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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Illinois and Chicago Firms

This guide has been created for any students wishing to research the business environment and business potential in Illinois or the Chicago area.

Main Resources

ProQuest One Business

Enter keywords for a company, industry, or concept in the search box. The default search is to look for these words anywhere in the article, which means that some of the articles retrieved may not be very relevant. You can eliminate the less relevant articles by using the drop-down menu to the right of the search box to target your search. For example, type in a few keywords from a company's name, and select "Company/organization--ORG" from the drop-down menu. This will limit the results to articles that have been tagged with your company's name, meaning they will be more relevant.

To access, click the red GO button next to PROQUEST DATABASES. If you are working off campus, you will be asked to provide your NetID and password.

Business Source Complete

Enter keywords for a company, industry, or concept in the search box. The default search is to look for these words anywhere in the article, which means that some of the articles retrieved may not be very relevant. You can eliminate the less relevant articles by using the drop-down menu to the right of the search box to target your search. For example, type in a few keywords in a company's name, and select "CO Company Entity" from the drop-down menu. This will limit the results to articles that have been tagged with your company's name, meaning they will be more relevant.

To access, click the red GO button next to EBSCO DATABASES. If you are working off campus, you will be asked to provide your NetID and password.

Crain's Chicago Business

A weekly Chicago business newspaper. To search within the publication, click on the link above and type your search term in the second or third search box. If more search boxes are needed, click the + button to the right of the third search box. 

Nexis Uni

On the home page, select News, then type in keywords for a company, name, industry, or concept. Restricting by date range is available. 

Library Press Display

Online access to the last 60 days' publications of over 200 newspapers from more than 55 countries, displayed in their original format and accessible by country, language, or title. The Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Red Eye Chicago, Korea Daily (Chicago), La Raza Chicago, Where Chicago and World Journal (Chicago) are available.

To access click on the link above, then click on the red GO button. On the left margin of the homepage, you will see a box titled Publications by Country and will be able to choose publications for the USA.