no access to AFR and BRW after March 31 2007
The library regrets that abstracts will replace full text coverage of the Australian Financial Review and access to the full text of Business Review Weekly will no longer be available from factiva after March 31 2007. The publisher, Fairfax Business Media, has informed us that these two publications will be withdrawn from the factiva database from which they are currently accessed. Currently there is no other suitable online alternative. Fairfax has also introduced terms and conditions for their new online access channel that are unworkable for academic institutions. In collaboration with colleagues at other institutions and with Fairfax, we hope to find a satisfactory outcome soon. Abstracts will replace full text coverage of the Australian Financial Review on factiva. The Library has current print and microfilm holdings of the AFR, while BRW is available in print only.

Watch this space for developments as they come to hand.

how to write a business plan

An emba student wanted to know where to find business plan templates or samples. The Virtual International Business & Economic Sources (vibes) website was a starting point. It was also an opportunity to test out their "Ask a Librarian" function which is excellent. I got an immediate response and a great list of very useful sources, including the Australian government website which has information on starting a business. The United States Business Administration also offer their guidelines. The Better Business Bureau's site includes the SBA site and the bplans site. Another suggestion is Proquest5000 database, typing in the search terms 'Guidelines AND Business plans' (being careful to specify these as 'Subject' ). Of course the Frank Lowy Library holds an excellent selection of books on business plans, including The Ernst & Young business plan guide/ Siegel, Eric S. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 0471578258. Call No. 658.4012/389

Experiments in custom search engines

It's possible to create custom search engines which only search web sites which you specify. The important thing in web search is removing the false hits, which will otherwise distract you from the pearls of good information out there. I have just developing a custom search engine in Google Co-Op that searches business library web sites and the business-related blogs. The intention is to make a collection of reputable and reliable web sources, that will offer fewer false hits than a general search engine. Please note, it's very much a work in progress. If you know of a site that should be included, please send a comment to let me know. Alternatively, if you think a site should be excluded, I'm interested in hearing that as well.