I. Identifying Companies Within an Industry

• NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) Standard Industrial Classification Manual 1987.
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk
  Identifies industrial and product categories and assigns them a six-digit classification number. The NAICS & SIC codes are used by many other reference sources as a basis for organizing information.
  
• SIC Manual (Standard Industrial Classification) 1987.
  Bobst Ref6. Reference Desk
  Identifies industrial and product categories and assigns them a four-digit classification number (SIC code.)

For the Bridge Between NAICS and SIC (searchable by keyword) click here.
URL: www.census.gov/epcd/ec97brdg/

• Dun & Bradstreet's Million Dollar Database
  Bobst Ref6 Index Table B HC102.D8
  Lists companies alphabetically in three volumes giving name, addresses, lines of business and principal executives, and sales figures if available. Additional volumes provide geographic and SIC code indexes.
• Directory of Corporate Affiliations
  Bobst Ref6 Index Table B HG4057. A219
  Lists nearly 5,000 major American parent companies with over 50,000 subsidiaries, divisions, or affiliates. Information on companies includes: year founded, line of business, SIC codes, personnel information, stock exchange, ticker symbol. Volume 5 provides similar information for international companies.
• Standard and Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives
  Bobst Ref6 Index Table B HG4057.A4
  Volume I includes over 45,000 publicly-owned companies, giving names, addresses, lines of business and principals. Vol. II is a biographical directory of CEO's, presidents and directors. Volume III provides indexes by SIC code, geographic location, and parent company indexes.
• Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies
  Bobst Ref6 Index Table B HG4057. A485
  Provides information on over 130,000 private and public companies. Includes product lines, sales, number of employees, SIC codes, and subsidiaries. Sales rankings by SIC codes available in vol. 5.
• Thomas' Register of American Manufacturers
  URL: www.thomasregister.com/index.html (Registration required)
  Identifies over 100,000 U.S. manufacturing and service companies by product category and by company name. Includes information on subsidiaries, divisions, and small companies. Provides a catalog file of products manufactured by the companies listed.

II. Company Information: Public & Private

A. Company Directories and Handbooks

• Dun & Bradstreet's Million Dollar Database
  Bobst Ref6 Index Table B HC102.D8
  Lists companies alphabetically in three volumes giving name, addresses, lines of business and principal executives, and sales figures if available. Additional volumes provide geographic and SIC code indexes
• Hoover's Online
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HF5035.H66<
  Company profiles including an overview, brief history, names of officers, competitors, and basic information such as sales, income, and p/e ratios.
• International Directory of Company Histories
  Bobst Ref6 Index Table B HD2721.I58
  Company histories including an overview, brief history, names of officers, competitors, and basic information such as sales, income, and p/e ratios.
• Mergent Online
  American and Foreign; Bank and Finance: International; Municipal & Government; OTC Industrial; OTC Unlisted; Public Utility; Transportation
  Bobst Ref6 Investment Services Wall and (microfiche for historical data) 1920-2000
  Provides financial information on companies listed on U.S. exchanges and over-the-counter. Usually includes brief background or history of the company; summary balance sheet and income statements, capital structure, list of subsidiaries and principal officers. Updated weekly by loose-leaf Weekly News Reports.
• Thomas' Register of American Manufacturers
  URL: www.thomasregister.com/index.html (Registration required)
  Identifies over 100,000 U.S. manufacturing and service companies by product category and by company name. Includes information on subsidiaries, divisions, and small companies. Provides a catalog file of products manufactured by companies listed.
• Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies
  Bobst Ref6 Index Table B HG4057.A485
  Provides information on over 130,000 private and public companies. Includes product lines, sales, number of employees, SIC codes, and subsidiaries. Sales rankings by SIC codes available in vol. 5.

B. SEC Filings

• Annual Reports
  Bobst Ref6 Microfiche collection
  The Business/Social Science Reference Center has in microfiche format Annual Reports and 10K's dating from the mid-1970s through 1998 for American Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange companies. More recent annual reports and other corporate filings (e.g. 8K's, proxies, registration statements) may be obtained from the SEC Library, 7 World Trade Center and online, see Global Access.
• Disclosure
  Bobst Ref6 CD-ROM 1989-1995, with some gaps
  Financial information derived from SEC filings on over 12,000 public companies. Spectrum ownership data, including institutional, 5% or insider ownership for about 5,000 companies is also included. For more recent SEC filings, see Global Access.
• EDGAR online
  URL: www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm
  The SEC requires all public companies (except foreign companies and those with less than $10 million in assets and 500 shareholders) to file registration statements, periodic reports and documents through EDGAR.
• Thomson Research
  Contains all company filings for international and U.S. companies.

C. Securities Ratings Guides

• Value Line Investment Survey
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk
  Quarterly analysis of major NYSE and more active AMEX and OTC listings. It charts market history and predicts future direction of stock performance. Companies are grouped by industry. A short industry analysis is also provided. Back issues kept on microfiche.
• Standard and Poor's Stock Reports
  Bobst Ref6 Investment Services Wall HG4907.S72
  Reports provide coverage of every American and New York Stock Exchange company with substantial OTC coverage. Provides balance sheet information and investment indicators. Updated through a loose-leaf service. The most recent five years are kept on the Investment Services Wall the back issues are filed on the fifth floor under the call number for the respective exchanges:
  ASE HG4905.S442n
  NYSE HG4905.S443
  NASDAQ HG4905.S444
• The Market Guide
  Bobst Ref6 Investment Services Wall
  Covers approximately 800 OTC companies. Information provided includes officers, capital structure, income statements and balance sheet information. A good source for otherwise difficult to find OTC company information. Issued quarterly.
• INVESTEXT
  Full text investment reports produced by top international and Wall Street brokerage firms for many industries and publicly held companies.

III. Industry Information

A. Industry Directories & Handbooks

• Standard and Poor's Industry Surveys
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HG4965.S78 (latest only - back issues in stacks)
  Issued annually, with quarterly updates. Annual issue provides industry overview, composite industry statistics, financial ratios for the industry and individual companies within the industry.
• INVESTEXT
  Full text investment reports produced by top international and Wall Street brokerage firms for many industries and publicly held companies.
• U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HC106.5.A171
  Contains a current analysis of over 200 industries with projections of expected trends and future growth. Other sources of government information for the industry are cited at the end of each chapter.
• Handbook of North American Industry: NAFTA and the Economies of its Member Nations
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HF1746.H36
  Includes a section on American industry covering the importance of the industry relative to the US economy as a whole.

B. Market Share & Rankings

• Dun's Business Rankings
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HF5028.D57
  Ranks leading U.S. businesses, public and private, using sales volume and number of employees. Rankings are broken out by state, SIC number, and by type of ownership (public or private).
• Finance, Insurance & Real Estate US: Industry Analysis, Statistics, and Leading Companies
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HG1.F25
  Provides information on finance, insurance and real estate industries. Includes SIC listings, sales volume rankings, and state level data on each industry covered.
• Manufacturing, U.S.A.: Industry Analysis, Statistics, and Leading Companies
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HD9724.M36
  Provides information on 459 manufacturing industries. Includes SIC listings, sales volume rankings, and state level data on each industry covered.
• Service Industries U.S.A.: Industry Analysis, Statistics, and Leading Organizations
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HD9981.1.S47
  Presents statistics on 151 U.S. service industries drawn from a variety of federal sources and combined with information on leading public and private corporations and representative non-profit organizations
• Market Share Reporter
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HF5410.M68
  overs 2,000 product and service categories over several industries. Comparisons include product types, brand-names, services, and regional concentrations.
• Standard and Poor's Monthly Industry Review
  Bobst Ref6 Investment Services Wall HG4961.M88
  S&P Sector Scorecard as well as brief performance write up by industry sector.

C. Financial Ratios and Balance Sheet Composites

Industry ratios provide information that allows the user to determine how well the industry as a whole is doing, how an individual company is performing in comparison to the industry, and how competing companies within an industry compare. Financial information is derived from annual reports and income statements.

• RMA Annual Statement Studies
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HF5681.B2R6 (Back issues Ref6 Stacks)
  Gives financial and operating ratios for approximately 400 lines of business by asset size and SIC classification.
• Dun & Bradstreet's Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HF5681.R25 I53 (Back issues Ref6 Stacks)
  Provides "typical" balance sheet information for an industry.
• Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios
  Bobst Ref6 Reference Desk HF5681.R25 T68 (Back issues Ref6 Stacks)
  Provides data for approximately 160 industries. Data based on summary statistics from the IRS.

IV. Indexes and Databases: Electronic & Print

All the web based databases below can be accessed off-campus through your ITS or Stern accounts, or used on any networked terminal in the Library. Go to Bobst Library home page at: library.nyu.edu choose "Find Articles Via Databases", then Business. Alternately type in the name of the database that you need. All remote Databases have online help. BobstWeb databases are only available to qualified NYU students, faculty, and staff with active NYU Internet accounts. Contact ITS at 212-998-3035 for information on obtaining an NYU account.

Note: This list is not comprehensive. Please refer to the "Find Articles" page on the BobstWeb for the full listing of electronic resources available.
URL: library.nyu.edu/collections/find_articles.html

• ABI/Inform
  Contains indexing, abstracts, some images and full text to 3300 business and trade journals. Content is from both academic and trade publications.
• Factiva [Formerly Dow Jones Interactive]
  Provides a single point of access to a deep archive of news and business information not available on the free Web, allowing users to conduct in-depth research on companies, industries, regional affairs - or any news.
• Hoover's Online
  The Business Network offers information on some 14,000 public and private enterprises worldwide. Free (advertiser-supported information is available for all companies Hoover's covers; additional information by subscription.
• INVESTEXT
  Full text investment reports produced by Wall Street and international brokeraage firms for industries and publicly held companies around the world. *Investext is licensed to New York University Libraries for the sole use of current NYU students, faculty and staff for educational purposes only. Any use by non-affiliated persons is prohibited. You must certify your status as a current NYU student, faculty or staff member before you have access to the database.
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
  Selected full text of 5,000+ publications covering top news, news transcipts, foreign language news sources, company, industry, and market news; legal news; company financial information (SEC filings); general medical and health topics, accounting, auditing, tax information; law reviews, federal case law; U.S.Code; and state legal research.
• Mergent Online
  Financial filings, summary balance sheets and income statements, corporate histories, long-term debt, bond ratings and more for publically held companies worldwide.
• STAT-USA
  URL: www.stat-usa.gov/
  An Internet source from the US Department of Commerce which provides access to business and economic data released by the government. It includes access to the National Trade Data Bank a source of market research reports on U.S. and international industries.
• Thomson Research
  Company filings for companies in the U.S. and abroad.

V. Government Publications

• American Statistics Index
  Bethesda, MD: Congressional Information Service. Annual.
  Bobst Ref6 Index Table D
  ASI provides abstracts for reports issued by Federal agencies and the executive branch that contain statistical tables. Examples include annual reports, working papers, articles from government journals, budgets and yearbooks. The indexing in ASI corresponds to the ASI microfiche set kept in cabinets in the U.S. Documents collection.
• Statistical Universe
  Bethesda, MD: CIS/Lexis-Nexis.
  URL: www.lexis-nexis.com/statuniv (NYU students, faculty and staff only)
  Web version of ASI and Statistical Abstract listed above. Provides full text of selected reports, and direct web links to data where available. Provides much more flexible searching capabilities than its print counterparts.
• STAT-USA
  URL: www.stat-usa.gov/
  An Internet source from the US Department of Commerce which provides access to business and economic data released by the government. It includes access to the National Trade Data Bank a source of market research reports on U.S. and international industries.
• Statistical Abstract of the United States
  Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Annual.
  Bobst Ref6 HA202 & SuDoc# C 3.134: Ask at Reference Desk
  Earlier issues in Stacks & U.S. Documents Collection
  URL: www.census.gov/statab/www/
  Statistical compendium which covers a wide variety of topics, including population, vital statistics, health and nutrition, education, law enforcement, environment, parks and recreation, elections, state and local government finance and employment, Federal government finance and employment, defense, human services, labor, income and expenditures, prices, banking and finance, business, communications and information technology, energy, science and technology, transportation, agriculture, natural resources, construction and housing, manufactures and trade. Tables provide summary statistics with footnotes indicating sources for more detailed data.
• American FactFinder
  Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census.
  URL: http://factfinder.census.gov/
  This web site is the Census Bureau's primary vehicle for distributing the 1997 Economic Census and other Census publications. For detailed tables from the 1997 Economic Census, i.e. Census of Construction Industries, Census of Mineral Industries, Census of Service Industries, Census of Manufacturers, Census of Retail Trade and Census of Wholesale Trade Select "data sets" on the Factfinder Homepage.