybody • anybody who wants to set up a business • buyers • credit takers • complaining clients • investors • job seekers • tax payers

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The Business Information Industry: producers and providers of BI (I)

• Non-commercial: – International organizations, like European

Union, OECD, United Nations, for example• Your Europe – Business (by EU European

Commission) http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/nav/en/business/index.html

• Enterprise Europe Network (by EU European Commission) http://www.enterprise-europe-network.ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm

– Governments’ bodies, administration, local authorities

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The Business Information Industry: producers and providers of BI (II)

– Libraries (academic, government, public), librarians, for example

• Buffalo & Erie County Public Library – Reference Desk – Business and Finance http://www.buffalolib.org/refdesk/index.asp

• Harvard Business School Baker Library http://www.library.hbs.edu/guides/

– NGOs

– Professional associations, chambers of commerce

– Universities, other educational/research institutions, scholars, students

– Volunteers, enthusiasts

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The Business Information Industry: Producers and Providers of BI (III)

• Commercial: – Commercial publishers and providers of BI

resources, for example – • Dun & Bradstreet http://www.dnb.com/us/ • Internet Securities, Inc. (trading as ISI Emerging Markets),

http://www.securities.com/

– Corporate intelligence centers • see The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals

(SCIP) http://www.scip.org/

– Information brokers = independent information professionals

• see the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) http://www.aiip.org/

– Journals, for example • „The Economist” http://www4.economist.com/countries/

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The business information sources

• There exists a great amount of business information sources

• Where and how to find them?

• How to read and understand them?

• How to evaluate them?

• How to use them?

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The business information sources: categorization (I)

• By financial barriers / availability of information

– Free information, for example:

• CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

• Intute: social sciences: business http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/business/

– Commercial information – sold to the public, for example: Business Source Complete (EBSCOhost)

– Proprietary information – not available, trade secrets

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The business information sources: categorization (II)

• Note– There are numerous commercial sources –

databases, directories, etc. that are available online:

• partly free – basic information

• partly free – but you have to register or subscribe

• partly as paid services, for fee

– Examples:• http://www.corporateinformation.com/

• http://www.kompass.com/en/

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The business information sources: categorization (III)

• By producer/provider status (formality)– official (by government)

– non-official (by commercial provider)

• By format– electronic (online and offline), print, people

• By level of processing– primary sources

– secondary sources

– tertiary sources

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The business information sources: categorization (IV)

• Online electronic sources – by type of website – General-purpose (global and local) search engines,

meta-search services, catalogs, portals– Specialized search tools (for example – „harvesting”

services, Deep Web directories) – Quality-controlled subject/information gateways,

vertical portals– Full-text resources – archives, e-journals, digital

libraries, repositories – Web 2.0 forms – blogs, wikis, etc. – Databases online– Institutions’ and organizations’ Websites – …