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Entrepreneur's Reference Guide to Small Business Information

Subscription and Free Databases

This section includes both subscription and freely available databases that provide information on various aspects of entrepreneurship.

Subscription Databases

The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.

Freely Available Databases

BEOnline

BEOnline was a database of over 1,600 selected websites on many aspects of business and economics, created and maintained by the Business Section at the Library of Congress.

It began in 1996 as an experimental project of the Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) of the Cataloging Directorate of the Library of Congress to explore means of access and bibliographic control for remote Internet resources of interest to the practice or study of entrepreneurship and small business. It expanded to include selected internet resources on all aspects of business and economics that may be of interest to researchers.

In the summer of 2021, BEOnline underwent a major review to fix broken links, clean categories, and identify catalog records to remove. As a result, it created a more accurate and curated list of recommended websites.

In the fall of 2023, the BEOnline project closed as the Science & Business Reading Room website updated. Many reviewed and recommend links have since migrated to our guides such as Doing Industry Research, Doing Company Research, and the Small Business Hub

To access an archive of BEOnline, visit the web archive page listed below. For questions, contact Ask a Librarian.