Season's greetings!

 

Enjoy the break, we look forward to seeing you next term.  Opening hours over the vacation for all Westminster University Libraries can be found here.

FAQ: where can I find top blogs for Business?

If you are interested in finding blogs relating to Business Wikio may be a good place to start.  You can view and subscribe to the top blogs for Business, as ranked by Wikio, here:

http://www.wikio.com/blogs/top/business

If you write your own blog you can also submit it to be indexed by Wikio here.

You might also want to look at the top business blogs as ranked by Technorati: http://technorati.com/business/

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New platform- Datamonitor360

Business Insights, Access Asia and Verdict Reports have merged to form Datamonitor 360. You can access market research reports on consumer goods, energy, fashion retailing, finance, healthcare and technology via a new single interface.

You can access all the reports previously available via Business Insights plus over a 100 new reports from Verdict, a leading authority on UK and European retail, including UK sector reports, location reports, strategic reports & consumer reports.  

To access them you need to go to Library Search, search for Datamonitor 360 in the 'books, journals & more' search box, open the "Datamonitor 360" link. In Datamonitor360 you can either search on your topic to find reports from Verdict, Access Asia and Business Insights or you can type "Verdict reports" into the search box to see just the reports from Verdict. 

Studying developing countries? Looking for Mergers & Acquisitions information?

We have trial access to Dealwatch – the M&A arm of ISI Emerging Markets. Updated daily, it has details on over 48,000 M&A, ECM and DCM transactions. Coverage includes Central Europe, Southeast Europe, Russia & the CIS Region, Greater China, Latin America and India.

Search for Emerging Markets on Library Search

Under DealWatch, select User Login to enter the resource.

[You will need your University password to login if you are off-campus]

The foods that make billions: new BBC series

A new three-part BBC series starts tonight on BBC2 21.00 entitled, The Foods That Make Billions.  

"This major new series tells the untold story of how big business feeds us by transforming simple commodities into everyday necessities and highly profitable brands."

The first episode, Liquid Gold, looks at the huge growth of the bottled water industry.  View a preview clip and see more information about the series here.

Mediatel access

Accessing Mediatel is now much easier.  To get access on and off campus: go to Library Search, in the "books, journals & more" tab search for Mediatel, click on the online access button and follow the link.  

Mediatel is an excellent resource for UK media intelligence. It includes daily news as well as an in-depth data archive from major research sources.  Use it to find media information such as press circulation figures and advert rates, demographic reports, TV viewing figures and sponsorship information, online traffic data and revenue reports, radio audience figures, box office figures, and media trends and consumer behaviour.

Library Search tutorials

There are a set of online tutorials now available to help you navigate Library Search, the service that combines searching the library’s print collection and e-resources. Using Library Search you can save your searches and references, check your library account and renew items online.

View the tutorials here.  When viewed in slideshow mode the guides include an audio commentary, but can still be followed if you do not have sound.  They are between forty seconds and two mintues long.

We are aware that Library Search is quite different to our previous systems with a range of features you may not be familiar with so we provide training for staff and students.  Our contact details are available via our webpage: www.wmin.ac.uk/academicliaison

Photo credit: naughty architect used under the creative commons license.

FAQ: How do I find company profiles from Datamonitor on Business Source Complete?

In Business Source Complete click on the "more" tab along the top of the screen and select company profiles from the drop-down menu.  You can search for your company or browse through the available profiles.  Find Business Source Complete on Library Search.

This information has been added to our FAQ page.

British Library launches Management and Business study portal

News release from the British Library website: 

"The British Library, in association with the British Academy of Management (BAM) and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), has just launched the Management and Business Studies Portal designed to deliver access to a vast collection of digital and print material for UK management research and practice.

We’ve brought together full text research reports, summaries, working papers and videos that you can download and read immediately. As well as these digital documents, you’ll find details of books, journal articles, reports, website, datasets, sound recordings and videos that are relevant  to your search.

There's lots of content on the site that will be of interest to entrepreneurs; marketing, management and leadership, international business and many more essential areas."

Find the portal at: http://www.mbsportal.bl.uk/

Photo credit: Steve Cadman licensed under the creative commons by-sa

Library Search drop-in sessions at Marylebone

Come to one of our drop-in sessions and find out how to use our new Library Search service to find print and online resources, manage your account and more….

When?    Monday – Thursday at 3pm from Monday 4th October until Thursday 14th October.

Where?   Marylebone Library Training Area

What?    Help using the Library Search, and any other enquiries you may have.

Details of library training at other campuses and IT training can be found on the webpages here: Library and IT training timetables.

Photo credit: LiminalMike licensed under Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Calling 3rd year Harrow business students!

Need help with your Major Project?  3rd year business students can come to one of the drop-in sessions at Harrow with the Harrow business librarian, Ellie.  Come along to find out:

• how to find the information you need via Library Search 
• advice on how to use the library resources 
• how to do a literature search 
• how to reference

Plus any questions you have about using library resources.  Come to any one of the drop-ins at the following times:

Monday 27th September 3.00-5.00pm
Monday 4th Oct 10am-12.00 noon
Monday 11th Oct 3.00-5.00pm
Monday 18th Oct 3.00-5.00pm

All in the Training Room, Harrow LRC.  Details of Marylebone training sessions will be coming soon.

Photo credit: Dimitri N. licensed under Creative Commons

New Fame interface

Fame (Financial Analysis Made Easy) has a new interface - check it out via Library Search

Fame contains detailed financial information for 130,000 public and private British companies, with inbuilt data analysis software.

Welcome new students and welcome back returning students from the WBS Librarians!

For new students your induction and the information on the Library & IT services webpages should give you all the information you need to start using Library and IT services.  You can also pick up a user's guide at any of the four libraries or access an online copy here.

Keep your eye on this blog (and subscribe to get updates straight to your email inbox) for information about library resources, details of training and links to online training guides to help you make the most of the Library.

***New this year*** Use Library Search to find books, view your library account to see what books you have and when they are due back, and to renew and reserve books.  Use Library Search to find journals, e-journals and articles for your assignments.  Use Library Search to access e-resources needed for your study such as Business Source Complete, Emerald and Mintel.  We will be recommending useful resources on this blog.

See also the FAQs on this blog, which will be regularly updated with questions such as "where can I get company SWOT analyses?".  Feel free to ask questions and leave comments on the blog.  We will also be adding a link to our profile pages soon so that you can access all our contact details if you want to contact us for training or to ask any questions.

We look forward to seeing you all during the course of the academic year!

Photo credit: Major Clanger used under the creative commons license by-nc-sa

Problem with Institutional login

Are you getting a blank screen when you try to connect to an e-resource?

We are currently experiencing problems with institutional login. Try using Firefox - when the blank screen appears, click the refresh button. In the majority of cases this works.

(NB the refresh button doesn't appear to solve the problem in Internet Explorer!)

Photo credit: 'Road to nowhere' http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisschoenbohm/4684578915/

Free access to EIU Global Forecasting Service

EIU is offering free access to their Global Forecasting Service

Just go to www.eiu.com/gfs to register.

Global Forecasting Service:

• download monthly Power-point presentations, that summarise the main points of the global forecast
• access a free, monthly updated PDF report covering the global forecast
• access data, analysis and forecasts for the global economy, plus drill down options for the regions most important to you
• regular articles on the critical issues that influence economic prospects
• succinct analysis of the top ten risks confronting the world economy at any given time

Start-up Stories

The BBC have created a series of online videos where "the brains behind ten successful start-ups discuss how they did it".  See the full range here. It includes this one from Dom Sagolla, creator of Twitter and DollarApp:

Datastream e-training sessions - more dates

Do you need help using Datastream?

Thomson Reuters is holding extra online Q&A sessions to answer your Datastream queries.

To sign up email training.uki@thomsonreuters.com stating the date and time of the session you would like to attend. Thomson Reuters will then email you with login details for the session.

• 7th July 3pm (Wednesday)
  
• 16th July 11 am (Friday)
  
• 19th July 11am (Monday)
  
• 28th July 3pm (Wednesday)
  
• 6th August 11am (Friday)
  
• 9th August 11am (Monday)
  

New blog from WBS MBA students

Our MBA students have started a new blog. It is described as "a blog for MBA applicants who want to get an insight view into to the exciting life and hard work of Westminster Business School MBA students. The content of the blog is provided in full by our MBA students."
View it here: blog.business.westminster.ac.uk/mba/
We have also added it to our blog list, in the right hand menu bar of this blog.

World Cup fever and the sound of Vuvuzelas

The World Cup is now in full swing in South Africa. We have heard a lot about (and from) the Vuvuzelas but apart from making the drone of the Vuvuzela (in)famous what impact will the World Cup have on South Africa both commerically and socially?

Tourism is set to increase after the slow growth witnessed in previous years. Global Market Information Database (GMID) has a report on Travel and Tourism in South Africa which looks at the impact of the World Cup and its future sustainability. From GMID you can also get statistical and demographic information on the country as well as consumer lifestyle reports. Find the South Africa country page by locating it from the 'geographies' tab.

The government have invested heavily in public transport infrastructure, which fans are being urged to use amidst stories of grid-locked roads. GMID has a consumer report related to transport which gives details about South Africa's transport infrastructure and spending in previous years.

EIU Viewswire is a good source of the latest political and economic news and analysis. From the first page of the database choose South Africa from the left-hand country/region drop-down menu. Click on "1click report" from the South Africa page to get a full report including a ten year economic outlook.

The database Emerging Markets gives details of South Africa's consumer price index, top companies, top industries and the latest analysis/research. From the first page of the database click on South Africa in the right hand menu, then click on the home tab to get to the country outlook homepage.

Find the databases GMID, EIU Viewswire and Emerging Markets all on InfoLinX. When you have read all that sit back and enjoy the tournament!!

Photo credit: AfricanGoals2010 http://www.flickr.com/photos/50989081@N07/ CC BY-NC 2.0

Economists Online

Keep up to date with new economic research using a subject repository for economics.

EconomistsOnline was created by the NEEO (Network of European Economists Online) and funded by the European Commission.

It provides open access to high-quality, multi-lingual economic research. Search for bibliographic references, find full-text documents, browse scholar lists and download primary data sets.

Blog news

Our blog has now past its four-month anniversary and we have just added a new feature. In the right hand menu you will see a section called 'pages'. Here we have added a new page called 'Business Resources FAQs', from where you can get answers to frequently asked questions relating to business resources, such as "where can I get company SWOT analyses?". We will be adding to this page with new questions soon. If you have any questions you would like to see answered on the FAQs do let us know in the comments box below.

The picture featured is a Wordle representation of our blog as it stands four months on.

OECD Factbook app

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fr3d/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The OECD Factbook provides a global overview of major economic, social and environmental indicators and it is now available as an iPhone app. The information is categorised into twelve different themes such as population and migration, economic globalisation, and macroeconomic trends. The app is free to download and a version for Blackberry and other smartphones will be available soon. Read more here.

Free Webinar from Verdict

Verdict are hosting a free webinar on "The Future of Convenience Retailing in Europe". The webinar takes place on Thursday 3rd June 14.00 GMT. Further information and sign-up can be found here.

Need help using Datastream?

For 4 weeks trainers from Thomson Reuters will be holding online Q&A sessions to answer your questions regarding data on DataStream

• There is no need to have the product in front of you, just the question that you want answering

• You don't need to join a conference call, they’ll be using Adobe chat… just log in and type

• To sign up email training.uki@thomsonreuters.com stating the date, time and product session that you would like to attend. Thomson Reuters will then email you with login details for the session
Dates:
28th May 10am
09th June 3pm
11th June 10am
16th June 3pm
18th June 10am
25th June 10am

The truth about Goldman Sachs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alyoung/
CC BY-NC 2.0

Radio 4 attempt to discover "the truth about Goldman Sachs". Listen to the programme on BBC Radio 4 Monday 24 May 20.00.

New horizons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swisscan/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

For those students thinking about their futures beyond University of Westminster and the opportunities that await, remember to make use of the resources available to you before you leave. Look at the advice on the Westminster careers website and use library resources to research potential employers. For example you can use Business Source Complete to find SWOT analyses for relevant companies (once in Business Source Complete click the publications link), use FAME to get financial reports and build a list of contacts (search for a company and click on directors & contacts), Mintel to research relevant market information and Factiva to search global newspapers. Good luck!

Interesting links

Recently, I have been looking at other business blogs to get ideas and I have found many written in America, lots written by business students and some which are not regularly updated. I have only found one blog which is interesting to me because it contains regular posts about the UK economy. Here is a link to it http://www.economicsuk.com/blog/

I would really appreciate your thoughts and comments on this blog. Also, let me know about any business blogs that you follow and why?

UK Clothing Market: free webinar

Verdict are hosting a free webinar on 'the UK clothing market 2010: issues and opportunities". The webinar takes place on Thursday 20th May 11.00 GMT. Further information and sign-up can be found here.

Don't work too hard!

Photo by Rajesh Vijayarajan used under the creative commons license

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rajeshvj/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Recent research has suggested that working overtime can affect your health, with those working three to four hours overtime increasing their chance of heart disease significantly. Similar studies have looked at the impact of stress in the workplace and how it can be a major factor in the development of heart disease. Read the BBC report here.

Are you interested in reading academic research in this area from a management perspective or perhaps you have an assignment to do on stress in the workplace? The database Emerald would be a good place to look as it has lots of management research articles. Try searching for keywords such as: hours of work, working patterns, stress and health, workaholism, occupational stress, illness etc. Find Emerald via InfoLinX
And don't forget the importance of work-life balance! I think I'd better take a break...

BP Caps First Oil Leak

BP has managed to cap the first, and smallest oil leak, spilling from it's damaged oil pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico.

It is estimated that 800,000 litres of oil are spilling into the sea every day threatening to cause a huge environmental disaster in the area. Sea fisheries and wildlife are threatened as well as the local economy

BP is spending up to $6m per day trying to stop the leak and clean up the oil. As a consequence, BP's share price has fallen and it faces huge costly legal actions.

Further information is available from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8652448.stm

Thomson Reuters Top Trader

Learn to trade with a new Facebook application from Thomson Reuters.

Top Trader givers you an opportunity to experience the financial markets in a-close-to-real-life environment. It provides you with a range of tools, including market data and news. Learn how to analyze information, manage a portfolio of $1 million and use the available tools to make investment decisions.

The trading application also has a competition with a $1,500 cash prize for the best player (running until May 28th)

To start trading click here

Guardian Factfile UK

The Guardian are running a series of factfiles this week describing them as "a week-long examination of the key data about the UK". Topics so far have been population, economy, crime and education. View the online counterparts here: Guardian Factfile UK. Don't forget if you are looking for stats and demographic information the gateway to UK National statistics can be found and searched here.

FREE events at City Business Library

As the UK begins its tentative climb out of recession, now is a great time for potential entrepreneurs to sharpen their business skills.

City Business Library (CBL) is offering free seminars on topics ranging from low-cost marketing and interview skills to hands-on database training to get background information on major competitors in your sector.

CBL has now relocated to Guildhall, the nearest tube station is St Paul's.

Contacts, details and information
Map

Ash cloud : waiting for the dust to settle

Photo by ztephen used under the creative commons license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ztephen/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

With UK and European airports now re-opened after a six day shutdown the effects the volcanic ash cloud has had on European business will last a lot longer. EIU Viewswire has up to the minute analysis on how it has affected business, what the future consequences might be and whether it makes any impact on the world economy. Access the database EIU Viewswire via infoLinX (in infoLinX click the 'titles' tab and enter EIU Viewswire).

Mobile advertising....iBlog the iPhone iAd

Photo by K!T on Flickr.com used under the creative commons license

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitcowan/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Apple recently announced their new advertising platform which will be rolled out in the summer. The platform, unsurprisingly named iAd, will allow advertising content to be played and viewed within an app. Read the story on the BBC news website here.

Further research:

Access the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Guide to Mobile and other useful industry information via MediaTel’s Mobile section. Access MediaTel via InfoLinX, you may need to sign in with your Athens password.

Borrow the book “Mobile advertising” by Chetan Sharma. See whether it’s available on the library catalogue.

Read market research reports on the telecoms industry on Mintel via InfoLinX.

Find articles about mobile advertising on Business Source Complete via InfoLinX. Try key words such as mobile phones, cell phones, mobile communication systems, smartphones, advertising, marketing strategy etc.

Featured database

Business Insights provides market research reports focusing on 5 global industry areas:

• consumer goods
• energy
• finance
• healthcare
• technology

It also includes Access Asia, consisting of detailed industry and consumer market reports, company profiles, biographies and Asian country profiles.

You can access Business Insights via infoLinX. You will need your University password to login if you are off-campus.

New statistics report

The Office for National Statistics has just released a report into the 'estimated effect of the budget on consumer prices index and retail prices index- Spring 2010'. View it here or go to the National Statistics Gateway www.statistics.gov.uk to search for other statistics from the UK government.

Free webinar on global retailing in 2010

Euromonitor are inviting students to a free webinar on Global Retailing in 2010. It will take place on the 25th March at 11am EST, 3pm GMT. All attendees will get the chance to examine the dynamics of changing shopping patterns. The webinar will examine grocery, non-grocery and non-store retailing, identify changing consumer spending patterns, and their impact in these sectors.

Register here to join the live webinar with question and answer session featuring Euromonitor International's global research team.

Biz/ed Premier
Don't forget you can access 25 core business e-books via Biz/ed Premier. It also includes research articles and exercises.

Titles available include the latest editions of John Martin's Organizational behavior and management, and Gerald Cole's Management theory and practice.

You can access Biz/ed Premier directly using the links below, or look for specific titles by doing an e-book search on the library catalogue.

Login here if you are on campus

Login here if you are off-campus

(You will need your Athens password to login if you are off campus)

City Business Library

The City Business Library has moved to Guildhall, their new address is Aldermanbury, London EC2V 7HH. The City Business Library is a public library with a good collection of business reference sources, including market research reports.

They also arrange a number of public events - on 3rd March tax adviser Chris Seth of HRMC is running a course 'Setting up a limited company', then on the 4th March there is a Business Link workshop on 'Website Optimization and E-Marketing'.

For more details of all these courses, visit their webpage: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Libraries/City_of_London_libraries/cbl.htm and click on 'Events and Training'

Featured database

EIU Viewswire is a daily business intelligence resource from the Economist Intelligence Unit. Covering 203 countries it highlights important economic, political and market developments, provides analysis and forecasts future developments. It is updated daily with up to 200 new articles per day. Access EIU Viewswire via InfoLinX at www.westminster.ac.uk/infoLinX

You can do a general search or you can search for information and data by country. Selecting a country from the drop-down menu will take you directly to the chosen country’s homepage where you can access the latest information, analysis and forecasts for that country. You can open a full country report by clicking on the 1-click report logo on the country’s homepage.

There is also a new interactive feature called data tool which allows you to compare and download core economic data for 150 key countries. Open data tool and click on the help tab to view a tutorial to guide you through how to use it.

Topical pick: sweet like chocolate

Photo by Sifu Renka on Flickr.com used under the creative commons license

According to this report from the BBC life is looking sweet for chocolate-maker Thorntons as they have reported a rise in profits. The sale of Cadbury to Kraft foods has also left chocolate (melting) in the spotlight recently. If you are interested in this hot topic, there is plenty of research to be done:

~Find out about the UK chocolate market, including its size, share and forecast from the Mintel report 'Chocolate confectionery- UK- April 2008', which includes a new market re-forecast. 
~Get a company report for Thorntons PLC on the financial database Fame
~Find out how much UK households spend on confectionery from the latest Family Spending report from the National Statistics.
~Borrow the book "Cadbury’s purple reign : the story behind chocolate’s best-loved brand" by John Bradley from Marylebone library. 
~Explore Cadbury's advertising techniques by viewing memorable ads such as the creme egg ads via the ad archive database Creative Club
~Research how the Kraft-Cadbury tale out played out in newspapers and journals by searching the databases Business Source Complete and Factiva for articles. 

And that's just the start.....

Christmas sales!

It already seems like a lifetime since Christmas but how did retailers fare over the Christmas period? Mintel have just released a webinar presentation on just this topic, entitled 'False Dawn'. To find it log into Mintel via InfoLinX, select the 'what's hot' tab and click on 'Economy in Crisis'. This also links to related reports such as 'Christmas shopping habits -UK- January 2010'.

Harvard Business YouTube videos

Harvard Business Publishing have a YouTube channel which has a wide range of videos on various business and management related topics. See: http://www.youtube.com/user/HarvardBusiness
In this video the Chairman and CEO of Cisco systems discusses teamwork and collaboration.

Economists Online- free resource

Economists Online is an EU-funded research tool for economists. It gives access to 50,000 bibliographic references, many of which will link to full-text. The main search page can be accessed here:
http://www.economistsonline.org/home and a guide to the site can be accessed here: http://www.neeoproject.eu/NEEOBooklet.pdf

Featured database

Creative Club is the UK’s largest ad archive, hosting over 1.5 million multimedia advertisements. You can search across all ads by company or brand back to 1997. Updated daily, it covers all media and includes full spend data, media schedules and, through its Adsnaps facility, downloadable one page reports on a specific company.

You can access this database via Library Search. 

Mintel's 'Market Size' Blog

Mintel's blog contains interesting snippets of market research news. Recents posts have been on the subject of the iPad, 3D entertainment and pay TV. Find the blog here: http://gmn.mintel.com/blog/
Also follow Mintel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mintelnews

Welcome to the Blog!

Welcome to the blog from the Business Librarians at the University of Westminster. We will be posting information about new resources and library news as well as general snippets of useful information for the business courses. You can subscribe to the blog to get information delivered straight to your inbox. Please feel free to leave comments and questions on the blog.