THE BALANCE SHEET: How to Read It and How to Use It

Librarians and corporate information center managers operate in worlds where speaking the language of finance is one of the requisites for the key to the executive washroom. But too few of us know how the basic documents of financial decision making are assembled or how to interpret them to determine the operating health of our organizations. This is not a failure we alone experience; most managers begin in nonfinancial positions. Much of the bewilderment of the world of fiscal nuances can be dispensed with when we understand some fiscal basics, like how to read a balance sheet.