Several good sources of information on corporations and manufacturers can be found in the Johnnie Mae Berry Library. Many are traditional books, but some are also available online. Each has a slightly different orientation, so you must be careful to choose the one that is most likely to contain the information that you need.  The information found in the various directories is arranged in different ways. Common arrangements are: alphabetical by the name of the business, geographical, alphabetical by product or service, or numerical by North American Industry Classification System code number.  OhioLINK provides an excellent online guide to Company Research at http://iws.ohiolink.edu/companies/ . 

North American Industry Classification System 
(Ref 338.012 N864 1998; online at http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html)

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) numbers have replaced the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code numbers to classify businesses by type of activity.  NAICS was developed jointly by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to provide new comparability in statistics about business activity across North America

DIRECTORIES PROVIDING NATIONAL COVERAGE

These directories provide basic information about corporations, including address and phone number, annual sales, number of employees, products and SIC codes, and chief officers.

Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives (Ref 338.74 S785)     

Thomas Global Register
(http://www.thomasglobal.com)

REGIONAL INFORMATION

These sources give the same kind of information for those companies in our vicinity:

Cincinnati USA Business Connections (Ref 338.76 G786 2004/2005)
      Coverage is limited to members of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.
www.TRInet-Online.com: Greater Cincinnati Business Information
D&B Regional Business Directory: Cincinnati Area (Ref 338.74 D926 2000)
     Information is given for businesses located in Northern Kentucky, Southern Indiana, and   Southwestern Ohio. These businesses are also ranked by sales volume and number of employees.
Ohio Business Directory (Ref 338.76 O37)
Indiana Business Directory (Ref 338.76 I39)
Kentucky Business Directory (Ref 338.76 K37)

ANNUAL REPORTS

AnnualReports.com provides free corporate financial information.

NEWS

The best starting place for business news is LexisNexis Academic.  Company news, industry and market news, and company financial information can all be found in LexisNexis Academic.  For national coverage, you can also search Business Source Complete and Regional Business News.  These are OhioLINK resources that are available from any computer on campus.  To use them off-campus, please follow the instructions from the Library’s website.  For Cincinnati business news, search directly in the local newspapers.  Links to them can be found here:  http://www/Library/cincinnati.htm.

HISTORIES

For company histories, consult International Directory of Company Histories (Ref 338.7409 I61) or the bibliography United States Corporation Histories: A Bibliography (Ref 016.3387 N264) that will lead you to books and periodical articles. Other histories might be found through Business Source Complete.

There is a large amount of business information available on the Internet.

Updated July 16, 2007.