Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) have revamped their website with more useful features. They have withdrawn the former ESRC Society Today website and relaunched at http://www.esrc.ac.uk

The new site has extensive funding features including how to measure impacts.

Information on research is now in the impact and findings section  and they have a research catalogue where you can trace outputs such as journal articles and full text reports. Their latest publication is Recovery Britain: research evidence to underpin a productive, fair and sustainable return to growth.

UK’s economy suffered a shock contraction in the last three months of 2010

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with an increase of 0.7 per cent in the previous quarter. The GDP estimate was significantly affected by the bad weather in December; more analysis is provided at the ONS website.

Need some help finding information?

So far this year your librarians have delivered information sessions to nearly 1000 students.  These sessions are great for helping you find quality information for your assignments.  Topics we covered this year included:

• How to use the iFind Discover, the library catalogue
• How to find journal articles using iFind Research, our new search tool
• How to use databases like Business Source Premier and FAME
• How to conduct an effective literature search

If you want to book a session with us then please get in touch.  We can offer one-to-one or group training sessions, just let us know what you need.  Contact us today by email buslib@swansea.ac.uk or phone 01792 295027/513389.
You can also follow us on  and

January exams

Are you preparing for your January exams? Remember the library has a study skills section in the central hall where you can find books on preparing for exams, how to write better essays and reading and making notes.
Follow this link to see what other useful books we have in the study skills collection http://tinyurl.com/6crzq34

OpenCorporates: open access database of the corporate world

OpenCorporates: open access database of the corporate world.
http://opencorporates.com/

Site launched  in order to increase accountability and access to data about companies. It provides listing of companies links to their websites and to public government information about them. This includes Vat registration, financial statements, UK health and safety notices, records in the UK gazette and notices of awards of government contracts. Currently data is held on over 3 million companies (mainly from the UK) but more is being added daily. Information on sources and methodology is available on the website.