College and Research Libraries Corporate Annual Reports in Academic Business Libraries Judith R. Bernstein More than twenty thousand companies distribute annual reports. These reports are collected by libraries in various media, however, an extensive literature search failed to uncover any description of these collection practices. This paper describes a survey of 500 academic business libraries that was undertaken to gather information on present practices in the acquisition, use, retention, and storage of domestic and foreign corporate annual reports as well as on policies related to their circulation and cataloging. These reports, an extremely important body of pri- mary company information, are collected by 92 percent of those libraries responding to the survey. After describing current practices in detail, some options are proposed for libraries col- lecting this material. orporate annual reports are widely collected by academic business libraries as excellent descriptions of company activi- ties. The corporate report reviews the past year's accomplishments, and provides a perspective on the future of the company .1 It is addressed to shareholders and thus is written in language that the average shareholder will understand. It is also an ideal source of information for the busi- ness student. In an expensively packaged public relations document, often costing the company thousands of dollars to pro- duce but usually sent free to libraries, the student can get a detailed view of the com- pany's corporate image and policies. The student can see how the company's prod- uct is displayed, identify the corporate of- ficers, and get an indication of the type of employees the company hires. Most im- portantly, the annual report contains a de- tailed description of the company's finan- cial balance sheet-earnings, sales, stockholders' equity, etc. Nevertheless, nothing has been written about the acqui- sition or retention of annual reports. Despite their many benefits, annual re- ports pose a range of problems for the li- brarian. The hard-copy corporate annual report (CAR) to the shareholder must be requested from each company. The librar- ian must see that a request is made, there- port is received, and the library stays on the mailing list for the following year. Continuous checking on responses to these requests is needed: often a company does not respond immediately and a sec- ond request must be generated. If the company is very small, phone calls may need to be made. If guidelines have been established for the library's holdings, these must be reviewed each. year so that the list remains current. If selection is by individual companies in a particular in- dustry, the list must be reviewed in order to add new companies and drop old ones. After a few years, CARs begin to take up a great deal of space; after five or ten years, they present serious storage prob- lems. How much historical information in this form is it necessary for the library to Judith R. Bernstein is head of the Parish Memorial Business Library, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 . Eileen Schroeder, formerly of the University of Mexico General Library, assisted with the statistical analysis of this report. 263 264 College & Research Libraries keep? If space needs appreciate so rapidly, what is the best location for the CARs? Do questions of currency and security make special locations a requirement? Should they be in an area such as reference or re- serve where assistance is normally avail- able? Can older issues be located in more remote areas? Do we know how the re- ports are used so that we can make intelli- gent judgements on these issues? Foreign corporate reports pose further problems. Many foreign companies are not generous in sending out reports and, for some, numerous requests may be to no avail. Often it is necessary to make re- quests in the language of the country in which the company is headquartered. Many foreign companies do not have any conception of a mailing list, and library staff must request the current reports from these companies annually. The necessity for frequently checking receipts is more critical for foreign annual reports because they may become totally unavailable if missing issues are not noted promptly and claimed immediately. Some of the problems posed by hard- copy versions may be alleviated by collect- ing annual reports on microfiche supplied by commercial vendors. Microfiche may be retained for many years and use con- siderably less space than the original hard copies. The vendor providing the fiche is responsible for maintaining orderly re- ceipts; however, there is a substantial cost for these fiche, and the library will still be responsible for making any changes in the company reports that are to be acquired on the subscription. In the case of foreign corporate reports, there is an added con- cern: it is only in the last few years that vendors have been in the business of sup- plying substantial numbers of reports, and we have no track record of their ability to maintain an orderly supply of them. If the library can overcome the questions of costs, there are still a number of unan- swered questions about the use of micro- fiche. Librarians have always felt that there is a strong reluctance on the part of the client to substitute microforms when paper is available. One consideration is that the "packaging" of the annual report is lost; for example, multicolored graphics are not cheaply produced in microform. May 1986 How important is the packaging and artis- tic production to one's clients as com- pared to those aspects that can be as easily provided in another format? A possible alternative to the CAR is the 10-K. The Securities and Exchange Com- mission requires that this report be filed annually by all public companies with at least three . million dollars in assets and five hundred shareholders. A few com- panies use the 10-K as their annual report; others include it as an addition to their an- nual report, but this is not common prac- tice. 2 There are now several vendors that provide microfiche copies of 10-Ks andre- lated reports on a subscription or demand basis. As with annual reports on fiche, the storage of 10-Ks is considerably less bur- densome than the paper CARs, but this convenience may be offset by-the substan- tial purchase costs as well as the need for fiche readers and printers. Questions also remain as to whether the information con- tained in the 10-K is sufficiently similar to the annual report that one can be substi- tuted for the other in library collections. THE SURVEY In order to answer some of the questions raised about corporate annual reports, a questionnaire was sent in March and April, 1985, to 500 libraries affiliated with institutions listed in Barron's Guide . to Graduate Business 1984. 3 (Schools with fewer than twenty-five M.B.A. students were not included in the survey.) Replies were received from 340 libraries ( 68 per- cent), including 5 that did not fill out the questionnaire and 1 that filled out only one side of the two-sided form. A subset was created of those libraries that were identified as having a separate business li- brary by the College and University Business Library Statistics 1979/80 and 1980/81 Sur- vey. ''The term' separate' refers to those li- braries that are housed in a separate build- ing or part of a building, with a separate budget and an easily identifiable collec- tion of materials."4 To this subset were added those libraries that were identified by Barron's in the Cartter Report as the II top schools of business. 1 ' 5 It was the au- thor's hypothesis that the separately housed and top schools might have differ- ent practices than other academic busi- ness libraries. Thirty-four separately housed libraries were identified, and 7 ad- ditional schools without separate libraries were added from Barron's "top" group. In order to increase the percentage of re- turns, a telephone follow-up was con- ducted. Of the 41libraries in this group, 90 percent (37) eventually returned the ques- tionnaire. (See appendix A for a listing of the 37 institutions.) The survey instrument contains twenty- seven questions. Section I deals with do- mestic companies: questions 1-7 relate to the acquisition, storage, location, and use of the hard-copy annual reports; ques- tions 8-13 deal with the same data as they relate to annual reports on microform; 14-17 solicit information on the acquisi- tion and use of the 10-K reports. Section II, ·questions 18-21, contains requests for in- formation relating to foreign corporate re- ports. Section III contains questi~ns on · circulation, cataloging, online services, and proposed changes in annual report collection policies. Section IV solicits back- ground information regarding the size of the library's business collection and the number of students in the graduate and undergraduate business programs. So much confusion resulted over the ques- tion of the estimated size of the collection (number of volumes versus number of ti- tles, serials and/or monographs; inability of librarians to estimate the size of an in- terfiled collection) that this answer was disregarded. Only one question was in- tended to be open-ended, but many re- spondents added unsolicited and useful comments. All the responses were exam- Corporate Annual Reports 265 ined and coded in. the appropriate section, including those that were unsolicited. Of the libraries responding to the sur- vey, 75 percent (255) collect hard-copy an- nual reports. The number of reports col- lected each year range from one to twenty-five in 9 libraries to more than three thousand in 6libraries. Of these 6, 4 are in the subset of separate and top busi- ness libraries previously defined. (This group will hereafter be referred to simply as the subset.) Of the 37 libraries in the subset, 27 collect hard-copy reports; the majority collects large numbers of reports, as would be expected from major research libraries in this group. Of the total respon- dents, 99 libraries had just begun collec- tions. The responses to question 4, categories of collecting, are summarized in table 1. The collecting behavior of the subset was similar. Of the libraries collecting the For- tune 500 hard-copy reports or reports of companies headquartered in the state, the preferred locations are the reference de- partment, special alcoves or rooms, or fil- ing cabinets in unspecified locations. Few libraries keep these reports in the current periodical area, the regular stacks, or re- mote storage. The preferred locations are consistent among both the total respon- dents and the subset. Of the libraries re- taining reports indefinitely, the majority locate them in the reference department or in special alcoves; a minority of libraries retain them on reserve for varying pe- riods. The largest number of libraries that specified ''other'' collections mentioned TABLE 1 LIBRARIES COLLECTING HARD-COPY ANNUAL REPORTS, BY TYPE OF REPORTS AND YEARS RETAINED Total Years Retained Number of Types Collected Libraries* 1-2 3-5 6-10 Fortune 500 177 50 91 11 Co.'s hq. in state 175 47 79 11 Fortune 1000 54 9 24 4 Fortune 500 service 82 18 45 7 Forbes 500 40 9 24 2 NYSE 71 20 26 3 AMSE 61 15 23 3 OTC . 47 10 19 3 Co.'s selected by industry 59 17 24 4 Indefinite 31 50 19 21 8 21 18 14 15 *Some respondents transfer reports from one location to another after a number of years, which accounts for the discrepancy in the totals. 266 College & Research Libraries reports of locally based companies. Other categories added by respondents were those requested by faculty or students and those from companies headquartered in _the region (Southwest, New England, etc.), followed by Value Line services, companies recruiting on the particular campus, and reports acquired as gifts. Many libraries indicated that they made selections from the groups rather than ac- quiring all companies of a particular cate- gory (i.e., all NYSE companies). The use made of hard-copy annual re- ports is summarized in figure 1. It is worth · noting that those who believe the adver- tising or public relations aspects of the an- nual reports to be important are in a dis- Career Information: 78" Financial Information: 74" Company History: 72" Marketing Research: 59" Corporate Officers: 26" Public Relations: 24" Personnel Policies: l1s"l Class Assignments: D 4" Product Displays: D 4" Company Portrayal: 0 3" CEO's Statement: D 2" Accounting Exercises: ~ 1" Strategic Planning: ~ 1" Technical Writing: I .5" May 1986 -- 1 ! tinct minority. Other uses for hard-copy annual reports mentioned by a few re- spondents are for commercial artists to note product displays; for general class as- signments, accounting exercises, strategic planning, and technical writing; for not- ing the CEO's statement and the compa- ny's portrayal of itself; and for general in- vesting. In the subset the responses are similar to those of the whole group. When asked if they would throw away the hard copy if they theoretically were able to acquire microforms, 45.4 percent (152li- braries) said yes and 25 percent (83 li- braries) said no. Of those who indicated the period of time they would retain hard copies before discarding, the largest num- I I FIGURE 1 Libraries Collecting Hard-copy Annual Reports: Percentage of Libraries Reporting Use as One of Their Top Four Choices ber, 25 percent, reported they would dis- card them after one to two years; 22 per- cent after three to five years, and 14 percent after six to ten years. When asked what policies they would follow in dis- carding, 14libraries indicated they would discard all but their collections of local companies' annual reports-the primary reason given for discarding was lack of space. Of those libraries that indicated they would not choose to discard their hard-copy reports, reasons given were that clients objected to using microforms or wanted multicolored graphics; that mi- croforms were too costly; and/or that there were too few reader printers. The li- braries in the subset are closely divided in their decisions to discard. Of those willing to discard, the largest number expressed intent to do so after one to two years (66 percent) or three to five years (47 percent). Several large research libraries keep all material as historical information and in- dicated that, as large research libraries, they "never discarded anything." Other- wise, the reasons for not discarding are similar to those in the whole group. In question 9, which solicited informa- tion about subscriptions to microform an- nual reports, 57 percent (191libraries) re- ported that they received domestic CARs on microform. In the subset, 86 percent (32 libraries), a substantially larger per- centage, collected reports on microform. One hundred nineteen libraries collecting microform reports subscribed to Q-Data ,,, for one to twelve years. Eighty-five sub- scribed to Disclosure Service, having done so for one to seventeen years. Of the sub- set, 28 libraries subscribe to Disclosure, 9 ,., to Q-Data. Several libraries reported sub- scribing to the Godfrey Memorial Li- brary's service. The percentage of sub- scribers to each service is somewhat misleading since some libraries reported on subscriptions that are not currently re- ceived. Of those libraries receiving microforms, 113 reported that in some cases these du- plicated their hard-copy holdings. In cases of duplication, the most frequently stated reason for retaining the hard copy was student demand (88 libraries). Only sec- ondarily are the hard copies retained be- ~ "' cause of minimal overl~p with microforms Corporate Annual Reports 267 or because of the need for additional cop- ies. The results for the subset are similar, with faculty demand given as an addi- tional reason for retention. A very small number of each group plan to discontinue hard copies. Of the total libraries receiving microform CARs, only 39 percent replied that they currently discard the duplicates after a specified number of years. The next group of questions concerned the acquisition and use of the SEC 10-K re- ports. These reports are acquired by 89 percent of the libraries in the subset and 60 percent of the whole. In both the whole and the subset, the largest number of li- . braries subscribe to NYSE, the second largest to AMSE, and the least to OTC companies. Of those who indicated that they subscribe to a selected group of 10-K reports, the predominant category of se- lection in the subset is local- or state- headquartered companies. A higher per- centage of libraries in the whole group select from the Fortune 500 list, with the second highest choice being local- and state-headquartered companies. Figure 2 summarizes the results of the questions regarding use of the 10-Ks. Note the difference in perception of career in- formation found in the annual reports and in the 10-Ks. Both groups cited classroom assignments as a significant use and stated that faculty often required a com- parison of the 10-K and the annual report. Other uses cited were for information on litigation, subsidiaries, and insider hold- ings and for assisting the university in so- liciting contributions. An overwhelming number of libraries, citing the differences in information in each, indicated that they would not use the 10-Ks in place of hard- copy annual reports. Only 69 libraries collect foreign corpo- rate annual reports (FAR); of these, 23 are from the subset. F ARs are selected most often from the Fortune International 500, or from "whatever the library can get." (The latter is probably more an indication of the difficulty of collecting than a lack of a clear policy.) Other criteria given for se- lecting were by specific country and by specific industry. A small number of li- braries select by ''major foreign compa- nies,'' on the basis of faculty requests, and from multinational companies or take 268 College & Research Libraries May 1986 Total Use Respondents Subset Career Information t~~ t:av-f3 Financial Information t/.{/~ n" I ~~v~ 85" I Company History tlf~ 73" I t~df Market Research ~ ~ " Corporates Officers r:11 r=3 a Public Relations ~ ~ 7 " Personnel Policies ~··· ~· " Hard Copy ~ 10-K FIGURE2 Comparison of the Major Uses of 10-K and Hard-copy Annual Reports, as Reforted by the Total Respondents and by the Subset (Percentage o Libraries Reporting Use as One of Their Top Four Choices) those they received as gifts or with their Q-Data subscriptions. As for the number of FARs received, 21libraries obtain 1-25 per year; 20, 26-100; and 15, 101-500. Of the subset, 3 libraries receive 500 or more F ARs per year; 43 of the libraries receiving Fars subscribe to a microform service, 14 of these being in the subset. In ~ection lll, respondents were asked to comment on their circulation and catalog- ing policies. Libraries were evenly divided between those that circulate their hard- copy reports and those that do not. Most libraries do not circulate their microform reports, although one library circulates both the microforms and a reader. Those that circulate only under special condi- tions listed them as follows: to faculty or university officials, for a limited time for photocopying, only second copies of re- ports, overnight, for two hours for class- room use, or only the older, bound re- ports. The majority of respondents (274) do not catalog their annual reports. Sev- eral libraries, however, catalog reports of special groups of companies, such as . those from the local/ state area or older re- ports. Several libraries commented on the problems related to the theft of annual and 10-K reports. One of the more intriguing facts gleaned from the. survey was the number of li- braries that have online service capability but use it rarely or not at all to retrieve an- nual report information. Those libraries that commented said that they do not use it because of the lack of demand, associ- ated with the high cost. An attempt was made to determine if the size of the M.B.A. population in a par- ticular program had any significance for particular acquisition strategies. The results of this tabulation are found in table 2. It is clear that in the libraries serving larger enrollments, financial ability and/or desire to take each of these types made their acquisitions almost equivalent, with some libraries commenting that the more stringent reporting requirements predis- posed them to acquire 10-Ks. In the group of libraries serving the smallest number of M.B .A.'s, the acquisition of hard copy was predominant, the acquisition of 10-Ks considerably less. For the subset, the per- centage of libraries taking each of the forms of the domestic corporate reports is so great that the number of M.B .A.'s is ir- relevant. There is only one library in the subset that receives neither the microform annual reports nor the hard copy, but it. does receive the 10-K' s. Most take all three. Figure 3' s parts a and b provide a com- parison of the number of libraries holding one or the other form of the domestic re- port. Note that only 3 libraries take only the 10-Ks. Most significant is that of the 335libraries answering the questionnaire, only 26 take no corporate reports. This is very small percentage of the total, indicat- ing the importance placed on the informa- tion in these reports. Regarding changes in their current col- lection policies, 87 libraries planned to make some changes, 21 of these being in the subset. The major proposed change was to collect FARs. Plans to begin acquir- ing these on microforms were reported by Corporate Annual Reports 269 26libraries (6 from the subset), and 6 were planning to collect the hard copy. Among other proposed changes listed, 19libraries (5 of these in the subset) planned to begin discarding hard-copy domestic corporate annual reports, and 14 planned to begin or to increase their 10-K collection ( 4 from the subset). Ten libraries planned to collect CARs on microform. Other proposed changes mentioned by 1-3 libraries were to begin collecting or to obtain more CARs, particularly from local companies; to cease collecting foreign hard-copy re- ports and to substitute the microforms mentioned above; to catalog the older hard-copy reports; to change vendors; and to use online services more exten- sively. One library in the subset planned to store historical material off-site. IMPLICATIONS This survey has given us a clear picture of present practices in annual-report col- lection by academic business libraries. The conclusions given below are based on both the numerical data elicited from the questionnaire and the written remarks of the respondents. There is no major differ- ence in the collecting policies of annual re- ports in the subset of separate business li- braries and the total group except, perhaps in the magnitude of collecting of the major research libraries. One might reasonably conclude that such wide- spread practices give validation to them in the sense that these practices satisfy the needs of a large number of faculty and stu- dents. They also indicate to those librari- ans who have not yet established policies that these practices have proven useful to a large group of their colleagues. What can we learn from the survey that TABLE2 NUMBER OF M .B.A . STUDENTS IN COLLEGES SERVED BY RESPONDING LffiRARIES; AND LISTING OF TYPES OF CORPORATE REPORTS ACQUIRED Number of Total Microforms MBA stude nts Res pondents Hard-copy Annuals 10-K Foreig n 25-199 131 96 71 66 14 200-399 71 61 37 48 20 400-699 47 32 29 33 9 •700-999 19 16 16 17 8 1000 or more 26 20 21 22 12 No answer 41 30 17 15 6 Totals 335 255 191 201 69 270 College & Research Libraries May 1986 figure 3o: Total Respondents (335 libraries} _.JL ~ Collect Do NOT collect 1 0-K Collects Collects Yes No Yes No Yes 103 57 Yes 37 58 No 38 3 No 13 26 figure 3b: Subset (37 libraries} _.JL ~ Collect Do NOT collect 10-K Collects Collects Yes No Yes No Yes 20 4 Yes 3 0 No 8 1 No 0 FIGURE 3 Forms of Annual Reports by Number of Acquiring Libraries will be of value in both collecting and weeding materials, as well as placing the material for optimum use and conserva- tion of space? While there is always a dan- ger in using descriptive material to make inferences regarding desirable policy, there are some trends that present them- selves and some guidelines that can be ex- tracted. One fact is obvious. Company an- · nual reports are such an important source of primary information that every library with an undergraduate business program as well as those with an M.B.A. program should acquire them. The least expensive means of acquiring corporate annual reports is to write to each company and ask for its annual report. Most will send it free of charge and do- mestic companies will put the library on their mailing list. One simple method of selecting the companies is to acquire those of the Fortune 500 industrial group; this is the choice of most libraries answering the survey. It would seem equally as impor- tant to have the reports of companies that are locally or regionally important avail- able for student use, and/or reports of companies that represent an industry that is of local/regional importance. Compa- nies that regularly recruit at the campus might also be considered for selection, particularly if there is no annual report col- lection in the placement office of the school. One staff member might be as- signed to checking in and requesting the annual reports so that there is a consistent check on their receipt. If funds are available, it is extremely de- sirable to order annual reports on micro- fiche. The library should check all the fi- nancial and selection options of each vendor and determine which ones are most suitable. 6 One can order the Fortune 500 on fiche, or the entire list of companies on one of the exchanges, i.e., the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or Over-the-Counter stocks. One may also select companies individu- ally. Again, the merit of selecting state/re- gional/or locally based companies should be considered. If the area is heavily in- volved in one industry, then one should consider ordering companies by industry. In any case a specific person should be as- signed to review these selections once each year, to make certain that the appro- priate companies are added to _or dropped from the list. For example, if it is a burden to maintain the changes on the Fortune 500 list, then a regular schedule should be set up to make the changes, say every four or five years. Guides to the companies col- lected are essential so that library clients will know which company reports they may expect to find. The study shows that the heaviest use of the hard-copy reports is for career-related information and job interviewing, with company financial and historical informa- tion a close second and third. In addition, students clearly demand the hardcopy re- ports in preference to microforms. At least one to two years of the hard-copy reports should be retained whether or not micro- forms are taken, and preferably, if space allows, three to five years. In the study, 47 percent of libraries retained their hard- copy for one to five years. After five years, in all but major research libraries, the an- nual hard-copy reports may be discarded if microforms are available. If the library is unable to budget a subscription for annual reports in microform, there is no clear pic- ture, given by the survey, of how they should handle the weeding of the annual report collection. Certainly the reports of local- or state-headquartered companies should be kept for longer periods than other reports. In the case of libraries that maintain the only copy of such reports in a wide geographic area, there is an obliga- tion to the community to maintain these reports indefinitely. In populous states, it Corporate Annual Reports 271 would seem desirable for some coopera- tive effort to be made to make certain that corporate reports are maintained indefi- nitely by at least one library. By maintaining some hard-copy reports for a period of several years, the library . will also be able to satisfy the minority of clients who would like to see the company product displays, graphics, photography, quality of paper, etc. Another approach is for the library to acquire a limited number of the corporate annual report winners listed in Institutional Investor's ''Best An- nual Reports,'' 7 or those listed in Financial World's "Annual Report Award Win- ners." Financial World makes awards to those companies that represent '' signifi- cant overall accomplishment in the con- ception and execution of an annual report in the past year. Reflecting graphic and editorial considerations alike, the award recognizes more than aesthetic achieve- ment, paying particular heed to the vir- tues of thoroughness, candor, and clarity of presentation.' '8 These reports will allow students to see the best examples of de- sign, graphics, typography, photogra- phy, and public relations copy. Each year a list of the acquired reports should be compiled and made available to library cli- entele. It appears from the findings that the pre- ferred location for hard-copy reports is in the reference department or in special al- coves. Filing cabinets in the reference de- partment would serve to keep the current reports readily available for student use and also place them where assistance can be given and suggestions made for use. Some thought might be given to placing the latest one to two years in either the re- serve or circulation area, for security rea- sons. Older annual reports might then be placed in less accessible locations. State and local reports, however, might be kept longer in their original location. In collecting the 10-K reports, funds are an important issue. While there is a clear perception ·on the part of librarians that the 10-Ks serve an important and distinct informational function in the library, they are not essential for every library. Many li- braries can serve their student body with- out the 10-Ks if they maintain some other type of corporate annual report. A limited 272 College & Research Libraries number of 10-Ks may be purchased, prob- ably of local or state companies, in order to allow students the opportunity to com- pare the annual reports with the 10-Ks and to be aware of the different contents of these reports. While the 10-Ks do not sat- isfy the needs of students for career infor- mation as well as annual reports, they can be used to answer the historical and infor- mation needs of both faculty and stu- dents. (Some 10-Ks do include the annual report as part of the exhibits.) Signifi- cantly in our subset, more libraries sub- scribed to the 10-Ks than to the hard-copy annual reports. While there is no one solution suitable for all libraries and all academic environ- ments, the ideal mix for all but the large re- search libraries, would be hard-copy an- nual reports maintained for at least three years to accommodate those seeking ca- reer and job information. The paper cop- ies, except for those related to local or re- gional companies, would be discarded after this time. Microfiche corporate an- nual reports would provide a good back- up as well as providing the historical infor- mation needed. The 10-Ks would be purchased for the New York and Ameri- can Stock Exchanges, with .additions of lo- cal and regional companies from the OTC group. If budget considerations preclude buying a complete set of 10-Ks for one stock exchange, selections of local and re- gional companies of interest could be made. Occasional use of online services could augment the corporate annual re- port collection. Those libraries that want a strong pro- gram in intematiQnal management should consider acquiring foreign corporate re- ports. Because contacting individual for- eign countries is labor intensive, a budget for foreign reports on microfiche is desir- able. As with domestic reports, inquiries should be made of all vendors as to their services and costs to find the best fit for the library. If the library plans to make direct contact, the Fortune 500 leading foreign companies list may be used or a list drawn up by countries or by industries that are of particular interest to the school. It should be assumed that receipts will not be as complete as one would like, and consider- May1986 able effort may be needed to see that re- ports are received. For example, faculty whose work requires extensive contact with foreign companies may be asked to assist in acquiring the reports. · Most libraries do not circulate micro- form annual reports or 10-Ks. The libraries in this survey were evenly divided as to whether they should circulate hard-copy annual reports. It would appear reason- able to circulate older hard-copy reports that are duplicated either in hard copy or microform and keep more current reports in a noncirculating collection. If the library is the primary state repository for state and regional reports, these should proba- bly not circulate. Annual reports are nor- mally shelved or placed in filing cabinets by company name rather than receiving any cataloging. Access can be through a simple check-in card file or merely by loca- tion indicated on a library guide sheet and noted in library location charts. Special re- ports, or older reports to be retained indef- · initely, should be bound for preservation .purposes. The industry supplying various types of annual reports is in a considerable state of flux. New services, new options, n~w in- formational combinations are being of- feredfrequently. In 1984, for example, one supplier ceased to provide foreign corpo- rate reports and three other companies en- tered the field. One vendor is currently of- fering microfiche annual reports in conjunction with other materials useful for those seeking career information. An- other vendor has introduced bonus points for adding to or renewing one's subscrip- tion; points which can be redeemed for li- brary equipment. A development still in . the formative stage is the introduction of the Security and Exchange Commission's Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval System, known as EDGAR. 9 Un- der the EDGAR system, companies will send their 10-K and related data to the SEC electronically and it will be retrieved in the same manner, presumably by any- one with a personal computer. During the pilot project, which is expected to be com- pleted by 1986, 150 to 160 companies will provide information electronically as well as continuing to supply it in paper format. One needs to monitor this development to see what impact EDGAR will have on the information available in the 10-Ks and/or the accessibility of that information to the public. It would behoove librarians to keep up with new ~ends, new vendors Corporate Annual Reports 273 and new products offered in this area in order to get the greatest cost benefits for their library and to be certain that the in- formation needs of their clients continue to be met. REFERENCES 1. Madhava Balachandran, A Subject Approach to Business Reference Sources, Occasional Papers, no.128. (Champaign: Univ. of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science, June 1977), p.1-5. Although the information is slightly outdated, it still provides an excellent overview of the kinds of reports that companies provide to their stockholders, the stock exchanges, and the SEC. 2. Disclosure, Inc., A Guide to SEC Corporate Filings (Bethesda, Md .: Disclosure, May 1985). Provides an excellent summary of the various forms required by the SEC and their contents. 3. Eugene Miller, Barron's Guide to Graduate Business Schools 1984. 4th ed. (Woodbury, N.J.: Barron's Educational Series Inc ., 1984). 4. Tracey Miller and Karen Sternheim, eds., College and University Business Library Statistics: 1979/80 and 1980/81, 5th ed. (Los Angeles: UCLA Graduate School of Management, May 1984), p.i. 5. Eugene Miller, Barron's Guide, p.40. 6. Judith Bernstein, ''Corporate Annual Reports-The Commercial Vendors,'' College & Research Li- brary News 47: 178-80 (Mar. 1986). 7. "The Best Annual Reports," Institutional Investor 18:163-70 (Sept. 1984). 8. "The Art of Corporate Communication," Financial World 153:38-58 (Oct. 31-Nov. 13, 1984). 9. "SEC's Plan to Put a Mountain of Paper into a Computer," Business Week (Apr. 2, 1984}, p.72-74; Susan Jayson, "Filing in the Future with EDGAR," Management Accounting 66:20-23 (June 1985); Shirley Hobbs Scheibla, "Egads, Edgar! What Has the SEC Wrought?" Barron's 65:24-26 (Aug . 26, 1985). APPENDIX A: INSTITUTIONS IN SUBSET Bentley College Boston College Clemson University Columbia University Cornell University Dartmouth College Harvard University Howard University Indiana University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Michigan State University New York University Northwestern University Ohio State University Purdue University Stanford University Tulane University University of Alabama University of California at Berkeley University of California at Los Angeles University of Chicago University of Colorado University of Connecticut University of Illinois University of Iowa University of Michigan University of New Mexico University of North Carolina University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh University of Texas at Austin University of Virginia University of Washington University of Wisconsin-Madison Vanderbilt University Wake Forest University Washington University INTERNATIONAL • MULTIDISCIPLINARY • INCLUDES COAUTHORS! 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