Bloomberg Access:

Bloomberg is an online database available only on a dedicated Bloomberg workstation, providing 24-hour current and historical financial quotes, commodity market and economic statistics, business newswires, and descriptive information, research and statistics on over 52,000 companies worldwide. In the Foster Business Library, the Bloomberg workstation is located in the Electronic Reference Area on Public PC #20; it may be identified by the red card on top of the monitor. Use of this workstation is limited to current University of Washington students, faculty and staff.

For an article that explains Bloomberg, in six Adobe Acrobat PDF pages, see The Bloomberg Financial Markets Information Databases: A Simple Introduction to a Complex Financial System, Reference Services Review, Summer 1997, volume 25, issue number two, pages 73-78. Access to the full text of this article is restricted to current University of Washington students, faculty, and staff.

On the Bloomberg terminal, find their Online Interactive Manuals for an excellent hands-on introduction to all the functions on the terminal. Advanced training, provided by Bloomberg, is available in Seattle for students interested in completing the Bloomberg Certification Program; certification programs are described on the Bloomberg terminal under the certificate program and seminars. For more about this program, see the Wharton School explanation. While the Foster Business Library has not offered Bloomberg classes, due to lack of demand, e-mail us at balib@u.washington.edu if you have a group interested in such training.

A 17-page print guide to using Bloomberg is available, adjacent to the workstation # 20, in a black binder with Bloomberg on the spine.

See also the Foster Business Library's Bloomberg Cheatsheet as well as the Foster Business Library's frequently-asked questions about Business Databases, including over two dozen questions and answers about Bloomberg.

Other libraries' Bloomberg guides:

• Babson College, Horn Library
• Harvard University, Baker Library
• Johns Hopkins University    (Scroll down to Bloomberg Financial Services for a six-page guide in MS Word format)
• Bloomberg 101    (Powerpoint tutorial for Bloomberg, from the Lippincott Library at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)