Industries of the Southern Coastal States

Industries of the Southern Coastal States

BSC Library Resources

This course allows you to explore the cultural, economic, environmental, and financial aspects of Southern coastal industries. The Library has reference sources in each of these areas which may prove useful as you start your research. You will also want to consult the catalog (WebCat) for books; make use of the library's indexes and databases to locate periodical articles; and search the Internet for relevant resources. This guide can help you begin the research process. Please remember: if you have questions, the library staff stands ready to help you in any way we can!

Finding Background Information in Reference Sources

Southern History and Culture

Several books in the reference section offer background information on Southern history and culture. These do not circulate, but may be used in the library.

Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Ref. F209 .E53 1989

Encyclopedia of Southern History. Ref. F207.7 .E52

Encyclopedia of the Antebellum South. Ref. F213 .V65 2000

Encyclopedia of the South. Ref. F207.7 .O27 1985

The American South: a historical bibliography. Ref. F209 .A45 1986 (2 vol.)

Background information on cultural groups may be found in the following resources:

American Immigrant Cultures. Ref. E184 .A1 A63448 1997 (2 vol.)

Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Ref. GN307 .E53 1991 (v.1 = North America)

Ethnic Groups Worldwide: a Ready Reference Handbook. GN325 .L46 1998

Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. Ref. E184 .A1 G14 1995 (2 vol.)

Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Ref. E184 .A1 H35

Industry and CompanyInformation

Among the best reference sources the Library has for industry and company information are:

Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage – under Library Indexes & Databases (BSC access only)
S&P's NetAdvantage is a gateway to in-depth company information, geared particularly toward investors. It incorporates a number of classic S&P publications, including the Register of Corporations (which gives basic company information) and the Corporation Profiles, which gives more detailed financial and historical information. The Industry Surveys component of NetAdvantage provides recent surveys and current analyses for 21 industries and approximately 1000 companies. It also has a general "trends and projections" section about the economy and an earnings supplement offering revenue and income data for companies.

Mergent Online – under Library Indexes & Databases (BSC access only - two users at a time!)
Mergent Online (formerly FIS Online/Moody's) database contains extensive financial and historical information on over 10,000 U.S. public companies and 11,000+ non-U.S. public companies. Users can build custom reports on companies, compare companies based on financial performance, and export data into spreadsheets. For historical analysis, much of the information in the Mergent Online database is available back to the mid-1970s in the Moody's Manuals for industry, banking & finance, transportation, and public utilities (see Ref. HG 4961 .M67; previous years are in Aux.Ref.)

Company Annual Reports and 10-K Reports online
Publicly owned companies make general financial information available to their shareholders on an annual basis through their Annual Reports. They are also required to file detailed 10-K and other financial reports with the federal government. The SEC's EDGAR database, available on the Internet at http://www.sec.gov/edgarhp.htm, provides free access to 10-K and other reports. Many companies are now making their annual reports and their 10-K reports available on the company website. (If the company's URL is not obvious, consult http://www.hoovers.com/, http://www.corporateinformation.com/, http://www.companiesonline.com/; or try a web search).

Encyclopedia of American Industries. Ref. HC102 .E53 2001 (2 vols.)
Provides comprehensive information on every industry recognized by the SIC system. Covers both manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries and includes historical information as well as significant business trends and statistics.

Hoover's Handbook of American Business. Ref. HG4057 .A28617 2002
Hoover's contains information on companies, providing an overview, history, chart of key financial information for the past 10 years, list of major products, rankings, and competitors. Also available online at http://hoovers.com/.

U.S. Industry & Trade Outlook. Ref. HC106.5 .A17 2000
Gives brief industry reviews and forecasts for numerous industries. Includes tables and charts. Earlier works that do much the same thing include U.S. Global Trade Outlook (GovDoc C 61.34/2:995-2000 in paper and CD-ROM formats) and U.S. Industrial Outlook. Ref. HC 101 .U54 1994 (annual).

Environmental Information

The following sources may prove useful for basic environmental information:

Access Science (McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology online)

Macmillan encyclopedia of the environment. Ref. GE10 .M33 1997

Cooper's comprehensive environmental desk reference. Ref. GE123 .C64 1996

Conservation and environmentalism: an encyclopedia. Ref. GE10 .C68 1995

Encyclopedia of the environment. Ref. GE10 .E53 1994

Finding Books

Books about specific cultures or industries can be found by using the library catalog (from the library web page) to search by KEYWORD or SUBJECT.

To search for information about the areas which you will be visiting, use search terms like:

Alabama description and travel (or Southern states description and travel)

Alabama social life and customs

Alabama history (or Mobile history)

To search for books about cultures, enter the name of the culture in the search box (e.g. Cajuns or Creek Indians) and click on "subject"
To search for books about specific industries, enter the name of the industry in the search box (e.g. Petroleum industry or Gambling) and click on "subject" (or "search everything").
To search for books about the environment in the Southern states, use terms such as:

Southern states and environment$

Industry social aspects Southern states

The computerized union catalog , WorldCat, is a good place to look for relevant books that might not be in the BSC Library. Also, remember to check the bibliographies of any books (and articles) you find for more possible sources. You can request books and articles through Interlibrary Loan if they are not available in Birmingham.

Finding Articles Using BSC's Indexes and Databases

The easiest way to find articles on industry, culture, and environment is to use the resources listed on the Indexes & Databases Subject List page (available from the library Indexes & Databases page).

Current articles (many of them full-text) can be found in the General Indexes, such as Academic Search Premier, LexisNexis Academic, Expanded Academic ASAP, Readers' Guide Abstracts FT, and PA Research II Periodicals.
More in-depth coverage of cultures may be found in some of the Behavioral & Social Sciences Indexes, such as Social Sciences FullText and SocioAbstracts (via FirstSearch - password required).
In-depth articles on industry are available through the Business indexes, such as ABI/Inform, Business Source Premier, General BusinessFile ASAP, and Business FullText. Two of the general indexes, LexisNexis Academic and PA Research II Periodicals, have particularly good coverage of business.
In-depth articles on the environment may be found in some of the Science indexes, such as General Science Full Text, Wiley InterScience, and BasicBIOSIS (the last is available via FirstSearch - password required).

Remember: if an article isn't available full-text in the database you are searching, you can consult Periodicals @ BSC on the Library home page to see if it is available full-text in another database, or if it's available in print or microfilm format in the Library.

Finding Web Sites

The Web can be an excellent source of travel, culture, industry, and environmental information. You can search for information using the library's Internet Search Tools (available from our Internet Reference Sources page). Remember to carefully evaluate the Internet sites you find, since anyone can slap up a web page! Some useful evaluation guidelines are available at A Checklist of Questions for Evaluating Web Sites.

Thinking toward your trip, some useful travel sites include:

MapQuest: http://www.mapquest.com/

Local Yahoo: http://local.yahoo.com/

USA City Link: http://usacitylink.com/

50states.com: http://www.50states.com/

State & local government on the net: http://www.statelocalgov.net/

U.S. Chamber of Commerce homepage: http://www.chamberbiz.com/

Chambers of Commerce: http://www.globalindex.com/chamber/

You might also try these websites:

Acadian Village http://www.acadianvillage.org/

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources http://dcnr.state.al.us/

Alabama State Docks http://www.asdd.com/