Assignment 3: The Library, Data, and Ethics

For each question, if it asks for information about a company, write about each company your team is covering and make the report correspondingly longer. If it asks about something else, then just answer the question, and do not write a longer answer just because you have a bigger team.

For simple questions that involve looking up data (e.g. Question 2), I suggest that each member of the team look it up separately and then you compare notes. This has two advantages. First, you each get practice, which is useful. Second, if you find your answers disagree, you can go back and figure out who is doing it right.

1. (Library Sources, Stock Analysts) For the companies your team is covering, summarize the Investext investment reports that are on the CD ROM in the Business/SPEA Library. How many reports suggest buying the stock, and how many suggest selling it? Very briefly, what is each report's reason for its decision?
   Note that you don't have to read every word of every report; just enough to answer these questions. (If one of your companies is not in Investext, ask a reference librarian for suggestions of alternative sources of information).

2. (The Macroeconomy, Current Data) On the Web or in the library, look up the U.S. rate of unemployment for the latest 12 months that are available.
   Hint: You can look around the G100 website to find web info sources.

3. (Ethics) Find a mention in the WSJ of an ethical dilemma in business and write 500 words or so (about one page) on the problem and your solution. (Just one problem for your team is fine)

4. (Library) For each of your companies find the title of one article that is available on it in ABI-INFORM.

5. (Library) How many books in the IU library system have your companies' names in the title?

6. (Legal Organization) Using the yellow pages (or any other source), list one example each of a sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation with its primary location in Bloomington.