>> Ellen Terrell: My
name is Ellen Terrell,
and I am a business reference
specialist here at the library.
This class is an outgrowth
of a guide I created,
the home page you can see
on the screen right now.
The sources and strategies are
covered here are in this guide.
So if you miss anything in
this class, don't worry.
Pretty much everything
I go over is
in that guide one
way or the other.
One quick note, while many
of the subscription databases
and other sources I
mention here are available
to researchers while they are at
the library, you may have access
to them via a university
or public library
or some other avenue
like a state library
or historical society.
So, I suggest you look locally,
if you are not physically
in the area.
If you are in the DC area,
access to the library
is now open.
We are nights and full schedule,
but again, if you're not
in the area, look local.
This is the agenda
for the class.
We're going to -- by the end
of this class we hope you
will have a better sense
of what sources are available
to you and when they are good
to be used and maybe when they
are maybe not good to be used
as well as a few places
to go for resources.
This is the sort
of rough outline
of the different segments
of this guide or this class.
We're going to spend a
bit of time on directories
because that is a
very accessible source
and is very good for smaller,
sort of more local companies
and historical information.
We'll spend a bit of time
going over some company,
public company resources,
a little bit of time going
over news resources, how
to use them to [inaudible].
The next section is sort of
general internet resources,
and then some suggestions
for taking your research
beyond the Library of Congress.
So, here we go.
We just need to remember
that old is relative.
The company could just be
20, 50, or 100 years old,
or it could just be it
is no longer active.
Every situation is
going to be different
when you're doing
this type of research,
and you'll frequently have
to work around limitations
of the sources that you
have or even what sources
that you can access and
what data is in them.
So, what are you going to need?
Resources, obviously.
Creativity, definitely.
Loss of patience.
You'll frequently have to cast
a really wide net and look
under lots of different, look
in lots of different places.
Sometimes you'll go down a path
that leads you almost nowhere,
and once you gather one
little piece of information,
you may have to sort of start
all over again and go to some
of the sources that
you've already looked at.
Sometimes it's just
a matter of starting
with new pieces of information.
So, directories is
where I like to start.
It is a basic source
because it is basic,
and it is because it is also one
of the most accessible
resources available,
often public libraries and
historical societies keep them
for genealogical purposes, but
I use them for business sources.
They're good for large
public companies, but really,
when it comes to doing research
of this type, I tend to use them
for the smaller companies,
more local,
obviously nonpublic companies.
Some directories are going to
have addresses and phone numbers
and that's pretty much it.
Some directories have
extended information
like executive names.
You can connect a person to
their business in a business
of the people who
owned it or ran it.
Sometimes information is
a little bit different
from publisher to publisher.
Sometimes doing research
on these old companies is
like putting together a puzzle.
The little bits of information
together are only so helpful,
but if you put the pieces
together, you sort of get this.
Those pieces put together
created this example
of a company history that
I did for a company Janes,
Fowler Kirtland for a post
on our Inside Adams blog
or information was pulled
directly from the directories.
One of the things
directories can help
with is a rough approximation of
how long [inaudible] business.
You can see where they
were first listed,
sort of a rough approximation
of when they started,
and when they were last
listed, a rough approximation
of when they ceased to exist.
Sometimes you can
change the company
around to various
locations, that's what's going
on on the screen up here,
as well as name changes
and obviously any information
that is supplied
within the entry.
And again, you sometimes can
even find executive names
as well.
These are just a few
little snips from the post,
I'll make it a little bit
more clear, including the,
they started on Fulton
and eventually moved
to Murray and East 17th Street.
Okay. So, there are a lot
of sources for directories.
At the library, we have many of
them in print or in microfilm.
The first source I like to talk
about is the Dun
and Bradstreet set.
This is a, Dun and Bradstreet
is a company that's been known
by a number of different names.
It is a credit reporting
company that used a code symbol
for their industry, bill-paying
ability, and revenue range.
Their publications are
not strictly directories,
as you might think of them,
but they do give information
not accessible elsewhere.
The first title,
the Reference Book,
or known as the Reference
Book of American Business,
was published from the 1860s
until it ceased in
the early 2000s.
Often the set was
primarily leased,
but the Library gets
what we keep,
so our set is fairly complete.
It was published several times
a year, and there's an inventory
of that on the business
home page,
and the businesses
are listed by state
and then by county or city.
So, obviously, you're
going to have
to have some known information
to even use this site or source.
I'm excited because now we have
started to digitize this set,
and currently, we have 1900
to 1924 available digitally
on the library's website.
The URL is in orange.
We'll be adding more sites,
we'll be adding earlier years
as we are able to,
quality assurance them,
and publish them
from the website.
The next source is the
Million Dollar Directory.
This was a fairly common
source in public libraries.
I'm not sure whether or
not libraries kept them,
but some universities might.
It was not a leased
set, so we didn't have
to worry about returning it.
It includes companies that
are both public and private.
When it began, it was
exactly as it said,
companies that were
a million dollars,
and I think probably sort of
fudging around the edges there,
but eventually, you had to
have higher sales figures
and an employee total
to be included in it.
And this title published
up until, you know,
early 2000s at the very least.
We have this title in
print in our library.
We also have it as part of
emergent archive database.
So if you're here at the
library, you'd be able
to look at it digitally.
The next set of titles I'd
like to mention are the ones
that are possibly most
accessible to you,
or at least some of them are
going to be fairly accessible
to you, and those are
just your telephone books,
your city business
directories, and the like.
They are also available at local
and state historical societies,
at the public library, either
in local history collections
or genealogical sections.
The Library of Congress has lots
of directories from many places
around the U.S., and we do
have some international ones,
which are seen in the picture.
But these are not in our OPAC,
and we have not entirely
inventoried them.
The Library of Congress does
have some directories digitized
on our home page, and
links for the inventory
in the digital collection
are in the guide,
and I was hoping Natalie will
put the links to the inventories
in the chat for you as well.
But the guide will have links
to the, what we have digitized
as well as the inventories
that we do have
for the microfiche
collections that we have
and the print ones that we have.
Obviously, Yellow
Pages are quite helpful
when researching businesses,
but Yellow Pages information
is somewhat limited,
though sometimes
the advertisers,
if a company bought
a bigger one,
can be a little bit more helpful
than sort of just the name,
address, and phone number in
the sort of A to Z listing.
Because they give a better
sense of what the business is
if they are in the
classified section.
City business directories
are sort of a hybrid
between a Yellow Pages
and the White Pages.
Many of them had sort of
multiple sections for people
to access the information.
These were put out by
private publishers and content
and organization will
change from publisher
to publisher and over time.
Sometimes what they will
do is they have an A
to Z listing that's
people and businesses.
Sometimes they will have
a classified section.
Sometimes they will even
have a reverse section.
So it's just really helpful for
if you have the company name,
if they have sort of paid
for it, the ability to find
out who the officers are.
Or if you have a relative, an
ancestor, and you're like, well,
I knew they owned a business,
sometimes they will note
what their business is
under their personal
entry for the person
and give an address as well.
We also have a series
of directories
that we call by address.
Sometimes we call them
criss-cross or street
and reverse directories.
Those are particularly helpful
when it comes to if you want
to know what other businesses
might have shared a particular
block or if you're doing
a building research
and you want know what
businesses were actually located
in a building and opposed to
say who owns the building.
We have the inventories
for the criss-cross
and street address directories.
In the guide, I'm thinking
Natalie should be putting a link
to that inventory in the
chat for that as well.
I should add here that --
I'm totally blanking
what I was going to say.
Since these were often leased,
and so sometimes they will
not be available locally,
but sometimes they
will because I think
in some situations they
were purchased by people.
Again, these are
really great for finding
out what businesses
were at a location.
So, if you were doing some sort
of environmental remediation
project, you can find
out that it was a gas station
or maybe it was a
tailor or what have you.
Now, the Dun's Title and the
telephone directors are just a
tip of the iceberg when it
comes to the directories.
There are many, many directories
that have been published
over the past hundred
or so years.
This includes private
publisher, state directories,
or city directories that are
classified and catalogued
and put in our catalog.
Some of them are also
industry-specimen directories
and other credit
referenced titles.
Thomas Register for
manufacturing products
and credit reference books
like the Lumbermen's Red Book
and the Lyon-Red Book and
the Apparel Trade Book.
These subject headings are
what you can use to attempt
to find [inaudible] directories,
at least the ones that are sort
of more geographic focused.
If you were looking for an
industry directory, you can't go
over the specific industry, or
every industry, but you sort
of account for the industry,
and then you can search
on the [inaudible]
directories as well.
Several of these titles
are credit reference books,
like the Dun's Title, but
for particular industries,
and can contain additional
information
that might be of interest.
For example, the apparel
trade book will differentiate
between stores that sell only
women's clothes versus those
that sell only men's
or children's clothes
or versus those that
make or sell shoes.
So they can provide sort of
nuance where a particular,
sort of more generic name
might not be as helpful.
This is a couple of links
for different directories,
inventories, and sources.
The first three are from
guides at the library.
Again, these will be linked
in our Doing Historical
Company Research Guide.
There are some free resources
like internet archives,
Google book, HathiTrust
that frequently you will run
across these when you're doing
general internet searches.
The Library of Congress
link, which is the bottom,
is the URL to the digitized
directory for the library,
telephone directories that
the library does have.
We haven't digitized
all of the directories.
If anybody here is
from California,
there are a fair number
of telephone directories
from California that are
in there, but I've noted,
so you know, you may as
well give it a shot and see
if what we had can be helpful.
At the bottom, these are
just a few examples of some
of the historical
societies or libraries
that have created digital
repositories for directories.
Lots of public libraries
and historical societies are
doing this because this is a,
you know, there's so
much of an interest
in genealogical research, and
these directories can provide,
you know, information for
all sorts of different ways
for people doing local
history research.
So definitely take a look at
your local public libraries
and historical societies and see
if they have anything
that's been digitized.
There are a few databases
to mention.
These may be a little bit
less available to you locally,
but you might want
to take a look.
Some of them are maybe a little
bit more historical society.
The first of this
is Archives Unbound
that has very good holdings
but obviously limited in terms
of coverage for places.
There is also Ancestry.com,
which is really great
because that is a database that
is frequently available locally
and has good coverage from
around the United States.
They obviously don't
have everything.
I will say, however,
that their holdings
after the 1930s can get
a little bit more spotty,
possibly the result of
copyright or just access
to sources that'll allow
them to digitize more.
They are likely going
to be adding more
and more as time goes on.
So, to go over Ancestry
since this is a source
that is widely available, it is
going to be fitting a square peg
into a round hole a little
bit, and it may seem odd
to use Ancestry for business
research, but I use it
in multiple different
ways, specifically,
mostly for directories,
obviously.
And again, these are mostly
the city business directories
that we talked about earlier.
There are a couple of ways to go
about using Ancestry for this.
At the very bottom
of the login page,
if you go down to the bottom,
you'll see city directories.
I have it in the orange box
sort of in the top middle
of the page, is what you'll see.
And then you can just drill
down by then choosing a state.
You can see the orange
arrow for Louisiana,
and then you choose New Orleans,
and then you choose a year.
And then, yeah.
The other option
is then to search.
This is sort of where things
get a little creative.
This is a screen shot
for the directories page
for the search functionality
on the directories page.
If [inaudible] looks like
it's somebody's last name,
you can search it as a last
name, and then you can limit it
to a particular location.
If it's not a common name,
I would just limit
it to the state.
If it's a very common name, you
might want to try working it
down a little narrower.
If you don't know
how the directories
for a particular location
are actually organized,
some as being too specific
with regards to a location,
can actually sort of maybe
not get you what you want.
Sometimes these directories
are done on the county level
or on the regional level,
so sometimes if you sort
of take it the next level up,
you might have a
little bit more success.
If the business is
not a person's name
or if it doesn't seem that
you're getting anything
that way, you could also
try doing a key word search.
You can see here the example
that they use is flying tigers,
and they use it in quotations.
That definitely works.
I should not all
scans are great.
So sometimes you will not get
what you were expecting exactly.
I would leave off
words like corp or inc
or company unless you
absolutely have to.
They were space constrained
in these directories,
and sometimes things like that
can get left out of an entry.
So if you don't need it,
it's probably best
if you leave it out.
Also sometimes these scans are
not perfect, and putting in,
this is a case where someone
is putting in more information
for them to search on can
complicate the research.
So I would actually
sort of leave it
to the most basic information
unless you actually have
to expand it a little bit more.
One database I also
want to mention,
I'm not sure how
widely available it is.
It's a relatively new product.
A lot of libraries have what
used to be called ReferenceUSA,
but it's now called Data Axle.
One of the modules
that they offer,
that the library does have, but
I'm not entirely sure is one
that most libraries have is
the backfile for their product.
Currently, they go back to 2003.
So, obviously this isn't
deep historical research,
but at this point, 2003
was almost 20 years ago.
So that would fall
in the category
of historical research
at this point.
And it is likely that they might
go back a little bit further,
and they will obviously
be continuing to add
at some point to this backfile.
At this point, I
thought I'd sort of go
over a little case study to sort
of illustrate the
utility of directories.
So, this is an example
that I came up with.
I found this great
photo of New Orleans,
which is where I'm from.
It was taken in 1901, and
it's from our collections.
It says St. Charles
Avenue, but while this looks
like New Orleans very obviously
to me since I'm from there,
it didn't entirely look like
the St. Charles Avenue close
to the French Corridor
that I was used to,
so I was a little in doubt.
So I was looking very closely.
I looked in a source directory.
I sort of couldn't get
any sense until I was able
to verify it was St. Charles,
specifically between the Streets
of Common and Gravier
[phonetic],
if you're interested,
and understand some
of what was going
on in the block.
I was able to zoom in to the
Western Union, and when I looked
up the Western Union in that
source directory, it did verify,
you know, that this was St.
Charles Avenue, and you know,
where I was actually
looking to look at.
There were a couple of other
things I was able to zoom in on,
and I, you know, writing
down all of the names
that I was able to
actually find.
The images up at the top
you can see the factory.
There's a shoe store.
There's [inaudible] laundry
down in the smaller picture,
but the large picture over
on the right was looking
like a railroad, but any of
these, if I had had a street
or a reverse function,
I would have been able
to use the Western Union in it
and see what was on those blocks
and been able to
get a full list.
But the [inaudible] directory
from 1901 didn't actually
have that functionality.
But once I was able to --
I had some names to go on,
I could then look it up in
the [inaudible] directory.
So these were, the
little green dots with all
of the numbers are all of things
that I was able to identify
in terms of names, which I have
to look it up in a directory,
and these are some of the
businesses that I found.
There's the Western
Union back at number one.
The Texas and Pacific Railway
was the railroad station
that I saw over in the larger
picture on the preview screen.
And then, there was a shirt
factory and a ticket agency,
the shoe store, and then a cigar
retailer, George Holthouse.
His business was then
at some point picked
up by his wife, Emma.
So these are things that you
could just sort of [inaudible].
So, to take it one step
further, and I'm not going
to spend too much time on this
because it can get
pretty complicated
and would be its own class on
how to use it, is to use maps.
Some people have a, you know,
can find that very helpful
in terms of sort of
understanding place is
by putting these along a map.
This is, these two images are
from the Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map.
They cover 12,000 American
towns and city and were used
to help insurance
companies write policies.
It can be used to get
a physical presence
to the citation in a directory.
There are free sources
for the Sanborn maps.
There is also a subscription
database
that the Library
subscribes to, the ProQuest
that has these digital as well.
The two images here are from the
Sanborn set and cover the area
with which I was looking at.
The image on the left tells
you which sheet you need to go
to to find that specific
location.
The image on the right is
sheet 103, and it is that block
that is in the image that you
see in the previous slides.
The actual Western Union is
where the little red circle is,
and it is actually
technically on side 104,
block 172, specifically.
So, do we have any
questions, Natalie?
>> Yeah, we have
a few questions.
>> Ellen Terrell: Okay.
>> And some of this
maybe you want
to save a little bit
until later, but --
>> Ellen Terrell: Okay.
>> But two questions
about patents.
One is if they can find out if
a company has registered any
U.S. patents.
And then related is
if they could find
out if their combat division has
had any U.S. patents [inaudible]
not a company but
combat division.
>> Ellen Terrell: Okay.
Well, we do go over a little
bit patent stuff later.
Yes, patents, I'm not the
world's best patent searcher,
but we do go over
some of it later,
so I think I might
hold off until that
to go over it because --
>> Okay.
>> Ellen Terrell: Yeah.
>> I will just keep
track of those
or I'll make sure we
circle back to them.
>> Ellen Terrell: Yes.
>> And then the other
question was about directories.
Are there resources available
for businesses overseas,
specifically in Scotland,
and also is there
information about imports?
>> Ellen Terrell: Okay.
The question about
directories, the answer is yes.
I need to have this probably URL
handy, but there is a university
in the UK who has
been digitizing a lot
of historical directories
from the UK.
I believe Kelly is the
publisher for a lot
of the historical
directories in the UK.
Kompass, K-O-M-P-A-S-S, was
also a regular publisher
of directories throughout Europe
and other countries as well.
I'm blanking on other names, but
definitely there are directories
from the UK that have been
digitized in various sources.
Whoever asked the question,
put it in Ask a Librarian,
because I'll be able
to find out the answer.
I just can't, I don't
know the name
of it off the top of my head.
So, please put that question
into Ask a Librarian,
and I can provide
you with the URL,
because they've actually done
a lot of digitizing on this.
And then the, what was the
second part of that question?
>> And then imports on Scotland.
>> Ellen Terrell: Oh, imports.
If you're looking
for company names
about who was either exporting
or importing into the --
I'll say the exporting from
the UK, if you're looking
for the U.S., that's
a little tricky.
In terms of importing in the UK,
some of those directories are,
sometimes a lot of foreign
directories are about companies
that either export or import.
I sort am a little
agnostic when I am looking
for foreign directories
because I am not as familiar
with their contents, and so
I just sort of go for it.
I think in the subject
headings that I did,
if you replace the state, you
can just put in a country name,
and you can find whatever
directories, so yes.
The answer is yes,
but it sort of depends
on the different countries.
I hope that answers
your question.
>> Yeah, and then there was a
comment, which might be related
to this other comment,
which is, yes,
the presentation will be sent
to everyone after this session,
and we will also send
you copies of this chat
that has all the links.
So you should ideally be
able to click on the links,
but some folks are noting
that they're unable to copy
and paste or download.
So we will be, we will
be sending the links
that I'm sharing in chat.
So I think two people might
have noted that in the comments,
and then there was
one more question,
and then we can maybe move
on to public companies,
and then we'll take other
breaks for other questions.
So, someone commented
that they succeeded
in finding an announcement
about a business in the 1950s,
or sorry, 1850s,
that was closing
that also included the name
of a successor company.
Both were privately
owned partnerships,
and while they can trace some
information about the successor,
is there a way for them to find
out about employees
or contracts?
They've tried so far historical
societies in the state library
in the state that
the business was in.
>> Ellen Terrell: Yes.
Maybe is probably
the best answer.
The earlier a time period
you get, the trickier it is
because some sources are
not necessarily either
as widely accessible
or even available.
News has been one of the sources
that I've used for that kind
of information, but it sort
of depends on when newspapers
for the area had
sort of come online.
As for contract, that's tricky.
A lot of times newspapers
will be reporting on that,
but a lot times they
aren't reporting on that.
If you're talking government
contracts, I have to say,
the U.S. government didn't
always report regularly on this
in ways which it is easy
to find out about it
until World War II
and thereafter.
There's a few sources
for World War I,
and I know for the Civil War,
they were frequently making
notices of contracts either
to be let or had been
assigned in newspapers,
but I don't necessary know
if it was always consistent.
So that is sort of the
not so easy answer.
If it is government contracts
you're interested in,
we do have a guide on
covered contracts research.
It does have a section on
historical, sources and guidance
on finding historical
contracts, government contracts,
the federal government
contracts, I should say.
>> There are three more
directory questions.
I don't know if you want to
take them now or if you want
to move on with the --
>> Ellen Terrell:
Why don't you --
does it look like I can answer
them quickly, because if not --
>> Sure. One is are
law firms included
in business directories?
>> Ellen Terrell: Should be.
They should be.
>> Great. And then, has anyone
assessed directory coverage
across the U.S. in terms of
different formats similar
to how newspapers have been
assessed in terms of coverage?
>> Ellen Terrell: I don't.
I don't think so.
I wish somebody would,
but no, I don't think so.
>> It sounds like a great
research project then.
And then, is the printed
International Directory
of Company Histories
still available
in the Gale Virtual
Reference Library online?
>> Ellen Terrell: As
far as I know it is.
I know they changed
how they searched,
how that database looked, so it
may be a little bit trickier,
but as far as I know,
it is still there.
>> Yeah, and I can double
check while you talk
on the next section.
>> Ellen Terrell: Okay.
>> And then the new name
of ReferenceUSA is Axel.
Or, right, is that --
>> Ellen Terrell: Data Axel.
>> Data Axel.
>> Ellen Terrell: Yeah.
>> Thank you.
And I'll put that in chat.
>> Ellen Terrell: Okay.
>> Okay. And then I have
noted other questions,
and I'll let you move
on to public companies,
and we can circle back.
>> Ellen Terrell: Okay.
So, onto public companies.
This section is obviously about
those companies that trade
on the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
The directories that we just
went over are, you know,
public companies
will be in them,
but I don't use those
types of directories
for public company research
because the information is
so basic, and the
information sources
for public companies just
provide more information,
mostly as a result of anything
that they're required to file
or that publishers are
sort of letting people know
about in terms of, for people,
for investment purposes.
The print directories at
the Library, you know,
come in multiple
different forms.
In terms of the print
ones at the Library,
the first one I mention
is the Listing Statements
of the New York Stock Exchange.
This is a bound set of the
actual filings themselves
or a retyped copy
of it at some point.
It covers the years
1884 to 1984.
It is primarily companies,
though I did note
that it does frequently
have U.S. government debt.
So like the World War I liberty
bonds were listed in there.
And some of those filings are
very helpful in terms of talking
about a company at the
time it went public.
And it also provides a
fairly decent information,
financial information.
The next titles I wanted to
mention are S&P and Moody's.
I group them together because
their major volume sets are
actually very common
or very similar,
and they were both big
publishers [inaudible]
publishers for a while.
The S&P Register is
a very concise report
on public companies,
and it actually covers a
fairly decent time range
in terms of year coverage.
The Manuals, which
is a title that both
of these publishers have
in mind, were organized
in the same way, railroads,
public utilities industrials,
real estate, banks,
that type of thing.
The organization changes
a little bit over time.
These are usually
fairly concise reports,
and I put that in
quotes, of companies
that includes some fairly
decent financial information.
So that can vary by company
to company and over time.
And also, as time passes,
they talk about debt
and also securities.
They pretty much are
the same in terms
of organization between the two.
Moody's is now owned
by Emergent,
and they do still publish.
We have this in print, and we do
have it as a database as well,
which I'll get to
in a few minutes.
The next one the
Capital Changes Reporter.
This is a legal resource that
may not be available in lots
of places, but I like to
mention it from my previous job
because it's good for things
like stock splits, dividends,
and similar information.
It has a set that tax
accountants frequently use
and can be quite helpful in
terms of sort of like the kinds
of things that you would need
to report for tax purposes.
And here is the International
Directory of Company Histories.
This title is generally
private companies as well
as public companies,
and it is usually a sort
of like a narrative history of a
company and can be very helpful
if a company has gone through
lots of changes over time.
And it does have a print
component, or it started off
as a print, and is also now
in database format in Gale.
We also have some microfilm
collections at the Library.
We have an SEC Filings set that
covers the years 1979 to 1994.
It does not include
all companies,
and it doesn't include
all filings.
Just sort of like the big ones
that you would expect, 10Ks,
10Qs, 8Ks, and some
registration statements.
There are a few other sort
of like ancillary ones
that are included
in special cases,
and it can include
annual reports as well.
And just a little note
here, the SEC Filings,
if you want to access them,
you have to go through,
you either have to come to
the Library, or you can go
to the duplication services.
If you can't do that or if
you're under a time constraint,
Refinitiv on Demand
actually does have a lot
of these filings.
You will pay a premium for
it, but that is a service
that is available for,
obviously for a fee.
We have several annual
reports to shareholders as well
as annual -- for the U.S.
as well as international.
You can see, we have a whole
set [inaudible] annual reports.
[inaudible] mostly covers
the '80s, maybe early '90s.
We have one set that
covers companies before '74,
one set that covers
'75 through '83,
and one set that
covers '65 to '74.
I missed this change in the
slides, but that is now,
and that's as of last
week, so it is on an index.
We have a lib guide that does
have the inventories for these
on the business homepage
as well.
So, if you need any of those
or if you're interested in any
of those you can go to the
directories guide for that.
There are a few databases
that are particularly
good for public companies.
We talked about, I
may have mentioned
that the Moody's
Manuals were digitized.
The Merchant Archives is
where they are digitized.
Merchant Archives also has
a couple of other modules,
one that is just limited to
annual reports and another
that is securities
and exchange filings.
Again, they have the
securities filings of back
to about I'd say the early '60s.
I'm not entirely sure that it is
every single company that files,
and I'm not entirely sure
that it's every single filing.
It's a little hard
for me to judge.
Ten K's weren't as
regularly filed, I think,
in the early '60s because they
became later, but they do have,
they now finally have all
of the filings, I think,
in terms of 10Ks and 10Qs
and the registration
statements and 8Ks.
There is also the
request Historical Annual
Reports database.
Neither the microfiche
stuff that we have
or the Mergent Archives
or the Proquest Historical
Annual Reports buckets,
for lack of a better word,
are going to be 100% complete
in terms of either all
companies or all holdings.
And you may be looking
for a company that's
in neither one of those.
Like they're any
one of those places.
So, it's become more
common for places
to actually start collecting
these and making them available.
So you, you know, you have to go
to a couple different
sources frequently
to actually get any of these.
There is also the company,
the International Directory
of Companies Histories,
that I mentioned
in the previous slide
that's in print.
It is in the Gale Directory
Library electronically.
There are a few databases
to mention in terms of good
for public company sources.
Factiva, Business
Insights Global,
and basically any
full-text database.
Between press reports and
coverage of the industry,
emergent basic newspapers,
pretty much any new source
can be used for research
on private companies as
well as public companies.
Factiva actually does
have a specific section
that has more sort of
like company information,
but it is primarily
private companies.
Business Insights Global is
the [inaudible] is frequently
[inaudible] from
its print sources.
So if you think in terms of
that, they do include things
like awards but also
other titles
that might provide
key information
on individual companies.
For free resources, we
have the SEC website.
Obviously, that's not
historical per se,
but 1994 is at this point
quite a number of years ago,
so as time passes, it will
get that much more historical.
And then there is
the Way Back Machine.
The Internet Archives Way Back
Machine, I guess I should say.
And it is a source that
has been archiving websites
for many years.
You would be the URL or the
old URL for a company to check
to see if that company has been
digital -- or has been archived.
There are a few caveats.
Not all the scans are great, and
the further back in time you go,
the less likely it is for
the website to be archived.
And then not all company
websites have been archived,
and some parts of websites
aren't always well archived.
And functionality,
and they have sort
of limited what could
be archived.
If you're going to use that
source, look for the about us
or the industry relations page.
That's where sort of like the
meat of the company reports are.
I've actually used
the Way Back machine
to build the old historical
annual reports for companies
because many companies just
have a rolling five years
of annual reports.
I wanted to touch
on stock prices.
I don't want to spend too much
time, but it is a question
that I suspect local
public libraries often get,
people at tax time in
particular, S&P printed titles.
I'll have print titles for
each of the major exchanges.
I know this set was also
on microfiche as well,
but we have it in our
reading room in print.
I always tell people the most
accessible source is actually
in newspapers.
If the local newspaper didn't
publish the stock quotes,
then if they had access
to [inaudible] historical
newspapers,
working at the New York Times
and the Wall St. Journal,
you can go into that
and get the stock price.
I always recommend
searching on the exchange
and not the company name because
they didn't usually use full
names in a company list.
The other database, Global
Financial Data, is something
that we have and may not
be available locally,
but it does have stock prices,
and it's good if you need to
or like a batch of like
many dates for stock prices.
Newspapers are terrible
for that.
But again, that might
not be widely available.
Factiva. If you have access has
a sort of a rolling five years
that used to be sort
of my [inaudible]
but for whatever reason sort of
decided to limit what they have.
There are a few others
to mention.
FACTSET and Bloomberg, well,
we don't have either of these,
but both of them also have
historical prices as well.
So, you know, if
through a university
or through a local public
library or if you're a company
if you subscribe, obviously
those are there as well.
Okay. So before we go
into news and periodicals,
do we have any questions
related to public companies
that hasn't been
asked yet, Natalie?
>> Yes. Okay.
So, one question is are there
records of union members?
>> Ellen Terrell: I'm
going to say that records
of union members
are going to live
in sort of one of two places.
Either at these local
union levels,
so local 585 was the
Pipe Fitters Union,
would potentially
maintain records
if the ultimate union did not.
There are several
union collections,
collections of unions in terms
of records, but I think it tends
to be the, the sort of like main
union, and I'm not entirely sure
that it includes membership.
I definitely know of some
sources that are available.
Again, if the person who
asked question wants to put
in an Ask a Librarian,
I can provide,
we can provide the
sources that we have sort
of collected for this.
We haven't put it openly.
We don't have a guide related
to this yet, but we have,
there are definitely some
sources that at least I know
about that we've
collected that might be able
to provide a little
bit more guidance
on this at the very least.
>> Great. Another
question is suppose
that they have a person's name
and would like to find companies
where they were an
officer or a board member
or otherwise involved.
Is there a directory for this?
>> Ellen Terrell:
If you're asking me
for something that's
current, then yes.
A lot of databases will
allow that functionality,
like you can search
on a person's name.
In terms of print
sources, I'm not entire,
I've never actually done that,
but the limitations of that is
that they usually do A to
Z lists of the companies.
Sometimes they will
invest by other things
like a person's name, but that
would be the only real way
of doing that.
Your other option, obviously,
is if it is a local gentleman,
and I'll just say
gentleman right now.
Searching on a directory
in a particular place
might show something,
but that's probably pretty
tricky internationally.
You might be able to manipulate
the SEC filing by searching
on a person's name as
opposed to a company,
but I haven't tried that,
so I don't know how
well that would work.
>> And if they're a
very prominent person,
you could always try a who's who
in America would be [inaudible].
>> Ellen Terrell: Yeah, yeah.
Any of the who's who,
Marquis Who's Who or things
like that might be able to
piece something together.
>> And then, for
companies that are
or have been U.S. government
federal contractors,
does Library of Congress
have additional information
that can be accessed like the
proposals that were submitted,
the government awards,
project progress reports,
any additional resources
related to information
on government contractors
would be appreciated.
>> Ellen Terrell: The
simple is pretty much no.
We have, I have sources
for finding out maybe
who got the award of the
contract and how much it was
and what it was for, but
nothing more detailed than that.
I'm not entirely sure
[inaudible] National Archives
always keeps things
for any length of,
for any massive length of
time, I guess I should say.
So I don't think that, I'm not
entirely sure that you can talk
to the National Archives and
look at contract information
for a particular
something or other related
to the war effort
in World War II.
I know Archives has been
creating a digital sort
of day-to-day for contracts
mostly post war, World War II,
much more likely Korea,
and there are definitely print
sources for World War II,
but it only gives you the
very basic information.
Again, that government
contractor's guide sort
of will point you to some
links for sources on that,
but any more detail than
just sort of for lack
of a better word
citational information, no.
>> And then, can we find a list
of employees or companies --
sorry, can we find a list
of employees of public
or private companies
that no longer exist?
>> Ellen Terrell:
I have never had --
yeah, I have never had any luck
finding company employee lists
for any company.
>> Right [inaudible]
>> Ellen Terrell: Unless the,
unless, I was going to -- yeah.
I was going to say, unless
there was an archive,
but companies didn't
always archive there stuff,
or if it got bought and then it
got bought and it got bought,
it becomes a more
complicated task.
So I have never had any luck.
>> And then, there is, oh, a
comment about a good source
for substantive biographical
articles on business executives.
Is the National Encyclopedia
of American Biography,
which was published
in 1892 to 1984.
So I'll put that in chat.
And then, so others
can see that.
And then there is one question
about finding historic
women-owned
or minority-owned businesses, is
there a good resource for that?
>> Ellen Terrell: We have
a guide on women's business
that might have some
resources for that.
We also have a guide for
African American businesses
that definitely has
some resources.
There are a few directories
that are specific to
African Americans.
They tend to be very
location specific,
and it is a little sort
of like hit or miss.
Again, if the person who asked
that question wants to put
in a Ask a Librarian,
we'd be able to sort
of like provide a little bit
more in terms of directory,
particularly African
Americans because it's not,
some of that is not actually in
the guide yet because we're sort
of still gathering
the information.
So, please put in a question
from that, and I can,
we can provide you a sort of
more detailed list on that.
Is that it?
Oh.
>> And the last question I
think might be a good segue
into your next segment, which
I can let you then finish up,
because I realize we're
running short on time.
>> Ellen Terrell: Yep.
>> But what about finding
smaller mom and pop companies?
>> Ellen Terrell: This is
where, are you looking,
if they're looking to, if
they have a name, again,
the directories is the way
to sort of go about things.
If they have a, they're
looking for a particular place,
let's say Washington, DC,
and they're interested
in grocery stores, then look
in the city business directory
under grocers, and
you'll get a full list.
So it sort of depends on, you
know, what your goal is on that.
If you have a more
specific question,
because I think I answered that
sort of very generally, again,
please put in an Ask a Librarian
and sort of go for that,
and I can really give
you a better answer.
>> Okay. I'll let you launch
into news and periodicals.
>> Ellen Terrell: Okay.
So, yeah, for the
news and periodicals,
a lot of this is more
sort of news focused
than periodicals focused just
through the nature
of digitization.
Newspapers would
they be very good
for covering say the local
businesses in the area
that there's the
newspaper coverage.
The trade publications
are obviously very good
when looking at the industry.
So any of the businesses that
are in a particular industry.
They have advertisements.
I like obituaries.
Articles, obviously.
Listings of court proceedings
are all good for sort
of like gathering little
pieces of information to get
to a bigger picture
of the company.
These are a couple
of things related
to the Janes, Fowler,
and Kirtland.
One is about -- both of them are
sort of about the dissolution
of them at various different
points, or changes one
from 1900 and one from 1859.
This particular, these
are two particular images.
One is related to, they're
both sort of mergers related,
and then, one was about a
merger of two companies,
and the other is about a
company that was going public.
There are a number of
database for newspapers.
Digitized full-text databases
like newspaper archives,
Proquest Historical Newspapers,
America's Periodical Index,
America's Historical
Newspaper, America's Business,
American Business Mercantile
Newspapers, are all things
that the Library actually has
and can be searched and be,
that includes articles as well
as advertisements, classified
and display advertisements.
Newspaper.com is one
that frequently local
public libraries have,
but we do not actually
have, and then Elephind
and then Chronicling
America are two free sources.
Chronicling America
is the Library
of Congress's free resource,
and both, all of these papers,
a little less so Proquest,
are good for sort of more
of the local newspapers.
Proquest is some of the
big -- is fewer newspapers,
but is like New York Times,
Wall Street Journal, LA Times,
a lot of the big cities,
not necessarily some
of the smaller town.
Indexing databases are
going to be very helpful,
particularly for
trade literature.
Many trade, much of trade
literature publishing they did
published indexing, or at
least a lot of journals did,
but not all of them did.
So, you will need to do, to
use indexing sources for that.
Readers' Guide to Periodical
Literature is probably the most
common and more familiar with.
They had a sister publication
called Business Periodical
Retrospective, and
Industrial Arts Index,
and those are all
now in the database.
Reader's Guide can be a
database, and then the database
for Industrial Arts Index
and Business Periodicals Index
is now called Applied Science
and Business Periodicals
Retrospective.
Again, any full-text database,
ABI, Business Source Complete,
Factiva, General
OneFile, can all be used
for historical company research.
Obviously, a database that
only goes to 1995 is not going
to be very good about
covering a company
in 1895 unless it's still
around and going strong,
but any particular news
database can actually be used.
There are a few things to note
about searching databases,
particularly when it comes
to the digitized papers.
I would strongly suggest
using the indexing provided
by the vendor to
limit your source.
This is particularly helpful if
the business name or the person
that you're looking for is a
pretty basic name, John Smith
or something, or you know,
United Corporation of America.
So there are a few
things to note.
Sometimes the scans on
these things aren't great.
So if you can limit it by day
or if you want to limit it
to just articles or [inaudible]
publication or a place,
you can sort of limit it
to the most likely places
that the company
that you're looking
for is actually going
to be reported on in.
The advertisements, again, are
a part of the search function
in these digitized databases.
That is not the same with
the text-based databases,
which pretty much don't
even include advertisements.
Again, it's a good way to
narrow down your resources
or at least just sort
of [inaudible] stuff
that you really don't
want to look at.
A few quick things to
note for searching.
In a lot of these textual
data -- digitized sources,
if you use quotations,
it forces an exact match
like it does on Google.
If you use the quotes
it sort of like, again,
it forces the phrase search.
I should also say at this point
that these databases don't
like ambiguity at all.
There's no sort of like
using ands and ors.
It sort of searches
what it sees.
Again, use the phrase search,
a phrase, and field searching
if you have the availability.
I would also, again, leave
out words like company
or corporation and
abbreviations just
because you don't know how the
newspaper actually uses those,
if they even do.
And that changes over time
during a paper's publishing
history in any case.
If you have a particular
name of an owner
or a president, also
search on that.
Their obituary can be pretty
helpful if you run across that.
But, again, I would probably
search, sometimes you also have
to search on abbreviations
like Jas for Jason,
and Chas for Charles,
and Jos for Joseph.
And sometimes you'll have to do
multiple searches, particularly
if they, if it seems common
that they use a middle initial.
Lastly, I have actually
also been known
to even use an address
for a business.
You never know what
shows up on that.
Usually I don't do that
unless I'm desperate.
Are there any quick
ones that I can answer,
or should I just keep going?
>> I would just keep going.
>> Ellen Terrell: Okay.
That's fine.
Okay. The internet
has a lot, and it has,
it's adding a lot all the time.
But it doesn't have everything,
and not everything
is being digitized.
There are digitized trade
journals, digitized newspapers,
family histories, genealogical
sources, directories,
sources like the internet
archive, HathiTrust,
are all really great resources
to use, and you can do a search,
you know, today, and then in
a year from now do a search
and get some additional sources
that you wouldn't have
gotten the first time around.
So if this is a long-term
project, you might have to sort
of circle back to things
that you'd already
thought you'd left behind.
Okay. Two quick sources.
Most states require some sort
of registration for businesses,
and this is public as well
as private, law firms,
partnerships, things
of that nature.
I should say that every state
does this a little differently.
What they make available
is a little bit different.
How historical [inaudible]
is different.
Whether you have to pay
for it or not pay for it.
It varies from state to state.
Usually it's through
the secretary of state,
or in the case of New Jersey
and I think a couple of others,
[inaudible] the department
of revenue.
Doesn't include sole
proprietorships though.
I mentioned earlier
the Way Back Machine.
So I won't spend too much
time on that, but, again,
that is an option for
pretty much any business.
For the person who asked about
trademark and patent searches,
obviously patent,
USPTO for both is good.
I should say that patent
searching is a little
complicated the further
back in time you go
because they limit how you can
search prior to a certain point.
Trademarks, they're a little
bit more flexible with, but,
you know, patents go
back to the beginning,
and trademarks go back to 1881.
The patent searching on USPTO is
a little bit limiting a little
bit the farther back you go.
I recommend also trying
to use Google patents
because they are a little
bit more flexible in terms
of what you can actually
search and sort
of like finding more
information.
So, that is definitely one
that I would recommend.
So, beyond what I've also,
I've stated here before,
beyond the library, local,
state, and historical societies,
local and state libraries,
local history collections,
state archives, sometimes
this is a little bit different
with states.
Some of them, sometimes
they'll combine the library
and the archives in the same.
These collections have a real
emphasis on the materials local.
They know the directories.
They know the newspapers.
They'll have oral history
collections, personal papers
and records, uncatalogued
and ephemeral material,
and newspaper and
genealogy databases.
You can use them to tap
into the local knowledge,
to the knowledge that
local people have
about their own places.
It's very hard for me as
somebody in Washington,
who's never lived in a
smaller town in Indiana,
to understand how that
specific smaller town
in Indiana may be sort
of like publishing
and making their
information available.
So I would definitely
tap into those people
and those collections.
There are archival collections
through OCLC if you are looking
for companies, to see if
a company has had records
that they have sort of
like made, you know,
submitted through, submitted
to a local reference
research collection.
The Research Works
OCLC.org/archivegrid is the
product that lets you do that.
This again is the home page,
and if you missed anything,
that's a Google place to go.
If not, for all you people
whose questions we didn't get to
or who had questions that I
couldn't totally answer here
to the best of my ability,
please put in an
Ask a Librarian,
and I think Natalie might
be putting in the link.
And with that, my
blabbering is now finished.
And please, if there's any
other questions, let me know.