Several of these resources seemed more useful for someone conducting research on business, such as policymakers, rather than business owners. My EconoLit search, for example, turned up a lot of titles like "The Effects of Hazardous Waste Taxes on Waste Generation and Disposal." I did find a 1988 tax planning guide, but that would, obviously, be too dated to be useful. That being said, I would like to return to these databases and do more experimenting with limiters to try to improve my searching.
Most of the results returned on my "FM radio" search of Business Source Complete were articles from academic journals. I experimented with the various tools on the left to limit my results. Oddly, I initially got no results for "FM radio" in the visual search mode, but when I tried again a few hours later, I did. I found this search option clunkier to us, and the one full-text article I linked to was blurry and difficult to read. I didn't have this problem with the full-text articles I accessed through the basic search, but perhaps it was the specific journal.
I had varying degrees of success with my Regional Business News searches. A search of the Boston Globe turned up relevant information about circulation and new products, but I didn't have much success with searches for Maine companies. A search of L.L. Bean returned only seven articles, ranging from a piece on internet marketing to a brief on an appearance by the Bootmobile. It was entertaining to have stories read to me in an Australian accent.
Value Line has a wealth of information for patrons minding their own investments. (And it reminded me why I stick to mutual funds.) Again, I'd like to return and spend more time with several of the useful "Investment Education" tools. It was interesting that, even here, the first result listed in a search of a company is a Google ad.
The Wall Street Journal is a good resource, and the limiters, allowing sorting by publication date, document type, etc., are useful. However, when I attempted to sort by location, I found the limiters were not in alphabetical order, so I gave up on trying to search only for Maine stories. Interesting that I was cautioned that I needed to be at least 13 years old to create an alert. Why would that be?
I'm wondering if the Business and Company Resource Center database that was dropped from the assignment is now called Business Insights: Essentials?