PRIORITIES
Part of the process of choosing the right databases involves strategic thinking. Some of the choices are obvious. If your research focuses on nanosensors, for example, the IEEE Xplore (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/) database is an obvious choice.
Less obvious may be the choice of business oriented databases. For example, if you will be partnering with small, privately held businesses, you will want to find out a little more about them before entering into an agreement. Nothing beats the D&B (www.dnb.com) database for this task. Using it to explore a company’s payment history provides some insight into the company’s reliability in the financial arena.
Conversely, if you will be doing business with a large corporation, you might consider using a database like Hoover’s (www.hoovers.com). This is an excellent one stop source for a corporation’s finances, markets, and current news.
Then there are industry standards to consider. For anything petroleum related, the API standards (www.api.org) are an obvious choice.
For other standards, such as ASTM, ANSI, etc., as well as international standards, a convenient one stop source is the IHS site (http://global.ihs.com/standards.cfm).
The point is, to enable easy access to the information you need to do your work, you need to be clear in your own mind what information you need easy access to. You need a strategic plan.
But, I don’t need to tell you that, because you already have one … for your business. What I can say is, that your library should be an integral part of your organization’s strategic plan.
Visit www.jeansteinhardtconsulting.com for more handy tips on satisfying your information needs.
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