Reference at Newman Library – Page 132 – News and tips by and for staff providing reference services at the Newman Library, Baruch College (New York, NY).

Debt and Equity Financing

An international finance class is researching the foreign equity and debt financing of U.S. companies over the last three years. The standard source for this information is SDC Platinum.

Another source that some of the student have found helpful is Mergent Online. The company synopsis screen includes a tab for “Long-term Debt” with a comprehensive list of all the company’s bond offerings, whether active or matured. (The list can be sorted so the active issues come to the top of the list.) To get the details of the bonds, you need to click on the CUSIP number for each bond. The “Added Details” tab will tell you where the bond was listed and if it was offered globally.

AACSB Task Force Report

The AACSB released a report on February 11, 2011 on The Globalization of Management Education: Changing International Structure, Adaptive Strategies, and the Impact on Institutions. Complimentary copies are available to educators after registration.

Harvard case studies-from the business school and the JFK school of government

A student inquired Saturday about the availability of Harvard Business School case studies. They need to be purchased by the student. (There is currently 20% off for orders by guests.)

Likewise, case studies in public policy and management from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government are sold to students and faculty, but not to libraries.

Student will pick up small envelope on Saturday that is left at ref desk

A student with the initials D.F. will pick up a small envelope on Saturday when she is here for a class. I left the inter-office envelope on the shelf under the printer at the reference desk, our regular place for leaving things to be picked up.

(The student donated some books and wanted a receipt.)

Downtime for Science Direct

Science Direct announced it will be offline and unavailable on February 26th, from 8am to 8pm.

Baruch College Campus High School Students

After seeing Arthur’s email that we are now letting Baruch College Campus High School use the library again, I started updating the reference wiki page about students from the school to indicate what specific privileges they have. I need some help getting all the details straight. Please log in to the wiki page for the Baruch College Campus High School and answer any of the open questions (you’ll see them in red).

Gotham Gazette introduces Councilpedia

Gotham Gazette, published by Citizens Union Foundation, has created Councilpedia, offering information about members of the New York City Council, bills they sponsor, and contributors to their election campaigns by sector of interest (industries, companies, nonprofits, etc. and individual contributors, who are identified by home address, employer and amount of contribution.)

Spotting a Keylogger in Public Access Computers

A couple of librarian blogs (see posts at the Swiss Army Librarian and Librarian.net) have recently pointed to this story about a library in England where a couple of USB devices were found plugged into public access computers. Those devices were keyloggers that were able to record every single keystroke. Unlike a USB memory drive that stands by itself in a USB port, these keylogger devices also had the keyboard plugged into them. I suppose we should keep an eye out for anything unusual we see plugged into computers.

Entrepreneurial Studies Source trial

We have a trial until the end of the month to EBSCO’s new Entrepreneurial Studies database. They have gathered more than125 new periodical titles, but also reference books, case studies, company profiles and videos. I have a list of titles if anyone is interested.

I am very interested in hearing your feedback, either here or via email.

Edgar Online I-Metrix helps with risk factors and topics of SEC filings

Students are often looking for the risks that a firm is facing. For publicly traded firms, the 10-K filings and the 10-Q filings made with the SEC are one source.

Edgar Online I-Metrix has now placed the Risk Factors under Company. The source is the most recent quarterly filing.

Also, the Topics may be very helpful to students and faculty looking for information on mergers of a company, earnings, staff increases, etc.

After conducting a search for a company, select Topics under SEC filings. The full text of the SEC documents are available in which these topics are mentioned.

For advanced searches, select the Search tab, then select topic(s) to be searched, the company or sector, the filings and the time period. If no company is entered, then all companies will be searched for the selected topic.

Alerts may be set up.

The folders option is set up for all Baruch users so it would be best to save the document in another way to prevent it from being deleted by others.