New Electronic Resources: May 2007 Archives

The Online Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) contains almost the whole corpus of Greek literature in full-text from the age of Homer through the fall of Byzantium in 1453 AD to the Ottoman Turks. This scholarly tool has very quickly become essential for studying Greek history, literature, and philosophy. Since its origins classical studies has been strongly influenced by language and linguistics. TLG allows researchers to examine Greek at both a broad and a fine-grained level. Scholars can effortlessly search across the database to look for word frequencies and unusual words, concepts and phrases, or they can examine just a single text. You can limit your search to specific centuries, use abbreviated subject and geographic categories, or search a selected group of texts. Using one of the many kinds of Greek fonts, you can not only retrieve texts but also input searches in Greek font. It's very cool.

Imagine the riches this collection contains: the Presocratics with their focus on the natural world, the Platonic dialogues with their emphasis on ethics and morality, and Aristotle's wide-ranging and multidimensional gaze. The Greek tragedians Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. The writers of the Hellenistic period when Greek learning spread to most of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds. The four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, plus the Acts of the Apostles and the letters. Ancient Hebrew wisdom transmitted through the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures. And don't forget the apocrypha, like the Gospel of Thomas, Epistle of Barnabas, and the Apocalypse of Daniel. Or the Greek Fathers, or the commentators on Aristotle like Alexander of Aphrodisias.

This is a great scholarly collection and the Temple University Libraries is happy to bring it to faculty, students, and staff.

---Fred Rowland

The library has added two new business resources to our database collection: Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage and Global Insight.

Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage is a major addition to the databases that support company-and-industry research. This database is especially important as Standard & Poor's is already phasing out their print publications. In the future, almost all of their titles will be in digital formats only.

This database is useful for more than purely business research. The inclusion of the Mutual Fund Reports in the package allows for extensive research of and comparisons among mutual funds. The Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Executives and Directors facilitates extensive research for job hunters, with information on public and private companies. A separate glossary is included and an excellent "Learning Center" that covers the basics of investing, has a retirement tutorial, and covers current tax issues.

Almost all of Standard & Poor's (traditionally) print publications are included in the database. One of the most important components is the Industry Surveys, and the Global Industry Surveys – which we have not had before. Additional products that we have not had before include the mutual fund profiles and several news letters.

NetAdvantage recently added Compustat Excel Analytics and Compustat International Fundamental Reports with five (5) years of extensive data and charts that can be downloaded directly into Excel.

The following products are in NetAdvantage:
Bond Reports Company Profiles; Corporation Records Fund Reports (more than 14,000 mutual funds are included); Industry Surveys (back to 1998) with Trends and Projections (back to April 1999); Global Industry Surveys (back to 2004); The Outlook (back to 1996); Register – Executives and Directors; Register – Private Companies; Register – Public Companies; Security Dealers of North America; Stock Reports

The Global Insight database was formed by the merger of DRI (Data Resources, Inc.) and WEFA (Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates), combining two well-respected financial and economic information services. It has recently integrated into its package the World Markets Research Centre (WMRC), enabling it to combine same-day analysis and risk assessment of more than 200 countries and industry and market analysis into a single database.

Global insight provides "comprehensive economic and financial coverage of countries, regions, industries, and markets" in a single platform. Historical country-specific data dates back to 1970 and forecasts predict 25 years into the future. Please use Internet Explorer as your browser to access the Excel spreadsheet downloads in the database.

For countries it provides "economic analysis, data and forecasts; political analysis; regulatory analysis; tax laws and impacts; operational conditions; security risk analysis". This is the first database that we have been able to acquire that provides country risk analysis and forecasting.

Its collections of economic and financial data, updated daily, include "global economic data; global financial data; U.S. economic data and press releases; energy data; industry and sector data; forecast and analysis".

Global industries covered are: Automotive Industry; Energy Industry; Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Industries; and Telecommunications.

Fields of study supported by the Global Insight database include all departments within the Fox School of Business, Advertising, Political Science, International Health, Geography, and Law.

--Barbara Wright