New Database: Small Business Resource Center

Sawyer Library buys and leases many useful databases in support of our Business School (which can be explored at our Databases by Subject: Business and Management list). Although many of our general databases from Business Source Complete(BSC) to the Wall Street Journal provide some coverage of entrepreneurial, family, and "small" business, they are certainly weighed towards larger (mostly public) businesses and their practices. Therefore, to further support research related to start-ups and other entrepreneurial ventures, we have just added a new database from Gale/Cengage called Small Business Resource Center (SBRC).

Self-described as "a comprehensive database offering content that covers all major areas of starting and operating a business, including accounting, finance, human resources, management, marketing, tax and more," SBRC allows you to do keyword searching as you would in any database, but to the right of the basic search box you are also given the chance to explore materials by type of business (e.g., Child Care Services) or see an alphabetical list of the many sample business plans that the database provides, all based on their long-standing Business Plans Handbook series, which we also have in our Gale Virtual Reference Library database.



The database also does a nice job of sorting even keyword search results. For example, if I do a basic search for coffee house,

I am first presented with a sample business plan. But note the other tabs above the results. These will offer me Articles that have that concept in them (some on target, some not), as well as well as Directories entries from Gale's Small Business Handbook that will list everything from trade publications to industry associations to franchise opportunities in the business category of "Gourmet Coffee/Tea House." And the yellow frame to the left offers links to other related subject terms, too.

Many of the magazines and trade journals covered by SBRC can be found in other databases, as well. And Business Source Complete is still, by far and away, our best broad-based business database, so you should always spend some time with BSC (and often several others) when you are doing your research.

Still, the book content and handy organization of SBRC make this a very useful stop for those interested in small businesses and related topics.

[FIND Small Business Resource Center on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Business and Management" category.]