The Foster Business Library reference collection is located behind the Reference Desk in the center of the library's first floor. This list is arranged according to call number and, since none of these books circulate, they should always be available--except when in use by a library user.

• Detailed housing characteristics, Washington.
  This book provides a wealth of information on housing in the state of Washington, acquired during the 1990 Census of Housing (so the information is dated). Many of the tables include county and city information.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA692 .C462 1993

• MSA profile : metropolitan area projections to 2020.
  Population, employment, earnings, personal and household income and retail sales data and projections for the years 1970, 1980, 1990, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 for states, regions and metropolitan areas.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.8 .M77

  See pages 276-277 for the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton area, and pages 812 to 813 for the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area.

• Key indicators of county growth, 1970 - 2025.
  This source covers households, population by age, income (per capita, per household and earnings per job) and employment for U.S. counties as far back as 1970, with projections in each category through 2025.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.82 .K48 1998

  See King County, page 496, for population projections for various age categories.

• Washington state almanac : an economic and demographic overview of counties and cities.
  Two-page profiles of the state as a whole and of each county, with information on population, population change, personal income, taxable retail sales, registered business, new businesses, property assessments, employment by industry sector and unemployment.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC107 .W2 .E25

  See King County, pages 40 to 41; good summary of economic and population data.

• The business plans handbook.
  This multi-volume set is a compilation of actual business plans developed by entrepreneurs seeking small business funding. See the Cumulative Index in volume seven to locate business plans by type of business and to identify business plans that may be similar to your feasibility study.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD62.7 B865

  For some similar types of business, see car wash in volume one, page 97, volume five, page 25 and volume seven, page 411. See also mobile studio in volume two, page 175, and auto accessories and detailing, volume three, pages 3 and 15.

• Model business plans for service businesses.
  This volume provides business plans for managing a restaurant, starting a tutoring service, starting a travel agency, opening a health club, establishing a food delivery service, and four other service businesses.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD30.28 .C628 1995

  See the model business plan for a home delivery service, pages 6-1 to 6-14.

• The successful business plan : secrets & strategies
  This new edition covers all the aspects of creating a business plan that is successful in obtaining new small business funding.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD62.5 .A344 2000

  See chapter 26, starting on page 375 for special considerations for service businesses.

• Encyclopedia of emerging industries
  Five page descriptions of over 100 new industries, with an industry snapshot, organization and structure, background and development, pioneers in the field, current conditions, industry leaders and references to further reading.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2324 .E528 1999.

  Nothing related to the mobile car wash industry.

• Housing statistics of the United States.
  This volume covers the homeownership boom of the nineties, demographics and housing demand, housing stock, the housing market, housing finance and federal housing assistance.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD7293 .A1 H654 2000

  Housing stock data includes housing units categorized by type (number of units), with numbers by state.

• Service industries USA : industry analyses, statistics, and leading organizations.
  Comprehensive guide to 151 service industries, with analyses of government statistics and details on industry activity in 370 metropolitan areas. SIC code coverage is from 7011 through 8999.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD9981.3 .S47 1999

  See Car wash on pages 195 to 197.

• Demographics USA. County edition.
  1,500 pages of maps, demographic and economic information, covering population, race and ethnicity, age and sex, income, retail sales, business establishments, consumer expenditures and employment data for states, counties, metro areas and cities.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF3007 .S96

  See consumer expenditure data on transportation.

• The Lifestyle market analyst.
  Market analysis information including demographic, geographic and lifestyle information to identify who customers are, where they live, how they spend their time and money and how to reach them.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5415.33.U6 L54

  See Seattle-Tacoma population numbers on pages 570 to 571 for homeownership numbers (owners and renters) as well as household numbers and income.

• This collection is located on the south side of the library, through the two pass-throughs to the Balmer basement. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

• The Foster Business Library General Stacks collection contains 60,000 business-related books, many of them focused on specific companies. These books may be found by searching the UW Libraries Catalog. The UW Libraries Catalog may be found on the Foster Business Library homepage, listed under Business Databases or at the top of the left menu under FIND IT).

• Look under Keywords for the company of your choice; limit by library Location to the Foster Business Library when doing a Keyword search for business topics. For help in searching the UW Libraries Catalog, click HELP.

• Circulation status is indicated in the box in the middle of each online catalog record, on the right. Check Shelf 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. Books that are already checked out to someone else, or books at the Bothell or Tacoma campus libraries (or elsewhere on the Seattle campus) may be reserved for your use and sent here to Foster by using the Request button on the upper menu. Books unavailable in any of the University of Washington Libraries may be available in the collections of Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, The Evergreen State College, Washington State University, or Western Washington University through the Cascade online catalog. To search Cascade, use the menu button for Repeat Search in Cascade. It can take from a few days to a week or more to obtain books from other libraries and to have them sent to Foster for you to pick up so use this option only if you can afford to wait.

  A title search on "car wash" turned up a list of just two titles.

• This collection is located on the south side of the library, through the two pass-throughs to the Balmer basement, near the Copy Center. The arrangement is by call number.

• Central Puget Sound real estate research report.
  This semiannual publication tracks residential, commercial and industrial building sales and trends in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.
  Foster Business Library Reference Serials, CALL NUMBER: HD266.W22 K58

Full Text Articles in the Foster Business Library :

In addition to the 800 journals in the periodicals collection, The Foster Business Library offers access to 11,000 full text periodical articles through its four main article databases: ABI/Inform Global, Dow Jones Interactive, Expanded Academic ASAP, and Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. These article databases may be found on the Foster Business Library homepage, listed alphabetically under Business Databases or in the Articles: Full Text folder.

Of these four main sources, all but Dow Jones Interactive are available from any computer on the campus network (as well as from home) via the UW Connectivity Kit or via the Libraries' proxy server. Dow Jones Interactive is only available in the Foster Business Library and a few other locations (due to current contract restrictions). The easiest of these databases to use are ABI/Inform Global, Dow Jones Interactive and Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe.

• ABI/Inform Global:

  ABI/Inform Global provides indexing and the full text of articles for over 800 periodicals.

  To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the Search by word - basic text box. The default time period is 1998 to present but you can use the pulldown menu to specify either Backfile, 1986-1997 or Deep Backfile, Prior to 1986. The default for searches is Citations and abstracts but you may use the pulldown menu to expand your search to the full text of articles (which will retrieve more articles).

  The default search type in this database is the BASIC search but you can do more advanced searches by clicking the GUIDED search tab (above the text box). To search for articles about companies, change the default Basic Fields pulldown menu to Company/Org.

  ABI/Inform Global includes journals but not national or Washington state newspapers. To expand your search to include both journals and newspapers, click on Select Database in the lower right corner of the search screen and click on ABI/Inform Global to switch to ALL databases. Clicking on ABI/Inform Global at the top of this section will also take you direct to ALL databases. Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article.

  This database may be accessed anywhere on campus (and from home via the UW Connectivity kit or UW Libraries' proxy server). You can access this database (also known as ProQuest) from home via many local public libraries such as the Seattle Public Library and the King County Library System, using your public library card number.

  Search tips for this database are available by clicking here.

  A search in this database on "mobile car wash" in citations and abstracts for articles published since 1998 found no articles. Expanding the search throughout the full text of articles found 21 articles, all in full text. Using Select Database to search Washington State Newstand and searching for "mobile car wash" in citations and abstracts found just one article (which was not relevant). Expanding this search to "car wash" found 103 articles.

• Dow Jones Interactive:

  This database provides online access to 2,000 full-text business and trade publications, including the Wall Street Journal. Find news about topics in the Publications Library, under Search By Words. This database will search for your topic throughout the full text of each article but you can limit your search (and retrieve more relevant articles) by using the pulldown menu and selecting Headline Only, Lead Paragraph Only, or Headline & Lead Paragraph. The default date range for your search is Current Year which will limit the number of articles retrieved. You can use the date range pulldown menu to specify All Dates, Current & Previous Year, or Current Day, Current Month or Current & Previous Month. Be sure to specify All Publications as part of your search. This database is only available in the Foster Business Library and a few other locations; it is not available from home or office. Your search terms will be highlighted in black in each article.

  For help searching this database, see Dow Jones Interactive search tips.

  A search in this database on "mobile car wash" in headline and lead paragraph for current and previous year, in all publications, found six articles. Expanding the search throughout the full text of articles found 22 articles.

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe:

  Provides access to nearly 5,300 newspapers and journals with news, business and legal information. Go to the News area and search General News to find articles about a topic. To do comprehensive searches in this database, you must search Major Newspapers and Magazines & Journals separately. The default search in this database is in major newspapers for the previous six months but pulldown menus allow you change these defaults. The date range pulldown menu allows searches to cover all dates, for the widest possible searches. This database is available in all locations on campus and from home. Your search terms will be highlighted in black in this database. Search tips for this database are available by clicking here.

  A search in this database on the keyword "mobile car wash" for the past two years, in major newspapers, found just two articles, both very short; a similar search in magazines and journals, found no articles. Similar searches on the keyword "car wash and seattle" produced four newspaper articles and one magazine article.

Foster Business Library Reference Desk:

• The Foster Business Library Reference Desk is staffed most of the hours that the library is open. The staff at the desk will be happy to help find information about any business topic. The telephone number for the reference desk is (206) 543-8012. Questions are also welcome via e-mail to balib@u.washington.edu.