Home > Bookshelf > Searching

Title:

Online Business Sourcebook 2003

Review:

The Online Business Sourcebook 2003 is a much needed update on the previous 1999 edition. This edition was edited and completed in October 2002, and is aimed at professional business users and libraries rather than occasional users. As a single resource for electronic business information sources (i.e. online, CD-Rom, DVD-ROM and web-based) it is invaluable, describing products covering most areas of interest to business information users.

The book focuses on sources relevant to researchers based in the UK, and to a lesser degree Europe. The range of content also makes it valuable to users based elsewhere. Included are service details for 48 hosts and aggregators, along with 1240 products and databases. These are categorized by function, for example: company directories, company financials, investment and shareholder analysis, credit, news, legislation, market data, etc. Within each category, products are generally arranged by geographic coverage with Pan-European sources listed first, followed by UK sources, other European sources and then International, North American and rest-of-World sources. The two largest source categories are company directories with 248 databases listed and business and financial news sources with 252 databases. Combined, these two categories represent 40 percent of the total coverage.

The book is an update rather than a rewrite, and a lot of the text from earlier editions is retained. Although this is justified when there has been no change, there are parts which, I believe, could have been rewritten to take account of major changes since the last edition. For example, the chapter on the Internet implies that Telnet is still as important an access route as the world-wide-web. This may have been the situation a few years ago; however, even though some old-hands may prefer the Telnet interfaces for host-databases such as Dialog, for most users the web is the only access route, and Telnet is obsolete.

The Online Business Sourcebook says that it is the "only single volume evaluation of all the databases and products of value to a business audience". Unfortunately, there are some key sources that have been omitted - with patent information being one gap I'd like to see filled in future editions. Sources like Derwent Information and Micropatent are not mentioned, and neither is "espacenet" providing free patent information from the European patent offices. Such sources are important for business information professionals in the STM fields, and also for those involved in competitive intelligence research looking at competitor R&D. Other exclusions are less obvious - and may have resulted from editorial judgment on their general use by business information professionals. The Credit chapter, for instance, does not mention credit information suppliers such as Informa from Spain, ORT in France, Creditreform in Germany or Kreditschutzverband (KSV) in Austria (although in fairness, some of these companies are mentioned elsewhere for their company directories, or availability on host databases).

Nevertheless, despite omissions and a few errors, which are perhaps inevitable in a book such as this, the sourcebook provides descriptions of a multitude of databases, information sources, online aggregators and more, allowing the business user to identify quickly online sources for global business information. This includes numerous specialist interest databases aimed at various niche areas such as Janes, for defence related information or SCRIP and IMS data for the pharmaceutical industries. Accordingly, the sourcebook should be an essential addition and reference work for all corporate and business- oriented libraries.

FreePint Reviewer:

Arthur Weiss is a UK based management consultant specializing in competitive intelligence and strategy. He has worked in the information industry for approaching 20 years and has spent time searching for information using a wide variety of online and offline sources. Arthur has written and presented on competitive intelligence, marketing and Internet related topics in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. Arthur is the managing partner of AWARE, a CI consultancy offering clients CI research, analysis and training. He can be contacted through AWARE's web-site at http://www.marketing-intelligence.co.uk.

Related Free Pint Links:

• Related Internet searching book reviews on the Free Pint Bookshelf