Statistics on the number of IPOs on the London Stock Exchange

Today I learnt how to find out the number of IPOs on the London Stock Exchange in a particular industry sector.

There is a really useful spreadsheet on the LSE website called New Issues and IPO Summary that provides detailed information about the number of new issues on the main and AIM markets. You can filter by date, sector, country of incorporation, market value, broker name, adviser name and issue type.

The statistics are updated on a monthly basis.

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/statistics/new-issues-further-issues/new-issues-further-issues.htm

Who does what in Whitehall (and beyond) and how much they earn

Today I learnt how to find out who does what in Whitehall (and the broader civil service) and how much they earn.

I'm feeling lazy today so here is the blurb from the data.gov.uk website:

"Here you can see the most comprehensive organisational charts of the UK Civil Service ever released online, taking another step towards the Government's goal of being the most transparent government in the world and opening up the structure of the Civil Service to public scrutiny.

These structure charts, known as "organograms" include the names, job titles and salaries of all civil service directors and more senior civil servants. They also include details of the numbers, grades, pay ranges and professions of staff within each team, as at 31 March 2011. They are available in a consistent, user-friendly style, giving you a view of the whole of central government in one place." *

I know it sounds like propaganda but who am I to argue with transparency in government? It certainly makes compelling reading. The following departments and bodies are included:

• central government departments
• crime and justice government bodies
• agencies and Non-Departmental Government Bodies
• health organisations
• education and research bodies
• cultural and sporting bodies

* http://data.gov.uk/organogram

Thanks to Sam for this one!

International Herald Tribune is the global edition of the New York Times

Today I learnt that the International Herald Tribune is the global edition of the New York Times.

How did I find out? It's written on the front of the newspaper. I noticed it for the first time this morning when I was stamping the library newspapers. I guess I'm not that observant...

Which law firms act for which FTSE & Eurotop listed companies?

Today I learnt how to find out which law firms act for which FTSE and Eurotop listed companies.

Chambers and Partners produces an annual FTSE and Eurotop survey. Their researchers "contact the Heads of Legal for each of the companies in the Euro 100 and the FTSE 100 & 250, asking them to list the firms they instruct most often".* Chambers then helpfully lists the results on its website. You can view lists for the following categories:

FTSE 100

• The FTSE 100 by company

FTSE Eurotop 100

• Legal advisers to the FTSE Eurotop 100
• The A-Z of law firms acting for the FTSE Eurotop 100
• Law firms ranked by number of total survey mentions
• Firms with one mention in the 2011 survey

FTSE 250

• FTSE 250 by company
• FTSE 250 by firm

This makes me very happy.

* http://www.chambersandpartners.com/FTSE-Survey

ICLR Online - a new way to search The Law Reports

Today I learnt that the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting in England and Wales (ICLR) has launched a new online service called ICLR Online. It provides online access to The Law Reports (the official series) and Weekly Law Reports, as well as other series published by ICLR. In total 77,00 full text reports are available, dating back to 1865.

The online demo (accessible via the ICLR website) highlights the fact the service is "designed by practitioners for practitioners". ICLR claims to have simple search functionality and accurate, relevant results. It says "no other service supplies information in such a concise and carefully considered way." That sounds good. As does the fact you can download court-ready PDFs of the reports. Whether or not it will be a viable alternative to either Lexis Library or Westlaw UK is hard to judge from the online demo. Free trials are available.

ICLR Online:
http://iclr.co.uk/iclr-online

EU Whoiswho

Today I learnt an easy way to find out the names of EU officials.

EU Whoiswho is another valuable (if unimaginatively named) online resource from the Publications Office. In fact it is the official directory of the European Union.

You can search by organizational entity or browse the complex institutional hierarchy. When you’ve found the institution you are interested in you are presented with a list of names and positions (no contact details are provided unfortunately).

EU Whoiswho would be really useful if you needed to know, for example, who sits on the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, the current members of the European Council, or name of the director of the Library, Research and Documentation Directorate at the European Court of Justice. 

You can also search by name to find out what position an individual holds.

EU Whoiswho:

http://europa.eu/whoiswho/public/

EuroVoc - the EU's Multilingual Thesaurus

Today I learnt that EuroVoc is an online, multilingual thesaurus covering the activities of the EU, maintained by the Publications Office.

You can search for a term or browse by subject. Either way you are told what your term is in 22 EU languagues, plus Croatian and Serbian. It is pretty addictive if you like that kind of thing. As well as viewing online, you can also download sections of the thesaurus (part of the alphabet, or a particular subject).

Readers are also invited to suggest changes to the thesaurus to help improve the database using an online form.

EuroVoc:
http://eurovoc.europa.eu/