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