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A current awareness resource for students & faculty members in Business & Economics


Researching Indigenous business topics: New guide to save you time!

Published by Mark Bodnar

Screen capture showing the table of contents of the new guide: background info, books & ebooks, articles, company directories, associations & industry organizations, government, miscellaneous, and additional research guides
I'm very pleased to announce that SFU researchers now have a detailed research guide available on Indigenous business resources!

An increasing number of SFU assignments, courses, and programs in Business (and beyond!) are focusing on ways to work with and for Indigenous communities on business and economic development projects. Our new guide is intended to save you time and effort... 

<Click to learn more... including about some hidden treasures!>

One step forward: Contactless hold pick-up & scanning of book chapters

Published by Mark Bodnar

Drawing of a small stack of books
As with much of society, we are slowly -- and very, very carefully -- starting to take some steps toward relaunching access to some of our physical resources.

I hope you all know that our many online resources and services have remained available throughout the COVID disruption. That is, the loss of access to our library buildings and print items, though certainly frustrating at times, has also highlighted the incredible growth of the many ways we support research beyond our walls

Nevertheless, it will still be wonderful to start allowing at least mediated access to some of the thousands of print items in our huge collection: as of this week, we are now offering...

<Click here for details!>

Actions vs words: New video on using news to research companies

Published by Mark Bodnar

Screen capture of the title screen of video: "Actions vs Words: Understanding a Company's Strategies Using News Sources
Another video on business research skills & resources! 

As you can probably figure out from the title, this one is about using news sources to gather information about what a company has been doing so that you can infer the company's strategy, rather than relying solely on the company's explicit statements or third-party analysis. That is, focusing on actions vs. words.  

And it includes a brief demonstration of one of our main news article databases here at SFU: Factiva.

<Read on for details.>

Films on Demand: Streaming video for SFU courses

Published by Mark Bodnar

Happy Monday, all — and Happy "First Day of Classes!"

Logo of the Films on Demand streaming video collection.

In our current remote-only world, many instructors and students are looking for streaming videos to liven up classes. With that in mind, the SFU Library has started a short-term subscription to a collection of over 34,000 videos in all subject areas: the Films on Demand: Master Academic Collection.

A few examples of Business/Economics videos from this collection: 

<Click here for more!>

 

New video! Secondary Research for Business Decisions: Foundations for Estimates

Published by Mark Bodnar

Cover image from video: Secondary Research for Business Decisions: Foundations for Estimates
Anyone who has taken such courses as BUS 343 (Introduction to Marketing) and BUS 360W (Business Communication) knows that being able to find and evaluate published information to support a decision is a core skill in all areas of Business.  (And, frankly, in most other subjects... and in life in general!)

However, before you can focus on finding and evaluating information, it's important to have a clear understanding of the definition of secondary research -- especially of its built-in flaws and how they might influence how you plan your search and evaluate your results.

With that in mind, I've created a video...

<Read on for more!>

Streamlined access to our research resources from off campus

Published by Mark Bodnar

Logo for LibKey Nomad
As we all settle into a work-from-home routine, I'm pleased to announce that there is a new tool -- LibKey Nomad -- to help you with (almost) seamless off-campus access to many of our library's journal article subscriptions.

This Chrome Browser extension can be installed with just a couple clicks. Once you have it equipped, it will scan for scholarly content as you browse the Internet. When it detects that you've landed on the page of a journal article available in our online collection, it will drop a little Download PDF button onto the page. Click, authenticate as an SFU researcher, and you're in! 

<Read on for details about LibKey Nomad, the SFU Library Bookmarklet, secret Google Scholar settings, and more!>

Help is here!

Published by Mark Bodnar

Screen capture of first screen of video, featuring the title "Contacting Your Business & Economics Librarian"
Hi all -- I hope you are doing okay in these difficult times.

I recently wrote a post about the wealth of resources available remotely for SFU researchers, with a focus on our top business & economics resources.  I ended that post with some tips on ways to get help choosing and using those resources.  

Since then many students and faculty members have sent me questions, so it's clear that at least some people are aware that when the physical library is closed, our remote research assistance is still available! 

To ensure everyone knows they can still contact me with their business & economics questions, I've made a short "Doodly" video...

<Click for details!>