NYPL Blogs: Paperless Research

Adventures in Marketing Research: IBISWorld - Market Research Reports

Kenneth Johnson, Science, Industry and Business Library — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:37:53 -0400

I know the danger of first impressions. And of reportage on the basis of superficial knowledge. But when something newsworthy comes along, caution must yield in the moment. So, permit me to introduce you to NYPL's newest marketing research electronic resource: IBISWorld.

Let's start with a (nearly) real-world example from the research desk at SIBL—Where can I find industry information about yoga retreats?

The desk response to a question of this nature generally entails a caffeinated introductory tour of our recommended databases. And a word or two of warning: niche segments (which this is) may often require scouring several different resources and many reports and articles, pulling from each details and pieces you need to cobble together yourself; a real creative writing exercise!

So what happens if we try to plug this search into IBISWorld? A keyword search on "yoga" yields several industry reports, of which the top one is titled: Pilates & Yoga Studios - OD4185. Noting that there are a total of 24 reports in the results, opening the entire list shows at #10: Summer Camps - OD5349.

If you've not tried to do market research on niche markets, at this point you might say "hey, what the hay..." in reaction to these seemingly unremarkable results. Shouldn't we get stuff like this every time? And these are OK, but there's no report on "Yoga Retreats." What good is it?

Well, based on my experience helping our readers, this is one of the best result sets I've seen from a search of this nature. If you are doing market research, I invite you to come to SIBL and try this resource. We can learn more together. And if IBISWorld doesn't do the trick for you, believe me we have many more arrows in our quiver.

What You Get From IBISWorld

On screen, the industry reports break down into "tabs": About This Industry; Industry at a Glance; Industry Performance; Industry Outlook; Product & Markets; Competitive Landscape; Major Companies; Operating Conditions; and Key Statistics. Here's a screen shot from the first page (click on the image for a larger version):

Besides the text and statistical charts in the report, some impressive things that catch the eye are different graphic representations contained in:

Industry at a Glance

Industry Outlook

Operating Conditions

What You Can Take Away

Happily, this resource allows you to download a pdf, print-friendly version, of the report. For purposes of a teaser, and to help you better understand the level of detail of these reports, I've attached the first two pages from the pdf of the Yoga report. Two things I call to your attention in this pdf: the date of the report (I expect there are annual updates) and author are listed, and the "tabs" from the screen version form a table of contents with subheadings.

So please come to SIBL, do research in IBISWorld, and take away a report or two. But, I must make this request... please kill only what you intend to eat... help us make sure NYPL will preserve access to these reports for other readers!

Start your Business Research at SIBL!

Madeleine Cohen, Science, Industry and Business Library — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:30:13 -0500

If you're thinking of starting your own business, or you're in business and need to keep up with trends, you can save time by using the industry and market research databases at NYPL's business library, SIBL. The library provides access to a range of premium information which is not available free on the Internet. At SIBL, you can research an industry or market sector to get the background and data you need for a business plan or for a marketing plan.

Two of the best industry databases are First Research and Plunkett's Research Online, both available onsite at SIBL.

First Research, a top choice for industry and market research, provides industry profiles, trends, executive insight, finacial data and more. A unique feature of First Research is the "Call Preparation Questions," customized for each industry, which provide a view of current issues, business operations and challenges facing those in the industry. Study the questions in your chosen industry and develop your own. As part of your research, you will plan to speak with business owners and executives who are already working in the industry you will focus on, and you can use some of the "call prep" questions when networking with business owners or making cold calls to learn more about your industry and operations.

With Plunkett's Research Online, you can easily create and download (or email yourself) an in-depth profile of an industry in just a few minutes, complete with the latest market research, top companies, associations, and statistics. You'll love Plunkett's "Build a Report" feature if you haven't used it before.

As you continue to research your industry, you'll discover which companies are the "top" companies in your field, and you'll need to learn more about them. Reference USA, an online directory of U.S. companies, providing details on more than 24 million U.S. companies, is an excellent source for your market research. You can search for companies by just using a keyword to do an industry search, even without looking up industry codes. You can also limit your results by location, i.e, a zip code, neighborhood, city, etc. or select a location on a map. You can download lists of companies to a USB drive at no cost. When you've decided which companies are your main competition, you can find more details about their products and services, and then plan a strategy to enter the market with your own unique product or service.

SIBL's librarians can help with business, industry and market research, and SIBL provides business counseling onsite through a partnership with SCORE. For small business information and assistance, try out smallbiz.nypl.org, NYPL's small business website. Smallbiz.nypl.org links to sample business plans, calendars of business events in NYC, and a services directory of organizations which assist small businesses. NYC.gov, New York City government's website assists businesses through the department of Small Business Services (SBS) and Business Solutions.

And for more tips on doing business planning research, these links may be helpful: Reference USA, Finding Trade Journals, and Trade Associations.

NYPL's Gift to Online Learners... lynda.com for Free!

Kristin McDonough, Director, Science, Industry and Business Library — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 06:05:04 -0500

In this season of gift giving, the New York Public Library has just added a wonderful new resource — lynda.com — for New Yorkers who need the top of the line in online software training. NYPL's business library, SIBL, has entered into a year long pilot to provide free access to the continuously expanding library of 1,500 online training videos.

As soon as your holiday reveling has wound down, head to SIBL and plunk yourself down at one of the nine dedicated lynda.com workstations or at any of the other database workstations scattered throughout the library.

A leader in online learning, lynda.com is known across industry, government agencies, and college campuses as a provider of clear and accessible instructional videos that meet the needs of ambitious and enterprising New Yorkers who might want to:

Hone Office skills to get ahead at their workplace
Learn MS Word Power Shortcuts or Mail Merge to make their small business more efficient
Use Power Point to create presentations for a class or pitch to clients or funders
Ace Photoshop to make gifts for grandkids or take an ex's photo out of a family portrait
Plug holes in their resumes or learn salary negotiation tips during their job search

Here's just a sampling of lynda.com's software application offerings: MS Excel, Windows 8, Quickbooks, Twitter for Business, Web Graphics, Photoshop, Digital Photography, Creating Mobile Apps for iPad and Android, Video Editing, Audio Editing, iPad Music Production. Also Digital Publishing, Logo Design, WordPress, Drupal, 3-D, Dreamweaver and more! And remember, too, that lynda.com has courses on crucial job search and business skills from resume revision and salary negotiation to sales and project management.

And there's more!

lynda.com training requires no registration or personal data input.
lynda.com does require headphones. You can bring your own or buy a set at SIBL for $1.00.
You can take a tutorial or full course multiple times. There is no time limit to lynda.com use.
Options include completing a full course or just specific modules within a course.
Laptop owners — Mac users in particular — can bring their laptop to practice with exercise files while taking lynda.com courses on SIBL’s public workstations.

See you soon at SIBL! Get the training you need at your own pace.

Breaking News: Morningstar Available to NYPL Cardholders at Home!

Kenneth Johnson, Science, Industry and Business Library — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:12:08 -0500

Extry! Extry! Extry! Read all about it! Newsflash! Morningstar Investment Research Center — in the New York Public Library's subscription — is now available to NYPL Library Card Holders offsite.

Don't have a library card yet? It's simple! Find out how to get one.

I reported on this database in a post last year. It's an excellent resource for those planning do research on Stocks, ETFs, Mutual Funds, Industries and more. Plus, there are lots of investor education materials available on this subscription site. If you have any questions, just ask a librarian or contact AskNYPL!

Check it out!

Article and Artifact — Digitization's Dilemma: A True Story

Kenneth Johnson, Science, Industry and Business Library — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:00:12 -0500

Every librarian understands that the increased reliance on digital resources is a Faustian bargain.

While the stakes may not seem as high as in the legend, the risks are plain, clear, and much discussed in library and publishing literature. For any organization that wishes to preserve or archive its resources, digitization can be both a blessing and a curse. Easier access versus preservation concerns may not be possible to reconcile completely.

On a day-to-day level, the limitations of some digital resources are painfully evident. Particularly on a micro-level. For example, not only are some journal articles unavailable in full-text electronically, but the specific digital format can make a big difference in its usability.

In other words: things are not always what they seem. This was brought home to me recently. We received an advance copy of the December issue of Naval History, which included a brief article by naval historian Paul Stillwell, featuring my wife's step-father, John L. McCrea (the Admiral). Seeing that this journal is included in EBSCO's Academic Search Premier database and is available outside the Library with a library card, I thought "great!" — we can let people know they can find the article there.

But, uh, when I looked at the online article — which can be accessed here (you'll need a library card to get this if you're outside the Library) — it turned out to be in HTML only. Where are the pictures!?! In the original, there's a great photo of the Navy's first aircraft from 1911, about which the Admiral reminisces in his memoirs. Plus a picture of him as a midshipman.

Well, since these pictures were scanned in at home, I've decided that as a gesture of the holiday spirit I will post them (uncropped) here. Plus, a couple of bonus pictures not included in the article. Enjoy, and have great end of the year holidays!

Short note about the Admiral: For information about his fascinating career, please read Paul Stillwell's article — you also can find out some things in various online sources. Admiral McCrea was a true Navy man who loved a good "yarn." In his later years he decided to do an oral history about his experiences during over 40 years in the service. That is the basis of the memoir mentioned in the article.

When the Admiral passed away in early 1990, at almost 99, he was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Afterward, at the reception, some of the men who had served under him on the battleship Iowa as youngsters, in 1990 in their mid- to late-60s, wept, unable to choke back their tears as they struggled to say what he meant to them.

Brightest Star at SIBL? Morningstar!

Kenneth Johnson, Science, Industry and Business Library — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:02:57 -0500

Working at SIBL has distorted my vision; I seem to have this sixth sense: I see advertising for financial services. Brokerage accounts, mutual funds, ETFs, bank accounts (online and otherwise) - everywhere. Do normal people see these?

Of course, working at SIBL also means I encounter people researching investments and other financial services topics, and have been able to steer them to, and help them with, the excellent investment related resources we have. One of these, for which I offer an executive summary below, is Morningstar Investment Research Center, available at SIBL in the library edition.

Coverage:

Companies (i.e., Stocks)
Mutual Funds
ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)

Supplemental Information:

Newsletters
Portfolio Analysis
Market and Industry Summaries
Educational Tools
Articles and Videos

Features - Ratings and Recommendations:

Analyst Reports: Available for a significant number of mutual funds and ETFs and for many companies' stocks as well.
Star Ratings: Morningstar is known for its "Star" ratings. For mutual funds and ETFs, these ratings are based on past performance "on the curve", i.e., compared to peers. For stocks, the ratings reflect Morningstar's "opinion of the firm’s intrinsic value relative to its market price", which is found in the stock reports as the "Consider Buying" price determined by Morningstar.
Analyst Ratings: A new feature for mutual funds is the Analyst Rating - Morningstar's opinions on funds based on their long-term potential for superior risk-adjusted performance. It consists of five levels: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Neutral, and Negative. It is still in the process of being fully implemented.

Formats:

Paper Equivalent (PDF): "Tear sheets" for mutual funds. Stock reports that include analyst comments and a one-page "tear sheet". Newsletters, reports and educational materials are also available.
Interactive: Charts and tables can be customized and comparisons between different stocks and funds can be generated on-the-fly. Real-time (or almost real-time) quotes on traded securities. Updates to analyst reports as appropriate. Screening available for stocks, mutual funds and ETFs.

Sample Reports - these are samples only, and are not intended as investment advice:

Dodge & Cox Income Fund tear sheet.
Stock Report for AMR Corporation (selected pages). (NB: AMR, the parent of American Airlines, declared bankruptcy on November 29, 2011. For vultures (and maybe vampire squids) only!!!!)
Morningstar Fund Investor Newsletter for December 2011 (selected pages). This issue includes an introduction and description of the new Analyst Ratings for mutual funds.

Availability: Onsite.

Come visit us here at SIBL where we can get you started with the Morningstar database. For those who are unfamiliar with some of the investment concepts and terms, or simply want to learn a bit more about them, we have classes here that can help you. No advance registration is needed, and you can have pretty much unlimited time on our computers to use this and our other resources. In addition, you can access Morningstar if you bring your own laptop computer and use our wireless network.

New! Morningstar is also available at other NYPL centers: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Bronx Library Center, St. George Library Center. Speak to one of our colleagues there for assistance in using Morningstar at those locations.

Weddings and Marriages at NYPL: A Research Guide

Raymond Pun, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, General Research Division — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:58:18 -0500

In Sex and the City: The Movie, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) ascends the iconic marble steps of The New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street wearing a stunning Vivienne Westwood wedding gown. Her bridesmaids Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) — all wearing vibrant designs by Zac Posen — are at Carrie's side as she enters the landmark building and prepares to exchange vows with Mr. Big (Chris Noth). Once inside, Carrie's pupils dilate as she marvels at the Library's majestic architecture and design.

As a romantic dreamer, Carrie knew NYPL was the perfect venue for her wedding, but something happens that dramatically threatens her happy ending. For the movie outcome of Sex and City, consider placing a hold for the DVD at NYPL. (Already seen it? Check out Robert Armitage's blog post on the love letters in our collections, also inspired by the movie.)

Weddings have been a long intimate tradition in human history: a ceremony to celebrate people united in marriage or a similar institution. Marriage is a little more complex: a social institution or legal contract that recognizes the interpersonal relationship between two people; it is possible to have a marriage without a wedding; to be married more than seven times (read about the late Elizabeth Taylor); and in some cultures, to be married to more than one person; to be in an arranged marriage; to be married before becoming an adult; to be married under dowry payments; and to be "married" to an animal (a real animal; not legally sanctioned anywhere).

This blog post briefly examines and explores how one can conduct research in weddings and marriages using the Library's traditional and new media collections!

Whether you are planning your own wedding or researching the history of marriages from the first U.S. President George Washington's marriage to Martha Dandridge to the more recent one: Prince William's marriage to Kate Middleton or researching your great aunt's marriage certificate, we have resources that will help you get started in researching: wedding gowns, religious marriage customs from the traditions of Judaism to Hinduism, the history of weddings, the social history of marriage, civil unions, same-sex marriages, polygamy, and the "D" word — divorce in history.

According to Brides magazine, June may be the most popular wedding month, while December is the least — due to the holidays and winter chills. However, if you are planning a June wedding — six months from now — we have enough resources to get you started and prepared. Explore more wedding periodicals at the Library, or for additional resources, check out these NYPL blog posts: Gettin' Hitched," "Wedding Readings from Children's Books," and "It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding."

The best way to look for books and other resources about the history of cultural weddings or marriages is to search in the Library's BiblioCommons catalog: switch keyword to subject and type in or copy/paste: "weddings --" or "marriages --" or "marriage -- religious aspects" or "same-sex marriage --" or "polygamy --" or "divorce --".

This should give you an idea of the collections we have relating to the subjects. For scholarly articles relating to the evolution and history of marriage as an institution, the rise of divorce rates in American history, and the anthropological study of polygamy, check out the following databases: JSTOR, Project Muse, and Academic Search Premier, all of which are great scholarly resources to kick start your research process.

Some of us may be familiar with this old wedding adage: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." Apparently, this came from the Victorian era — it is suppose to bring fortune to the marriage if the bride carried all of these items. The "old" symbolizes continuity with the bride's family and the past, the "new" means optimism for the bride's new life ahead, the "borrowed" reminds the bride that she can depend on family and friends, and the "blue" symbolizes love and modesty tracing back to ancient Roman history.

Here at NYPL, we can do a lot of things, but controlling the weather is not one of them. However, we have the Old Farmers Almanac, a reference book that can predict the weather on your wedding day or any date next year.

From 18th century Victorian wedding dresses to 20th century Hungarian grooms' attire — if you are looking for fashionable wedding dresses from different cultures in history, consider searching the Berg Fashion Library database to discover images, ideas, and inspirations. Read more about the Berg Fashion Library database >>

For wedding music themes, the Library for Performing Arts provides access to most of the collections on this list. In the Library's classic catalog, you can also type under subject: "wedding music --" and this will give you other wedding music from different cultures.

For anyone doing genealogy research or exploring history of weddings — such as specific peoples' weddings — consider searching The New York Times online database. There are wedding announcements from affluent or well known couples, reports about polygamy and bigamy, and the current states and debates of same-sex marriages, civil unions, and domestic partnerships in America and in the world. For other historical online newspapers, check out this list of articles and databases and this list for e-resources on marriages. For other primary sources, consider NYPL's Digital Gallery to look for postcards, posters, prints, photos, and other ephemera related to weddings and marriages. In addition, the Manuscripts and Archives and LPA's Music Divisions and the Schomburg Center collect papers, photos, and scores of weddings and church documents on marriages from individuals. See more here >>

Another resource to consider is the Ancestry Library Edition, which is a great place to start searching for the marriage licenses of your great or great-great grandparents! Issued by a church or state, this historical document is a key source in understanding when people got married, which could give you a closer estimation of their ages as well. Explore current Marriage Certificates issued by the New York State, or for more advanced genealogy research, consider contacting the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy.

If you are a major fan of celebrity weddings, check out the Library's popular magazines covering contemporary celebrity weddings. These resources include People, National Enquirer, Star, and US Weekly. Forbes magazine is one publication that can tell you the most expensive weddings in the world! All current issues are available in Room 108 in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

Typically in movies, the happy couple either gets married at the end for a happy ending or in the beginning when the bride or groom utters, "I'm sorry, I can't do this" and then dashes out of the chapel with another, leaving the committed one weeping in agony and embarrassment.

Here is a list of movies that may make you think twice about the tranquil beauty of weddings and matrimony:

Bridezilla
Sex and the City
Wedding Crashers
The Wedding Singer
Bride Wars
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Bridesmaids
Explore more wedding and marriage entertainment at NYPL

No wedding to plan yet? Need help buying a diamond?

Or, the wedding may be over — but wait, there's still time for the honeymoon. If you are planning for a trip, read this blog post to get started in finding travel periodicals!

At NYPL's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Special Events Team has created, catered, and presented wedding receptions and parties for people who are romantic dreamers like Carrie Bradshaw's character in Sex and the City. Explore a selection of captivating wedding images at the Library in the image gallery below!

If you are interested in creating a magical moment for your wedding, consider the iconic beauty of The New York Public Library and inquire about its event spaces.

Global Trade? Online Resources at SIBL

Madeleine Cohen, Science, Industry and Business Library — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:10:47 -0500

At the suggestion of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce (MCC), SIBL recently hosted a lively orientation for NYC-based foreign trade commissioners and their staff. The attendees learned effective and efficient ways to mine business-to-business (B2B) contacts from online business directories accessible at NYPL's Science, Industry and Business Library.

Trade commission staff from Belgium, Chile, U. K., Netherlands, Croatia, Egypt, Hong Kong, Finland, The Turkish Republic, and Canada accepted the invitation from Nancy Ploeger and Shirley Leung, MCC’s president and economic development director, respectively. A follow-up survey a few days later showed that attendees found the session highly useful. Here’s why:

Each of the online resources featured at the demonstration does something different.

Reference USA, an electronic business directory with detailed data on 14 million U. S. companies, provides trade representatives with prospective partners for their home clients. One Source, an international business “module” of Reference USA, leads to potential partners on a global scale. (Access is through Reference USA, accessible on site at SIBL)

First Research is a gold mine of trends, forecasts, and profiles for hundreds of industries.

Emerging Markets aggregates company and industry information, market research, news, and more in the original language of each developing country.

You don’t need a special invitation to use any of these resources at SIBL — access is free to anyone who visits the Library. Visit the database workstations in SIBL's Electronic Information Center (EIC), or access the databases on your own laptop. In addition to hands on assistance from roving staff, SIBL offers training sessions and business seminars on a regular basis. If you’re looking for business leads, or potential business partners here in the U.S. or in other countries, just plan a visit to SIBL. Odds are you’ll find what you need!

Beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Be an Educated Consumer All Year Long

Lauren Lampasone, Reference and Research Services — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:35:56 -0500

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have entered our lexicon as the first days of the traditional holiday shopping season, marked by door-busters and free shipping for online purchases. The deals come fast and furious, almost keeping pace with our ever-expanding shopping lists...

Why not give yourself a gift you can enjoy when reviewing your bank and credit card statements in January 2012? The gift of consumer-savvy! The library can help.

Ratings and Reports

Consumer Reports is known for their fair, unbiased ratings and testing of a wide range of consumer products.
- Available in the print edition at the library
- Access Consumer Reports Online with your library card or onsite at the library
- Access the yearly Consumer Reports Buying Guide onsite at the library
The Consumerist is a frequently updated blog that provides daily deals as well as warning alarms about the latest bad deals or scams. It also encourages readers to submit their stories of scams, ripoffs, or how they did or didn't get help from customer service after having a problem with a product.
Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports and parent company of The Consumerist, is "an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization which provides unbiased advice about products and services, personal finance, health and nutrition, and other consumer concerns."

Advocacy

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission provides information on recent recalls; search saferproducts.gov to look at a particular product category and be informed of any known safety issues.
FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection practical information on a variety of consumer topics, see the sections on "Online Shopping and E-Payments" and "Shopping for Products and Services."
Better Business Bureau Resource Library - did you know that "more than 60 domain names have been registered in the name of Santa Claus"? Make sure kids' privacy is safe online this holiday season, and read a variety of other useful tips. The BBB is also the place to go to file a complaint on a business.
New York State, Division of Consumer Protection is the state’s top watchdog and think tank on a wide range of issues.
The Consumer Action Handbook [PDF] from usa.gov, also see the "Be a Smart Shopper" guide for tips on before and after the purchase, service contracts and warranties, and online shopping.

Product Comparisons and Reviews

Buzzillions aggregates reviews from different sources and displays them alongside reviews submitted to the site by consumers.
The Wirecutter is a list of "only great" technology. Also compiles reviews but offers a final appraisal about which is the "best" of each product type.
Google Product Search gets search results and price data straight from e-commerce sites. Merchants are supposed to include tax and shipping costs to enable clearer comparisons between products on different sites.
SizeEasy is a tool that lets you compare the sizes of different items by entering their dimensions. Great for visualizing before you buy online.

Consumer Data

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) provides information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics.
Follow this list on Twitter for the latest in consumer updates.

If the retail fervor and nonstop Christmas music in every store has you down, see this list for alternative ways to spend the season of shopping. And if you need a gift for that person that is impossible to buy for, we think NYPL has just the thing.

Do you have a go-to place for reliable reviews? What is your big purchase going to be this month? Let us know in the comments. Happy spending!

The Floating University and other Online Learning Tools

Lauren Lampasone, Reference and Research Services — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:28:19 -0500

The New York Public Library recently announced a partnership with The Floating University to present the 'Great Big Ideas' video lecture series. The first one took place yesterday, and was a lecture titled If You're So Free, Why Do You Follow Others? The Sociology and Science Behind Social Networks, Altruism and the Genetic Origins of Human Interaction presented by Professor Nicholas Christakis.

Go to nypl.org/floatinguniversity to see the schedule of upcoming screenings, some featuring live Q&A with the professors:

Malthus Miffed: Are People the Problem, the Solution or Both?
Dr. Joel Cohen, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Populations, Rockefeller University, Mathematical Biologist, Columbia University
The Psychology of Everything: What Compassion, Racism, and Sex Tell Us about Human Nature
Dr. Paul Bloom, Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University
Art Now: Aesthetics Across Music, Painting, Architecture, Movies and More
Dr. Leon Botstein, President and Leon Levy Professor of Bard College

In his introduction to the screening, Peter Hopkins emphasized that the world of higher education is in a state of flux, due in large part to both economic and technological changes taking place. He also acknowledged the need for more opportunities for cross-disciplinary study apart from the traditional academic structure. The public library has always been a place that people turn to when they are seeking information, whether for a short term need or as part of a long term process of self-improvement. We have the resources that allow people who are highly disciplined but working outside of the traditional educational system to teach themselves what they need to know to fulfill their intellectual curiosity and oftentimes improve their lives. Lifelong learning is part of our mission.

Below is a listing of resources that might help you if you decide to embark on a self-made semester to learn something new. If you've tried another free program missing from this list, please let us know in the comments.

General resources

The Edupunks' Guide: How to Write a Personal Learning Plan an excerpt from the Edupunks' Guide to a DIY Credential, "a comprehensive guide to learning online and charting a personalized path to an affordable credential using the latest innovative tools and organizations." Free ebook download.
The OpenCourseWare Consortium provides resources and information on Open Courseware materials, and offers a useful search tool to locate one of 6,384 courses from 64 sources and 12 languages.
Open Culture: 400 Free Online Courses from Top Universities is a listing of free online audio and video courses from different sources broken down into broad subject areas.
iTunes U is a hub for free educational audio and video resources (and NYPL is there!)
YouTube EDU divided into K12, Lifelong Learning, and University videos.

Other websites

Academic Earth aggregates several OCW sources for video with accompanying educational materials.
Connexions A platform and a way to remix and share educational content.
Google Code University basic introductions to web programming, databases, programming languages, and Linux, as well as more advanced courses for Computer Science students.
EngineerGuy.com videos that show how stuff works, from an engineering perspective.
Khan Academy <10 minute videos and practice tools for Math, Science, Humanities, Finance, and Test Prep.
MIT OpenCourseWare
Open Yale Courses
Project Euler "exists to encourage, challenge, and develop the skills and enjoyment of anyone with an interest in the fascinating world of mathematics."
TED Talks "riveting talks by remarkable people."
webcast.berkeley "UC Berkeley's central service for online video & audio for students and learners around the globe."

DIY

Instructables "a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others." Projects divided into Food, Living, Outside, Play, Technology and Workshop sections.
Popular Mechanics Projects & Plans
Wired How-To Wiki "Collaborate with Wired editors and add to our library of projects, hacks, tricks and tips."

Free with your library card

LearningExpressLibrary - helps you prepare for standardized tests and certification exams, because parallel parking will not be your only challenge in adulthood.
Mango Languages - learn one of over 30 foreign languages (or ESOL for speakers of 15 different languages), online or through the available mobile app.

Articles

"The Evolution of Higher Education." New York Times, November 4, 2011.
"The University of Wherever." New York Times, October 2, 2011.
"8 Steps to Getting What You Want... Without Formal Credentials." fourhourworkweek.com, September 29, 2011.
"How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education." Wired, August 2011.
"How I Failed, Failed, and Finally Succeeded at Learning How to Code." The Atlantic, June 2011.
"How to Learn Something For Nothing" and "An Open Mind." New York Times, April 16, 2010.

Books

(Not just) For teachers

MoMA Modern Teachers - guides, lessons and images for learning about modern art
PBS Teachers

Database? What? Huh?

Ruth Rodriguez, Grand Concourse Library — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:14:21 -0400

It was a sunny day at Grand Concourse Library. A patron who visits the Library every morning for the newspaper was discussing a book he had just ordered.

The book, Henry Kissinger's On China, reminded him of the American/Chinese political climate in the 1980s. He was curious to know if the Library had access to any articles from the 1980s or journals pertaining to the Tienanmen Square Protest. This is when it dawned on me: the Library has countless numbers of databases, many available from the comfort of your own home, and all you need to access them is your library card.

So, I think it's time! Put in a little research and don't be afraid to ask your local librarian for help with the databases. The NYPL website features scholarly databases appropriate for classwork, as well as databases for general interest research. They are searchable by journal title or general subject, with symbols next to them to indicate if they are searchable at home or only on site at the Library. Some databases are only searchable in certain neighborhood libraries that subscribe to them.

If for some reason there are no librarians in your apartment, do not fret, you can always chat online with ASK NYPL or utilize the Library's research guides.

There are several tutorials and step-by-step guides put together by awesome library staff.

Click the blog posts below to sample a few!

Researching and Finding Historical Newspapers in NYPL by Raymond Pun provides a step-by-step guide on finding historical newspapers.
Teacher's Take-Out! (Sampling menu of library databases) by Shauntee Burns provides an overview of some key databases that are great resources for teachers.
Who Lived In a House Like This? A Brief Guide to Researching the History of Your NYC Home by Philip Sutton provides a step-by-step guide on how to research your home.

As previously mentioned, some databases are available from your home, while others are available on site only. Here is a list of some of the Library's e-journals.

Below is a little peek from the Digital Gallery at an old NYPL card catalog. Aren't you glad the current catalog is available online?

Social Movements in America: A Research Guide

Raymond Pun, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, General Research Division — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:05:24 -0400

For the past four weeks, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Village Voice, Le Monde, El Pais, The Independent, El Diario-La Prensa, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Yomiuri Shimbun, World Journal East, Corriere Della Sera, Asahi Shimbun, The Nation, New York Magazine, and many other presses have been covering a small but growing political movement known as “Occupy Wall Street,” currently taking place in Lower Manhattan. All of these current local, national, and international newspapers and periodicals can be found and read in the DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Reading Room at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building; other newspapers and magazines are also available electronically and in the Library's Microform Reading Room.

According to the New York Times, “the demonstrators are seeking accountability for Wall Street and corporate America for the financial crisis and the growing economic inequality gap.” This movement has greatly expanded to other major cities in the United States and in other countries such as Japan and England.

As early as colonial times, there have always been waves of demonstrations and protestations in America, particularly in New York City. At NYPL, we have an extensive research collection on the history of social movements in New York City, the United States, or anywhere in the world — from Mexico to Iran. Whether you are conducting research on the Progressive Era or Women's suffrage, this blog post will cover resources in the history of social movements in America and can also offer tips in searching for other historical movements around the globe.

If there is a particular movement you are researching, the quickest way is to browse the Library's Catalog. You can search via NYPL's homepage as well, using the search box at the top of the page. Be sure to type in the keyword of the movement (Examples: Civil Rights Movement or Women's Suffrage). One the left hand side you will notice several lists of titles, topics, and subjects that can help narrow down your research. You can also narrow your search results by Availability, Format, Audience or Acquired Time on the left side. If you know the exact title of the book, switch keyword to title.

For an in-depth search, consider the Classic Catalog and search under subject (you can also change collection to a Library near you) and type in "social movements -- United States" or "social movements -- country of your research" or "labor movements -- country of your research."

A list of subject headings will appear — these subjects will guide you to the resources cataloged as such; some will go further into different centuries or periods. This should help you get started with finding resources of social movements in America.

Selected Primary Resources:

The Microform Reading Room in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building holds historical newspapers and periodicals covering various civil rights movements. To find out how to research historical newspapers at NYPL, consult this blog entry: Researching and Finding Historical Newspapers.
The Manuscript and Archives collections throughout the research libraries have original archival materials on various social movements. More information on accessing special collections >>
For LGBT social movements, the Manuscript and Archives Division in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building has an extensive LGBT activism collection.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of four major research collections that houses and collects papers and primary resources from the abolition and civil rights movements, among others. Contact the Manuscript, Archives and Rare Books Division for more information.
The Dorot Jewish Division in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building stores important oral history collections pertaining to political activism in the Jewish community.
The NYPL Digital Gallery exhibits a variety of photographs of social movements and demonstrations in New York City and beyond.
In NYPL's Articles and Databases, consider LGBT Life with Full Text, Everyday Life and Women in America, c1800-1920, African American Experience or the Amnesty International Library for reports, articles, and documents on various movements.
The NYPL's Zinn Collection (available in the Microform Reading Room) have many materials devoted to political and social activism.
Occupy Wall Street Library: This site provides "free, open and unrestricted access to the collection of books, magazines, newspapers, 'zines, pamphlets, and other materials that have been donated, collected, gathered and discovered during the occupation."
For NYPL's collection on the Occupy Movement and NYPL's blog post on our collection.
The NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives: "The Tamiment Library's printed collections consist of books, pamphlets, and serials focusing on the history of labor, politics, political thought, civil rights, women's history, the Spanish Civil War, literature, the history of New York City, and the arts."

Selected Secondary Resources:

In NYPL's Articles and Databases, consider looking for scholarly articles under the following databases: JSTOR, Project Muse, Nation Archive, and Academic Search Premier.
Methods of Social Movement Research edited by Bert Klandermans and Suzanne Staggenborg is useful in understanding a variety of methods used in researching social movements.
The Price of Dissent: Testimonies to Political Repression in America by Bud Schultz and Ruth Schultz is another helpful resource in analyzing social movements of the the twentieth century.
Breadwinners: Working Women and Economic Independence, 1865-1920 by Lara Vapnek examines the working class women struggling for workplace equality.
A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 by Michael E. McGerr focuses on the cultural, social and political elements of the progressive movement.
For more secondary resources, contact the General Research and Reference Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the General Research Division and Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History and Genealogy at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

If you still have difficulty finding resources, feel free send us a question or make an appointment with a librarian.

Stay Ahead of the Competition! Reference USA

Madeleine Cohen, Science, Industry and Business Library — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:21:15 -0400

Are you planning to start a business? Are you interested in doing something you really love? Perhaps it's using your expertise to start a service business — maybe you’re a chef with a unique restaurant concept. Do you know who your competition is? You’ll need to find out.

A great place to research competitors is Reference USA, an online directory available on site at SIBL and several other NYPL libraries. Use the “U.S. Businesses” module and choose the “Custom Search” tab to find businesses by “Business Type.” Enter a keyword to describe the types of businesses you're searching for (just like you would in a Google search) and click the “Lookup” button. It’s that simple! Select your results, click “Update,” and you'll have a list of competitors.

Reference USA provides in-depth data about businesses, including business names, addresses, zip codes, the number of employees, annual revenue, the names of managers or owners, business expenditures, nearby businesses, and more. You can limit results to businesses in your zip code, by company size, or other criteria. Best yet — take your results home on a USB drive! View a video on searching Reference USA and be sure stop by SIBL to download competitor lists!

October Reader's Den - "The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary"

Elizabeth Waters, Mid-Manhattan Library — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:44:44 -0400

Welcome to the October Reader’s Den!

Did you know that the word den has its origins in the Old English denn, meaning habitation of a wild beast? According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the first recorded use of denn is in Beowulf, around the year 1000. The figurative use of the word, meaning a place of retreat or abode, as in the “Reader’s Den” didn’t appear until a few centuries later.

If you’re interested in words and their histories, dictionaries, monumental projects and the people who undertake them, please join us for this month’s online discussion of Simon Winchester's The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. The author describes how, over the course of nearly 70 painstaking years, the "quite astonishing and revolutionary dream" of a descriptive historical dictionary that would include all English words as they are really spoken by English speakers around the world became a reality. The first edition of the dictionary, published in 1928, defined or illustrated over 400,000 words, and included quotations submitted by roughly two thousand volunteer readers.

Winchester’s history of the OED, published 75 years after the first edition appeared, captures the dedication, inspiration and foibles of the editors and contributors who created what may just be the world’s greatest dictionary. This is the author’s second book set in the world of the OED. The first, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1998, focuses on one of the OED’s major contributors, American Civil War veteran and convicted murderer W. C. Minor, who submitted his work to editor James Murray from the confines of the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

The Meaning of Everything tells the story of the first edition of the OED, produced between 1860 and 1928. A second edition was published in 1989, and the revisions for the third edition are now underway. With your library card, you can access all 291,500 entries from the second edition as well as thousands of new and revised entries in the OED Online, available though NYPL’s Articles and Databases page. Be warned, however! If you’re a dictionary nerd like me, once you start searching and browsing the thousands of definitions, timelines, etymologies and quotations included in the OED, you might find it rather difficult to stop. Did you know that in South Africa, a robot is an automated traffic light? Sorry, I digress...

So, reserve your copy of The Meaning of Everything and — when you can tear yourself away from the OED Online — start reading! See you next week.

While you’re waiting for your copy of the book to arrive, you can find lots of interesting information about the OED on the Oxford English Dictionary website. Read more about the history of the OED, the OED today and find fun statistics, like the fact that the 2nd edition of the OED (published in 20 volumes) weighs 137.72 pounds! If you're in our neighborhood on Tuesday, October 11th, why not join us at the Mid-Manhattan Library at 5:15 for a one-hour class on using the OED Online.

READER'S DEN October 2011: Jump to Week: One | Two | Three | Four

When They Trod the Boards: John Lithgow

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:26:55 -0400

We hereby announce the new blog series When They Trod the Boards, designed to highlight notable film or television actors who have a substantial background in stage work as documented in the collections of the Library's Billy Rose Theatre Division. We launch the series with John Lithgow and his new memoir, Drama: An Actor’s Education, published this week. Traditional books and ebooks are now flying off the Library's shelves! We’d like to highlight some of his shining moments on stage as reflected in our vast collection of stage photographs.

While many will know Lithgow from his television work as the lovably neurotic alien in 3rd Rock From the Sun, from his movie work in Harry and the Hendersons and The World According to Garp, as well as from his memorable voiceover work, lovers of the stage have long enjoyed his presence on and off-Broadway.

According to Contemporary Theatre Film and Television (the go-to source for bios and performance histories), John Lithgow debuted on stage as Mustardseed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Antioch Shakespeare Festival in 1953, but readers of his new bio will learn that his acting debut actually started much earlier, at age 2. Lithgow's Broadway debut was in The Changing Room in 1973, for which he won both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award.

When Lithgow did picture research for Drama: An Actor's Education at the Library for the Performing Arts, he was thrilled to see LPA's wealth of photographs documenting his stage career. But he was also pleased as Punch to discover we had material on his father Arthur Lithgow, the director of the McCarter Theatre of Princeton University, and a central figure in his life story.

Lithgow is not only an accomplished actor, but also a poet, musician, and children’s book author. Check out the Library's ebooks and Tumblebooks site for any of these items.

For more depth on Lithgow's career, be sure to visit The New York Public Library's Articles and Databases page for early accounts of Lithgow’s years at Harvard and The McCarter Theatre, as published in such papers as the Boston Globe. More seasoned researchers may already be familiar with the Theatre Division's bound stage reviews dating back to 1917, which contain original Broadway and Off-Broadway reviews culled from a wide range of current and defunct newspapers and magazines, some of which are difficult or impossible to find online.

The Billy Rose Theatre Division also has clipping files on Lithgow, his father, and a majority of the shows they worked on, as well as posters, scrapbooks, original scripts, and even set and costume designs to round out our scope of documentation.

Last, but certainly not least, the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive has in their collection taped performances of A Memory of Two Mondays, Beyond Therapy, M. Butterfly, Secret Service, The Retreat From Moscow, Sweet Smell of Success, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and excerpts from Requiem For a Heavyweight and The Front Page.

We invite your feedback regarding this new "When They Trod the Boards" blog series, as well as your suggestions for future subjects.

Watch the recent the LIVE from the NYPL interview Conversations from the Cullman Center:John Lithgow and Bill Moyers from October 11, 2011.

Hey! Got Homework?

Shauntee Burns — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:11:22 -0400

Does the word homework make you cringe in your seat?

Well, you can find complete, trustworthy information a lot faster using the Library's databases.

Here’s how to access NYPL’s databases:

Go to www.nypl.org
Go to "Research"
Click on "Articles and Databases" (databases are listed in alphabetical order)

If you are not accessing the database on site at the Library, simply enter the number on the back of your library card.

Highlighted here are a few popular databases you may find useful for assignments, research papers, projects, etc: Biography in Context gives bibliographical information on anyone you can imagine. U.S. History in Context searches various topics in history, for example, the American Revolution, Women's Rights, 9-11, and much more. Grolier Online is a bilingual encyclopedia that also suggests magazines and websites. Learning Express Library provides exercises and practice tests for major exams, like the SAT. New York State Newspapers will allow you to search all the major New York newspapers without having to sit in front of the dreadful microfilm machine. Opposing Viewpoints provides articles on controversial issues, but the cool thing is you can download the articles to your MP3 player or translate the article for someone else to read in another language. And last but not least is Science Online. This database covers various fields of science and provides diagrams, essays, and even experiments. Attached to this blog post is a handout providing even more information about the Library's site.

Take a look at the databases provided by The New York Public Library — I guarantee it will make your homework easier to do!

Download printable PDF

Hispanic Heritage Month: Many Backgrounds, Many Stories ... One American Spirit

Jean Harripersaud, Bronx Library Center — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:54:08 -0400

It's Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 through October 15), the time of year to celebrate and recognize the contributions made by people of Hispanic descent to this great nation. This year's national theme is Many Backgrounds, Many Stories... One American Spirit.

According to the 2010 Census, 16 percent of the US population is Hispanic. Hispanic Americans include people from the following countries:

Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, USA, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

At The New York Public Library's Bronx Library Center, there is a fabulous collection of books and other materials, as well as free programs to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Visit the Library and learn more about Hispanic cultures and histories.

Here are some of the programs offered:

Book Discussion Group (in Spanish): In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
September 19, 2011 at 7 p.m.

History of the Latino in the Bronx by Angel Hernandez of the Bronx Historical Society
September 21, 2011 at 6 p.m.

Hispanic Family History Fair: Discover your Latino Roots
September 24, 2011, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Performance of Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican Folkloric Music by Cuatrisimo
September 24, 2011 at 2:30 p.m.

Book Discussion Group (in English): Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
September 28, 2011 at 10:30 a.m.

Flamenco Music and Dance by ArtsFlamenco
October 8, 2011 at 2:30 p.m.

Recommended Books for Adults:

Conquistadora by Esmeralda Santiago, 2011

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Recommended Books for Teens:

Crazy Loco by David Rice

El Bronx Remembered by Nicholas Mohr

Once Upon a Quinceañera by Julia Alvarez

Ten Hispanic American Authors by Christine M. Hill

When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

Recommended Books for Children:

The Bossy Gallito: A Cuban Folktale by Lucía González

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muoz Ryan

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach by Carmen Agra Deedy

Perez and Martina: A Puerto Rican Folktale by Pura Belpré

The Storyteller's Candle by Lucía González

Electronic Resources

Available at various NYPL locations in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, and with a library card offsite. Please click the link to get specific instructions regarding libraries where these can be accessed.

Consumer Health Information — Spanish
Consumer Health Information — Spanish provides hundreds of reports for the most common health topics, offering patrons in the community access to reliable health care information.
Digitalia
Digitalia, a Hispanic database, provides thousands of ebooks from the most renowned Spanish and Latin American publishing houses, as well as relevant journals that cover all topics of interest.
El Diario La Prensa NY
The largest and oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in New York City.
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
Includes full-text works of Spanish-language literature, both classics and lesser known works.
Parallel Histories: Spain, the United States, and the American Frontier
A digital library site devoted to Spanish exploration and settlement in North America from the 15th to the early 19th centuries.
Art Full Text
This database provides indexes, abstracts, and articles from an international selection of periodicals, including French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, and English-language journals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins.
New York State Unit History Project
A digital library of the New York State military unit, providing historic information on the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, and more.
La Nueva Enciclopedia Cumbre
Spanish-language encyclopedia written from the Latin American perspective provides coverage of all curriculum-aligned topics so English Language Learners can conduct authentic research in their native language.
Latin American Newstand
ProQuest Latin American Newsstand provides full-text information in Spanish and Portuguese from 41 newspapers from Puerto Rico and 11 Latin American countries, including Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. The complete articles are available in ASCII format.
Mango Languages
Learn a new language with this interactive database that provides step by step lesson plans for nine different languages. This database features ESL lessons for Brazilian Portuguese, Polish and Spanish speakers. A text translator is also provided.
NOAH (New York Online Access to Health)
A guide to the latest health information and resources. Acceso Computarizado a la Salud de Nueva York (NOAH, siglas en inglés) le proporciona al consumidor información sobre la salud en inglés y en español.
Bibliografia Nacional Espanola desde 1976
Contains records of the national bibliography of Spain.

Treasures of Small Business Research: Sample Business Plans

Kenneth Johnson, Science, Industry and Business Library — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:50:59 -0400

Starting a business? Take my word for it — you don't need a business plan. Oh, and while we're at it, I have a nice bridge I can let you have at a very good price...

Well, you don't have to have a business plan — maybe — if you have plenty of cash and don't mind doing without a few things. But here's what the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) website suggests as why you might want one: "Many factors critical to business success depend upon your plan: outside funding, credit from suppliers, management of your operation and finances, promotion and marketing of your business, and achievement of your goals and objectives." (More information is available here.)

Of course sometimes there are other things you can do with your business plan. Like compete in our SIBL New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition (in 2011, the top prize on offer is $15,000). Right now we're in the final stages of the 2011 competition, and expect the winners to be selected soon. They should be announced around September 12th. And the whisper on the street is there will be another competition for 2012 (check our website after mid-September for important dates and other information).

So where do you start? Luckily there are lots of books which will explain how you can draft your business plan. In the NYPL collection, we have many circulating books on that topic. Just search our catalog to get a list and, if you feel like it, come on down to SIBL and browse these titles.

In addition, we have some series of "start-up" guides, their titles beginning with phrases such as: How to Start and Manage....; Start Your Own....; How to Open and Operate....; How to Start a Home-Based....; and Start and Run a..... Besides background information about a type of business, these books offer help creating a business plan, including in some a template or example business plan.

But the best business plan resource we have, the one we recommend most often, is the set of model plans from actual businesses found in the Business Plans Handbook, a multiple volume set of books here at SIBL. These business plans are also available online in the Small Business Resource Center database from Gale (available from home with an NYPL library card). This series provides an extensive selection of different types of businesses, many of them suitable for the budding entrepreneur. Whether or not they find an exact fit for their own business idea, most of our readers are able to use these to find a plan very close to the kind of business they are considering. So... give it a try.

Resource: Two pages from a model business plan for a pet sitting business. Visit Small Business Resource Center for a complete version of this plan.

Researching and Finding Historical Newspapers in NYPL

Raymond Pun, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, General Research Division — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:05:27 -0400

In NYPL's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, we have an extensive historical collection of regional, local, and international newspapers from Colonial America to Imperial Japan. This blog post will explore how one can find NYPL’s (print and non-print) historical newspapers.

The quickest way to find a complete list of the Library's newspapers is to visit the Microform Reading Room’s homepage, where you will find several pdf guides at the bottom of the page. These titles are available as microfilms in the Microform Reading Room (Room 100, First Floor) in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Please note that most regional, international, and non-NYC papers are stored off-site and will take approximately two to three business days for delivery. Learn more about requesting off-site titles in advance.

We also recommend that you verify the titles in our classic catalog system. To confirm the holdings of a specific title, make sure you change “Keyword” to “Journal title” and change “Collection” to “Stephen A. Schwarzman.” If you do not have any specific titles, you can search for newspapers by "Subject." In the search box, type the "country" of your interest and the word "newspaper" or "periodical." For example: "Iran Newspaper" will generate a few titles available in NYPL.

For specific title catalog searches, such as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, you will encounter several catalog entries under that name. For this title, it is the first entry that is the most relevant of all.

Once you click the first entry, you will notice that the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is available in two formats: electronic and microfilm. If you click on the first entry, you will notice that this title comes in a bound format as well. If you look closely, you will also see that the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is available as a “microfilm” — the trick is to look at the “Location,” “Call No.,” and “Holdings.” These fields indicate where the item can be requested and what dates are available. You can see the full record of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle here.

For digital resources, it is important to note that a majority of our online newspapers can only be viewed onsite. This means that you will need to use one of the computer stations in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building or bring your own to access these newspaper databases, and some are accessible from home with a NYPL library card.

To see what we have electronically, view the Articles and Database page. On this page, you can switch the “Subjects” to “Historical Newspapers” or “International Newspapers,” depending on your research interest. This will generate a list of newspapers available electronically.

Here are three popular newspaper databases provided by NYPL:

Proquest National Newspapers: Searchable full text from the 1980s to the present — the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Christian Science Monitor.
Press Display: Provides access to current newspapers from around the world in full-color, full-page format. Includes over 1,000 U.S. and international titles. Read this NYPL blog entry for details about this resourceful database. (Also available from home).
19th Century British Library Newspapers: Provides researchers with the most comprehensive collection of national and regional newspapers of Victorian Britain. For those conducting research on the British Empire or Victorian culture, they will find this database to be useful.

Click here for a complete list of newspaper databases.

If you are having difficulty locating digital newspapers, you can visit the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building: Microform Reading Room or attend one of our monthly public classes, Researching with E-Resources: Periodicals and Newspapers, held in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, in order to learn how to research and read online (current and historical) newspapers. For more information regarding the schedule of these free workshops, please check the class calendar.

Adventures in Marketing Research: First Research

Kenneth Johnson, Science, Industry and Business Library — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:26:46 -0400

A little while ago, I gave a presentation at a session for FastTrac® GrowthVenture™. These sessions have to be held outside the Library, and they're very brief with lots of information to cover, so there's no chance to do a hands-on demonstration. This time I was told by one of the participants that she had been to visit us here at SIBL, but wasn't able to find current industry information in her business area, cleaning services.

While I thought that didn't seem right, there was no way to check until I got back to SIBL. The next day, I looked at one of our top market research resources, First Research (available in the Library only), and saw on the cover page in the Newest Profiles box on the home page that an entry for Security Guard Services had been added to the collection. And suddenly the memory revealed itself. Not so long before, I had been shocked to find that this industry, one that would seem to be a reasonable type of business for a budding entrepreneur, was not there. And here, at last, was the answer.

So, this is a good opportunity to post a bit of information about First Research, an industry and market research database that, perhaps prompted by its name, is the first or at least one of the first that we at SIBL recommend to our readers.

Perhaps the key plus about First Research is it covers many of the types of businesses a new entrepeneur might reasonably expect to open. While not limited to "small business" topics, it is one resource that has reports on things like car washes, day spas, apparel accessory manufacturing, and hair care services. In addition, these reports are updated quarterly, so you can access the most current information for your business. One other advantage of First Research is its reports tend to be relatively succinct and very focused — something we'll examine in a few samples below.

I know this image is a bit hard to read, so for closer examination, download the PDF.

On the left side, there is an overview of topics: Industry Overview (which includes subtopics, such as Competitive Landscape; Products, Operations & Technology; Sales & Marketing; Finance & Regulation; and Human Resources), Recent Developments (with links to news articles), Business Challenges, Trends and Opportunities, and Industry Forecast. The balance of this image gives an idea just how compact and focused the reports are, honing in on the key points and concepts that will quickly help you understand the nature and characteristics of an industry.

At the risk of seeming gratuitous, I note these reports are not intended to be masterpieces of prose. They're intended for Joe Friday. And let's face it, your business plan isn't supposed to win a literary prize. Statements like "The presence of guards is designed to provide a deterrent to theft, vandalism, or assault. Security guards may be armed or unarmed. Armed guards usually have more extensive training" (which is in the Products, Operations & Technology subsection) seem to state the obvious. But remember, it's all too easy to overlook the obvious when it comes time to talk about things you're extremely familiar with. In addition, statements like this come from a reliable source and give increased authority to the same statement when you use it to describe your business.

Last, but not least, are financial comparisons.

Download the PDF to review Benchmark Information and Financial Ratios from this report.

Industry financial benchmarks and ratios provide a means for comparison. Is my company competitive with its peers, or are there areas for improvement (the bottom line, always, being profitability)? Of course, for the new business they serve a somewhat different purpose, to predict what your business is likely to make at different revenue levels (since you'll be applying best practices). Here at SIBL we have other sources for financial ratios (I list them below), but what a convenience to have them in First Research!

I'll stop talking about the contents of First Research's reports here. I hope this has given you a flavor of what to expect so you'll think it worthwhile to visit us! They are only available here at SIBL (you can get them on your own laptop if you bring that in and use our wireless).

In case you're wondering what the bona fides for these reports are, the ultimate parent of First Research is Dun & Bradstreet, through their subsidiary Hoovers. I'll let you research Dun & Bradstreet. I also recommend the Business & Company Resource Center database (accessable outside of NYPL with a library card). Of note for us here at SIBL is that Dun & Bradstreet produce the "Million Dollar" database, which gives readers access to listings of about 14 million U.S. businesses, and Hoovers, from which you can obtain analytical information about a substantial universe of companies in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Additional SIBL Resources for Financial Ratios:

Industry Norms & Key Business Ratios — published by Dun & Bradstreet
RMA Annual Statement Studies — published by The Risk Management Association
Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios — published by CCH
OneSource — part of the Reference USA suite of databases

Attachments: