IPO stands for Initial Public Offering and occurs when a company first sells its shares to the public.

One can find IPOs back to January 1997 on EDGAR Online at http://ipoportal.edgar-online.com/ipo/home.asp

You can also use Hoover’s Online, a database to which Penrose subscribes, to find a company’s IPO, as well as identify IPOs by IPO Date, Offer Amount, Price Range and Underwriters. To access this database take the following step:

1. Go to the library homepage at library.du.edu.

2. Click on the “Databases” tab and then click on “Databases by Subject.”

3. Click on “Business / Finance” and then the “Business/Finance – Companies” link.

4. You will get a list of databases. Scroll down and click on Hoovers Online.

Once in the database take the following steps to find the IPO for a specific company:
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Step 1. Enter the name of the company in which you are interested in the search box.

2. Once you are in the record for the company, 1) under the Financials category select SEC Filings, and 2) select IPO & SPO. 3) You will get a list of S-1s. The S-1 Securities Registration Statement is the document required by the SEC.

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Take the following steps if you want to obtain a list of IPOs using certain criteria.

Step 1. Use the “Build a List” form and click on “View More Criteria.”

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Step 2. Scroll down and click on the + sign next to IPO data. You will get a list of criteria from which you can identify companies.

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Step 3. Click on view results to get a list of companies matching your criteria.

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Step 4. Click on a company, then 1) select SEC under Financials, and 2) select IPO & SPO. 3) You will get a list of S-1s. The S-1 Securities Registration Statement is the document required by the SEC.

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There are many free sources that also provide IPOs, including the following:

Yahoo Finance at http://biz.yahoo.com/ipo
MSN Money at http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/ipo-filings

Federal legislative histories provide insight and historic background into social and legal thought at the time bills were under congressional consideration. In general, legislative histories are available for bills that have already become law (public laws), but not for bills that were not signed into law.

At Penrose Library we have three main sources of online legislative histories:

1) ProQuest Legislative Insight. This is still a work in progress. When the initial phase is complete, the database will have selected legislative histories from the 1929 to present.

2) ProQuest Congressional. 1969 to present.

3) HeinOnline U.S. Federal Legislative History Library. Excellent for older and more major pieces of legislation. Includes a checklist indexing of relevant legislative history sources from 1840 to recent years.

Here is a suggested research strategy for conducting legislative history research:

1) Determine the proper name and Public Law number (and/or the citation to Statutes at Large) of the act you wish to research. (Example: Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003; PL 108-36; 108 Stat. 800). These pieces of information will help you search databases with precision.

2) Search ProQuest Legislative Insight first. If your act is included in here, you will have the most exhaustive linking out to full text resources including bill versions, Congressional Record debate, congressional hearings, and congressional reports and documents.

3) If the step above did not contain your public law, and if your act is 1969 or after, then Search ProQuest Congressional by first selecting the “Search by Number” tab, then selecting the “Find a legislative history by number” pulldown selection. Then enter the public law number in the appropriate place on the form.

4) If nothing is found using steps 2) or 3) above, or if you just want more information, try searching your act in HeinOnline U.S. Federal Legislative History Library.