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.
• Association for Business Communication:   Formerly the American Business Writing Association, then the American Business Communication Association, this association of 2,000 members consists of "college teachers of business communication; management consultants in business communications; training directors and correspondence supervisors of business firms, direct mail copywriters, public relations writers, and others interested in communication for business." See their Research Updates, Publications, and Resources.

• McGraw-Hill's Public Speaking Site:   This site, while primarily designed to promote the public speaking texts published by McGraw-Hill, also provides information on six major components of effective public speaking, with information drawn from these texts.

• 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 Presentations.

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.
• How to say it for executives: the complete guide to communication for leaders.
  This paperback is aimed at leaders and how they can best communicate, orally and nonverbally, through speaking and presentations, business writing, meetings, and personal behaviors. In particular, see the chapters on talking like a leader, addressing your public, delivering speeches, etc.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5718 .M549 2005.

• Guide to managerial communication: effective business writing and speaking.
  This volume discusses audience strategy, verbal structures, tell/sell presentations, visual aids, and nonverbal skills.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5718 .M86 2000.

• Presentations that change minds: strategies to persuade, convince, and get results.
  This title presents the five unbreakable rules of persuasive presentations, with many tips to achieving a powerful presentation.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5718.22 .G67 2006.

• New York Times guide to business communication.
  This small paperback consists of 21 essays on business communications, electronic mail, e-mail etiquette, legal and ethical issues, persuasion, career communication, and other topics. See in particular the section on Primers of Persuasion.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5718.3 .G843 2001.

• Rules of thumb for business writers.
  This paperback is aimed to help business writers with tips for letters, resumes, agendas, newsletters, proposals, e-mail, PowerPoint, covering grammar, presentation tips, research, etc.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5718.3 .W54 2005.

• Writing effective letters, memos, & e-mail.
  This small paperback covers writing style, layouts, conventions, reports, proposals, and business plans, and writing for sensitive situations, with appendices that include a quick guide to grammar and pronunciation, and converting written documents to oral presentations, on pages 218 to 224.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5721 .B483 2004.

• Business writing handbook.
  This Webster's New World handbook covers the fundamentals of business writing, the principles of procedure writing, writing letters and memos (with many samples), etc. See the chapter on Preparing Powerful Presentations on pages 285 to 308.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5726 .W76 2002.

• Running a meeting that works.
  This small paperback succinctly covers how to prepare for a meeting, encourage participation, and use audiovisual materials effectively.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5743.5 .M56 2004.

• Effective presentation skills.
  This 85-page guide, a paperback designed to be used in 50 minutes, is subtitled "a practical guide for better speaking" and billed as offering "proven techniques for more confident, enthusiastic, and persuasive presentations."
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: PN4121 .M3194 1993.

• Technical writing: essentials for the successful professional.
  This paperback covers letters, memos, e-mails, advertising materials, annual reports, manuals, research, and presentation essentials for business as well as technical writers. See in particular the chapter on effective presentations, on pages 143 to 157.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: T11 .I23 2003.

  The reference collection also includes these books of business quotations, anecdotes, and cartoons that may be useful to business presenters, including:

  • The Little Brown book of anecdotes.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: CT109 .L58 1985.
  • The quotations of Chairman Greenspan.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HB119 .G74 .K33 2000.
  • The manager's book of quotations.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD38 .M31875 1989.
  • The speaker's library of business stories, anecdotes, and humor.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5351 .S74 1990.
  • The New Yorker book of business cartoons.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: NC1428 .N47 1998.
  • Leadership: quotations from the world's greatest motivators.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: PN6081 .L43 1997.
  • The big book of business quotations.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: PN6081 .B87 .B54 2003.
  • The MacMillan book of business and economic quotations.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: PN6081 .B87 .M33 1984.
  • Money talks: the 2500 greatest business quotes.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: PN6084 .B87 .M58 1985.
  • The Wiley book of business quotations.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: PN6084 .B87 .W55 1998.
  • The Elgar dictionary of economic quotations.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: PN6084 .E36 .E44 2003.

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 keyword search for Business Presentations, limited to the Foster Business Library, produced a list of 27 records. A review of these records suggests these relevant subject headings (and Foster Business Library holdings):

• Business Communication
• Business Presentations
• Communication in Management
• Persuasion (Psychology)
• Public Speaking
• Sales Presentations

Examples of Foster Business Library books on these subjects:

• Presentations that change minds: strategies to persuade, convince, and get results   (2006)
• Effective business presentations   (2005)
• The results-driven manager: face-to-face communications for clarity and impact   (2004)
• Generating buy-in: mastering the language of leadership   (2004)
• The five paths to persuasion: the art of selling your message   (2004)
• Write to the top: writing for corporate success   (2004)
• 21st century communications: an executive guide to communications in the enterprise   (2003)
• Working the room: how to move people to action through audience-centered speaking   (2003)
• Persuasive imagery: a consumer response perspective   (2003)
• The power of persuasion: how we're bought and sold   (2003)
• Stop the meeting I want to get off!: how to eliminate endless meetings while improving your team's communication, productivity, and effectiveness   (2003)
• Creative business presentations: inventive ideas for making an instant impact.   (2003)
• Never be boring again: make your business presentations capture attention, inspire action, and produce results   (2003)
• Working the room: how to move people to action through audience-centered speaking   (2003)
• Maximize your presentation skills   (2002)
• By the numbers: using facts and figures to get your projects, plans, and ideas approved   (2000)
• 101 ways to captivate a business audience   (1997)
• High-impact public speaking for business and the professions   (1997)

For more books on these subjects, expand your search for materials throughout the three campuses of the UW Libraries as well as in the Summit online catalog of academic libraries in Washington and Oregon.

Foster Business Library Articles:

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.

  A basix search for Business Presentations produced over 1,000 articles, including over a dozen articles in scholarly journals, including articles in Business Communication Quarterly and the Journal of Business Communication (both in the Foster Business Library periodicals collection). The results of this search also included over seventy magazine articles, over 270 articles in trade and industry publications, and over 450 newspaper articles.

  The most relevant term in the Topic Guide in this database is SUB(Presentations), for which there are more than 7,000 articles in this database. Associated with this subject are over eighty other subject terms including SUB(Effectiveness), SUB(Guidelines), SUB(Skills), SUB(Slides), SUB(Speeches), SUB(Training), SUB(Trends), SUB(Visual Aids), and SUB(Web sites).

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

See also the Foster Business Library's Business & Economics FAQ, and, in particular, the section for General Business.

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

• Team Consultation Archives (arranged by class or program)
• Team Consultation Archives (arranged by industry)
• Team Consultation Archives (arranged by title of assignment)
• Team Consultation Archives (arranged by academic quarter)
• Index to all Team Consultations and Research Guides      (Business Writing)