Electronic Books

The Library currently provides access to approximately 2000 books in electronic format (some are Business and Management titles) from various publishers.  The books appear on the Library catalogue and can be found by using Author, title, keyword or Author/Title search just as you would search for a book in print format.  Some of these electronic books can be used by readers for up to two hours at a time and can be reserved if already in use by someone else whilst others are available for a session time of any length.  It is also possible to access the electronic books from the Library's Electronic Information Services Page, click on the letter T to find the Taylor and Francis Online E-Book Library, or click here to go directly to the Information Card for the database.  You will need an Athens username and password to access this service.

Journals - Print and Electronic

Journals (also known as periodicals or magazines) are an important source of information; research is often reported in them before appearing in book form and, because of the frequency of publication, information is usually up to date. They are valuable for information on specific topics and for keeping in touch with new developments in a subject area.

Use Keyword or Title search in the main catalogue and select the Journals catalogue to find the titles of Journals held in the Library.

Electronic Journals:

library.ulster.ac.uk/electronic/fulltextejsa.htm

The Library provides access to a growing range of full-text electronic journals on the Web. These allow searching and browsing of the table of contents & abstracts plus viewing the full-text of any articles of interest. Use the above URL to see a list of titles we have access to, plus logging-in details.

The time coverage of full-text electronic journals can vary - sometimes a very long run, sometimes just a few years. However, they are always useful for current awareness scanning and keeping up-to-date with developments in your research field.

Don't forget to sign up for the current awareness facilities offered by Ingenta and Emerald. This facilitates emailing to your email address, the contents pages of your choice of journal titles each time they are published.

Swetswise:
Swetswise offers a single point of access to a large and growing range of multi-disciplinary full-text titles, as well as tables of contents and abstracts. It now includes access to Elsevier's Science Direct service containing 1100 titles with full-text back to 1995.

As well as browsing electronic journals, Swetswise can also be used to search for journal articles on a particular subject. As more and more full-text titles are made available, this becomes an increasingly important aspect of the service. Home access is available. Please see Library staff.

Reservations & Inter-Campus Loans

Book Reservations

If a book in a University of Ulster library is on loan to someone else, you can reserve it to make sure you get it when it becomes available. As long as you have no overdue books or outstanding fines, you can reserve books by:

• Using the public reservation option on the online catalogue. Locate the item you wish to reserve, click 'Place Reservation' and then follow the instructions on the screen.
   

• Filling in one of the green ‘Inter-Campus/Reservations' cards.
   

As long as you have no overdue books or outstanding fines, you can complete a green 'Inter-Campus/Reservation' request card. You should allow at least one week for items to arrive, or longer if the book is currently on loan. If this is too long for your needs, please do not submit the request. Always fill in the ‘Needed Before’ section on the request card. You will be contacted as soon as the book is available for collection. The item will be held at the Issue Desk until you collect it or until it is due to be returned to the lending library.

Short loan and Part-time loan material cannot usually be borrowed through ICL. If your campus library holds a copy of the required book in its Short Loan collection, you should not normally request an additional copy on Inter-Campus Loan.

Search Preparation

To ensure your search is as comprehensive and efficient as possible, it is worth considering the following:

• Be systematic in your approach.
  

• An outline of the aims of your project will help you to define the extent of your search.
  

• Decide upon suitable search terms bearing in mind synonyms, spelling variants etc.
  

• Remember: a little lateral thinking in choice of search terms goes a long way.
  

• Establish the scope of your search, perhaps you want to limit by date, by language or country of publication.
  

• Remember to record all references fully, accurately and consistently.

• Failure to do this may give you problems later on when you come to compile your bibliography.
  
  
  
  
  Useful books about literature searching and research methods available in the library include:
  

• Blumberg, Boris (2008) Business research methods - 2nd ed.
  
• Brown, Reva (2006) Doing your dissertation in business and management : the reality of researching and writing
  
• Hackley, Christopher E. (2003) Doing research projects in marketing, management and consumer research
  
• Hair, Joseph F. [et al.] (2003) Essentials of business research methods
  
• Hart, C (2001) Doing a literature search
  
• Lancaster, Geoffrey (2009) Guide to management research methods - 2nd ed.
  
• Murray, Rowena (2006) How to write a thesis - 2nd ed.
  
• Potter, Stephen (Ed) (2006) Doing postgraduate research - 2nd ed.
  
• Saunders, Mark, (2007) Research methods for business students - 4th ed.
  
• Silverman, David (2005) Doing qualitative research : a practical handbook - 2nd ed.
  
• Velde, Mandy van der (2004) Guide to management research methods
   

This represents a few selected titles in this subject, for more, please consult the catalogue.

Search Strategies

Hints:

• Databases are all different however the principles of searching are similar

• Most of the databases have a short guide available to get you started

• Use on-line help options to get the best use of a database

• Construct your search using the features given in the table below

• Avoid using the operator NOT as it is easy to unwittingly exclude useful references

Most of the databases available via the library web pages are password protected.  Any with the logo beside the description use the Athens ID and password system. More information regarding your Athens password is available here. 

For the other databases, which do not use Athens, the ID and password is freely available by clicking on the "Password & access info" button in the Special Instructions column of the list of databases.  This will only give the password if you are using a computer within the university.  Some databases are only available from computers within the university and normally do not require an ID or password.

The library subscribes to a range of electronic databases. Most of these are hosted on the Internet while some are networked and standalone CD-ROMS.
Most of the Internet databases are accessible off-campus - check the listing on the Electronic Information Services for full details. CD-ROMS can only be used in the University.

Information may be retrieved from the databases and then down-loaded, printed or emailed as required.

Main Business and Management databases include:

Key:

Username / Password Required

Access Off-Campus

Full Text

Uses ATHENS username/password *Guide available*

ABI Global Package		Provides full-text coverage of more than 700 academic management, marketing and business journals. Coverage from 1987-.
All England Cases		Combines the All England Reporter, the All England Law Reports 1936 to date. It also has a comprehensive archive of official transcripts.
ASSIA		Applied Social Science Index & Abstracts: covers over 650 English-language journals from 1987-.
Belfast Telegraph	Proquest (2003-) Lexis-Nexis (1996-)	Archive of the Belfast Telegraph from the dates shown. Business Telegraph is also searchable.
Business Source Premier		A major business and economics full-text database containing nearly 2,000 active journal titles, over 500 market reports, thousands of country and industry reports and a growing collection of electronic books.
Celex		Contains the official legal database of the European Community. Full-text of treaties, legislation and judgments of the European Court of Justice together with summaries of proposed legislation and questions asked in the European Parliament.
Current Legal Information		Contains cases, statutes, Statutory Instruments, journal articles, government publications and releases. Includes Current Law Service and Legal Journals Index.
Economist		Available fulltext via the Electronic Journals listing. Full text 1975-.
Emerald Management Xtra		20,000 articles in business & management, education and engineering. Full-text 1994-. Abstracts 1989-.
Fame		Database of UK's top public & private companies. Company address, main activities and directors are given, as well as detailed financial data (profiles, profit and loss accounts, balance sheets & cash flow statements). 100,000+ companies covered.
Financial Times (ABI Global Package)		Full-text access from 1996.
Foodline Science		Covers all aspects of the food science and technology and includes details of journals, books, patents, reports and conference proceedings.
Hospitality and Tourism Complete		Hospitality & Tourism Complete is a bibliographic database covering scholarly research and industry news relating to all areas of hospitality and tourism.
Index to Theses		Abstracts of theses accepted for higher degrees in G.B. and Ireland.
IngentaConnect		Search the Contents Pages of over 500 Academic Journals. Full text (1996-) is available where the University has a print subscription.
Irish Statutes		Full-text of the Acts of the Oireachtas 1922-1998 & the Statutory Instruments 1973-1998. Includes the Chronological Tables of the Statutes 1922-1998 (lists amendments to primary legislation).
Institute of Hospitality Information Service		Provides access to the HCIMA Library and Information Service including their online library catalogue of references to individual books and videos as well as an archive of journal articles.
Keynote Reports		Market information giving full-text access to 250 reports across 26 market sectors in the UK.
Leisure and Tourism Database		A bibliographic database covering all aspects of research in the leisure, recreation, sport, tourism and cultural industries. It contains over 50,000 abstracts for journal articles, research papers, books and conferences from 1974 to the present.
Nexis UK (formerly LexisNexis: News & Business)		Business intelligence service including newspapers, journals, wire services, market research & country reports, corporate profiles & government documents. Also includes legislation & case law for UK & Europe.
Mintel Oxygen		Full-text access to 3 yrs archive of Irish marketing information covering both Northern Ireland & the Republic of Ireland. Also access to nearly 400 full-text UK market reports including the food and drink sector & Travel and Tourism Reports.
Occupational Health & Safety Information Service		Provides an up-to-date reference source of key health & safety documentation relevant to the workplace. Retrieve information instantly on health & safety issues such as safety training, first aid, electrical safety, manual handling and dangerous substances.
Psycinfo		Useful for social and psychological issues in the business environment.
Statutory Instruments		Full-text of S.I.'s dealing with England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Also includes commencement orders. Coverage from 1987-.
SwetsWise		Access to full-text titles, tables of contents and abstracts covering a wide range of subject areas.
Wall Street Journal; Eastern edition		1984 - Current.
Web of Knowledge: Web of Science with Conference Proceedings		A multidisciplinary database indexing 7500 journals worldwide. Includes: Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index. 1981-.
Weekly Law Reports		Full-text of the Weekly Law Reports from 1971 to the present, as well as the Law Reports Index from 1981 to 1993.

Some journals, newspapers and databases provide up-dated news and information delivered directly to your desktop. Some require registration but those mentioned below are free.

If you wish to search for general subject-based material outside of the University of Ulster, then SOSIG is the major UK subject gateway for the Social Sciences.

ALTIS - information for students, lecturers, researchers and practitioners in the areas of hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism.

Biz/ed a dedicated business and economics gateway for students, teachers and lecturers. Based at the University of Bristol.

The BUBL Subject Tree is a very useful UK-based subject index to Internet resources.

RBA Business Information on the Internet - a selection of key business information sites.

This is not an exhaustive list of all the available sites but rather a small selection, which will contain further links to other sites.

General Management-related sites

• Best of Biz
  This is the London Business School's business information site. It has a wide range of specialist business information, tools and resources.

• British Library Help for Researchers - Business, Management and Law
  A listing of UK business and intellectual property resources available at the British Library.

• Business.com
  Business.com is a directory and search engine that focuses exclusively on business resources. The site includes company and industry profiles, business news as well as links to business-orientated web sites.

• GlobalEDGE
  GlobalEDGE is a global business web portal created by the Centre for International Business Education and Research at Michigan State University. The site includes a collection of links to research materials, news, periodicals and trade information. It also offers a wealth of information on more than 180 countries including outlines of their political structure, economic climate, history and statistical data.

• UU Business and Management subject guides - guides covering most of the subject areas taught at the university

Company Information

• CAROL - Company Annual reports OnLine
  Requires registration.  Provides free access to full-text company reports from Europe, USA, and Australasia.

• Companies House
  All limited companies in the UK are registered at Companies House.

• Company Financials & Annual Reports
  Worldwide sources of company information.

• Hoovers UK
  Comprehensive source of company information, offers financial and executive details plus a description of activities, competitors, and more on public, private, and even government-run enterprises around the world.

• Linksitecorporate.com
  Links to company websites.

• UK Company News
  Free registration for access to the main databases.

Country Information

• CIA World Factbook
  A useful site prepared by the CIA, which gives basic economic and political information about countries around the world.

• UK Trade and Investment (TradePartners)
  This UK government site is designed primarily for businesses wishing to export goods around the world.

• US State Department
  This American government site offers information on commercial and economic affairs, overseas opportunities and links to other sites. Particularly useful are the Background Notes which include detailed information on countries, including country's history, political conditions, economy and relations with other country.

Organisations & Institutions

• British Chamber of Commerce

• Business Link

• Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

• Chartered Management Institute

• Competition Commission

• Confederation of British Industry

• Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (UK)

• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

• Institute of Directors