Library Guides: Management & Marketing: Websites

Select Websites

.gov
Local

Government resources are generally authoritative and reliable sources of information.

A-Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies (USA.gov)
A directory of federal agencies from the official U.S. government website.
FDsys (GPO.gov)
Find government publications from the Government Printing Office's Federal Digital System.
International Trade Administration Industry Analysis
Industry Analysis from the ITA, an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that promotes United States exports of nonagricultural U.S. goods and services.
United States Department of Commerce
Houses the: Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA); Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS); U.S. Census Bureau; Economic Development Administration (EDA); Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA); International Trade Administration (ITA); Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA); National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); National Technical Information Service (NTIS); U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
World Factbook
From the CIA, the World Factbook provides basic information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, environment, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues for 258 world entities.
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (United States Department of Commerce)
Federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (United States Department of Labor)
Inflation & Prices; Pay & Benefits; Spending Time & Use; Employment; Productivity; search a database or create a customized table; access Occupational Outlook Handbook; and much more!

Select local resource sites.

Salisbury, MD Area Chamber of Commerce (.com)
Offers business support and information about the area.
Choose Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development (.gov)
Offers a wealth of information on Maryland and business.
Maryland State Data Center (.us)
Coordinated by the Maryland Department of Planning and official partner with the U.S. Census Bureau.
Maryland Small Business Development Center (.org)
Provide advice, consulting and support to entrepreneurs and small businesses across the state. Part of a national SBDC network that helps over 500,000 U.S. businesses annually.

Small Business USA.gov
Resources for starting a business or non-profit organization; financing; exporting or importing; federal government contracts; and state business resources.
SCORE Templates
Business Planning & Financial Statements Template Gallery from SCORE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
Bplans: Business Planning Resources and Free Sample Business Plans
500 + example business plans and information on: how to write a business plan; how to start your business plan; what is a business plan?; business plan outline; and much more

How to Write a Sales and Marketing Plan
From Bplans, instructions on how to start your Marketing Plan.
Building a Successful Marketing Plan
From Wolters Kluwer, what you need to know to write a marketing plan.
Marketing & Sales (SBA.gov)
Resources on marketing and developing a marketing plan. From the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Business Guide.
Marketing Strategies & Ideas For Your Business (Entrepreneur.com)
Guides on marketing basics, sales, online marketing, finding customers, social media, branding, SEO, and networking, in addition to recent articles on the topics of marketing.

BRASS Best of the Best Business Web Resources

The BRASS Best of the Best Business Web Resources Award was established in 2009. The Award recognizes 3-5 websites highly-relevant to information professionals involved in providing business reference services. The websites are nominated and selected by the BRASS Education Committee members, typically in October-November. The criteria include the quality of content, ease of use, and technical execution.

World Bank Business Ready (B-READY)
The World Bank’s new Business Ready (B-READY) site benchmarks the business and investment climate across economies, replacing the former Doing Business report. The complete open-source data set and a reproducibility package are provided. The B-READY methodology evaluates economies by assessing ten topics, such as Business Entry, Labor, Financial Services and International Trade, and organizes this analysis around three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency.
Nonprofit Explorer
ProPublica's free Nonprofit Explorer provides comprehensive, searchable access to tax filings from over 3 million tax-exempt organizations in the United States. This powerful database allows users to search, browse, and download Form 990 filings dating back to 2013, offering unparalleled transparency into nonprofit operations. The interface includes user-friendly search capabilities by organization name, location, or EIN, while also offering filtering by organization type, revenue size, and filing year.
Data Quality Literacy: A Guidebook
This eBook covers various aspects of data quality literacy, including quality assurance in data creation, governmental and commercial data, data reproducibility and preservation, and more. The edited volume is based on a series of national forum webinars which were compiled and enhanced with infographics and supplementary materials to equip information professionals, researchers, and students with the skills to critically evaluate data quality.
AI Transformation Case Studies
The “AI Transformation Case Studies” Notion workspace, published by AI Expert Network (AIX), expands its “AI in Action” newsletter and Substack. The site provides a free, curated repository of business AI implementation examples. AIX is a global organization connecting businesses with AI professionals. This collection of case studies addresses the scarcity of documented real-world business AI deployments. The collection provides over 200 case studies indexed by company, industry, use case, and technology. Each case study presents structured information including company approach, implementation, challenges, results, takeaways, and referenced sources.

The Business Model Canvas
Used to create and document business models, the BMC is a strategic analysis tool that visually maps the relationships between customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure.
Ethics Unwrapped
Designed to teach ethics in “every academic discipline where human beings think, interact, and work”, this educational program encompasses an introductory section and eight focused areas, including ‘Organizational Ethics’ and ‘Sustainability and CSR.’
Harvard's Atlas of Economic Complexity (version 3, 2021)
The Atlas is a globally recognized tool “intended to advance the understanding of inclusive economic growth.” Interactive data visualizations enable researchers to explore relevant international business information focusing on imports/exports, drivers of economic growth, and GDP growth prospects of certain countries.
Tax Notes' Tax History Project
This educational resource presents the history of taxation in the United States through three chronological collections. The ‘Tax History Museum’ is an encyclopedic overview from colonial America in 1660 to the present. The ‘1040 Archive’ provides copies of all IRS 1040 Forms beginning with tax year 1913.

Census Business Builder
The Census Business Builder (CBB) is a suite of services that provide selected demographic and economic data from the Census Bureau tailored to specific types of users in a simple to access and use format.
Data USA
This visualization engine draws from a variety of U.S. federal and state sources, allowing for easy discovery, comparison and customizations of data. It can be used by job seekers, policy makers, business people, students and other researchers. There are four starting silos: Cities & Places, Industries, Jobs, and Education, which offer information on trends in employment (industry growth, diversity, salaries, etc.), industries, education, public health and more. Recipient of the BRASS Best of the Best Business Websites Award 2022.
Investopedia Dictionary of Financial Terms
This free dictionary of 14,000+ financial and business terms is for beginner to experienced information-seekers. Its definitions range from short to article-length, each clearly indicating its author and date. Entries are well-known for being factual and accessible, and the site provides clear, contextual information, even for complex topics.
Our World in Data (OWD)
Our World in Data (OWD) covers global policy “problems of the day” by providing factual articles, historical data and data visualizations, which are available for open access use under the Creative Commons “BY” license. OWD encompasses research related to the environment, economics and social issues, and broadly tracks 100+ sub-topics, like demographic change, economic development, education, energy, food security, health, inequality, poverty, sustainable development and war.

BRASS Best of the Best Business Web Resources Award
To see all BRASS Best of the Best winners visit the BRASS Award Recipients webpage.