Business Source Premier (EBSCO)

Business Source Premier (BSP) is the business world's “go to” e-Resource, providing full text coverage for more than 2,300 journals spanning all manner of business disciplines, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, and finance.

But the buck doesn't stop there, so to speak. BSP includes a lot of 'non-journal' content, as well, including:

• Market research reports: analyzed information about consumers, competitors and the effectiveness of marketing programs
• Industry reports: comprehensive accounts of particular industries, including trends, major players, facts, and statistics
• SWOT analysis: a strategic planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a project or business venture
• 1,500 country reports

Simple put, BSP is the mother ship of business research!

Being that the focus of this particular e-Resource is business and current industry news, the audience for BSP is generally 18+ (the occasional teen taking a high school business course, the exception to the rule... ) Some rather key publications found within include, but are not limited to:

• Harvard Business Review (with full text from 1922!)
• Consumer Reports Money Advisor
• Current Topics in Management
• Entrepreneur
• Fast Company
• Forbes
• Fortune
• Kiplinger’s
• Money
• Personal Finance
• Red Herring (unique to EBSCO)
• Time

BSP is an e-Resource we purchased in a joint partnership with Oakville Public Library based on the unique demands of our communities and (perhaps more specifically) BPL's strategic directive to develop new services for small business and non-profit organizations. Free with our subscription to BSP we received Regional Business News--a completely separate, full text e-Resource for more than 80 regional US and Canadian business publications (think of Regional Business News like the toy that comes with the Happy Meal...)

Both BSP and Regional Business News are EBSCO products which means like most of EBSCO's e-Resources, they share a common interface and contain many of the e-Resource interface features we commonly look for (click image to enlarge):

1. Advanced search
2. Full text limit
3. Publication search tab
4. Image search tab
5. Folder/log-in option
6. Help

Worthy of mention: EBSCO is on the forefront of web usability and has done much to make their e-Resources as accessible as possible. These features include:

• The ability to translate the BSP interface into one of 23 different languages
• The ability to translate BSP articles into one of nine different languages
• Text-to-Speech, or TTS--a program that reads web content aloud for the visually impaired
• The ability to conduct a visual search rather than a text-based search, for those with different learning needs
• The elimination of cumbersome web design features, like tables, that make using screen readers (web programs similar to VERA) difficult.

Hidden gem? The Company Profiles tab can be used as an international business directory, and includes more than 10,000 profiles! These comprehensive profiles are assembled by Datamonitor--a leading business information company specializing in industry analysis--and include in depth company forecasts for six industry sectors: health care, technology, automotive, energy, consumer markets, and financial services.

For each company, Datamonitor provides insight on market growth and pricing, noteworthy competitors, products, industry forecasts, ideas for opportunities and growth, and information on the impact new technology and eCommerce can/will have on their business. Major Canadian company profiles include, but are not limited to:

• Loblaws
• Bank of Montreal
• TELUS
• Canadian Tire
• Air Canada
• Sears
• Canada Post
• and the Katz Group (Rexall)

What type of information question might you use Business Source Premier to answer?

• " would like a information about the Board and senior managers of the Hudson's Bay Company..."
• "I am looking for articles on the trial and litigation of Conrad Black."
• "What is the state of Canada's economy?"

Homework Question: Use Business Source Premier to answer the question below, emailing your response to training@bpl.on.ca. Answers to these questions can be in point form, but should include all steps taken to complete the query. Please list specific titles of articles (and their publication titles), images, media, etc. pertinent to the question posed. Please also list other e-Resources you could use to support this question.

Question:

Mark arrives at the Tansley Woods branch on a Tuesday morning and approaches the Information desk. He wants more information about the publishing world in Canada. There's been a lot in the news lately about e-books and audio books, and he’s interested in the stability of the publishing trade.

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