Web Resources:

Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.
• Center for Media and Democracy:   "The Center for Media and Democracy is a non-profit, public interest organization that strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and citizen journalism." It also publishes the quarterly PR Watch.

• International Public Relations Association:   This organization offers its more than 1,000 members an opportunity to network. Much of the site's content is restricted to members. See their Links.

• The Museum of Public Relations:   Founded in 1997, this museum offers exhibits and information about the history of public relations in the United States. As an example, see their exhibit on Edward Bernays, often called the father of public relations. See their Reference Library Bibliography.

• O'Dwyer PR.Com:   This site, from the publishers of print editions of public relations reference works and directories, offers news and information about the industry. As an example, see their Independent PR Firm Rankings.

• Occupational Outlook Handbook:   This U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics site, provides, "for hundreds of different types of jobs, the Occupational Outlook Handbook tells you the training and education needed, earnings, expected job prospects, what workers do on the job, and working conditions." See their information on Public Relations Specialists, Advertising and Public Relations Services, Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, Public Relations, and Sales Managers.

• PR Week:   "Launched in November 1998, PRWeek was Haymarket's first weekly title in the US. Over the years, PRWeek has established itself as a vital part of the PR and communications industries in the US, providing timely news, reviews, profiles, techniques, and ground-breaking research for practitioners." This site offers news, blogs, and ratings about the public relations industry.

• Public Relations Society of America:   "The Public Relations Society of America, based in New York City, is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals. The Society has more than 28,000 professional and student members. PRSA is organized into 112 Chapters nationwide, 19 Professional Interest Sections, along with Affinity Groups, which represent business and industry, counseling firms, independent practitioners, military, government, associations, hospitals, schools, professional services firms and nonprofit organizations." See their Puget Sound Chapter. See also their Publications and Resources.

• SpinWatch:   This United Kingdom-based organization monitors public relations and government lobbying efforts. See their Articles By Category and Latest News.

• UW Public Relations Certificate Program:   This program is "designed primarily for individuals exploring entry or career transition into the public relations field in a corporate or public-sector environment, a nonprofit organization, or a public relations firm. This program is endorsed by the Public Relations Society of America, Puget Sound Chapter, and the International Association of Business Communicators, Seattle Chapter."

• Wikipedia:   This free online user-created and maintained encyclopedia can be a good starting point for an orientation to a topic. See their entry for Public Relations.

The Foster Business Library Reference Collection consists of business handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other quick reference tools. It is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster, arranged by call number. Reference materials cannot be checked out; they may only be used in the library.
• Seattle Yellow Pages.
  This reference work is often a good first source for identifying local businesses quickly, by industry category.
  Foster Business Library Reference Desk.

  See the long list of companies listed under Public Relations Counselors.

• Million dollar directory.
  This annual multi-volume set lists the top 160,000 public and private businesses in the U.S., with brief directory information about each company, and indexes by SIC code and geography.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC102 .D8 2007.

  See volume five, pages 9626 to 9628, for SIC code 8743, Public Relations Services (including just one firm in Washington state).

• Puget Sound Business Journal book of lists.
  This annual publication is an invaluable source of information about public and private companies in the Puget Sound area, culled from lists that appeared weekly in the Puget Sound Business Journal. There is an index to companies and topics in the back of this volume.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC108 .S77 .P83 2007.

  See page 78 for a list of the twenty five top public relations firms in the area.

• National directory of corporate public affairs.
  This volume consists of an alphabetic catalog of 1800 U.S. companies having public or governmental affairs programs, with key contact information, plus a listing of 13,000 corporate staff employed in these offices. This volume also includes industry and geographic indexes.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER:  HD59 .N24  2005.

  See Washington state on page 1025.

• O'Dwyer's directory of corporate communications.
  This publication lists 18,000 public relations and communications people, in 5300 companies, 2,000 associations, and over 350 government departments. As the foreward to this volume notes, there is a trend away from use of the term "public relations," in favor of "corporate communications." This volume includes name and geographic indexes.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER:  HD59 .O36  2003.

  See pages A83 and A84 for Washington state corporations and page A99 for Washington state associations.

• Market share reporter.
  Two-volume annual compilation of market share data on U.S. and international companies, products and services, arranged by SIC code and with indexes by product, company and topic.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5410 .M35 2007.

  See volume two, page 821, for two tables on Public Relations (table 3608, on largest U.K. PR firms, and table 3609, on PR spending in 2004).

• The red book: a directory of the PRSA Counselors Academy.
  Published by the Public Relations Society of America, this old title explains how to select a public relations firm and provides an outdated list of individual and corporate members of the society, with various indexes.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HM263 .P84a 1998.

• Public relations tactics: blue book.
  Also published by the Public Relations Society of America, this volume is a who’s who of the public relations world, way back in the late nineties.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HM263 .P85 1998/1999.

• Business rankings annual.
  This annual volume provides 5,000 rankings of companies, products, services and business activities, with data culled from thousands of sources.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4050 .B88 2004.

  See pages 591 to 600 for many listings for Public Relations.

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To search for materials on all three campuses of the University of Washington, go to the UW Libraries Catalog, in the upper left corner of the Foster Business Library homepage. Search by keyword, title, author, series, etc.

To limit the results of your search just to materials in the Foster Business Library collection, use the Modify or Limit options at the top of the search results and change the library location to Foster Business Library. Availablity is indicated on the right of each online catalog record. First, note in which collection, within Foster, your materials are in, since the library has ten different Collections, each in a different location and often with differing arrangements. "Available" indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. "Due" and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated; you can have the "Request/Place Hold" feature to recall the book for your use.

If the material you want is not in the collections of the University of Washington, you can use the "Search Summit" feature to repeat your search in the combined holdings of over thirty cooperating libraries in Washington and Oregon. Use the "Request This Item" feature in Summit to have books in those library sent here to Foster for you to check out.

The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

A search for the subject Public Relations, limited to the Foster Business Library, retrieved over seventy records, including:

• Never eat alone and other secrets to success: one relationship at a time   (2005)
• Corporate reputation, the brand & the bottom line   (2005)
• Public relations: the complete guide   (2004)
• Manage your reputation: how to plan public relations to build & protect the organization's most powerful asset   (2002)
• The corporate communications bible: everything you need to know to become a public relations expert   (2000)
• Public relations campaigns and techniques: building bridges into the 21st century   (2000)
• Effective public relations   (2000)

Libraries outside Foster, in the UW system, also include books on this subject in their collection; click here for a list. Some examples include:

• Encyclopedia of public relations   (2005)   (Suzzallo Reference)
• Lipstick on a pig: winning in the no-spin era by someone who knows the game   (2006)   (Odegaard Library)
• Corporate communications: a 21st century primer   (2004)   (UW Tacoma Library)
• Deconstructing public relations: public relations criticism   (2003)   (Suzzallo/Allen Stacks)
• The new PR toolkit: strategies for successful media relations   (2003)   (Suzzallo/Allen Stacks)

A keyword search for Public Relations produces a longer list of titles, since it looks not only in subjects but in titles, subtitles, chapter headings and more; click here for a list of such titles in the UW system and here for a list of Foster records.

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of several thousand annual reports for hundreds of U.S. and foreign companies. These reports are filed in lateral filing cabinets near the Foster Reference desk under the sign Corporate Annual Reports. Annual reports for companies in an industry can be a valuable source of information about the industry itself. For a list of all the companies in the collection, see the library's Corporate Annual Reports Collection. For an index to corporate annual reports in the collection by industry sector, see the Annual Reports Industry Sector Index. For an index to companies in the collection with headquarters outside the U.S., see Corporate Annual Reports Headquarters Index.

As the book Annual Reports 101 documents, corporate annual reports are also public relations documents. See the list of annual reports in the Foster Business Library above, looking especially for annual reports that have received awards for best annual reports.

Foster Business Library Articles:

The UW Library's collections include:

• Public relations journal, v.31 (1975)- v.51 (1995)   (Foster Periodicals) and v.5, 8-10 (1949-1954) Incomplete v.5, 10   (Suzzallo Periodicals)
• Public relations news, 01/02/1995 to present   (Online only)
• Public relations quarterly, v.8 no.2-v.48 (July 1963-2003)   (Suzzallo Periodicals)
• Public relations review, v.5 no.2-v.20, v.22 no.2-v.27 (spring 1979-2001)   (Suzzallo Periodicals)
• Public relations strategist, 01/01/1998 to present   (Online only)
• Public relations tactics, 07/01/1994 to present   (Online only)

In addition to the 800 journals in the Foster Business Library Periodicals Collection, the Foster Business Library offers access to over 100 million full text articles in over 10,000 periodicals through its full text article databases such as EBSCO Business Source Premier, Factiva, LexisNexis Academic, and ProQuest Databases. These article databases may be found on the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Databases.

All four of these databases are available from any computer on the campus network as well as from home (via the UW Connectivity Kit or the Libraries' Off-Campus Access link, using your UW Net ID and password). The easiest of these databases to use is ProQuest Databases. For more information about accessing Foster Business Library databases from off campus, see Database Access. For more information about business databases, see the research guide entitled Databases, A to Z.

• ProQuest Databases:

  This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide. Article full text is often available in several formats, including text, text plus graphics, and PDF. This database also offers a very useful subject structure, to narrow search results, as well as article citation information.

  Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article. For tips on searching this database, see About ProQuest Databases.

  This database includes full text for Public Relations Journal (Jan 1992 , Volume 48, Issue 1 - May 1995 , Volume 51, Issue 1), Public Relations Quarterly (Winter 1987/1988, Volume 32, Issue 4 – current), Public Relations Strategist (Winter 1998, Volume 4, Issue 4 - current), and Public Relations Tactics (Mar 1998, Volume 5, Issue 3 – current).

  A subject search for SUB(Public Relations) produced over 50,000 articles, including over 2,900 articles in scholarly journals, over 6,000 magazine articles, over 29,000 articles in trade and industry periodicals, over 13,000 newspaper articles, over 800 reports, and over seventy Ph.D. dissertations.

  This search can be narrowed by combining it with other subjects, such as:

  • SUB(Public Relations) and SUB(Marketing)   (over 2,200 articles)
  • SUB(Public Relations) and SUB(Banks)   (over 1,500 articles)
  • SUB(Public Relations) and SUB(Advertising)   (over 1,500 articles)
  • SUB(Public Relations) and SUB(Image)   (over 1,400 articles)
  • SUB(Public Relations) and SUB(Advertising Campaigns)   (over 1,200 articles)
  • SUB(Public Relations) and SUB(Executives)   (over 1,200 articles)
  • SUB(Public Relations) and SUB(Business Community)   (over 1,200 articles)
  • SUB(Public Relations) and SUB(Corporate Image)   (over 1,200 articles)
  • SUB(Public Relations) and SUB(Case Studies)   (over 1,100 articles)

  Examples of articles, from the searches above, include:

  • "In Health Care Campaigns, To Reach Your Patients, Reach Out To Your Best Ambassadors: Employees"   (PR News. Potomac: Mar 12, 2007. Vol. 63, Iss. 10;  pg. 1)
  • "A Public Relations Overhaul"   (Greenhouse Grower. Willoughby: Jan 2007. Vol. 25, Iss. 1;  pg. 42, 3 pgs)
  • "The Ogden Museum's PR Focus Enhances"   (PR News. Potomac: Mar 6, 2006. Vol. 62, Iss. 10;  pg. )
  • "On the Offensive"   (Ward's Auto World. Detroit: May 2006. Vol. 42, Iss. 5;  pg. 31, 1 pgs)
  • "The epistemic struggle for credibility: Rethinking media relations"   (Journal of Communication Management. London: 2005. Vol. 9, Iss. 3;  pg. 246, 10 pgs)

The Foster Business Library Reference Desk is staffed nearly all of the hours that the library is open. The staff at the desk will be happy to help you find business research tools and resources, exploit business databases to the fullest or advise on research strategies. For e-mail questions, direct your query to balib@u.washington.edu. For assistance by telephone, dial (206) 543-8012 during library hours.

For research guides on a wide variety of industries, products, companies, issues and topics, see the Team Librarian Consultation archives.

• Team Consultation Course/Program Index
• Team Consultation Industry Index
• Team Consultation Quarter Index
• Team Consultation Title Index
• Team Consultation and Research Guide Index
  • Advertising
  • Consulting
  • Marketing

• Research guides from other libraries:
  • Boston College
  • California State University, Long Beach
  • Ryerson University
  • Yale University

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4 April 2007; updated 10 April 2007.   Peter Stevens, Business Librarian, stevens@u.washington.edu




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