Library Catalog. Searching a company name by KeyWord may produce many results and varied contexts for a company/corporation, not necessarily historical.
Searching by Subject (drop down) can focus results to its history or to a person. Examples: Apple Computer, Inc--History, (or) International Business Machines Corporation--History (or) Gates, Bill.
Reading of a company's history and development may be fascinating and insightful. Dependent of the resource tool selected, background coverage may range from in-depth and historical to short summary profiles briefly highlighting significant evolutionary developments and historical milestones.
Books about a company's history are most comprehensive, giving detailed content about history, structure, people, and operations. You may find some selective books on company/corporation history among the Billington Library's holdings.
Be aware, any desired resource not otherwise held by the Billington Library may be requested/obtained thru our InterLibrary Loan (ILL).
Can't find or identify locally a specific title for company "X"'s history or an executive's biography try casting a wider search using WorldCat.
International Directory of Company Histories [IDCH]. (multi-volumes)
Updated continually, IDCH profiles evolution of over 14,000+ companies world-wide which have achieved a minimum of $25 million in annual sales. Listed companies maybe public, private, non-profit, or state-owned. Profiles cover: key descriptive characteristics, history, key dates, competitors, and a Company Perspective (side bar), giving a brief overview of mission, goals, and ideals. Subsidiaries maybe profiled. Company entries having had major changes since last profiled may be selected for updating information.
Note: IDCH is available online through Gale Virtual Reference Library. To search the entire series, select/click the latest volume. Under Tools [right box], enter your company name in the search box and change default to "all volumes." Returned results are based on relevance. You may re-sort to most recent; however the results will identify many other named entities in which your original name choice is mentioned in passing.
LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations {Directory} [LNCA].
Lesser of historical narrative description or detail and more like a "family tree", LNCA profiles directory type information and corporate linkage of public & private and international companies (nearly one million) to their many acquired subsidiairies. As a "who owns whom" resource LNCA is massive (8 print volumes) and international; listed "parent companies" have revenues of $1 million or greater. Areas of profile focus are: Corporate Identity (name, address, incorporation,contact,etc); Descriptive Data (ie, employees, SIC codes, ownership, brands/products); Personnel (names & titles, etc); and Outside Service Firms (ie, counsel, auditors, bank agent).Note: Corporate Affiliations is one of many hundreds of titles offered online thru LexisNexis Academic database.
Title searching Corporate Affiliations in LexisNexis Academic database.
Targeting this title only to search is daunting as LN Academic covers many publication titles. Open LN Academic interface to the generic search screen. At the page's top, click on select/open Source Directory Find; using Find Sources by Keyword enter: corporate affiliations and click, Find. Click/select the returned title by checking the box. CA by default becomes the sole retrieved filter for your search. Click OK to continue; you are returned to the front generic page and search box to enter a company name. You'll note below the default filter to search this title only .
Suggested Web Link to Consider:
Library of Congress's Guide to Business History Resources.
WorldCat is a cross mega-file containing title holdings of hundreds of libraries worldwide and covering multitudes of subject matter. Over 6,700 U.S. and Canadian libraries are covered.
You may search for any item using basic criteria such as: Keyword, Author, Title, ISBN#, Year, or you may focus your search using their more "advanced" search capabilities. NOTE: The number of simultaneous users of WorldCat is limited. If your log-in is rejected please try later.
Found an item(s) of interest about any topic--what's next? Try ILL---we can get it!
Use the Library's Interlibrary loan [ILL] service to obtain a resource you want and the Billington Library cannot otherwise provide. Fill-in the form's template & submit. Caveats: Receiving a book may take several days via mail (it's not Fedex overnight); article turn around, however, may be sooner. Do not wait to request your items. Questions, contact ILL staff @ 469-8500, extension 3285.