Find quality business Web sites with the help of a UB librarian

The Web is chock-full of information useful to business researchers, but how does one go about sifting through such massive amounts of data to find those few kernels of useful information? The major search engines can be of some use, but for-profit services such as Yahoo and Alta Vista are driven by advertising dollars and offer features targeted at a large general audience. Academic libraries, on the other hand, focus on quality, discipline-based information, and generally provide guidance specific to researchers.

When it comes to finding business information on the Internet, one can find no better expert than Lockwood Library's Michael Lavin. Lavin is the libraries' business librarian. He holds an MBA and is the 1992 recipient of the American Library Association's BRASS/Gale Research Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship. He is also the author of the acclaimed research guide "Business Information: How to Find it, How to Use It" (Oryx Press). Lavin brings his extraordinary knowledge of business sources to the UB community by creating helpful, online guides to the very best business Web sites. If you are looking for scholarly, peer-reviewed business research, or for information on companies, industries, new technologies or products, you will want to start your research with Mike's "Business Databases on BISON" http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/Collections/buswings.html. You will find all the premier (read expensive) databases here: Dow Jones Interactive, ABI/INFORM, Business & Industry, Gale's Business Resources, and the recently acquired database containing full-text research reports on companies and industries, Research Bank Web (Investext).

Lavin also has put significant effort into finding Web sites that offer quality business information for free; the results of his labor can be found at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/Collections/bussites.html. This listing is arranged into broad categories, covering such subjects as accounting, banking, company information, currency converters, economic data, investment sites, marketing, small business and taxation. Lavin does not attempt to "reinvent the wheel;" if there is a great metasite for an area, he only will list that one site. For example, under "Accounting," the only link is to Rutgers Accounting Web http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/. While this site serves as a one-stop shopping center for accounting resources, many accounting students are not aware of this fabulous source. Unfortunately, great one-stop metasites like the Accounting Web are rare; a more common occurrence is found with a topic such as investing-the Web is brimming with information on it, but no one place pulls it all together. Lavin has managed to handle this problem by dividing investment sites into several practical subcategories: bonds, dividend reinvestment plans, futures and options, glossaries and handbooks, initial public offerings, mutual funds, stock quotes, etc., and each of these subcategories lead to only the most pertinent links.

Not so long ago, spider-compiled robotic search engines were all the rage, the notion being who needs human intervention-let computers organize the Internet for us. But as we enter the 21st century, and the Web reaches adolescence, what's the most popular site on the Net? Yahoo, an Internet portal where hundreds of real-live human beings place Internet sites into useful subject categories. But most of the people employed at Yahoo are generalists, not subject specialists. So when you need help with your business research, why not turn to an information maestro? You can reach one of the best at mrlavin@acsu.buffalo.edu or by phone at 645-2814, ext. 439.

-Gemma DeVinney and Don Hartman, University Libraries