Team Librarian Consultation

Web Resources:

Unlike library databases, these Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the UW Connectivity Kit or the UW Libraries Proxy Server for authentication. 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.
• Career Guide to Industries:   This Bureau of Labor Statistics site, part of the online Occupational Outlook Handbook, offers a career-oriented description of many industries, with information on the nature of the industry, working conditions, employment, occupations in the industry, training, earnings and outlook, as well as sources of additional information. See their industry information for Employment Services.

• Industry Profiles (Wetfeet.Com):   This job hunting site, from Wetfeet.Com, offers profiles of 31 industries, with an industry overview, trends, industry organization, job prospects, what's great and what's to hate in the industry, from the viewpoint of a jobseeker, major companies in the industry, and example job descriptions and tips on how to get hired in the industry. There are also links to industry associations and a profile of an individual working in the industry. The amount of industry information makes up for annoying popups. See their lowdown on the Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals industry.

• Biotechnology Industry Organization:   "In 1993, when there were but a handful of biotechnology drugs on the market and the sequencing of the human genome was pegged for completion somewhere around 2005, two small Washington-based biotechnology trade organizations merged to create the Biotechnology Industry Organization, better known as BIO. One of the founding organizations, the Industrial Biotechnology Association (IBA), primarily represented larger, established companies on Capitol Hill and before federal regulatory agencies; the other, the Association of Biotechnology Companies (ABC), represented emerging companies and universities, and focused on technology transfer issues, meetings and other business development activities. BIO united the organizations' 503 companies and 18 employees under one umbrella." See their Guide to Biotechnology and Industry Facts.

• Yahoo! Finance:   This site is excellent for company and investment information as well as an excellent source for financial ratio comparisons with industry, sector and S&P 500. See Yahoo! Finance's Biotechnology and Drugs Industry Center.

• Biotechnology Information Directory:   This site is an information portal for biotechnology, with links to sources of information, publications, products, services, clinical trials, software, companies in the industry, education, and more.

• Biopharmaceutical Industry Contributions to State and U.S. Economies:   This 215-page report, in PDF format, from the Milken Institute, assesses the state of the biopharmaceutical industry and its economic and job impact on the states and on the U.S. economy. Access to this report requires free registration. For a summary of the report's stated impact on Washington state, see "Slowdown seen in state's biopharmaceutical industry" (by Brad Wong, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 12, 2004).

• American Staffing Association:   "The American Staffing Association is the voice of the U.S. staffing industry. Along with its affiliated chapters, ASA promotes the interests of the industry through legal and legislative advocacy, public relations, education, and the establishment of high standards of ethical conduct.""The association's member companies operate more than 15,000 offices across the nation and account for 85% of U.S. industry sales." See their Staffing Facts and Staffing FAQs.

The Foster Business Library Reference Collection is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster.
• Seattle metro yellow pages.
  An excellent and easy to use source for local business information, this directory is also a link to resources often more valuable than web and print resources: people working in business and industry.
  Foster Business Library Reference Desk

  See Employment Agencies on pages 519 to 524, with many agencies specializing in industries, such as healthcare, accounting, construction, etc.

• Statistical abstract of the United States.
  Information about many industries as well as demographic information; check index for references to tables. The sources for each table are often a valuable source of additional information.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA202 .U56 2004-2005.
  (Also available Online)

  See the Employment Service Industry in table 613 on page 402.

• D&B million dollar directory.
  Annual five volume listing of the 160,000 largest U.S. companies (including 136,000 private companies), including companies with more than 180 employees or over $9 million in annual sales. Company listings may include company name and address, phone number, subsidiary relationships, date founded, bank and accounting firm, annual sales and number of employees, SIC code, type of business, one or more contact names and whether the company is public or private. Volumes one to three include the companies, arranged alphabetically by company name; volume four is an index to companies by industry and SIC code, arranged by state and within state, by city; volume five is an index by state; within state, by city; within city, by company name.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC102 .D8 2004.

  See SIC code 7361, for Employment Agencies, in volume five, on page 9324.

• Encyclopedia of American industries.
  This heavy two-volume set provides essays on over 1,000 industries, with manufacturing industries largely in volume one and service and other non-manufacturing industries in volume two, arranged by Standard Industrial Code, with an index at the back of volume two.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC102 .E53 2005.

  See Employment Agencies in volume two, on pages 1149 to 1155 (followed by Help Supply Services). See Biotechnology in Pharmaceutical Preparations in volume one, pages 497 to 506.

• Standard & Poor's industry surveys.
  This three-volume set provides 30-page profiles on 52 industries with a focus on the current economic environment, trends, regulation and outlook for each industry. Major companies in each industry are profiled, with references to sources of additional industry information.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC106.6 .S74 (Quarterly)

  See Biotechnology in volume one.

• 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. Besides lists of the largest and fastest growing public and private companies in the area, this reference work includes commercial real estate deals, banks and securities firms, contractors, education and employment, etc. There is an index to companies and topics in the back of this volume.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HC108 .S77 .P83 2005.

  See Employment Agencies on page 66 and Biotechnology Companies on page 164.

• The business plans handbook.
  This multi-volume set is a compilation of over 200 actual business plans developed by entrepreneurs seeking small business funding. See the Cumulative Index in the latest volume to locate business plans by type of business.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD62.7 .B865

  See the business plan for an Online Job Service, in volume eight.

• Encyclopedia of global industries.
  Twelve-page descriptions of 125 global industries, with background and development information, current conditions, industry leaders and further reading.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2324 .E53 2003.

  See Personnel Services on pages 898 to 903, and Biotechnology, on pages 53 to 68.

• Financial studies of the small business.
  This annual ring-binder offers financial analyses of various kinds of small business, culled from data from over 30,000 small business financial statements.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2346 .U5 .F55a 2003.

  See Employment Agencies on page 235 and in similar places throughout this volume.

• HDMA industry profile and healthcare factbook.
  This spiral bound paperback, published by the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (formerly the National Wholesale Druggists' Association), provides a wealth of data about the drug, biotech, and related distribution industries, as well as copious health care and drug data, demographics, trends, etc.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD9666.1 .N92 2002.

• Washington state services directory.
  This directory is designed as a business contact tool, with a statistical summary of businesses in the state, geographic, industry and services indexes, and an alphabetical listing of companies in the directory, with brief profiles of each company.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD9981.7 .W2 .H37 2002.

  See Employment Agencies on page 367.

• Plunkett's biotech & genetics industry almanac.
  This new reference paperback provides statistics, trend, and company information about this industry, with tables, charts and company profiles.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD9999 .B44 .P58 2003/2004.

• Seattle job source.
  This paperback covers the greater Seattle area, with over 4,000 job contacts, job hotlines, web addresses, information on thirty local industries, aimed at job seekers.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5382.75 .U62 .S455 2002.

  See Bio-Tech employment contacts, in the Health Care section, on pages 124 to 126.

• Market share reporter.
  Annual two-volume compilation of U.S. and world market share data for companies, products and services, arranged by SIC code, and with indexes by product, company and topic.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5410 .M35 2005.

  See Leading Temp Agencies Worldwide in table 3313 on page 852 in volume two. See Largest Biotech Firms Worldwide in table 1125 on page 299 in volume one.

• U.S. market trends & forecasts.
  This large volume provides an overview and projections for 400 significant industries and their component products or services, arranged alphabetically by industry name. For each product or service, there is a brief indication of the value of the U.S. market in 1998 and the compound U.S. market growth rate from 1993 to 1998 as well as a graph depicting market value in dollars and the growth rate. There is also a brief analysis of the market sectors for the product or service and a description of the market segmentation by volume for 1997, plus U.S. market share and market forecast information.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5415.1 .U8 2002.

  See Biotechnology on pages 665 to 666.

• Directory of outplacement & career management firms.
  This large paperback is a directory of outplacement firms, now in its twelfth edition, with in-depth profiles of many firms, as well as indexes by industry, and geography.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5549.4 .D55 .D57 2001-2002.

  See index page 521 for two dozen outplacement firms who work in the Biotech/Genetic Engineering industry. See also pages 534 and 535 for fourteen firms in Washington state.

• RMA annual statement studies.
  Norms and ratios for many industries and sizes of business, itemized by asset size, and categorized by four digit SIC code.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5681 .B2 .R6 2003-2004.

  See pages 1268 to 1269.

• Industry norms and key business ratios.
  Key business ratios for 800 S.I.C industry categories, a publication of Dun & Bradstreet.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5681 .R25 .I525 2002-2003.

  See page 153 for SIC code 7361.

• Almanac of business and industrial financial ratios.
  This annual publication, edited by Leo Troy, offers a different take on ratios than the title above. The arrangement of more than 190 industries is by NAICS code.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5681. R25 .T68 2004.

  See pages 349 to 350 for NAICS code 561300.

• 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 Biotechnology Industry on pages 107 to 108.

• Mergent industry review.
  Statistical data on 3,000 companies in 137 industries, with ranking, key financial information, operating data and ratios.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG4961 .M68 August 2004-January 2005.

  See the Biotechnology industry on pages 72 to 79.

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To identify relevant books, go to the UW Libraries Catalog on the Foster Business Library homepage (under Business Databases). Try searching by keyword; use the Modify Search feature to restrict your list of books to the Foster Business Library and in order from newest book to oldest. To do so, use the pulldown menu under Location to specify Foster Business Library. Clicking on the titles in the resulting list will bring up the full catalog record, indicating which Foster area has the book (general stacks, reference, reserve, etc.), the call number and the circulation status.

Circulation status is indicated on the right of each online catalog record, on the right. 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.

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 Employment Agencies produced over 250 records in the UW Libraries, with over a dozen records in the Foster Business Library, the most recent:

• Workforce intermediaries for the twenty-first century   (2004)

A keyword search for Employment Agencies and Biotechnology produced no records.

A search for the subject Biotechnology Industries retrieved over 170 records in the UW Libraries, with over 40 records are in the Foster Business Libraries' collections, including:

• The economic dynamics of modern biotechnology   (2004)
• Biotech industry: a global, economic, and financing overview   (2004)
• The biotech investor: how to profit from the coming boom in biotechnology   (2003)
• Building global biobrands: taking biotechnology to market   (2003)
• Hungry corporations: transnational biotech companies colonise the food chain   (2003)
• Leading biotechnology alliances: right from the start   (2001)
• International strategy and market performance in new biotechnology firms   (1999)

Foster Business Library Articles:

In addition to the 800 journals in the Foster Business Library Periodicals Collection, the Foster Business Library offers access to 11,000 full text periodical articles through its full text article databases such as: ABI/Inform Global, Factiva, and Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. These article databases may be found on the Foster Business Library homepage, listed alphabetically under Business Databases.

Of these three main sources, all but Factiva 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. The easiest of these databases to use is ABI/Inform Global. For more information about accessing Foster Business Library databases from off campus, click here. For more information about business databases, click here.

• ABI/Inform Global:

  This database offers full text articles from thousands of scholarly journals, magazines, industry and trade periodicals, and newspapers. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box. ABI/Inform Global includes journals but not national or Washington state newspapers (though the Wall Street Journal is included). It also does not include valuable trade and industry and other periodicals. Your searches will span the widest possible array of publications by expanding your search to all databases in ABI/Inform. To expand your search to include all collections in this database, click on Select multiple databases, to the right of the search box. Click on all of the databases.

  Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article. For tips on searching this database, click here.

  For example, a search the database Washington State Newsstand, for "Employment Agencies" and Biotechnology produced no articles; for Employment and Biotechnology, over two dozen articles. Examples:

  • "Slowdown seen in key industry: 3,200 new biopharmaceutical jobs expected"   (Seattle Post - Intelligencer, Oct 12, 2004.  pg. C.1)
  • "Biotech careers tap into growing field "   (Seattle Times, Mar 10, 2002.  pg. G.1)

  A similar search for "Employment Agencies," produced over 260 articles, including:

  • "Matchmaker Jobster seeks a better way"   (Seattle Post - Intelligencer, Jan 18, 2005.  pg. C.1)
  • " 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies: Allyis, Partners launched staffing company with $100 "   (Puget Sound Business Journal, Oct 15, 2004. Vol. 25, Iss. 24;  pg. A37)
  • "Competing creative headhunters merge"   (Puget Sound Business Journal, Sep 17, 2004. Vol. 25, Iss. 20;  pg. 5)

  A search, in Washington State Newsstand, for SUB(Biotechnology Industry), produced a list of over 160 articles, including:

  • "Biotech firms report losses"   (Seattle Post - Intelligencer, Oct 27, 2004.  pg. E.2)
  • "State biotech sector no miracle drug for creation of jobs"   (Seattle Times, Oct 15, 2004.  pg. A.1)
  • "Biotech retools pursuit of $500M tobacco windfall"   (Puget Sound Business Journal. Seattle: Jul 16, 2004. Vol. 25, Iss. 11;  pg. 13)
  • "Biotechs change course, shift production in-house"   (Puget Sound Business Journal, Jun 18, 2004. Vol. 25, Iss. 7;  pg. 8)
  • "Seattle biotechs looking up"   (Seattle Post - Intelligencer, Jun 8, 2004.  pg. D.1)

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      (ADMIN Assignments)
• Team Consultation Industry Index      (Drug Industry)
• Team Consultation Quarter Index
• Team Consultation Title Index
• Team Consultation and Research Guide Index      (Biotechnology Industry)      (Demographics Resources)      (Industry Research)      (Small Business Resources)