1. Finding Business
Information
Getting started
Before you start searching for information for your assignments and projects you are advised to look at Northumbria
Skills Plus on the Library webpages. Here you will find a series of tutorials and helpguides to help you to understand
how to plan your search, carry out an effective search, evaluate the information you have found, reference your
sources and also help you with Study and IT skills.
You will need your computer username and password to access most of our electronic databases via NORA, for
further password information see www.northumbria.ac.uk/passwords. If you have any difficulty accessing any of our
resources please email ask4help@northumbria.ac.uk or ask for assistance in the Library.
You can also access electronic information sources off campus by using the desktopANYWHERE facility.
www.northumbria.ac.uk/dta
Library Catalogue
The Library Catalogue www.northumbria.ac.uk/librarycat lists the Library’s books, ebooks, journals, DVDs and theses.
It is the best place to start when searching for books from your reading lists or for books to read around your subject.
Final year undergraduates and postgraduate students can obtain material from other libraries by using interlibrary loan
forms by using the electronic form available via MyNorthumbria. Further information on www.northumbria.ac.uk/ill
You can search the British Library Catalogue and other university library catalogues by looking under ‘Browse
Resources by Subject’ on NORA.
For help with using the Library Catalogue at www.northumbria.ac.uk/skillsplus
NORA
NORA is the Library’s gateway to quality information for your studies. NORA Power Search allows you to quickly
search for subject information from a huge range of information sources. Individual databases can also be accessed
and searched.
If you have difficulty finding the information you need please email ask4help@northumbria.ac.uk or ask for assistance
at the Library.
NORA is available at: www.northumbria.ac.uk/library
You can find help with how to use NORA effectively at www.northumbria.ac.uk/skillsplus
The following resources are a selection only. Fuller lists are available on NORA under “Browse Resources by
Subject”. The subjects on NORA most relevant to NBS are Business & Management, Accountancy & Finance,
Company Information, Economics, Marketing and Tourism. Further information on all resources can be found in the
information icons on NORA. For password information for the following databases see the passwords link via the
Library home page. If you have any difficulty accessing any of the resources contact ask4help@northumbria.ac.uk
NORA Power Search
As part of your research you will need to read articles from academic and professional journals. After you have
searched NORA Power Search you can tick the options under ‘Refine your search’ to refine your results to ‘Items with
full text online’. If you wish you can also restrict your results to ‘Limit articles from scholarly publications including peer
reviewed’ to ensure academic quality resources. There are several key databases which you may choose to search in
addition to NORA Power Search. Some will provide full text - others will provide abstracts (description of the article)
and references where you can locate the articles in other databases or through interlibrary loans (if you are a final year
or post graduate student).
September 2012 This leaflet is available in other formats on request.

2. EBSCO Business Source Premier
Provides full text for over 2,300 journals (1,100 Peer reviewed) covering business, management, economics,
accounting, marketing, knowledge management, law, and psychology. Full text Economist Intelligence Unit Country
Reports, Datamonitor Market Reports and Company analysis are also included. There is a direct link to the search
facility for the Company, Market and Country reports in the “Company Information” section of NORA.
EMERALD
Contains more than 150 high quality management journals, all published in the UK. These are an excellent
resource for all Business students and contain both research papers and case studies.
Newspaper articles
Newspaper articles are also useful for up to date information about various Business areas. The following
databases contain full text newspaper articles. For a full list of news related databases, please see the “News
Services and Newspapers” subject list in NORA. You can search for news via NORA Power Search. Type in your
search and select “Newspaper Article” from the Content Type menu.
NEXIS UK
Contains news articles for world-wide companies, industries and products. Covers major worldwide newspapers
including the Financial Times, trade press and business journals.
FT.COM
Website of the Financial Times Newspaper and also provides access to business news. Stock and financial data is
available in the Market area of the website. The Financial Times print newspaper is also available, search the
journal catalogue via the Library Catalogue. You can also use Nexis UK to search for FT articles.
There is a helpsheet which gives further information about newspapers and news services including Nexis and
FT.com on Skills Plus www.northumbria.ac.uk/skillsplus Look in the “I need help with” section and select
“searching for information”.
Company information
The following resources are useful for the financial analysis of a company: its products, its competitors and
information regarding its directors. For the full list of company related resources, please see the company
information subject list on NORA. There is also a Company Information Guide on Skills Plus. Look in the “I need
help with” section and select “searching for information”.
FAME
Financial Analysis Made Easy contains annual returns for all UK registered companies and up to 10 years of
reports for the top 100,000. Peer groups of companies can be compared using graphs and tables.
OSIRIS
Similar to FAME but provides financial information on around 55,000 listed and major unlisted/delisted
companies worldwide. The information includes: standardised and "as reported" financials, SEC filings, detailed
earnings estimates including recommendations, ownership, stock data, news and ratings.
NEXIS UK
Select the “Companies” tab and choose your source. You will see that you can select to find out a whole range of
information about companies including financial analysis, annual reports, director details. You can then enter your
search terms or type in a company name.
Market research reports
The following databases are useful even if you are not studying marketing as they contain useful data about
companies, industries and countries. The full list of marketing related resources is available on NORA.
MINTEL
One of the most detailed market research resources available, providing in-depth analysis of UK products and
markets. Key companies in each market are analysed and compared.
September 2012 This leaflet is available in other formats on request.

3. KEYNOTE
A series of primarily UK market research reports covering consumer, industrial and business. Access to financial
information for over 1.5 million active companies including the ability to search for information on directors and
shareholders.
EUROMONITOR GLOBAL MARKET INFORMATION DATABASE (GMID)
Provides access to reports and statistics on industries, consumers, companies and countries worldwide on this
comprehensive database.
WARC (World Advertising Research Centre)
Full text articles and abstracts from advertising journals around the world, as well as brand information, case
studies, news and best practice guides.
Web resources
As well as the databases which the Library subscribes to, NORA also contains some selected high quality web
resources in the NORA subjects (look under Browse Resources by Subject).
You may also find other useful web resources yourself by searching the internet but remember it is essential that
you evaluate these sources before using them for an assignment. See Skills Plus for help with evaluating
information sources.
Indexes to journal articles & conference proceedings
If you are writing a dissertation or thesis, you may wish to use extra databases to locate a broader range of
information. You won’t get full text from these databases. However, you can check the Library Catalogue to see
whether the Journal title is available elsewhere or apply for an interlibrary loan (if you are a final year or post
graduate student).
ISI WEB OF KNOWLEDGE
This database is very useful for research, as it indexes articles from conference proceedings and from over 8,500
journal titles in all subjects, predominantly social sciences and management.
ZETOC
ZETOC indexes the contents of 20,000 international journal titles and 16,000 conference proceedings in all
subjects.
Dissertations and thesis
Dissertations/Projects
Exemplar Dissertations and Projects are available in the relevant NBS eLearning Portal (Blackboard) modules.
Index to Theses
A database to search for PhD, MPhil and some MA and MSc theses published in UK.
ETHOS (Electronic Theses Online System)
A digital collection of UK Doctoral Theses.
Both these databases and more are available in the ‘Thesis & Dissertations’ subject collection on NORA.
Keeping up to date
For methods of keeping up to date with new journal articles, new internet resources, forthcoming conferences, etc.
see the Research skills area in the “I need help with” menu option on Skills Plus.
www.northumbria.ac.uk/skillsplus
September 2012 This leaflet is available in other formats on request.

4. Using other University Libraries
The SCONUL Access Scheme enables full time undergraduate students to visit other Libraries for reference
purposes. Postgraduate, part time students, distance learners, students on placement and staff may be entitled to
borrow a selected number of books from participating libraries.
Please see the “Resources and Services” section of the Library website for further details.
How to reference
As you locate sources of information, it is very important to record the correct details of which books, articles and
web sites you have used. Information about Referencing and Plagiarism is available on Skills Plus in the “I would
like help with a specific topic” area.
To help you record and organise your references, a bibliographic software package, Endnote, is available on
campus via the student desktop and off campus via desktopANYWHERE. Tutorials to help you get started with
Endnote are available via Skills Plus in the Referencing and Plagiarism section.
Skills Plus
Northumbria Skills Plus is a collection of training materials and helpguides that you can use to help you develop your
library, IT and study skills. You can choose the format or style of the help that you want. Help is included on how to
find information for your assignments, how to write assignments, how to reference and more.
www.northumbria.ac.uk/skillsplus
September 2012 This leaflet is available in other formats on request.