Company annual reports: assuring the distributed national print archive was a Research Support Libraries Programme funded project, which ran from October 2000 to July 2002. It was one of a number of collaborative collection management projects funded by the RSLP.
Project partners were:
Higher education:
- London Business School Library (Lead institution)
- Manchester Business School Library
- Strathclyde University Library
- Warwick University Library
Other:
- British Library
- Guildhall Library (Corporation of London)
All partners hold significant collections of pre-1995 UK company annual reports, which are available for consultation by researchers. Details of collections held are available on the SCoRe catalogue.
Annual reports are important primary documents, original sources of business data revealing social, economic and cultural history. They are also important source documents for the study of communication strategies and design. The data in older annual reports is not available electronically, and the more recent data held in standardised, numeric company financials databases provides no insight into communication and design, or to the importance accorded by the company to certain types of expenditure.
See Publications for case studies written by academics to demonstrate the importance of printed company reports in research.
The following research projects have relied heavily on consultation of printed annual reports:
- Production of a long series electronic company accounting database for economic research - comparable to the US Compustat database (London Business School/Cambridge University. Work in progress).
- Compilation of a stock market index going back to 1900 (published as Triumph of the optimists: 101 years of global investment returns. Princeton University Press, 2002.)
Despite their importance, printed annual reports are in danger of disappearing. Companies House is encouraging electronic filing of accounts, and many libraries are disposing of printed reports in favour of electronic sources. It is dangerous to rely on electronic sources: the future of commercial services is never guaranteed; many commercial services remove dead companies from their archives - thus thwarting studies of the causes of liquidation; and free electronic sources may move or disappear overnight. Older company reports are simply not available electronically.
Moreover, many libraries do not keep or publish detailed records of their holdings of company reports. This frustrates researchers' attempts to locate material.
There is no single, free repository of annual reports in the UK (Companies House charge for access to their documents, and may only hold financial statements for some companies). Company reports are not covered by legal deposit, so the British Library does not hold a comprehensive national collection. Significant, historical annual report collections are held by Higher Education libraries supporting business schools or departments, and by national and larger public libraries. No single collection is in any way comprehensive, but together these libraries provide a distributed national archive.
The purpose of the project was to:
- provide a comprehensive resource for researchers interested in using annual report literature
- provide a focus for the development of a national strategy for ensuring continued access to this literature.
The project deliverables were:
- Web catalogue of UK annual reports holdings in UK higher education libraries with significant pre-1995 holdings. (See Search). Links to descriptions of other collections. (We have also been able to incorporate current holdings and international holdings in SCoRe).
- Collection policies for annual report literature at UK higher education libraries, with descriptions of and links to other significant collections in national and public libraries. (See Collections).
- Study addressing collection development, bibliographic and management issues specific to annual reports literature.(See Publications).
- Collection policy statement describing commitment of key bodies towards preserving and collecting annual reports literature, together with disposal guidelines for libraries thinking of discarding company reports. (See National Collection Policy (PDF)).
- Establishment of focus group to develop a national strategy for company annual reports. (See Contact us).
Successes
Creation of a national union catalogue - SCoRe (Search Company Reports):
- At the end of the project SCoRe was live on the web and well used by researchers to locate reports.
- SCoRe contained the complete holdings of the collections of London and Manchester Business Schools, Strathclyde and Warwick Universities and the British Library.
- SCoRe included far more data than originally envisaged: it had been expanded to include non-UK and current holdings and the holdings of the British Library - a major collection.
- SCoRe had been adopted by project partners as main or secondary management tool for company reports.
- An administrative interface had been created for company report management on SCoRe.
- 16 libraries had joined SCoRe at collection level, in addition to the 6 project partner libraries.
- SCoRe included details of approx 166,000 reports at January 2003. Extra funding was awarded by RSLP to migrate the database to SQL Server, a more appropriate platform for such large quantities of data.
Collection management deliverables:
- Full collection management policies are available on SCoRe for Higher Education partner libraries.
- Brief collection policies available on SCoRe for all participating libraries.
- Publication on the website of Company reports toolkit: a practical manual for managers of company reports collections. Part one (PDF) addresses and advises on collection development, bibliographic and management issues specific to annual reports literature. Part two (PDF) demonstrates how to use SCoRe to manage company report collections.
- Publication of a National Collection Policy (PDF) briefing paper, describing the current situation regarding archival annual report provision in the UK, and highlighting what the project has done towards a national collection strategy for company reports.
- Via the project Steering Committee and promotion of SCoRe, we established a group of library professionals with an interest in raising the agenda of printed annual reports and preserving their future for researchers. The SCoRe User Group, made up of librarians with holdings on the SCoRe catalogue, was set up to continue this work after the project end.
The project officially ended on 31st July 2002. However, we are committed to the ongoing updating of the SCoRe union catalogue with current holdings information, and this is taking place at partner institutions using the web-based administrative interface to SCoRe.
A SCoRe User Group has been formed, consisting of members of the original Project Steering Group. The purpose of the group is to ensure the continuation of SCoRe as a current tool and to fund and oversee any maintenance or development required to the software. The group, which also provides a forum for the continued promotion of a national collection strategy for company reports, meets annually at London Business School. In 2005 the City Business Library added its holdings to SCoRe and became a member of the SCoRe User Group.
Project background
Project proposal (PDF)
Original proposal to RSLP (Summer 2000).
Project extension proposal (PDF)
Bid for funding to extend project (September 2001).
Collection management
National Collection Policy (PDF)
Report highlighting the need for a national collection strategy and steps the project has taken towards this. Includes recommendations for further work.
Company reports toolkit part 1 (PDF)
A practical manual for company reports collection managers. Part 1: General advice for the management of company reports.
Company reports toolkit part 2 (PDF)
A practical manual for company reports collection managers. Part 2: Manual for use of SCoRe as a collection management tool.
Company reports donations procedure (PDF)
Procedures to be followed when annual reports are offered to multiple SCoRe members.
Company report disposal guidelines (PDF)
Guidelines for libraries thinking of discarding UK company reports.
Union catalogue
SCoRe database structure (PDF)
Document listing and describing tables and fields in the database behind the SCoRe catalogue.
Case studies and endorsements
SCoRe case study (PDF)
Shows how SCoRe greatly facilitated historical company research at Manchester Business School (15 February 2002).
The value of company reports (PDF)
A Manchester University academic's perspective on the research value of company annual reports (23 February 2002).
The importance of annual reports in teaching and research (PDF)
MBS lecturer Dr. Nick Collett explains the value of a printed archive of reports over and above electronic services (15 March 2002).
Publications
Company annual reports: assuring the distributed national print archive (PDF)
Article about the project. SCONUL Newsletter, 2002, issue 25 (Spring), p74-78.
© Score User Group (2000-2006)