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


Factiva: More sources, more global, and more valuable!

Published by Mark Bodnar
Simple line drawing of a person with a newspaper next to their head.
The world is in a constant state of flux, and business operates right at the edge of all that change. The curated-for-clicks content of most social media won't catch the niches and nuances needed to plan and execute business strategies, so including quality news sources in your daily routine is imperative. 

One of our best news sources here at SFU is Factiva — a database of over 33,000 news publications. Factiva is always expanding to ensure good coverage of emerging trends in all countries and industries. In fact, during the last year Factiva added more than 1,800+ new sources from 84 countries & territories in 23 languages! Here are just a few examples of the new content available to you...

<Read on for even more reasons to use Factiva every day!>

Interactive, bite-size instruction on more key workplace skills — expanded Sage Skills: Business

Published by Mark Bodnar

Q:  What's better than an online resource designed to support 54 foundational, high-demand workplace skills?

A:  An online resource designed to support 59 foundational, high-demand workplace skills!

Our SAGE Skills: Business resource has expanded. SAGE has added one new skill to each of the five modules in the database, and the new skills added are just as interactive & important in all workplaces as the initial 54...

Screen capture of the logo of SAGE Skills: Business

<Read on for details!>

Rockets, genomics, wearables and more: Plunkett Industry Almanacs online for SFU researchers!

Published by Mark Bodnar
I'm very pleased to report that we've added several industry almanacs to our Plunkett Research Online collection.

Screen capture of the logo of Plunkett Research Online

Plunkett industry almanacs are a useful supplement to our other industry reports, such as those in our IBISWorld database. They don't generally contain much analysis, but they provide the information you need to start analyzing potential markets yourself... trends, statistics, contacts, and competitors...

<Read on for details about 20+ useful new ebooks!>

Beyond Harry Potter & LOTR: Academic book series

Published by Mark Bodnar
Simple line drawing of a person reading a book that has a happy face on the cover
You know how enjoyable it can be to read (and re-read!) a popular fiction series? Each time you finish a title, you look forward to the characters, and perhaps even the story, continuing in further volumes. There's a mix of suspense and comfort in plowing through an entire series such as Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, Discworld, or the Aubrey–Maturin books that I'm currently reading.

Nonfiction series may not offer much in the way of suspense between volumes, but finding a good academic series that touches on your specific research area can certainly be rewarding. Each new title is both familiar and new, with different aspects and perspectives of the topic explored in every volume.

I thought I'd highlight just a few of the academic book series I've been keeping an eye on lately...

<Read on for some great reads!>

GFDatabase... for when a (very) long-term perspective is needed

Published by Mark Bodnar

Screen capture of the GFDatabase search boxes showing the major categories of time series available.
So much of the research done today focuses on resources that can be accessed online, digital information that can be found and analyzed quickly... often from home on a snowy day while wearing pajamas.

As convenient as it is, relying solely on online information introduces a dangerous bias in research. It's true that an increasing amount of older information is being digitized every day, but that is still just a tiny sample of all the information that has been produced. Limiting your research to only online sources introduces a shortsightedness that can affect your conclusions and your decisions.

Paradoxically, I say all that as preamble to a post about yet another online resource, but the database I'm highlighting exists in part to help correct the myopia: GFDatabase.

<Read on for details & examples, including a 260-year chart of Canadian inflation...>

Changes coming to access procedures for WRDS

Published by Mark Bodnar

Screen capture of the logo of the WRDS database
​Starting next week (Nov. 28, 2022), the procedures for accessing our WRDS financial datasets will change. Wharton Research Data Services has already emailed current registered users about the new procedures, but I thought I'd post the main details and ways to learn more for anyone who missed the emails...

<Read on for details!>

Congrats to our newest grads! Stay connected & informed now that you are alumni...

Published by Mark Bodnar
Screen capture of the cover of an Argus Industry Review & Outlook report
It's been wonderful to see so many smiling grads and their families up here on the mountain this week — Convocation is one of my favourite times of the semester. Congratulations to those who are graduating!

If you're amongst the happy grads, or if you see that finish line in your near future, you may be interested to learn that SFU alumni retain off-campus access to a wide selection of the SFU Library's valuable resources.

 Here are just a few of the alumni-accessible resources I think might be of particular interest...

<Read on to open the treasure chest!>

Engage your students with case studies on current news events: Express Cases via SBC

Published by Mark Bodnar

Screen capture of the search screen for Sage Business Cases, edited to add the word Express.
If you want your students to see the immediate and impactful relevance of classroom theories to the world around them, consider assigning one of the Express Cases from our Sage Business Cases database!

Express Cases are business case studies on topics in the news, perfectly designed to help your students apply academic theories and critical thinking to real-world situations.

<Read on for some highlights from our newest Express case studies!>

Telemedicine, peer-to-peer lending, green apparel and more: Plunkett Industry Almanacs online for SFU researchers!

Published by Mark Bodnar
I'm very pleased to report that we've added several industry almanacs to our Plunkett Research Online collection.

Screen capture of the logo of Plunkett Research Online

Plunkett industry almanacs are a useful supplement to our other industry reports, such as those in our IBISWorld database. They don't generally contain much analysis, but they provide the information you need to start analyzing potential markets yourself... trends, statistics, contacts, and competitors...

<Read on for details on 20+ new ebooks!>