The University of Arizona
Spring 2002
School of Information Resources and Library Science
Dr. Bill Edgar
Office Phone: 621-5220
E-Mail: bedgar@u.arizona.edu
Office: No. 2
Office hours: Mondays 1-2:30 and Wednesdays 2:30-4:00, or by appointment

Description: This course surveys and evaluates the major print and electronic bibliographic and information sources in business librarianship. Emphasis is placed upon user needs as they are translated into information-seeking practices. Topics covered will be divided into two categories: first, concepts applicable to all reference services, and, second, material specifically covering business reference. Topics in the first category will include the types of reference service, philosophies of reference service, and the reference interview. Topics included in the second category will include the basic classifications of business and business issues; the types and functions of business; current issues in business reference; background topics, including money and banking, investing, competitive intelligence, accounting, and business law; and marketing business library services. Course materials will be augmented by one tour, in-class discussion, and guest speakers. Three credit hours.

Goal of Class: While this class covers the major bibliographic tools used by business reference librarians, it does so with the goal of providing students with an understanding of the climate and current issues of business librarianship and the major intellectual areas that business librarianship addresses as well as of providing students with background information necessary for students to become business reference librarians.

Prerequisite: There are no prerequisites. The class is taught assuming little initial student knowledge of reference or business, meaning you most definitely do not need to be a reference expert or have a business background to take this class.

Class Meetings: Mondays 3-5:50 p.m. Please note that we will not meet Monday, January 21.

Required Texts: There are no required texts.

• 3 Reference Worksheets 40 percent
• 3 Book Reviews 20 percent
• Industry Analysis 40 percent

Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the assigned due date.

There will be three reference worksheets which will consist of a number of questions for which you will find the answers. One will cover print sources, one on-line ones, and one business resources on the World Wide Web. The worksheets are due on approximately March 4, March 25, and April 15.

You will also read three books on business topics. One of the three will be on the topic you have chosen for your industry analysis (see below). The other two may be on any business topic and may be scholarly or popular. As a suggestion, they may come off of the list below but by no means have to. It is better if the books are on different business related topics. For example, one could be on strategic issues, as are the books on the list, another on marketing, and still another on finance.

The student is to write up a book review for each book, and for each the student will also present the review and lead a class discussion on these days on the issues raised in the books and these issues’ importance to business. The reviews should summarize the content in the book and discuss the importance of the material for business.

The review and presentation for the first book is due February 25; the review and presentation for the second book is due March 18; and the review and presentation for the third book is due on April 8. The presentation of reviews of the second and third books should last approximately 10 minutes, as should the discussion arising from the presentation. To avoid two students reviewing the same book, you will need to submit in class your choices for Book Review 1 on February 4, for Book Review 2 on February 25, and for Book Review 3 on March18.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by S.R. Covey, Fireside Books, 1990.

Out of the Crisis, W.E. Deming, MIT, 1986.

Quality or Else, by L. Dobyns and C. Crawford-Mason, Houghton Mifflin, 1991.

Hands-On Strategy, by W.C. Finnie, Wiley, 1994.

The Goal, By. E.M.Goldratt, 2nd Ed., North River Press, 1992.

Competing for the Future, by G. Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, Harvard Business School,

1994.

The Reckoning, by D. Halberstam, Morrow, 1986.

Reengeering the Corporation, by M. Hammer and J. Champy, Harper, 1993.

The Age of Paradox, by C.Handy, Harvard Press, 1994.

Mind of a Manager: Soul of a Leader, by C.R. Hickman, Wiley, 1990.

The Quest for Value, by G.B. Stewart III, Harper, 1991.

The Customer-Driven Company, by R.C. Whiteley, Addison-Wesley, 1991.

Business Process Reengineering, H.J. Johansson, P. Mchugh, A.J. Pendlebury, and W.A. Wheeler, III, Wiley, 1993.

Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will, by W.M. Tichy and S. Sherman, Doubleday, 1993.

What America Does Right, by R.H. Waterman, Jr. Norton, 1994.

Leadership and the New Science, M.J. Wheatley, Berrett-Koehler, 1992.

If you cannot obtain one of these or want to do a book not on the list, let me know and we’ll discuss it.

Finally, you will do an industry analysis, which will be due on April 29. In addition, you will present your industry analysis to the class on April 22 or April 29:

Industry Analysis

IRLS 622

This assignment requires you to choose a specific industry, summarize and analyze that industry and its influence upon society, describe briefly the most important industry information sources concerning that industry, and indicate how easy (or difficult) it was for you to find the information you needed.

Realize the sooner you begin thinking about and working on this assignment the better.

This paper should consist of the following parts:

1. Industry description and analysis. What is the industry? What are its components? Any significant trends affecting it? Is the industry affected by any technological, economic, demographic, political, or legislative developments? In what way? What are the most important companies? Are there any "up-and-comers?" Is it represented by many small, growing companies, or by older, giant companies? Is it a "new" or an "old" industry. What is the outlook for the future? How does and how should the industry influence the societies in which it operates?

2. Select, annotated bibliography. Describe the materials that you think have proven ( or should prove) useful to researchers embarking on a study of this industry. Remember to consider all the types of sources we talk about in the class--general sources that are particularly helpful, industry and company sources, investment sources, etc. If you don’t like the framework, I have presented, that is OK. Here is the chance to present your own, if you would like.

Also, remember to include print, non-print, and digital resources, both on-line databases and works on the World Wide Web, if applicable. Do not list the sources that you used to identify the items included in your bibliography if you only used them to justify a source. For example, while you might include Poultry Digest as a source of statistics on the poultry industry, you should not include the Encyclopedia of Business Information, which led you to the Digest, if you are not including the Encyclopedia in your list of general information sources.

You might discover that UA lacks some of the titles that seem promising for your industry analysis. If so, go ahead and annotate them using information you found elsewhere, but also put "[Not examined]" in the entry. Also, in particular, I do not expect that you will be doing actual searching of every electronic source that you list, but I do expect to see a list of the databases that you’ve identified as most relevant to your industry.

3. Your impressions. Based on your experience, do you think it would be easy or difficult for someone to research your industry? Is there too much information? Too little? Just right? Was this a useful assignment? (You don’t have to agree that it was, but "too much work" is not good enough.)

Note that on February 25 you will need to turn and discuss in class a rough draft of your industry analysis. This can be a very rough draft, indeed, and it is not part of the final grade for the industry analysis. What I want here is for you to have done some work by this time and have a general overview of where you are going. On April 22 and April 29 you will present your final paper to the class. Each presentation will last approximately 20 minutes, with 10 minutes for discussion arising from the presentation.