Researching Publicly Owned Companies
If the company is traded on a stock exchange, the following resources are considered standard references for finding company contacts, annual reports, company profiles, and other valuable information. Need to figure out if a company is publicly traded? Use: Factiva. (Click on the Companies/Markets tab, then select the Company sub-tab.) Many of the business databases can be searched using stock ticker symbols.
Researching Privately Owned Companies
D&B's North American Million Dollar Database, which contains records on 1.3 million leading private and public businesses with one million dollars or more in sales or twenty plus employees, can be accessed from within the Business Library.
Helpful Books for Researching Companies (available in the Business Library)
- Directory of American Firms Operating In Foreign Countries
- The Career Guide: Dun's Employment Opportunities Directory
- Plunkett's Industry Almanacs (covering over 25 industries)
- Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations
- Ohio Business Directory
- Hoover’s Handbook of Private Companies
- Hoover’s Handbook of Emerging Companies
- Who Owns Whom. North & South America
- Gale Research Resources, including:
- Brands and Their Companies
- Encyclopedia of Global Industries
Employer Directories
These publications can help you find employers in a specific career field or geographic area. A reference librarian can help you identify directories related to different career fields, or you can locate them in Directories in Print, which contains field-by-field listings of key employer directories.A small sampling of employer directories, by career field, that available through the Ohio State Libraries is below.
Consulting Consultants and Consulting Organizations Directory
Public Relations O'Dwyer's Directory of Public Relations Firms
Social Research Research Centers Directory
Sports Sports Market Place Directory
Researching Public Sector Organizations
Newspapers and periodicals are great sources of information about prospective employers. The following resources can be used to find articles about government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and companies:
Nonprofit Organizations
Books available at the Career Services Office:
- 100 Best Nonprofits to Work For
- Vault Guide to the Top Government & Nonprofit Employers
- FIRSTLINK : A Guide to Services in the Greater Columbus Area
- Guidestar
- Idealist
- ASAE’s Gateway to Associations
- The Nonprofit News and Information Resource
- Associations Unlimited (available through OSCAR
Government Agencies
- U.S. Government Manual
- USA.gov: Index of Government Departments and Agencies
- SearchGov
- State and Local Government on the Net
For listings of other information sources as well as a tutorial on researching organizations, go to: http://www.learnwebskills.com/company/
