International Business Information: How To Find It,How To Use It. By Ruth A. Pagell and Michael Halperin. Phoenix: Oryx, 1994. xiv, 371 p. ISBN 0–89774–736–4. $74.95.

In this book the authors have patterned their arrangement on Michael Lavin’s 2nd edition of Business Information: How To Find It, How To Use It (Oryx, 1992). That work emphasized US information sources, and this later book is intended as a companion piece. While the authors acknowledge that their work is written from a US perspective, they believe that the information and sources described will be of value to librarians and business researchers on an international level, and in this effort they are successful. The work does not claim to be an inclusive bibliography but rather a highly selective collection of works examined and used by the authors.

The work is arranged in five parts: Introduction, Company Information, Marketing, Industrial and Economic Statistics, and International Transactions. The parts are subdivided into a total of 16 sections, and they are supplemented by 157 specific exhibits and 114 tables which help to explain and amplify the listings. As can be seen, this is a very thorough and very informative work. Not content with this level of approach, Pagell and Halperin have also included ten appendixes, dealing with such topics as a checklist for selecting a company directory, a synthesis of accounting standards in 48 countries, and the disclosure requirements of major stock exchanges. Finally, there is a title index of all information sources described, and a thorough 13–page subject index.

All reference tools rapidly become outdated and obsolete, and that is inevitable. However, this work goes to great pains to represent currency at the time of publication, even to the point of recognizing, in its preface, the appointment of Robert Reich as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. This tool will be particularly valuable as a companion piece to the Lavin 1992 work mentioned above, and will be of considerable value in both academic and business settings.

Herbert S. White is Professor, and former Dean, in the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University. He was Vice President, Institute for Scientific Information; and Vice President and Executive Director, NASA Scientific and Technical Facility. His books include Education for Professional Librarians (1986), Library Personnel Management (1985), and Managing the Special Library (1984). He writes the regular column “White Papers” in Library Journal, and has published in many other periodicals. Prof. White has been President of the Special Libraries Association and of the American Society for Information Science.

Citation

White, Herbert S., Review of International Business Information: How To Find It, How To Use It.. By Ruth A. Pagell and Michael Halperin. Third World Libraries, Volume 5, Number 1 (Fall 1994).