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Ever wonder about the book "Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Legal Instruments Embodying the Results of the 1964-67 Trade Conference"?

How about the theory of standard commodity, developed by Piero Sraffa to illustrate and clarify rather than to prove that "the relationship between prices and distribution may be determined from the classical data of size and composition of output, conditions of reproduction and an exogenously given distributive variable"?

Or, have you ever wondered who sells buttons in Japan? Or maybe you're doing research on a business, or, in the argot of the financial community, you're doing a "company valuation."

You could spend tens of thousands of dollars and go to a graduate business school to learn the arcane dos and don'ts of business, and your company can spend maybe hundreds of dollars to a company to look things up.

Or, if you're starting a business or doing high finance, you can do it yourself on the fourth floor of the Los Angeles Central Library on South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles, where there is nothing but books, magazines, pamphlets, studies, newspapers and microfilm about business and economics.

"This is a great resource," said recent visitor Rick Iwanicki, a vice president in the Los Angeles office of Banca Commerciale Italiana. "I'm probably down here once every couple of weeks. Right now I'm researching a company I can't tell you about but this is a tremendous source of information."

Adam Eckhart, who works in the downtown office of Arthur Andersen & Co., the accounting and consulting firm, said, "There are companies that pay maybe $1,000 to a company to do research for them. And down here, you can get it all for free."

Iwanicki and Eckhart, who was also researching a company, both said the only problem was the library's location. "I only come down here in the middle of the day. If I was a woman, I don't know if I would come down here, or I wouldn't come down here after dark," said Eckhart, referring to the generally rundown neighborhood.

But the Spring Street facility is only temporary while the main library building at 5th and Flower streets, heavily damaged in a 1986 fire, is undergoing a $211.4 million reconstruction. The repair job is scheduled to be completed in October 1993.

But this is not about the outside of the library. It's about what's inside among the shelves of books, yards of microfilm and stacks of magazines and newspapers.

Want to find out the latest news about the travel industry, the beverage business or drug stores? Check out the 150 trade publications. How about a listing of T-shirt makers? Go to the industry bible, the "T-Shirt Retailer."

If you're looking to rate a company, or research a firm, there are dozens of books and directories and pamphlets from all over the world that will tell you just about anything you want about the business, as long as it's publicly held. If it's a private company, though, there is far less information. According to the librarians, one of the best ways to find out about a private company is go to a trade journal and look for articles or advertisements about it.

According to Pat Kiefer, department manager for general library services, the business and economics department has an annual budget of $400,000, which is part of an overall operating budget for the city library system of about $36 million. The budget has been cut from $39 million over the past two years and further cuts are expected because of the city's budget problems.

The library doesn't keep track of the number of people who use the business and economics department, but Kiefer said it is one of the most popular sections of the library, along with the science department. "I think the reason for that is that we have a lot of practical information. Students can use us, as well as people who want to know how to start their own business," she said.

One of the most popular services is research for people who telephone in questions. Or, because this is 1992, questions often come via facsimile machine.

The researchers all have masters degrees, one is studying for a doctorate and another has a law degree.

Some recent questions posed to senior department librarian Dan Strehl and his staff were: What are all the public access cable television stations in the U.S.? What companies sell sea urchins in Japan? What are the pre-riot real estate values in L.A. vs. the post-riot values?

Another recent question was a request for the 10 finalists in the Elvis Presley stamp competition. Yes, the business department answered that question using the Standard Postage Stamps Catalogue.

There was also the time a movie studio wanted to know what types of cigarettes people were smoking during a certain period of time. To answer the question, the librarians went to the Guide to the Tobacco Industry and Advertising.

With 80,000 titles in the department, it seems there is very little that can't be researched. For instance, there is the Trade Shows Worldwide directory, the Thomas Register of button makers and Croner's Reference Book of World Traders.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:35 AM