Business Databases

Almost every active job seeker knows about Scott's business directories. For those of you who are new to this series, these directories contain company information on over 150 000 businesses located in Canada. The information includes basic contact information and may also include the company's website and email address as well as how many employees the company has, annual sales, and year established. The series is updated on an annual basis. A very cool resource for job seekers who wish to do some cold-calling and increase their chances of getting the job they want!

While every branch of the Toronto Public Library has the 4-volume set for Ontario, volumes for other provinces like Quebec, Alberta, the Atlantic Provinces, etc. are found only at Toronto Reference Library and North York Central Library and other selected TPL libraries. The online version of Scott's lets you search for businesses all across Canada! This database is accessible only in the library, not from home or work.

Other cool features of this database?

• customize your search by city, postal code, street name, number of employees, estimated sales, products or telephone exchanges.
• create a pick list (sort of like a shopping cart) where you can store a maximum of 1 000 companies on a list.
• print reports in different styles like Single Profile which includes full company information on one company per page. Great for when you have a small list or if you want to keep each record separate. Or Book Style which creates a table of contents listing your companies in alphabetical order and gives all the company information from the reports in 2 columns. Saves paper and money!
• print or download your reports (in PDF only.)

So, get thee to your local Toronto Public Library and have a look at Scott's Online!