Globstrategy is a portal providing access to freely available information on the subject area of Global Strategy and International Business. It is available via OER, Open Educational Resources at http://www.oercommons.org/courses/globstrategy
It was developed by Suresh George, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management and contains many useful links to resources such as journal articles, lectures, textbooks, case studies, statistics etc. It includes links to country information and profiles which are useful to get background information on specific countries/areas. Definately worth a look!
Monday, 2 December 2013
Friday, 22 November 2013
Library Support on Moodle
There is now a link on Moodle to Library Support. This can be found on the left hand side under Faculty Links. When you go into it for the first time you will need to click on 'enrol me'. To view support for business students, click on 'Business and Management'.
Here you will find lots of guides, tutorials, videos, quizzes etc relating to information searching, using Locate and databases, evaluating information, using Google, referencing and Refworks. Some of the material we have created specifically for Coventry University students and other material is from external sources, providing some very useful guidance and tips.
Here you will find lots of guides, tutorials, videos, quizzes etc relating to information searching, using Locate and databases, evaluating information, using Google, referencing and Refworks. Some of the material we have created specifically for Coventry University students and other material is from external sources, providing some very useful guidance and tips.
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Student Guide to Social Media
I have come across this very useful guide/tutorial. It was developed as a joint project by the Universities of Leeds, Manchester and York. It is aimed at undergraduate students and shows how different types of social media can help with your studies, e.g. networking, finding and sharing information and keeping up to date. It is really easy to use and includes lots of video clips from students talking about their own experiences with social media - well worth a look.
Access it at http://libassets.manchester.ac.uk/social-media-guide/
Access it at http://libassets.manchester.ac.uk/social-media-guide/
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Evaluating information
When searching for information beyond the databases available via Locate, it is important to evaluate that information to ensure that it is appropriate for academic purposes. Searching on the internet can often produce an overwhelming amount of results and it can be difficult to decide what can be used in your assignments.
Rather than go into a lot of detail here, I have found a video from YouTube produced by a librarian that explains how to evaluate information using the CRAAP test. This acronym stands for, Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose and can be used as a guide to evaluation.
The video is available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAWhE0mj69I
There are plenty of other videos available on YouTube on this subject. Like the one above, many are produced by University libraries (often in the US), so you can ignore anything that is specific to their library.
Rather than go into a lot of detail here, I have found a video from YouTube produced by a librarian that explains how to evaluate information using the CRAAP test. This acronym stands for, Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose and can be used as a guide to evaluation.
The video is available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAWhE0mj69I
There are plenty of other videos available on YouTube on this subject. Like the one above, many are produced by University libraries (often in the US), so you can ignore anything that is specific to their library.
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Using Google
There are times when it is necessary to search Google rather than one of the databases, but searching Google can often be frustrating; you get too many hits, many are not relevant, you are prompted for payment, there are issues of quality and bias etc.
There are techniques that you can use to minimise these problems.
Firstly if you are searching for journal articles and academic material, use Google Scholar. If you are searching on campus you will have the locateit link on the right hand side, which will enable you to check if we have access to the article. Some of the articles may be freely available, so look out for the pdf link. For others you can use the Document Delivery service which will cost £2 per article, so there is no need to purchase the article.
When working off-campus you can set Coventry University as your home university, so will get the Locateit link. To do this in Google Scholar, click on settings (top right hand corner), then 'Library Links'. You can then search for Coventry University and save it.
Searching can be improved by using the same techniques that you use when searching databases, such as "phrase searching". There is also an advanced search that you can access by clicking on the arrow at the end of the search box. The advanced search is still fairly basic, but it should make your search more focussed.
You can search for results from a specific site by putting site:[type of site or name of site], e.g. site:ac will return results from university websites. You can use this to search for results in specific websites too.
To eliminate irrelevant results use the minus sign (-) in front of the word you wish to exclude, e.g. Jaguar -car will find results for Jaguars, but not the car. When you use the minus sign there must be a space before it, but not after the word you wish to exclude.
The order of the words you put in the search box can also affect the results. If you are not getting what you are looking for, trying altering the order of the words.
Google soon remembers your searches and returns results it thinks you want to get, based on your past searches. This can sometimes be useful, e.g. for finding restaurants or shops selling specific products in your area, but could also be restrictive. If you want to eliminate this problem, if you are logged in to Google, go to settings to remove your browsing history. You might also want to try using DuckDuckgo.com instead of Google. This will give you different results that you may not find in Google.
When searching Goolgle, many people don't look beyond the first page. Try going a few pages in and you might find interesting results.
There are lots of other features that are worth exploring. Have a look at http://www.google.com/insidesearch/ for more information including the tips and tricks section.
There are techniques that you can use to minimise these problems.
Firstly if you are searching for journal articles and academic material, use Google Scholar. If you are searching on campus you will have the locateit link on the right hand side, which will enable you to check if we have access to the article. Some of the articles may be freely available, so look out for the pdf link. For others you can use the Document Delivery service which will cost £2 per article, so there is no need to purchase the article.
When working off-campus you can set Coventry University as your home university, so will get the Locateit link. To do this in Google Scholar, click on settings (top right hand corner), then 'Library Links'. You can then search for Coventry University and save it.
Searching can be improved by using the same techniques that you use when searching databases, such as "phrase searching". There is also an advanced search that you can access by clicking on the arrow at the end of the search box. The advanced search is still fairly basic, but it should make your search more focussed.
You can search for results from a specific site by putting site:[type of site or name of site], e.g. site:ac will return results from university websites. You can use this to search for results in specific websites too.
To eliminate irrelevant results use the minus sign (-) in front of the word you wish to exclude, e.g. Jaguar -car will find results for Jaguars, but not the car. When you use the minus sign there must be a space before it, but not after the word you wish to exclude.
The order of the words you put in the search box can also affect the results. If you are not getting what you are looking for, trying altering the order of the words.
Google soon remembers your searches and returns results it thinks you want to get, based on your past searches. This can sometimes be useful, e.g. for finding restaurants or shops selling specific products in your area, but could also be restrictive. If you want to eliminate this problem, if you are logged in to Google, go to settings to remove your browsing history. You might also want to try using DuckDuckgo.com instead of Google. This will give you different results that you may not find in Google.
When searching Goolgle, many people don't look beyond the first page. Try going a few pages in and you might find interesting results.
There are lots of other features that are worth exploring. Have a look at http://www.google.com/insidesearch/ for more information including the tips and tricks section.
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Annual Reports
I am frequently asked where to find annual reports. There are a number of places to look depending on the type, size of company and number of years required.
For larger UK companies FAME will provide all the financial information contained on the annual report. For most companies this information is available for 10 years. On FAME you can configue this information into a report and take out the bits you don't need.
For many companies the annual report is available on the company's website. However, you may need to search for it because they are not very prominant. Look in the 'about us' or 'corporate' section and the annual reports can usually be found under 'investor relations'. Often you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the webpage. It can be useful to look on the company's website because you can usually find highlights of the annual report and the interim reports. Usually a company will only keep the latest year's report. If you are interested in the non-financial information given in an annual report, such as the director's statement, forward strategy, review of the year's activities etc looking at the pdf version on the website is a good option.
There are other websites where you can get annual reports, such as Northcote, http://www.northcote.co.uk/ These are mainly for UK companies. The annual reports available are variable because it depends on the company making their report available to Northcote. Often you will find a number of years available.
If you are looking for the annual report of a smaller company, which will not be available on FAME or on their website you can apply to Companies House http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ All companies are required to submit their audited accounts each year (although the amount of detail required varies according to the size of the company). You will also need to pay a small charge for the accounts.
For larger UK companies FAME will provide all the financial information contained on the annual report. For most companies this information is available for 10 years. On FAME you can configue this information into a report and take out the bits you don't need.
For many companies the annual report is available on the company's website. However, you may need to search for it because they are not very prominant. Look in the 'about us' or 'corporate' section and the annual reports can usually be found under 'investor relations'. Often you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the webpage. It can be useful to look on the company's website because you can usually find highlights of the annual report and the interim reports. Usually a company will only keep the latest year's report. If you are interested in the non-financial information given in an annual report, such as the director's statement, forward strategy, review of the year's activities etc looking at the pdf version on the website is a good option.
There are other websites where you can get annual reports, such as Northcote, http://www.northcote.co.uk/ These are mainly for UK companies. The annual reports available are variable because it depends on the company making their report available to Northcote. Often you will find a number of years available.
If you are looking for the annual report of a smaller company, which will not be available on FAME or on their website you can apply to Companies House http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ All companies are required to submit their audited accounts each year (although the amount of detail required varies according to the size of the company). You will also need to pay a small charge for the accounts.
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
BSC - Searching for company information
The Enhanced Business Searching Interface used to be really useful for searching for company and industry information, but changes have been made and now there seems to be no real benefit in using it. I have found that the best way to find information about a company is to go into BSC in the usual way and click on the 'Company Information' tab at the top. You can search by company name or keyword to find companies in a sector. The search will give you anything related to that company including reports, journal articles etc.
In addition if you click on the 'more' tab you can search for company profiles which will give you a datamonitor report on a company. These are the detailed reports about a company and also include a SWOT analysis. Under the 'more' tab you will also see a link to business videos which are very useful.
You can also limit your search in BSC either in document type to company report or industry overview or by publication type to industry profile. Country reports are also very useful to get economic,industrial, political information about a country.
In addition if you click on the 'more' tab you can search for company profiles which will give you a datamonitor report on a company. These are the detailed reports about a company and also include a SWOT analysis. Under the 'more' tab you will also see a link to business videos which are very useful.
You can also limit your search in BSC either in document type to company report or industry overview or by publication type to industry profile. Country reports are also very useful to get economic,industrial, political information about a country.
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
OpenDOAR
Open DOAR http://www.opendoar.org/ is the Directory of Open Access Repositories. As well as a list of open access respositories it provides access to the contents of these repositories. These consist of the research outputs of universities and other research institutes from all over the world, including theses (doctoral, postgraduate and undergraduate), journal articles, discussion papers and book chapters. It covers all academic areas including business and economics. So, if you are looking to see what research has been done in your area or you just want to see what a thesis looks like, this is a good site to search. It is free and the contents are available in full text.
The searching is done using Google custom search and is a bit limited. Unless your search is very specific you do get a large number of hits, which can be a bit tricky to narrow down. There are no abstracts and the results are shown in relevance, rather than date order. You can't change them to date order either.
However, it is worth a look because of the academic content, it's global coverage and being freely available. It will also continue to grow and hopefully the search functions will be improved.
The searching is done using Google custom search and is a bit limited. Unless your search is very specific you do get a large number of hits, which can be a bit tricky to narrow down. There are no abstracts and the results are shown in relevance, rather than date order. You can't change them to date order either.
However, it is worth a look because of the academic content, it's global coverage and being freely available. It will also continue to grow and hopefully the search functions will be improved.
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