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Bunker Hill Community College Library Resources for International Business Issues

The following is support material related to a library instruction session conducted by a library instructor and a BHCC Business Department course instructor.

For this session, your Professor, Mark Sheehan, has presented you with guidelines for your first library assignment. Your assignment focuses on international business in terms of legal transactions, corruption, and social ethics. As we begin, it is important to remember that this class session is as much about what you locate, retrieve, and produce for your instructor as it is about the process you follow to deliver the end product. This web file will remain in place throughout the semester as an assist for subsequent assignments.

Let's start by discovering where we are...

If you haven't yet seen the library's new online catalog take a look at it. The holdings of all 30 NOBLE libraries are easy to get to if you have a connection to the Internet and web browser software. You may restrict your search to holdings of the Bunker Hill Community College Library only, whichcan be helpful and save time.

One book you may find useful in your research is titled Hoover's Handbook of World Business. Give the catalog a try by doing a search to identify the call number for this book.If you are not familiar with the BHCC library, take a look at the library map and the Library Home Page . You'll see the reference section to the right of your screen in yellow. The REF books with call numbers that begin with H are to the right of the Reference Desk.

Using the Library of Congress Subject Headings means you can browse the library shelves and the world wide web more efficiently. If you are in the library, you can find what you need without relying on the computer to point out specific shelf locations of individual books.

The Library of Congress System organizes information by applying the 26 letters of the alphabet to general disciplines of knowledge like Law, Science, Religion and then narrows the categories by adding subdivisions to each. If you do one or two searches in the catalog using the keywords business and ethics you'll notice that many of the books in that subject area have call numbers beginning with H. If you restrict yourself to that one subject, however, you'll be missing out on other valuable information in other areas of the collection. Using the LC Subject Headings will remind you that more information can be found in related subject areas like law and country studies.

And don't forget the " virtual library "...

The BHCC library has a significant number of electronic services that deliver a range of databases to your desktop. Take a look at the Online Electronic Resource file on the BHCC Library Web Page to determine how some resources work better to serve your research work on an International Business Topic than others.

Selected resources and suggestions for today's library assignment:

(be sure to familiarize yourself with the parameters of your assignment before getting started)
  • If you are looking for a specific URL you can enter it in the location field of your browser. (computer terms like field and browser can be found using an online computer dictionary.) Here's a sample URL...http://www.bxa.doc.gov

  • Use a search engine to locate some sites. Go to Google and enter U.S. Department of Commerce. Search the government site for the phrase denied parties

  • Try the Librarian's Internet Index to compare the difference between a search engine and a directory. Select International Business from the subject categories and then investigate the reviewed and annotated links to Directories, Databases, and subject specific resources.

  • With the legal aspects of your assignment in mind, go to Lexis-Nexis (available on campus only). First, select the Legal Research Database. Enter a very broad and generic search using the word ethics in the topic search box. Be sure to use the options provided by the downward facing triangles to highlight International Trade Issues and expand the search to include the previous 5 years. Once you have your results, scroll down and enter the phrase foreign trade to further narrow your search. Finally, select the case titled " McKesson Corp. v. Islamic Republic of Iran ". Once you are viewing the text of the document, use your web browser to help you glance through the document. Go to EDIT on your browser file menu and click on Find in page. Type the work ethics into the dialog box window and move the the document to determine if the document is relevant to your needs for this assignment.

  • For topic related stories in the press, try the Proquest database. It is the only place online where you can find fulltext Wall Street Journals unless you personally subscribe to the newspaper's fee based service.

  • As if that's not enough, take a look at the BHCC library's links to Business Resources. Click on International Business Resources on the WWW or use the URL http://ciber.bus.msu.edu/busres.htm to go directly to Michigan State University: Center for International Business Education and Research (MSU-CIBER). When you are through, go back to the BHCC library Business Resources page and scroll down until you see the link to MassBedrock. It's listed under Massachusetts Business Sites but it has a link to Global Business resources that will be useful for this assigment.

  • INFOTRAC, like Lexis Nexis requires that you select and search one of its databases at a time. Successfully discriminating among choices is a skill in itself. Consider why, given the parameters of this assignment, you might select General BusinessFile ASAP 1980- before, but probably not instead of, Business and Company Resource Center 1980- While you're using InfoTrac, try its two access URLs. This way you'll know how to access this database from off campus and you can test your barcode number at the same time. From on-campus:

    Now, select General BusinessFile ASAP 1980- and try performing a subject search using the phrase International Business to see how it differs from keyword searching techniques. Follow the alphabetical ordered list down to International Business Enterprises and then examine the difference between the hypertext links for Narrow and See Also

  • EBSCO for Business Topics is a customized version of the complete EBSCOWeb Resources . This is where another source for locating stories in a wide range of magazines and newspapers related to your topic.

  • Facts.com is available from both on and off campus. For off-campus use, ask one the librarian conducting this workshop for the password and ID. Try a search using the term sweatshops to get started. Avoid the pitfalls! If you decide to use this database, click on the question mark icon (?)for context relevant help.

NOTE: the library offers six workshops a week for students interested in learning more about any and all aspects of information use. If you are having trouble working your way through some of these resources, sign up for a workshop now so you'll be ready for the next assignment.

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Last reviewed July 16, 2001
Last updated February 25, 2004