CGT 2005: Digital Graphic Design: How to Research

Characteristics of "Good Information"

•    Accurate
•    Relevant
•    Timely
•    Understandable
•    Secure

Have you ever heard of Data Smog? A term coined by author David Shenk, it refers to the idea that too much information can create a barrier in our lives. This data smog is produced by the amount of information, the speed at which it comes to us from all directions, the need to make fast decisions, and the feeling of anxiety that we are making decisions without having ALL the information that is available or that we need.

Information Literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information. Why is Information Literacy important?

Information literacy is the solution to Data Smog. It allows us to cope by giving us the skills to know when we need information and where to locate it effectively and efficiently. It includes the technological skills needed to use the modern library as a gateway to information. It enables us to analyze and evaluate the information we find, thus giving us confidence in using that information to make a decision or create a product.

Resources in this LibGuide will help you overcome Data Smog and find "Good Information" resources.

There are many places to get information about business resources.  A good place to start for company information is the company's own website.  These can be either:

• The "brand" website, this is primarily used to promote the business to the customer so has an advertising focus, e.g., shop with online payment services and good.
• The "corporate" website, which is primarily used for other businesses, newspapers, the media and students/staff doing research.  You'll find annual reports, news and press releases, stock ticker symbol, corporate information and lists of key members of staff.  The corporate home pages sometimes have investor pages with relevant investor information.

Be sure to use the Corporate site rather than the Brand, or consumer, site. For example, Walmart.com is the consumer site, and WalmartStores.com is the Corporate site. A couple of Web sites to find appropriate corporate Web sites are Yahoo Finance and Google Finance. When looking for investor information, you may need to use a website's "Site Map" to find the Corporate information.

This guide also features many resources you can use to find information about specific companies and industries. If you think of other resources that would be good to list here, please leave a comment.

Ticker symbols are short abbreviations representing publicly traded shares of a particular traded stock on a particular stock market.  An easy place to find a ticker symbol is by searching Business Insights by company name. On the company profile, the ticker symbol is located in the upper left-hand corner of the company profile.