FRSM002 Curiosity, Research, and Information: Research Databases

The Lippincott Librarians are your best guides when doing corporate research.

• Business Strategies: Companies and Financials guide
  • Focus on company and financials information
  • Focus on newspaper and journal articles
• United States Economic Statistics guide
• International Business guide, which includes data and statistics

Lippincott home page

Make an appointment or connect with a Lippincott Librarian

Additional specific sources for business-related news and current events: 

Nexis-Uni--More than 15,000 news, legal and business sources

Factiva-- Worldwide full text coverage of local and regional newspapers, trade publications, business newswires, press release wires, media transcripts, news photos, business-rich Web sites, investment analyst reports, market research reports, country and regional profiles, company profiles, historical market data.

Follow instructions provided as you link through to these newspapers. Registration required.

New York Times (direct link to instructions and registration)-- for additional options see the Franklin catalog record

Wall Street Journal (direct link to instructions and registration)-- for additional options see the Franklin catalog record

Financial Times (direct link to instructions and registration) -- for additional options see the Franklin Catalog record

Washington Post (direct link to instructions and registration) -- for additional options see the Franklin Catalog record

There are multiple ways to connect with census data. 

The U.S. Census Data and Demographic guide is a great first stop

The Statistical Abstract of the United States was always my favorite reference tool back in the print only days. Today, the U.S. Government outsources the publication of this compandium of detailed data to Proquest. View the Franklin catalog record for more information or go directly to the online Statistical Abstract. It still takes advantage of the original's excellent organization and indexing. Use this to find data on non-fossil fuel energy options, prison populations, poverty, (numbers, but not percent of the population), infant and maternal health, and just about anything you can think of to ask. Note that you always have a link to the original source of information and a brief explanation to how the numbers are determined. 

Historical Statistics of the United States published by Cambridge University Press with permission of the U.S. Census Bureau. Dates vary depending on the statistical table. Dates can be as early as 1774 and into the late 1990s. This database is easy to explore and to work with--includes downloadable tables and other user friendly features. 

Ancestry Library--this is a popular source for genealogists and incorporates multiple sources, from federal census data, slave records and narratives, WW I registration cards, church, court, and immigration records from both the United States and the United Kingdom. 

Ulrichsweb is a directory of journals -- both current and ceased. It isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of all the journals that ever were, but it gives you a good idea of what is currently available. It can also help you with pesky, poorly constructed citations. 

Worldcat is the catalog of library catalogs. It is international in scope and includes anything that libraries have cataloged using the OCLC cataloging system. This system is used internationally--a sort of not-for-profit monopoly. Worldcat includes circulating collections in all media as well as special collections material--as long as it has been cataloged. This is a good place to find an incunabulum or the latest romance novel, a newspaper, a video for a film or documentary, a dissertation, a manuscript, a mimeographed poem. If it exists in a library or archive, you can probably find a record for it in Worldcat. 

Archivegrid -- not as comprehensive as worldcat, but this database focuses on archival collections. 

Primary source databases--I can't list them all, but Penn Libraries subscribes to many--this is a good sample.

Adam Matthew databases (find objects, newspapers, diaries, advertising copy, fashion, business documents, photographs, letters....from a wide variety of time periods, subject areas, geographical regions. Predominantly databases are historical in nature.)

Gale Primary Sources and Gale's Archives Unbound. Archives Unbound is derived from microfilm collections from many countries, languages, and time periods--more than 12,000,000 pages. Search across all at once or by collection. It is included in Gale Primary Sources along with 39 other significant collections covering law, global history, newspapers, fiction, children's literature, images, and more 

Readex--historical newspapers from colonial period forward, historical imprints, and government materials including Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Joint Publications Research Service,and more

Proquest historical databases--newspapers, annual reports, magazines and journals. The link takes you to list in the catalog based on a search proquest historical 

These are collections from major publishers and database providers. There is more out there that is freely available, some of which you can find through our catalog and through our research guides. 

It is easy to be overwhelmed and inspired!