Supporting Access through Little Libraries and Library Box

Just a quick mention of two services that bring the library out of the walls and into the neighborhoods. One is Little Free Library where you build a little box on a post, put some books in it and then invite people to take a book and leave a book or read and return.

I read about Library Box in the August 2013 issue of Library Journal. This one is a small router that comes with a USB drive preloaded with free (in the public domain) content. The router allows the patron to download the content of their choice to a wifi accessible device. This is for those areas where people may not have access to wifi, but still want to read a copy of Emma by Jane Austen or the Jungle Book by Kipling. Or maybe the person may not know s/he can visit the Gutenberg project and download a book for free, or maybe there's just too many options and this little bad boy makes the choices easier. Check out the kickstarter campaign for Library Box to see what are the latest developments for the project.

What is a Minority?

I'm beginning putting together some info for my first report on minority services in libraries and one of the recommended actions is to take a survey of the community demographics to help you define what are the minorities. I started by looking at the QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau for my city and there's tons on breakdowns of demographics: age, race and ethnicity, nationality, gender, language spoken, economic status... But then it hit me that there are demographics of religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental capabilities (ex. blind/deaf)... it just keeps going!

This time around, I was interested in a few resources that can help me wrap my mind around services to the LGBT community. Local service communities include:

• Dallas Fort Worth Steering Committee of the Human Rights Campaign (hrc.org)
• North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce (since 2005) 
• Recourse Center of Dallas (rcdallas.org) (since 1983) (serves 50,000 annually)

 But then I got off track and ran the following Google Search: "trends minorities site:ala.org" and pulled the following links:

• This is a bib list of titles for Young Adult Mexican Americans. Surprise in the list is a book dealing not only with ethnicity, but sexual orientation and religion. (The God Box, which we have, high five, teen selector!) http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2013/05/05/its-not-what-you-think-mexican-americans-in-ya/
• Then there was this post "The Invisible Minority: LGBTQ Teens and their Lit: http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2012/11/09/the-invisible-minority-lgbtq-teens-and-their-literature/
• Quick Facts Services to Teens from ALA: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/advocacyuniversity/additup/13to18/quick
• This paper on awards lists and diversity mentions many of the minority / diversity things I mention: http://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya/2011/06/are-all-lists-created-equal-diversity-in-award-winning-and-bestselling-young-adult-fiction/
• and another paper: http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/pdf/ibarra05.pdf

****
Much, much later. So, I submitted my first report and instead of starting with a review of our community and a look at where my system is currently in meeting those needs, I was counseled to pick just one user group and report of them with a focus on the actual programs. I, of course, included a selection of readings and a small review of literature to support why I selected the programs that I selected, just in case someone asked, "why do you think this programming is applicable to this user group?"

My first "minority" group I decided to present on is "Older Adults," and let me tell you, they are a scary bunch. My city is undergoing a new push to attract residents and business b/c "growth is the only way to support a city's revenues," and I learned some things about the Older Adults group that puts the city's initiative in a new perspective.

27% of our city is aged 50 and over. As this group ages into the senior citizen category over the next 10-15 years, our revenues will drop because the % of taxes that we collect on that age group decreases as a benefit to being old (and presumably having less money). Typically this wouldn't be an issue with traditional seniors with limited lifespans and who live in assisted living residences. BUT, the new Older Adult is not so old. This group is actually younger in mind and body. This group isn't going to sell their home and move into retirement homes. They are going to stay and age in their homes for 20+ years. (Decrease in revenue). They want services to provide entertainment and opportunities for socialization and engagement. (Pressure on revenue to meet demands.) They are a powerhouse voting block (politically powerful). This is what I mean by scary.

At the same time that this group wants to learn stuff, they need more time to learn new skills with frequent opportunities to practice. However, this group can be relied upon to support each other by sharing their expertise and in their willingness to volunteer.

My favorite library programs for Older Adults include:

• Cumberland County, NC: Downton Abbey Tea Party Series (historical talks followed by trivia); 
• Des Plaines, IL: Rotating deposit collections (50-100 items) at nursing homes and senior living centers
• Mecklenburg County, NC: Shutterbug Club (Digital photography series)*
• Various locations: 1:1 Techno Buddies Teens and Older Adults (supports skill building through assisted practice)

Montessori Storytime: a Seed Grew!

There was a boy who attended the Montessori School where I volunteered storytime last summer who sat there with a grumbly grimace throughout my one hour "productions." He refused to do any of the songs, the rhymes, the body motion activities. Just sat there and if I asked him a question, woe to me with his monotone, monosyllabic responses.

The other day I was entering the school to retrieve my son as Mr. Grumpy Grump and his family were exiting. He stops me to ask if I'll be doing storytime again next year. I looked at him, weary of his reaction and said, "why not?" expecting there to be a very emphatic, "aww, maaaaannnn" and a roll of the eyes.

I was stunned to watch him jump up and down, pumping his fist in the air, and exclaiming, "yes!" It put a big grin on my face and made me determined to provide better storytimes. A seed grew, in both of us.

Here are some themes I've come up with based on books my son and I have read lately:

• Cooking/Building Theme
• Books: Rubia and the Three Osos 
• Activity: What can we mix that doesn't need baking? or a building theme (boxes with my "nails" for hammering? Building something out of cardboard?)
• Adventures and Storytelling Theme
• Book: Clever Jack Takes the Cake
• Activity: circle up and whisper a sentence in the ear of one of the kids and have them send it round, what ends up being told?), maybe a pick your own adventure type story?
• Craft: can we do a group build of Clever Jack's story on a large piece of butcher paper?
• Art Theme
• Books: Warthogs Paint, David's Drawings and maybe one of those artists for little kids books, 
• Activity- Joy of Zentangle lesson (prep the boards, have a space for the kids to write their names) or Ed Emberley's fingerprint drawing book
• Fire Theme
• Books: Fire Fuego Bravo Bomberos, Fire Engines Up Close (non-fiction), Munsch's the Fire Station (can get TumbleCloud to do? Yes, with wifi hub!!!)
• Activity: do exercises that a real fire fighter must do.  
• Craft: Paper Cup Fireman Puppet http://www.pinterest.com/pin/111323422010198421/ OR firetruck craft: http://onemomfiveboys.blogspot.com/2009/09/firetruck-craft.html

Training: EBSCOHost Small Business Reference Center

Just some notes from the webinar: Small Business Reference Center

This database is a unique collection with some overlap of materials collected with other EBSCO databases, but by no means is this database a sub-db of say, Business Source Complete. The trainer pointed out that BSC didn't have the full text of the NOLO small business guides that SBRC contains. Aside from collecting 400 FT periodicals and 500 FT reference books, it also has a graphical interface which makes browsing a bit easier for a person who is not used to using a database.

There are Harvard business videos, which are a great resource. I saw that there was a note on the videos that said that there were supplemental lecture materials available for purchase. I asked whether EBSCO collects those materials or not. The trainer said she would look into it.

The start up kit is actually one of the NOLO books with the chapters broken down. There is also a state-by-state guide to what you need, but the guide is not as thorough as I would have liked. Of course that would have been hard to do b/c regulations are always changing/evolving, so the state-by-state guide tells you of the sorts of things you should look out for, such as licensing in your area of business.

Remember you can do a publication search. There's the usual EBSCO functionality such as email an article, permalinks. Remember patrons need to authenticate first, then they'll be able to access the material.

I did a trial search for "florist" b/c I had a patron who was interested in opening a florist shop. There were a lot of industry specific articles that talked about the status of earnings, where to get floral supplies, etc. Very handy. So long story short, be sure to recommend this resource when someone comes in looking to research starting their own business.

Recipes I want to remember and titles I'm thinking about reading...

Recipes from Relish by Knisley
Chai Tea:
Ingredients: Vanilla extract or bean, Maple syrup, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, anise stars, cloves, ginger, black tea, Milk, strainer
2-3 cups water in pot on high, add 2 bags tea;
crush 3 cardamom pods, grate 1/2 tsp ginger or more to taste
add to pot 1 anise star, ginger, cardamom pods, 1 cap extract/ 1 vanilla bean, 6-8 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, stir and simmer 5-10 min.
Let cool then strain into glass container add syrup to taste; keeps refrigerated for 1 week.
Prep 1/2 milk 1/2 tea and heat.

Sauteed Mushrooms
Saute pan over HOT! add 1part olive oil to 2 parts butter or all olive oil.
After butter stops foaming and pan is HOT! add cleaned and DRY mushrooms- no water on the mushrooms. make sure plenty of space b/t mushrooms. Shrooms will soak up oil and pan will get dry and squeeak. Turn down heat and let shrooms start to sweat- don't add more oil.  When start to brown, stir and shake. When crispy season w/ salt and pepper and serve.

Titles of books I don't want to forget:

Mystery

• Little Elvises by T. Hallman - main character is a thief who happens to work as a PI for other thieves. No matter what somebody is always upset.

NF

• Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses 646.406 SEW - for gifts for Ellie
• The Art of Freedom: Teaching the Humanities to the Poor 001.3071 SHO - how does teaching the humanities improve the socioeconomic outlook of the poor? How could this translate into programming at the library?
• My Beloved World 92 Sotomayor - She's a successful Puerto Rican and I'd like to learn more about her experience. She writes very clearly and would be interesting to learn about her DA experience and that of being a judge.
• Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing 658.872 RAY - techniques and tools and not so much theory - good for any organization to know how to drive interactions on the FB page. For example, drawing people to your page using contests and polls. Of interest for a series on FB for Businesses at the library.

FS

• Death's Apprentice: A Grimm City Novel by Jeter and Jefferson Jones FS Jeter - The authors take us into the canon of Grimm, but into the underworld as Death's Apprentice leads a revolt against the Devil himself. Interested to see what the authors drawn on from the Grimm canon to tell the story.

F

• the House Girl by Conklin - two narratives - one of a lawyer in the future managing a reparations case in which an artist used her slave's paintings as her own to promote herself and the second - that of the slave girl in the 1800s. How will the two narratives converge and what will the lawyer learn?

Notes on "Use of Public Libraries by Immigrants" article

I'll admit, I wasn't originally bouncing around in my chair for this assignment, but I'm the type that when it's time to get down to business, I throw myself in 100%. This first article turned out to be interesting material and I can tell that I will enjoy the learning process of this assignment.

Burke, S.K. (2008). Use of public libraries by immigrants. Reference & User Services Quarterly, (48)2, 164-174.

Key Points:

• data used for this research paper comes from the U.S. Current Population Survey from 2002
• comparison of households of immigrants from different world regions
• tries to find correlations b/t use and various socioeconomic factors
• two models of thought: service model (includes nice summary discussion of different services) and sociological model (this paper bases its research on that model)

Common Service Strategies:

• foreign lang materials
• bilingual and bi-cultural staff
• literacy instruction
• ESL courses

NOTE: the paper is clear to differentiate the information needs of newly arrived immigrants to that of established immigrants which would therefore result in different service strategies.

Immigrant Groups Surveyed:

• Canada, 
• Latin America broken into: Central Am. & Mexico, Caribbean, South Am.
• Europe
• E. Europe
• Asia broken into: E. Asia, S.E. Asia, S. Asia 
• Middle East
• Africa

Predictors of Use:

• the higher the level of education, the more use
• except when there are children in the household, then it's anything goes.
• influencer of use- confidence in speaking/writing English

Application of Research:
Best way to apply findings is to do a community profile to determine the ethnic make up of local immigrant groups in order to tailor outreach to community leaders in the specific groups that have been identified. The most insightful thing that I learned from this article was the conflict that can be created between a lack of culture training for staff and the barriers to library use that immigrants may have. For example, Asian groups are reported in the literature as being quiet users of the libraries, but that may be because culturally, Asians are more publicly quiet, so without knowing it, they are obeying library noise level rules. However other groups which may be culturally louder in public (think in Vieques where Reggaeton is loudly played on the beach), and which are also unfamiliar with libraries in their home country, may unknowingly break library noise level rules and incur the wrath of the shushing librarian. This is turn may exacerbate another barrier- a lack of trust of government agencies.

Minority Expert

The director of our system has identified some key areas she'd like her librarian staff to develop expertise in, I'm inferring so that should a patron come in and need specific help, or should the administrative office need research in a specific area, there is already a person who is up to date on the trends in that area. There are the usual subject areas of "law," "genealogy," "business"... Then there's "current trends in services to the disabled" and "current trends in minority services."

: D

I've given myself the tasks of:

1. doing a literature review
2. reading a couple of recently published books
3. follow up with a review of the major multicultural groups' activities out of ALA, PLA and TLA

This first entry on this subject will be my bibliography list, which I will update as I go along. Subsequent entries will blog the main points of the resources I'm reviewing. I'll be sure to tag all related posts "minority services."

Keywords and limiters for the literature review:

• minority OR Asian/African/Black//Vietnamese/Latino/Mexican American OR immigrant
• AND
• services OR outreach OR program(s)/programming
• AND 
• librar*
• 2000 - present (cause this is current trends in)

if anyone has any suggestions for what I might be missing, such as GBLT services. I'm all ears.

Bibliography (Articles)

Burke, S.K. (2008). Use of public libraries by immigrants. Reference & User Services Quarterly, (48)2, 164-174.

Bibliography (Books)

Smallwood, C., & Becnel, K. (2013). Library services for multicultural patrons : strategies to encourage library use. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.

List of Associations

Awesome Articles from SLJ August 2013

The School Library Journal is great for keeping up to date on Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship resources. Helpful not only for the teacher of young students, but for the seniors and adult students who are new to using computers and learning to be Internet savvy. Some sites recommended by Richard Byrne:

• Admongo.gov - game and curriculum to teach the difference between content and advertising on the Internet. (currently down due to 2013 Fed Gov't Shutdown) Looking forward to reviewing the site for my seniors (and other adults) in computers classes.
• TeachingCopyright.org - these look like hardcore, one hour long lessions (a series of 6 or more), comes with assessments, too! I don't know that I'll use these in my classes, but they'd be useful for me to be aware of them and even to watch to update my knowledge.
• There's the obligatory reminder about using Google Alerts to track mentions of you on the web and via social media.
• There's a fee based resource called CommonCraft.com which has net safety videos teaching about phishing scams and viruses. I watched one and they're cutesy, but I started to phase out b/c of the type animation (watched the Secure Passwords one) used. Still, very simple, so you can focus on the concept.

Advocacy at all times can be made manageable with a calendar based plan of action. Carolyn Foote's brief article notes thinking about your audience (Teens, Parents, Administrators), thinking about the mode of communication the audience prefers (Twitter, Facebook, text vs. video), and thinking about how often the audience would want to hear from you/ receive updates (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly?). She suggests timing advocacy with library or community related events around the year. For instance, the beginning of the year many hispanohablantes in my community begin ESL classes at the local church. I could time outreach with this, or send flyers to be passed out to encourage ESL learners to find additional resources at the library. Foote also supplies a sample advocacy calendar with suggested resources, for example:

• Create a (vimeo) video to welcome the target audience to the library - pass out as a DVD to be shown at the ESL and citizenship classes if Internet is not available.
• Create a resource of essential library tools that the target audience would find interesting (this is intended to be a curated list) using any resource like:
• a wiki,
• Libguides,
• MentorMob for Educators (I like the layout of this site, but am wondering if it is free and sustainable. I don't think it would work for big lists, but if the idea is to create a short step by step intro to vital library resources in a visual way, this has a nice interface. At the same time, it isn't really that different from Pinterest)
• Explain online stuff via screencasts. The Explain Everything app is recommended and looks very interesting, but with a perhaps small learning curve. (for android and Mac)
• Invite interactivity - Foote suggests using Animoto, an online service to make a video (as opposed to having video editing software such as iMovie or After Effects) to have the audience talk about their favorite resources or provide feedback- note, you still have to have a (video) camera of some sort (such as that provided on a smart phone) in order to have either moving or still images.
• There were lots more suggestions for interacting with parents and administrators, so if your primary target is one thing, then you can keep your secondary audience informed via specifically designed communication. (I've recently been given a new job assignment and I'd love to use one of these tools to create a "if I were allowed free reign w/in reason" way to go about my job. I may just do so, simply for the experience.)
• Foote ends with a reminder about assessment to evaluate the effectiveness of your tools and help you to decide whether it is worth your continued efforts.

Nell Colburn offers some great "best practices" for storytime in her article on page 30. My favorites include "speaking directly to adults" to reinforce the literacy elements that storytime supports (such as singing and rhyming help kids learn sounds) while also engaging adults as participants. "Establishing expectations" can help kids and adults know what behaviors are appropriate (I should have used that in my summer experience), and "having a selection of resources" on hand for both children and adults to browse through which support the theme or literacy element make it easy for everyone to take something home. Just three of the ten jewels Colburn offers.

Finally there was an article by Chad Sansing on the Raspberry Pi, which is a $25 computer preloaded with Linux that is cheap enough to let the kids experiment with computer hacking without worrying about breaking an expensive hard drive. You still have to supply the monitor, mouse and keyboard, but if you already have those things lying around, you're golden.You can pre-order a kit from Adafruit or other sites and start engaging in physical computing (essentially writing code that then makes physical items do things. Why? Because you can!). Resources in the article are:

• Quick Start Guide - www.raspberrypi.org/quick-start-guide
• projects from Make mag - makezine.com/category/electroincs/raspberry-pi
• Cambridge Computing Centre Winner projects - http://www.techradar.com/us/news/computing/8-great-raspberry-pi-projects-created-by-kids-1143243
• Minecraft Pi Edition - pi.minecraft.net
• Setting Up a Pi Club - http://blog.whaleygeek.co.uk/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-club/
• a kid's ptv on Pi projects - raspberrypikid.wordpress.com/2013/04

Video Librarian Sept - Oct 2013

Typically I get the Video Librarian issue and find around 8-10 movies I'd like to see. This time around I came up with a list of 36. That's a lot of interesting films to want to watch (not including the individual episodes of a few TV shows I feel like I should get to know.) This list reflects my genuine interest as well as an awareness of what is popular and available on the cable channels to which I don't (have the money, not to mention the time to) subscribe. Will I get to watch this full list? Probably not. But the intention to be aware of these films and shows is there.

1. The Kings of Summer
2. Rather than the movie "The Family" starring De Niro and Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones (okay, maybe along with the movie), read the book Malavita.
3. Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks, Somali Pirates)
4. In the fog (russian nazi collaborator foreign film)
5. The happy poet
6. From the Head
7. For the Glory
8. Masquerade (lee byung-hun) (we have this)
9. Now You See Me
10. Olympus has fallen
11. Electric Man
12. Shadow Dancer - we have
13. West of Memphis - we have
14. Father Goose (Cary Grant)
15. The File on Thelma Jordan (classic film noir)
16. The Great Santini (classic, Robert Duvall)
17. Jack Taylor Set 1 - rather than watch these private PI shows set in Ireland, there's a whole series of books by Ken Bruen that NMLS owns. Perhaps read one or two for that PI fix and for a look at Ireland culture. Try the Magdalen Martyrs.
18. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis - for Zane when he's a tween, young teen.
19. The Newsroom - Sorkin's TV show - politics and news
20. Orphan Black BBC American show -  clones and conspiracy
21. Safety Last - B&W Silent Comedy
22. Suits - lawyers and corporate politics
23. a Girl and a Gun - we have
24. Bidder 70 - eco-activism
25. Herman's House - we have - solitary confinement and art
26. La Source - water rights in Haiti
27. War on Whistleblowers - we have
28. Superthief: Inside America's Biggest Bank Score 
29. What Plants Talk About - documentary
30. The Fruit Hunters - documentary
31. Charge - documentary about electric motorcycles
32.  Lee Hendrickson's Creative Travel Photography
33. The Cardboard Bernini
34. The Paper Mirror - documentary about artists Lehrer and Bechdel
35. Sommore: Chandelier Status
36. Makers: Women Who Make America - we have, documentary about feminism

There were several "non-fiction" or documentary files that looked informative and entertaining and if I had all the time in the world, I might have been willing to add them to my list, but unfortunately, one must be selective.

Reading While Getting Paid

When sitting on the desk and not able to work on a project, I can read any of the following from my library's EBSCO database, for free. It's not the same as flipping through the pages of the magazine, but that doesn't look like professional sort of thing anyway, does it? What, you're getting paid to set at the desk and read magazines?!? No, no. I'm getting paid to be current on the latest research in my field. This is just a reminder to me to read.

Acquisitions Librarian
American Libraries
Book Links
Booklist
Canadian Journal of Information & Library Sciences
Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children
Collection Management
Computers in Libraries
EContent
Emergency Librarian
Feliciter
Huntington Library Quarterly
Information Technology & Libraries
Internet Reference Services Quarterly
Journal of Academic Librarianship
Journal of Access Services
Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship
Libraries & the Cultural Record

Library Journal
Library Media Connection
Library Mosaics
Library Quarterly
Library Resources & Technical Services
Library Talk
Library Technology Reports
Library Trends
LJ: Library Journal
Online
Online Classroom
Online Searcher
Orana
Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture
Quarterly Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa
Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library
Reading Online
Reference & User Services Quarterly
School Libraries in Canada
School Library Journal
School Library Media Activities Monthly
School Library Monthly
South African Journal of Library & Information Science
Teacher Librarian
Technology Connection
Yale University Library Gazette
Young Adult Library Services

Fighting Information Overload

There's a small article in the June 2013 edition of School Library Journal that talks about the current value of librarians not being in providing exhaustive services, but in providing selective information services. The four points the author makes are:

1. Weed the collection and pick the best. Then get to know all about it so you can use it well.
2. "Concretize" [not a real word] the resources. Best is to teach it in the moment, but if the moment if after hours (or whatever), then use products like CamStudio to make quick screen captures to teach it.
3. Categorize large groups of items into smaller, more specific groups. This way the user doesn't have to guess what a database does.
4. Start simple by introducing smaller sets of things and then progress to larger sets. Once the user has a handle on a topic, you can give more information.

As a customer, this is a no brainer. I prefer to shop at Trader Joe's because there aren't a million things to choose from and what they do have is great quality for the price. TJ's has done my work for me.

As a librarian, this is a little harder b/c I want to find everything. I don't know if what I have found will meet the need, so I want to send the user home with everything. I suppose to better serve the user I need to spend more time learning about his/her info need, spend more time in the reference interview.

Montessori Storytime: Trickster Tales

I didn't actually get to present a final storytime, but I thought I'd log the idea, just in case for the future.

Book: Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens - This is the story about how Rabbit tricks lazy Bear into letting him use Bear's fields to plant three different types of crops and keeping the best parts for himself!

Activity: Shadow Puppets - the idea is to put up a sheet large enough that the whole class spread out could practice casting shadow puppets on the screen. I'd need some bright light sources as well. Teach the kids how to use their hands and fingers to make an elephant, duck, spider, snail, bird, dog, and alligator. Images will be sharper when closer to the wall. Images will be fuzzier when closer to the light. You can also make a shadow puppet stage out of a box and create stick puppets or use stuffed animals - anything to create a clear shadow shape. Ideas came from Shadow Night by Kay Chorao and Making Shadow Puppets by Bryant and Heard.

Tale: Finally, I thought I'd try my hand at telling instead of reading a story. I liked the story "Bruh Possum & the Snake" found in Sure As Sunrise: Stories of Bruh Rabbit & His Walkin' Talkin' Friends by Alice McGill. Perhaps some felt figures could help to even out the presentation.

I hadn't selected any songs to go with it. I suppose while the shadow puppet screen is up, we could easily do "Eensy Weensy Spider". Also "Froggy Went a Courtin'" (http://freekidsmusic.com/traditional-childrens-songs/froggy-went-a-courtin/ has interesting lyrics) would be cool as it follows the animal theme.

There are several trickster tails out there, for every culture. Find the ones you like best.
For fun, here's two pictures of me during a storytime. Photos courtesy Lake Cities Montessori.

Montessori Storytime: Monsters

The theme for this week's story time comes from The Big Book of Stories, Songs, and Sing-Alongs: Programs for Babies, Toddlers, and Families by Maddigan & Drennan. As my group is very diverse I selected the Monster Mash theme (p 223- 227) from the Family Fun Section.

The kids were really riled up from their play period, so instead of starting out with the story, I jumped into:

Song/ Body Activity - Monsters Stomp (Clap, Growl, Sneak) Around the House sung to the tune of Camptown Races from The Big Book of Stories... And they sneak to their sitting spots.

Opening Song: "We Are Here For Storytime" sung to the tune of  London Bridge from
Although I'd already started storytime with the song, for continuity's sake, we did this one before reading:

Book: The Monster Who Ate My Peas by Schnitzlein

Craft: Build a Monster- provide lots of different parts of the monsters - arms and legs made from different animals and vegetables or have stencils the kids could draw from to build their own monsters. (I didn't have crafts prepared this time, so instead I had the kids direct me on drawing a monster.) Need paper, stencils, crayons. If pasting, need glue and plenty of monster parts.

Book: There Are Monsters Everywhere by Mayer, Mercer. I introduced this book by talking about how the boy was scared of monsters, but he decided to do something that would make it all better. Because the main character takes up karate, I had the kids pretend to be karate choppers with me. This riled them all up again, but, haha, not my problem because it was the end of storytime.

Closing Song: "The More We Get Together" by Raffi

InfoPeople Core2: Genealogy

So the business section of the Core2 Reference Mini-Course took me forever, rather than the two weeks I imagined it would take to read it off the computer and take notes. Paper saves the day by printing out the section, underlining and then coming back here to blog my notes. I'm going to try putting all the pieces in one post as well, as I have a feeling it won't be as hard as the business section.

Overview
People are interested in genealogy for their own varied reasons, whether out of curiosity, research into family stories, for medical reasons or to prove heritage. They are looking for "life stories and interesting details," and they'll need "corroborating documents." Types of tasks patrons are looking to do are to assemble a family tree or lineage, find specific documents, such as marriage licenses, prove their ethnic and racial heritage, or tie an ancestor to an historic event.

Getting Started
This kind of research takes a lot of work! It is time consuming. As a librarian, I shouldn't be made to feel like I have to do the work for the patron. Instead it is my job to guide them through the process and direct them to appropriate resources. (Just like everything else.) I should be aware of the following:

• Good Self Help Guides such as bibliographies, how-to manuals, and (online) instructional videos
• Logical Approaches - during the reference interview, think about what the patron is asking for and then tie it to the forms of data that would support it. For instance, in my patron's request about looking for documentation about her grandfather donating land to Fort Hood, looking at property related resources would be helpful.)
• Know how to locate local sources of help whether a historical society or (history/genealogy) department that has expertise.
• Assist with ILL and referrals to other libraries, ie. consult WorldCat.
• subject headings for genealogy research
• when looking for info on the genealogy process trying "Genealogy" will produce subheadings like "Genealogy--Library resources--Handbooks, manuals, etc"
• when looking for research resources for a geographic location or time, try the format "Geographic place--Genealogy--

Recommended handbooks for beginning research - General Handbooks:

• Handybook for Genealogists by Everton (929.1 HAN 1999) Probably the book the Red Book (below) is based on, this one lists the institutions to consult when tracking down records at the Federal, State and County levels of the US. It also includes an European section, that while not as detailed, will give researchers a starting point for tracing family across the Atlantic (Spain is not included. How can Spain not be included?!?) Migration routes and county maps included.
• Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best-Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy by Croom (929.1 CRO 2001) - the "hold your hand" book when you don't have a person to tell you how to get started. I find it at just 230 pages still a little wordy, but if comes full of examples to illustrate the point. Filled with lots of charts to make organizing easy, including space to note the sources of the information. Because this is a beginner guide, it is filled with general statements like, "consult county records." I'd like to see it point to a source such as Ancestry's Red Book (below) as a resource to tell beginners where county records are held (surprisingly, not all county records are maintained within the county).
• The Everything Guide to Online Genealogy: A Complete Resource For Using the Web to Trace Your Family History by Powell (929.1028 POW 2011) - another hold your hand type book, with emphasis on research online (versus microfilm?). No forms are included as the book assumes you are using software to track your lineage, but it does talk about how to document your process.
• The Researcher's Guide American Genealogy by Greenwood (929.1 GRE 2000 SGB)
• Evidence! [does this not beg to be highlighted?] Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian by Mills
• The BCG (Board for Certification of Genealogists) Genealogical Standards Manual by the BCG
• Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources edited by Eichholz (929.1072 RED 2004) - describes the type of resources collected by each U.S. state, who collected them during which time periods and where those resources are currently located. For instance, in my example about the woman who wanted to know about her great grandfather's land that was donated to Fort Hood, The Red Book says that property tax records are kept at the Texas State Library for the dates 1836-1976 and are available on microfilm. This book is an amazing resource. I will definitely be consulting it in the future!

Books My Current System Owns That I Want to Review

• The Source : a Guidebook to American Genealogy - Szucs, Loretto Dennis (929.107 SOU 2006) - seems to detail how records were created to build an understanding of the type of information you'll find in the various offices, agencies and institutions. I didn't find the Land Records section helpful, not even the detailing of it for Texas as it focused on the land owned by the state and how it was granted out to private individuals, but didn't include how to find ownership after deeding to private parties. There is a great section on understand how to research majority-minority ethnic groups in the U.S. to include African American, colonial Spanish, Hispanic, Jewish, and Native American peoples. This is a good book for understanding the why military records could be of importance, etc.
• International vital records handbook - Kemp, Thomas Jay (929.1 KEM 2009) - picks up where the out of date Handybook (see above) leaves off, though perhaps not as in-depth for U.S. state and county offices, this resource adds copies of application forms for the various types of records, giving the researcher an idea of what they'll need to supply in order to obtain records. The international section is worldwide, which is a nice acknowledgement that we live in a global community.
• Genealogist's Address Book : State and Local Resources: With Special Resources Including Religious Organizations - Bentley, Elizabeth Petty (929.1025 BEN) - similar to the Red Book (see above) in geographical scope, but more a directory of organizations to contact. This is the source to consult when a web search doesn't reveal anything regarding a historical society for a small town.
• Locating Lost Family Members & Friends : modern genealogical research techniques for locating the people of your past and present - Hinckley, Kathleen W., 1948-(929.1 HIN) - introduces the same types of resources such as vital records, military records, etc, however it gives good descriptions on those types of records with examples. Not overly detailed and not a directory though.

Specific Handbooks:

• Finding Answers in U.S. Census Records by Szucs & Wright
• A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors by Carmack (929.1082 CAR 1998 - GENR)
• Land and Property Research in the United States by Hone
• They Came in Ships: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestor's Arrival Record by Colletta (929.1072 COL 1989 - GENF) 

There's a youtube video about the US Census: youtu.be/yl54NX_H1ko

For beginners looking for direction on where to start, best place is with the fam. Sit down, have coffee or tea and a light snack, perhaps have a tape recorder or notepad handy and begin asking all they remember. Then do the same with other family members. Corroborate facts. Get dates and locations and spellings of legal names.

There do already exist compiled genealogies of families. (W.O.W!) But libraries don't readily lend these puppies out, so researchers may have to make a trip or purchase the published list.  You could consult the Genealogies in the Library of Congress bibliography, which is actually a book edited by Kaminkow (2001) and not a bib list online.

Local resources: Academic Libraries' history departments, or that of a larger institution, public or private. Or a genealogy department of a library; History/ Genealogical societies; the local Latter Day Saints Family History Centers which are mini centers of the Utah resource.

Finally, the most important thing for beginners to remember is to document their sources and keep the train of knowledge written down, so that you don't have to retrace your steps.. That book Evidence! is probably a good place to learn how.

Internet Resources

Online is a good place to go for assistance with specialized tasks such as tracking down "specific nationalities, countries and ethnic groups", especially if you know of good starting points. The two that the mini-course emphasize is the Library of Congress's Local History and Genealogy Reading Room and Cindi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Web. The first is the authoritative source of all things library. The second is a specialized directory to point researchers in the direction they need to go online.

Other Websites

• Family Search - familysearch.org
• Family History Library - https://familysearch.org/locations/saltlakecity-library
• National Genealogical Society - ngsgenealogy.org
• Ancestors: Glossary of Terms - byub.org/ancestors/records/glossary
• U.S. National Archives and Records Administration's Resources for Genealogists - http://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/index.html
• Rootsweb - rootsweb.com
• USGenWeb - usgenweb.com
• California Genealogy - cagenweb.com
• Specialized Sites:
• Jewish Gen - jewishgen.org
• AfriGeneas - afrigeneas.com
• Ellis Island - ellisisland.org
• Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System - www.itd.nps.gov/cwss - because everybody's family must have fought at one point, ya know? Except those of us whose lineage comes from other countries.

Records & Lineage
Looking for official records can vary from state to state. The Family Tree Magazine has a 2011 article title Best State Websites with listings included for their ability to search by name, browse indexes, and even view digitized documents. Family Tree Magazine also provides a list of states and the years they officially began keeping vital records (birth, death, marriage, etc).

"Real" Obits are written by news staff. Most obits of regular people are death notices placed by the family in the newspaper. Important: these may appear days after the person's actual death. Tracking down these articles may require referral to larger library, contacting a newspaper's archives (& paying a fee) or request the microfilm.

Death Index(es)
Typically you search by name and can retrieve SSN, Surname, Given name, DOD, DOB, Last known residence, date & place of issuance, birthplace, death place, age and mother's maiden name. The SSDI (SS Death Index) is a commercial product and requires a subscription (see your local library!). Be aware that the death index only includes those whose death was reported to the Social Security Administration. So older deaths may not be included. (My grandma is listed!) Look to see if other countries have similar death indexes.

Military Records
Official repository for discharged military records is the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)'s Veteran's Service Records.

Lineages
Search WorldCat to see if a family history has been published. An example is "Family history. Kentucky genealogies #1, 1700s-1800s" which has the following subject headings: Registers of births, etc. -- Kentucky. Kentucky -- Genealogy -- Sources. See also

• National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution - dar.org
• General Society of Mayflower Descendants - www.themayflowersociety.com
• Jamestowne Society - jamestowne.org

For Native American Lineage try the National Archive's Archival Research Catalog (ARC) Online Public Access. The notes said that the ARC provided indexes and census rolls, but I have no idea how to browse this sort of info on the OPA, because they are not under the Advanced Search. For ex.:

• Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory
• Index to the Applications Submitted for the Eastern Cherokee Roll of 1909 (Guion Miller Roll) - this is currently at http://research.archives.gov/description/300330; Great, but once I have this info, how and for what do I use it?

Unrelated to OPA, but related to Native American Resources is the Bibliographies of Northern and Central California Indians compiled by Berkeley's Museum Informatics Project- the thing to note about this resource is that if there is a compiled Bib for California, look to see if other organizations of other states have their own compiled bib lists.

Heraldry & Coat of Arms
Is there royalty in the family? How many times removed are you? Search subject headings for "heraldry." See also:

• Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2007 by Kidd & Williamson
  We don't have this title, but we do have Debrett's Texas Peerage by Best, Hugh. (920 BES 1983 GEN)
• Debrett's Guide to Heraldry and Regalia by Williamson & Cole
• Heraldry: For the Local Historian and Genealogist by Friar
• Introduction to Heraldry by Oliver
• Heraldry on the Internet - www.digiserve.com/heraldry
• College of Arms - college-of-arms.gov.uk
• Medieval English Genealogy: Links and Bibliography for Heraldry - http://medievalgenealogy.org.uk/links/herrefs.shtml

Montessori Storytime: If you don't care, then they won't either

Finally, a successful volunteer storytime at my son's school since my first one. In my previous ones I had a touch too much planned and another time I had really low energy resulting from an awesome road trip. This time around I had just two books, one craft, a "get your wiggles out" body moment song and a partridge in a pear tree.

My program:

Opening Song: "We are here for storytime." *from Simply Super Storytimes (JR 372.4 CAS)

Book: Someone Bigger by  Jonathan Emmett. I introduced this book by first asking the kids if they had any favorite stories at home. I then shared that I picked this book because it was one of my favorites to read to Zane. I love that it has big colorful pictures and that a silly story takes place where little guy Sam is denied getting to hold onto a kite because he's not "big enough", yet with the whole town and even some zoo animals pulled into the air by the kite, it remains for Sam to be the one who rescues everyone. Sound effects, performing the actions of the characters, and inviting the kids to shout out the last word of the line "this kite needs someone BIGGER!" kept the older kids engaged. Did I mention my group is made up of 4-10 year olds?

Craft: That book transitioned us to our craft, which is my way to break up storytime a little bit, especially as the older kids often share how "bored" they are. Personally, I'm like, "listen, kid, you can sit for an hour watching Ninja Turtles, you can sit for 30 minutes listening to books," but whatever. Our craft was to make a kite scene. I had a long roll of paper lightly colored with blue crayon taped to the wall. We gave out kites and die cut figures (kids' choice of boy, princess, elephant, chicken, rabbit, and turtle. The chicken was not a favorite. :) ). The kids glued their kites up high and their figure down low and got crayons to decorate the kite and draw a string to their figure. After about 10-15 minutes and a few tears from one of the younger ones, we returned to the carpet.

Wiggles!: Now I'm no fool. I know that after a craft the kids are talking to each other and distracted and they don't want to settle down. So I had them do a body movement song from Simply Super Storytimes chapter on Flying High Stories. Titled "The Wind" and sung to "Here We Go Looby Loo." You jump up, you skooch down, you go forward, then back and then you go round and round. I walked them through it first, then sang slow and got faster and faster. And then evil girl that I am, I sang the last line ("here we go round and round") over and over and over super fast and ended with "and then we sit down!" That got the energy out of them and the focus back on me for our final book.

Book: I introduced our final book by talking to the kids about our craft. I asked, "what did we do?" When they answered they made "their own" craft, I asked, "can you take it home?" "Noooo." So then I pointed out that although they each made their own kite, together we made a field of kites, a pretty picture that took up the whole space of the wall that we did in a short amount of time and that by ourselves, the same picture would have taken forever. And here's a little story about coming together called Stone Soup. I picked this version by Muth because it stars an Asian cast and introduced the kids to new costumes, foods, and ways that people celebrate. I love a book that does so much. And lucky me, that actually sat fascinated by the book.

It was a great storytime!

InfoPeople Core2: Business Resources: Occupational Info

So you wanna job?

As I have tons of experience looking for jobs (I used to move around... a lot), applying to jobs, writing resumes and cover letters, and even a little bit in interviewing, I feel pretty comfortable with answering questions in this area. My library also gets a lot of questions about this area, so I have directed the users to the resources that we have in our database.

Resume Writing - it totally helps to have a coach, and thank God for my AmeriCorps trainer Jodi who taught us how to translate our service experience into applicable skills. Barring a personal trainer, the library I work for offers Career Transitions and JobNow, two databases that assist with creating the resume. One of them even provides real personal feedback. New resume books are always coming out, so be sure to look up the latest one in the catalog. There might even be targeted advice, such as for "women, recent grads, career changers or specific fields."

Online Resources

• Resumes, Cover Letters,& Other Job Search Correspondence
• Damn Good Resume
• there's more, it just gets to be a bit overwhelming

Info about Jobs and Industries

• Researching the field begins with the ever delightful Occupational Outlook Handbook available online and in print. I love this book. I love that it has info on how much you can expect to earn, the growth of the industry, the type of education you need and so much more.
• US Department of Labor and it's Wage and Hour Division page
• O*NET Online - use this site for more research into the field you are looking to join. (These sites are sites I would encourage high schoolers and college student to explore to learn more about the actual job market and the skills they'll need beyond the liberal arts degree. (Which I like, don't get me wrong!))

Actually Searching for a J-O-B? There are several job hunting sites such as Monster.com. I would recommend spending some time on them to learn about the titles of jobs and where there seems to be job hunters. It gives you an idea of geography. However, once you've learned a thing or two about skills needed and so forth, I recommend looking at associations, local and national, for leads in the fields. Identify the companies you'd like to work for and then apply to them. This helps you to focus on where and for whom you'd like to work. It shows you are interested in the organization and helps to prep you for the interview.

InfoPeople Core2: Business Resources: Investment and Finance

I took an online class about stocks and bonds, so I'm pretty familiar with the main resources, although the reminders are always helpful. The notes start of with definitions of important finance terms, quoting Barron's Finance & Investment Handbook. My class listed Investopedia.com as the free online source for definitions. The difference being that Barron's is a known creator of finance information. Investopedia's articles are written by a community. Granted that community of writers has to show their expertise, including submitting a resume, but it's not their primary job. However, Investopedia does have other features, such as the Simulator, which allows you to play with pretend money before you invest your real money.

Things I apparently should at least know:

• American Stock Exchange AMEX was acquired by NYSE Euronext in 2008 and had its name changed to NYSE MKT LLC. According to the notes, this exchange is the primary place for US company trades, bonds, etc. The website however says the exchange is "the leading capital market for small cap companies within NYSE Euronext." I have no idea what that means.
• Mutual Fund
• NASDAQ Stock Market - according to Wikipedia, the name originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations," which would make sense as this is an electronic exchange.
• Ticker symbol - the code given to identify a stock. 

For a list of exchanges, see the Rutgers University Libraries' Stock and Commodity Exchanges page. This is a super sophisticated site! Not just a list of American exchanges, it has listings for countries around the world. InfoPeople notes that their general business page (http://libguides.rutgers.edu/business) is also valuable. I would say their entire Lib Guides section is worth checking out. They have them sorted alphabetically and by Discipline.

If you cannot find a stock in the major exchanges, it could be that the stock is in a regional exchange (
See the lib guide referenced above.), or on a "pink sheet" exchange.

One of the questions a public librarian may get regarding stock is a historic price.  Resources to find historic prices include:

• Historical Stock Quotes and Charts - according to the website you have the "ability to retrieve exact and split-adjusted stock price information and split adjustment factors as far back as January 1985."
• Search old newspapers on microfilm (also check to see if the papers have their own archive or check the database to see if there is an indexed listing)
• Try Standard and Poor's printed Daily Stock Price Record for the AMEX, NYSE and NASDAQ.

Information to be sure to include when quoting stock prices is company name, exchange where traded, common or preferred status, and date. Give the High, Low and Close figures or the Bid/Asked price for over the counter stock.

Of course, don't forget the databases when doing research. See what your local library offers, such as ValueLine, or Morningstar. For beginning investors (think about the one kid who kept wanting stock info) try steering them toward Investment FAQ and Yahoo!Finance pages.

InfoPeople Core2: Business Resources: Starting a Business

How many times did I have people come into the library interested in resources for starting a small business!? Okay, maybe only 4-5 from the first of the year to the present, but they ranged from florist, to auto shop, to spa services. As in the notes, interests ranged from financing, to internet resources, business plans to just getting started. Before I take any more notes from the lesson, I do want to point out that my library system has a great online resources titled The Business Plans Handbook volumes 1-26 from the Gale Virtual Reference Library. They are digital files dating from the 1990s, so while the projections on the numbers of the older plans are over 20 years old, the types of things to plan for may still apply or will at least get a beginner going.

The notes make certain that you understand two "important" defintions:

1. definition of Small Business- set by the Small Business Administration, usually based on numbers and annual earnings and will vary by industry.
2. US Small Business Administration- usually your first stop when you really want to be confused. The notes are much more positive in their review of what the SBA can do for you, but when I was going about creating a business plan a million years ago, all I was was confused by the website and by the local office. It looks as though they've streamlined the page since then to revolve around what a person wants to achieve (write a plan, qualify for contracts, etc) rather than a list of departments and publications. The SBA has various publications, so if you already know what you are looking for, you can just submit a title in the search box. Otherwise, there is the site map. Other links from the SBA portal:
• Business Law and Regulations
• Office of Women's Business Ownership
• Regional Small Business Development Centers
• also look for links for veterans and faith-based entrepreneuers 

Other titles:

• Small Business Sourcebook: the entrepreneur's resource- I tried searching Gale/Cengage for this title, but I didn't retrieve any results. According to WorldCat the most recent print edition is the 29th published in 2012.$600+ on Amazon. I gotta get my hands on this thing to see what it is about!
• Legal Guide for Starting and Running a Small Business, Fred S. Steingold. Nolo Press (latest edition, 2013 346.7306 LEG 2013)
• Small Business Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed in Your Small Business, Steven D. Strauss (John Wiley & Sons, 2008) 658.022 STR 2012 We also have this as a downloadable audio.
• The For Dummies series (Wiley) - Includes a number of small-business-related titles. 

Other Online Sites to consider:

• Small Business Advisor - isquare.com
• SCORE: Counselors to America's Small Business - score.org
• Entrepreneur.com
• Nolo.com Self Help Law Center - nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia - I quickly looked at this site and for a dotcom, I'm happy to see it is a self-contained that doesn't have external commercial ads. I know that Nolo has their own line of books, and so there probably isn't a ton of info under the individual articles, but it will answer preliminary questions and then point you to the correct resources. And this site was extremely easy to browse or search.

Franchises- try these resources to learn more about them before getting into one.

• Bond's Franchise Guide - the 2013 is out, but we only have the 2009: 381.13 BON 2009 
• Franchising for Dummies - 658.8708 SEI 2006 
• Association of Small Business Development Centers:  asbdc-us.org - Lots of information geared toward real small business entrepreneurs, such as how to web productivity tools and using interns legally. But this site works more like a blog than a systematic collection of browse-able information, which if you have a specific thing you want, would be difficult to find, especially as the site does not have a search bar.
• Franchise Solutions - franchisesolutions.com -site allows for searching by amount of investment, industry (retail, food, lodging, education, real estate, etc) and location. There are also lists for the most popular searches and the top franchises, dependent on industry.

Financing the great plunge into small business ownership:

• SBA's Financing page: sba.gov/financing - the page for the SBA loan program, including the microloan, real estate and equipment, and general small business. Tips on how to prepare for the loan application process and looking at venture capital are among the articles written.
• Financing Guide Table of Contents: morebusiness.com/finance 

Assignment: a quick look at the levels of information the .gov, .org, .com web resources provide. I think based on their goals for displaying the info, the three that I found were equally informative. I know that most people are looking for free money when that inquire at the desk about funding for small businesses, so the SBA finance site is confusing. It should state clearly whether the government provides free money assistance. However, it does have plenty of info on getting a loan. I liked the interface for the Association of Small Business DC site. It is good for serendipitous discovery.

Montessori Storytime: Theme Camping

Theme: Camping

Introduce myself – My visuals are a camping scene built out of a construction paper fire, stuffed animals with cotton ball marshmallows

Opening Song as needed: "We are here for storytime" sung to the tune of Mary had a little lamb or London Bridge- either works. *from Simply Super Storytimes (JR 372.4 CAS)- after just one story time session, the kids totally caught onto this song. They like when I turn my voice down absurdly low.

First book: Camping Day by Lakin, Patricia

Second book: Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi - this is an action book. You can get up and move to the words or sit and watch the pictures.

Activity: "Missing Camping Gear" *from A Storytime Year (JR 027.6251 DAI) p 153-158 1. Place pictures on the board while discussing the gear needed when you go camping. 2. Turn the board away and remove a picture while saying: We are going camping, we gathered all our gear. We placed them in a pile, now something is not here.What is missing? 3. Encourage the kids to identify the missing item. Repeat the game, removing more and more pictures to make it more challenging.

Third Book: Down by the Bay by Raffi – Do you want to have another book with a song or do you want to do a sound effects story? When you go camping, you can sing camp songs. Here’s another book with a silly song. I’m sure you’ll figure out the rhymes.

Sound Effects Story: Adam Alan’s Camping Trip. *from A Storytime Year (JR 027.6251 DAI) p160-163 Photocopy

Fourth book: Toasting Marshmallows: camping poems by George, Kristine O'Connell – this book doesn’t have a specific story, but is made up of little poems that describe the experience of camping. Not all poems rhyme like our first book or some of our songs, but if you listen to the words, you can hear they create a rhythm and then make music with their sounds that repeat. If you want to get comfortable and lay down, that’s okay. These poems are for dreaming in your head.

Ending Song as needed: Raffi's The More We Get Together

InfoPeople2: Business Resources: Non-Profit Entities

After I've done the obvious, like perform a keyword search for "nonprofit," the following may be useful to consult:

The Executive Director's Survival Guide: thriving as a non-profit leader, by Mim Carlson. We don't have this book, so I looked it up on WorldCat and found the following subject headings that may be useful to find similar books:

• Nonprofit organizations -- Management.
• Organizations, Nonprofit -- organization & administration. 
• Financial Management.
• Decision Making, Organizational.

To find out whether an organization is a non-profit try referencing:

• The Foundation Directory, by David G. Jacobs, also available at Foundation Center (fdncenter.org)
• Guidestar- from the about page: "we gather and disseminate information about every single IRS-registered nonprofit organization. We provide as much information as we can about each nonprofit's mission, legitimacy, impact, reputation, finances, programs, transparency, governance, and so much more."
• Associations Unlimited - My current system carries the print reference Encyclopedia of Associations, published by AU/ Gale. (as well as the International Organizations set and the Regional, State and Local Organizations set) It is a three volume set, volume one being so large, it is divided into three separate books. Entries include contact info, when founded, number of members, staff, languages for conducting business, a description, awards they give, price to join and more.
• v. 1. pt. 1-2. National Organizations of the U.S. -- Descriptive listings: 
1. Trade, Business and Commercial;
2. Environmental and Ag;
3. Legal, Gov'tal, Public Admin, & Military;
4. Engineering,Tech & Natural and Social Sciences;
5. Educational; 
6. Cultural;
7. Social Welfare;
8. Health and Medical;
9. Public Affairs;
10. Fraternal, Nationality, & Ethnic;
11. Religious;
12. Veterans', Hereditary, & Patriotic;
13. Hobby and Avocational;
14. Athletic and Sports;
15. Labor Unions, Associations, and Federations
16. Chambers of Commerce, Trade and Tourism
17. Greek and Non-Greek Letter Societies, Associations and Federations
18. Fan Clubs
•  v. 1. pt. 3. Name index (I'm disappointed b/c the Name index is pre-sorted into the various keywords and then the org.s are listed alphabetically. I would have liked a straight alphabetical list of the Names, with the page number of where to find it in the main parts 1 or 2) and keyword index. --
•  v. 2. Geographic and executive indexes. - Organizations listed by their location and a listing of the execs and the organization they work for.
• v. 3. Supplement - updates of v.1 parts 1& 2, printed between editions.

For those seeking funds on behalf of the organization there's

• The Annual Register of Grant Support, a print publication published by Information Today
• And while there's no end of books helping people to write a grant proposal, the PDF Writing a Successful Grant Proposal by Barbara Davis for the Minnesota Council on Foundations comes recommended.

And if someone is looking up nonprofits because s/he wants to work for one, recommend searching:

• Opportunity Knocks - I'm not terribly impressed with this site. Basic keyword searches for "librarian" found nothing, for "information" brought up many director positions, for "research" other director positions, as well as chief exec officer. This kind of site I would think would be more used by lower level workers. People in the upper levels have other types of recruitment sources, so there's a mismatch in the type of simple search query to the upper job positions. There are some useful filters on the left-hand side, so you can weed out the jobs by salary or education, geographic location, etc.
  
  My preferred job search strategy is to identify organizations that I would be interested in working for and then contact them directly for their job openings. This way there's more of a connection of employee to employer. It is way more work, but is also more focused. A site like this one is such a shotgun in the barrel and though you never know what gems may come floating up, those gems are obscured by the trash.
• Idealist.org

Learning the RC: More Reader's Advisory Resources

The Reader's Adviser (028 REA 14th ED. v.1-5) covers:

• v1: Best in Reference Works, British Literature & American Literature (different time periods, including up to the mid-20th century genre writers)
• v2: Best in World Literature (General Reference, Hebrew, Yiddish, Middle Eastern, African, Indian Subcontinent, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian (ex. Burma, Lao), Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Netherlandic, Scandinavian, Russian, East European (ex. Czech, Estonian, Polish), Latin American, Canadian, Caribbean, Australian, New Zealand)
• v3: Best in Social Sciences, History and the Arts (Gen Ref, Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Education, History: World, Ancient, European, African, Middle Eastern, Asia and Pacific, US, Canadian, Latin American; Music & Dance, Art & Architecture, Mass Media (Journalism, Radio & TV, Film,), Folklore, Humor, Pop Culture, Travel & Exploration.
• v4: Best in Philosophy and Religion (Gen Ref, Philosophy: Greek/Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern Western, 20th Cen, Asian & African, Contemporary Issues; Religion: Ancient, Eastern, Islam, Judaism, Early & Medieval Christian, Late Christianity (1500-present), Bible & Related, Minority Religions, Contemporary Issues in Religious Thought
• v5: Best in Science, Technology and Medicine [STM] (History of STM, Philosophy of STM, Ethics in STM, S&T and Society, Special Issues in S&T and Society, Engineering & Tech (Design, Inventors, Patents, Flight, etc), Ag and Food Tech, Energy (aka Fuels), Communications Tech, Medicine & Health (Aging, Dentistry, Gynecology, Radiology, etc), Illness & Disease, Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry, Mathematics, Statistics & Probability, Info Science & Computer Science, Astronomy & Space Science, Earth Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Ecology & Environmental Science
• v6: the Indexes (author, title, subject)

This looks like the sort of reference work you'd consult for when you are exploring a subject area, or taking a survey class, and you need to draw up a list of "canon" books that you might be expected to read in that class. Or if someone were writing a research paper and needed some titles to get them started, this would be a good book to consult for ideas. Probably, we wouldn't have most of the titles for subjects not on the US or Europe (and maybe not many of them either), but we could find things via ILL or send the person with their list of titles on to a research library like an academic or major city library. The emphasis is on the West, especially Europe and I don't know how specialized it would be (such as wanting books about women in a particular topic, like Vietnam, or women Asian artists of the Chang dynasty (I made that up)). Unfortunately, this text is from the early 1990s, so many of the titles are old. A quick check online and on WorldCat shows there are no new print editions.

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We have a huge collection of two volume editions of a series titled Magill's Literary Annual (028.1 MAG YEAR V1,2). I eyed it askance, wondering how this 60 book, gold cover thing could be of use and easily referenced. In a nutshell, 200 books of "interest to general readers, that reflect publishing trends, that add to the careers of authors being taught and researched in literature programs and that will stand the test of time." It's like a yearly, if you can only read 200 books, this is the list!

At first I was very excited. (To be honest, I still am.) A selection of the thousands of books being published and reviewed in BookList and Publisher's Weekly and Book Page and a myriad of other weekly and monthly review columns, a selection of the most literary, thought to stand the test of time. Then I was sad, because by necessity, the list is a year old. Then I returned to suspicious. "Wait a minute! Who is Magill, and why does he get to pick?" And it turns out he's an actual dude who founded Salem Press and, yeah, we just have to take his word for it. But I like the idea of having the selection for when someone comes along and asks if we can recommend anything for their book club. Something literary, but that people will actually want to read. I also like that the description of the book is about four pages long, giving the book club representative (or the librarian) enough information to get a feel for the book. At the back of the 2nd volume of each annual is a subject index and a category index, which allows you to browse for genres and subjects, when you are just open to serendipity. Also, the beginning of each volume has a complete annotated list for quickly browsing (alphabetically) the list of titles for the year. My one beef with this selection is that we are not told how the books are selected in the first place. What is the criteria? Are they only adult books? Are they only books published in the United States? Are there any translated works? With that aside, the collection provides a focused way to browse for something interesting, educating and entertaining to read.

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We randomly have this booklet called Books Change Lives, Quotes to Treasure. I don't like it. There's no index to search for a quote by a particular author, nor is there an index to search for a quote by subject. Sometimes I like serendipity, but it's not even inspired. Bleh. I'm not even going to include the call number.

Two more genre specific advisory guides:

• Strictly Science Fiction: A guide to Reading Interests (028.9 HER). The chapter titles don't tell me much, but the subject index will start you off looking for those titles specifically about dystopian societies. The edition we have is 2002, so of course the Hunger Games, et al aren't in here, but this would be good for back list titles, the oldies, but goodies for when someone has read everything. Lists of types of Awards and books awarded are included in the resources and appendix.
• The Horror Readers' Advisory: The Librarian's Guide to Vampires, Killer Tomatoes, and Haunted Houses (028.9 SPR). It is slim, but very informative on describing the sub-genres to draw out what people are thinking when they say horror. Is horror for the reader vampires? Or is it mad science gone awry? Every good RA book includes the obligatory lists, for which I'm grateful. I only wish there were one for children, too.

Infopeople Core2: Business Resources: Company and Industry Information Notes

I like that this section opens with a few business questions to give an idea why patrons would want information on businesses and the sorts of details, from company info in preparation for a job interview, to contact info on manufactured products to business research in comparing revenue for businesses in a given market.

Important: Try to learn how the user intends to use the information, as that will inevitably affect which resources you consult to answer the question.

Online resources:

• Of course, the company website. Be aware that information is "what the company wants you to know." Clever to remember that the website tells a crafted tale, so if you're looking to dig up dirt, the company website may not be the place to start. If you can't find a company on a search engine or web directory like Anywho.com, you may try searching for the local...
• ...Chamber of Commerce (ex. the East Sacramento Chamber of Commerce would be a good place to try to track down info of small businesses in that specific area of Sacramento).
• If a patron wants a toll free number, try searching Go Toll Free: http://inter800.com/ (the search domain name that came up in the status bar was yakfree.com!). It is as simple as inputting a "product, service or company name," selecting the state (optional) and indicating the maximum number of results you want. The results will list the full name of matching companies, the state the listed 800 number call and the categories that the particular company covers.

Keyword searches in a catalog should include the terms like:

• corporations
• industry
• sub-keywords to narrow the search such as:
• geographic location: ex. california
• size of business: ex. small
• special characteristics: ex. minority

Then try looking at the subject headings of titles that best match the search for links to other titles in the same subject heading. I also like to go from the OPAC interface to the staff interface in order to browse the subject headings (I have yet to see an OPAC provide a list of subject headings to browse.)(I do this anyway, but thought I'd add it as a reminder.)

Directory resources for searching for companies:
Domestic:

• Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives (332.67 STA 2012 V 1 & 2) V1: Alphabetical listing of over 50K corporations along with contact info, officers names, stock exchange info, description of products/services, NAICS codes, annual sales where available. V2: Alphabetical list of over 77K directors/executives along with business affiliation, titles, addresses, brief biography where available; also Indices: NAICS index, list of corporations by NAICS code, by geography, and Obit section.
• Hoover's Online (hoovers.com) 
• ThomasNet (thomasnet.com)
• Forbes Magazine Lists (forbes.com/lists)
• Inc Magazine's 500 (inc.com/inc500)

International:

• Hoover's Handbook of World Business (338.7 HOO 2013) Profiles of 300 of the "largest, most influential, and [in their opinion] most interesting companies[, private, public and governmental,] based outside the" U.S. Profiles are listed alphabetically and include an overview, history, execs, locations, products, competitors, historical financials. Indices (Companies by Industry, by Headquarters, and list of Execs) and lists of lists (ex. 100 largest by sales) included. This would be a great resource for when someone asks, "what are the top most profitable companies outside of the US."
• Kompass (kompass.com)
• Europages: The European Business Directory (www.europages.com)
• World Business Directory (worldbusinessdir.com)  *community contributed content

Annual Reports and Other Financial Information
Public companies are required to publish an annual report. It may be found on their website, or filed electronically with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'s EDGAR (sec.gov/edgar.shtml) database. If this database is too difficult to use (and it's a government one, so why should it be easy?), try Annualreports.com where you can search by "name, ticker symbol, stock exchange, industry or sector." Private companies are not required to publish an AR (though they may- look to company's website or PR office.)

Reputation of a Company
Need to track down a company that closed (to find old manuals or see if warranty is still good) or research it before you engage in a transaction? You can try reading about it in the news (Lexis Nexis has a good companies-appearing-in-newspapers database.) or contact the Better Business Bureau (locate your local one by searching http://www.bbb.org/us/find-a-bbb) or local Chamber of Commerce, but be aware that they only tell you if there are any outstanding disputes ("unsettled"). They don't certify as "in good standing" any business.

To track down the address of the owners of a business that has closed, contact the Secretary of State for the state in which the headquarters of a business was located.

• (The Texas Secretary of State has an online form to search businesses by "entity name, name of person listed as a registered agent, officer or director of a corporation." It requires requesting an account ahead of time and paying for all searches. 
• State of California has a free online business search, but only for Corporations or LLCs. Search by sole proprietors is not available.)

Referring Company Questions
Essentially a best practice list of pointers, such as being as specific as possible and using statements like "net and gross sales for the past two fiscal years," instead of "financial information" when referring questions to subject specialist.

Industry Information
When researching an industry (as compared to a specific business), knowing the NAICS codes and/or the SIC codes is the way to go. Use US Census Bureau's NAICS page (www.census.gov/epcd/naics02) to convert between the two. Other research tools:

• Current Industrial Reports from the U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov/manufacturing/cir/index.html)  
• International Trade Administration (ita.doc.gov)
• Industry Association webpages
• Subscription Databases: ex. LexisNexis database allows you to search for info by NAICS code. 

Assignment: Compare the reports as found on Edgar and Annualreports.com.
Annual Reports was way easier, however they only had the 2011 report in your choice of PDF or HTML. The EDGAR interface was harder to interpret, (there were instructions that I decided not to read), however they had 2012 and 2013 filings, including quarterly reports and so much more! 

Lake Cities Montessori Storytime: the Sea

I'm scheduled to read about 8 times at the school. It just so happens that the summer program is divided into themed days. On the first day that I'll be attending the theme is "The Sea" (cue Disney Mania, Under the Sea, which if I were doing a musical chairs or craft activity, I could play in accompaniment.)

Sea Theme Storytime

Introduce myself – Bring out my visuals (sea shell, camera, sea puppets, boat) and ask if the children can guess what the books I'll be sharing are about. Give my expectations- they listen, but when I ask a question or point to them, it means I'd love to hear their thoughts.

Opening Song as needed: "We are here for storytime." *from Simply Super Storytimes (JR 372.4 CAS)

First book: I'm the biggest thing in the ocean! by Sherry, Kevin – get the sea puppets or make flannel board characters.

Counting rhyme as needed

5 Little Sea Creatures *use flannel board or sea puppets as needed

*from The Big Book of Reading, Rhyming, and Resources by Maddigan and Drennan (JR 027.625 MAD)

Song: The Sharks in the Sea (Tune: The Wheels on the Bus) *from The Big Book of Reading, Rhyming, and Resources by Maddigan and Drennan (JR 027.625 MAD)

Fingerplay as needed: "Open, Shut Them" (I'm ending the above song with a line about the clams in the sea open and shut and this is a good way to transition back to quiet sitting.)

Second book: Flotsam by Wiesner – bring digital camera and film camera to show the difference between the two; bring film in canister and off roll; This is a book that has no words and I’ll need your help in telling the story.

Fingerplay as needed
"Ocean Shell" & "Two Little Fishes"

*from I’m a Little Teapot by Cobb (JR 027.6251 COB)

Final book as needed: The sea house by Zagwyn, Deborah Turney; Show knots in a rope

Craft to hand out: Origami boats and boats for kids to color. 

• Knot tying for the older kids; Need instruction sheets and rope for them to practice.
• Origami boat crafts (http://www.freeprintable.com/view/print-body.html?id=3465 & http://www.origami-instructions.com/easy-origami-boat.html)

Ending Song as needed: Raffi's "The More We Get Together"

As much of the above is in copyrighted texts, I don't have the full program typed up here. I did prepare it for me to have on hand and if I were doing a storytime with parents, I'd hand it out for them so they could sing along.