Many public libraries across the US have become invaluable resources to growing small businesses and hopeful entrepreneurs in local communities. In this one-hour webinar, Nicolette Warisse Sosulski, business librarian for the Portage (Mich.) District Library and recipient of the 2011 Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship, shares her expertise as an active supporter of local business growth. For example: • What standing resources and events does she provide at her library and how were they put together? • What has she and others at Portage Library done to market these resources to the community? • How does she manage expectations for those who walk in and look to the library for all of their answers? • What else has she learned from her experiences supporting small businesses? The presentation was followed by a lively Q&A.

1. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Make sure your
volume is set
appropriately
Make sure you have
followed the instructions
on your keypad properly
Make sure everything is
plugged in properly to assure
your devices are working
correctly
If you have audio
or visual
difficulties, please
let us know via
the Question box
and we will be
happy to assist
you.
Please Check Your Settings

2. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Libraries and
Local Businesses
Best practices for supporting
your entrepreneurs

3. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Nicolette Warisse Sosulski
MLIS, Business Librarian,
Portage District Library
Heather Dray
Library Relations Manager,
SAGE Publishing
Moderator

4. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
While we do our best to answer as many questions as we can, time constraints
may not allow us to answer every question. Thank you for understanding.
Send us your questions!
Send in your questions
via the Question Box
on your screen. →
Using Twitter? Use
the hashtag
#SAGETalks.

5. What Do Entrepreneurs Think of When
They Think of Libraries and Librarians?

6. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Business Librarian
• Bunhead Shusher
• Storytimes
• Moldy Books
• Card Catalog
• Study Carrels
• Agatha Christie, Danielle
Steel, Tom Clancy, Janet
Evanovich
• Introverted Book Custodian
• Protected Public Servant in
Book-filled Sanctuary
• Search Ninja
• Market Research Classes
• Recent Statistics & Databases
• Internet Guru
• Wi-Fi on the Road
• Guy Kawasaki, Chris
Anderson, Sheryl Sandberg,
Seth Godin
• Community Networker
• Tough Cookie
Stereotype
What Do Entrepreneurs Think of When They
Think of Libraries and Librarians?

7. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Business
Librarian
• Weird Brain
• Exposure to multiple disciplines
• Search Term Strategist
• Classes in Taxonomy and
Classification (otherwise known
as “what would they call it and
where would they have put it?”)
• Practice, Practice, Practice (I
probably have 20K hours of
searching under my belt. One
learns stuff)
Search Ninja

8. We can save you from search
results like this…
ad
adsad
ad
One program rather than
desired list

9. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Entrepreneur Expectations: Types
• Entrepreneurs who are not used to using libraries, and
who think you cannot do anything.
• Entrepreneurs who are not used to doing market
research, and who think everything is available on the
Internet for free. Your job is to find it.
• Entrepreneurs who have recently cut ties in one way or
other from large company with research department or
house librarian, and who have no idea how many
resources were dedicated to market research in their
former space.

10. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Entrepreneurs Who are Not Used to Using Libraries
and Who Do Not Think You Can Do Anything
• These people can be among your staunchest converts,
because everything is a wonderful gift.
• Push resources and actively engage them in discussions
of what they are doing right now, because they have little
idea what you might be able to do for them.

11. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Entrepreneurs Who are Not Used to Using Libraries
and Who Do Not Think You Can Do Anything
• These patrons may not know the wealth of knowledge
that the librarian possesses
• Referrals
• Help with search terms (explain that they may be a
subject expert, but you are a searching expert).
• Free resources on the web—even if they say they’ve
“already searched Google.”

12. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Entrepreneurs Who are Not Used to Using Libraries
and Who Do Not Think You Can Do Anything
• Associations-one secret for getting more research for
less
• Databases—they are unlikely to know about them
• DVDs
• Personnel or hiring or job description manuals
• Business plan resources

13. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Entrepreneurs Who are Not Used to Using Libraries
and Who Do Not Think You Can Do Anything
• Make a call to one of your larger libraries to see if the
information is available there.
• Tell them that you can make a try at finding something.
• Give them contact information of agencies or
associations who may have the information that they
need.

14. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Entrepreneurs who are not used to doing market
research, and who think everything is available on
the Internet for free. Your job is to find it.
• Show them through the wonders of Google advanced
search how to get at government data or the census.
Again, there may be “some assembly required” but it is
valuable.
• Explain, kindly, that your job is to help find some
materials, and to get them started and over humps, but
that resources do not permit you to do the entire
research task for them. Give them your card, but with
the explanation that they contact you “if they run into
snags.”

15. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Entrepreneurs who have recently cut ties in one way
or other from large companies with research
departments and/or house librarians, and who have no
idea how many resources i.e. dollars were dedicated
to market research in their former space.
• These are your hardest customers. They are on their own doing some
process possibly outsourced by their former employers in major industries
(like Big Pharma in my case). Be ready for them to
• Refuse to believe you that the information is not available to you
without a price tag.
• Suggest that you get it from a neighboring library who does have it.
• Suggest that you hack into a neighboring library or company.
• Ask you to teach them to hack into a neighboring library who has it.

16. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Entrepreneurs who have recently cut ties in one way or
other from large companies with research departments or
house librarians, and who have no idea how many
resources were dedicated to market research in their
former space.
• Feel their pain. You are not going to have the specialized resources
that they do unless possibly you are a major research university .
They may be temporarily filled with despair that they cannot
compete in the only arena they really know.
• Try to find out what government information might be available to
help them—permits lists, bids from agencies. Teach them to not be
afraid to call government agencies.

17. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Entrepreneurs Who “Pay Your Salary” So Expect You to Be Their
Unpaid Personal Researcher on Retainer:
“Yours Is a really interesting concept, and I wish I could spend much
more time on it, but I have to divide my time and effort among services
to other taxpayers as well. I can get you started, and trouble shoot
when you run into snags.”
Entrepreneurs Who Do Not Get Why Market Research/Articles is
Not Just Free on the Web:
“Information is a business just like yours. If you were hiring
researchers, writers, editors, graphic designers, web professionals, and
purchasing server space, would you put your content on the web for
free and hope for ad click revenue, or would you make people
subscribe?”
Useful Responses

18. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
What Do Entrepreneurs Think of When They
Think of Libraries and Librarians?
Stereotype Business Librarian
• Bunhead Shusher
• Storytimes
• Moldy Books
• Card Catalog
• Study Carrels
• Agatha Christie, Danielle
Steel, Tom Clancy, Janet
Evanovich
• Introverted Book Custodian
• Protected Public Servant in
Book-filled Sanctuary
• Search Ninja
• Market Research Classes
• Recent Statistics & Databases
• Internet Guru
• Wi-Fi on the Road
• Guy Kawasaki, Chris
Anderson, Sheryl Sandberg,
Seth Godin
• Community Networker
• Tough Cookie

19. Business
Information
Center
Instead of those
Moldy Books and
Romance Novels
that you pictured,
would these be
helpful? (Warning:
Library Collections
May Vary).

20. Business
Information
Center
Instead of those
Moldy Books and
Romance Novels
you pictured, would
these be helpful?
(Warning: Library
Collections May
Vary).

21. Business
Information
Center
Instead of those
Moldy Books and
Romance Novels
that you pictured,
the concepts which
may be the
“corporate religion”
of firms you are
working with.

22. Business
Information
Center
Instead of those
Moldy Books, Maps
to Where the
Rubber Meets the
Road.(Warning:
Library Collections
May Vary)

23. Business
Information
Center
Instead of those
Moldy Books and
Romance Novels
that you pictured,
would these DVDs
from Stanford
Business School be
helpful? (Warning:
Library Collections
May Vary)

24. Business
Information
Center
Instead of those Moldy
Books and Romance
Novels that you pictured,
would these DVDs be
helpful? (Interesting fact:
the entrepreneurial
population has a higher
incidence of dyslexia than
the population at large)

25. Business
Information
Center
Instead of those
Moldy Books and
Romance Novels
that you pictured,
would these tips on
talking to a web
designer you are
about to hire help?

26. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Business
Librarian
• Search Sectors
• Search Terms
• Related Fields
• Industry Classification
• Business News
• Market Trends
• Census Statistics
• Professional Associations
• Reliability Validation
Market Researcher

27. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Databases. Look
for these on the
web pages of any
library. They may
be under “online
resources” or
“research tools.”
Databases are collections of
articles, research findings, patents,
directory listings, or other
information points that are
collected in searchable and
sortable formats.
Library budgets in the digital age
are more and more heading to
these types of resources. If we still
have print, it is because of
availability, or more likely, cost.
Business
Information
Center

28. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
What can we do for the small businessman
competing with the big boys
• Some-Assembly-Required Analysis
• Professional Associations and Publications
• Contacting other libraries to see if they have something
we do not
• Interlibrary Loan
• Professional Referrals

29. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Business
Librarian
Market research is more and more
searching the web and databases.
Ask your library if they will partner
with you to offer search and market
research courses. I teach Business
Research Essentials once a month
and get referrals from the SBTDC
and SCORE, among others. Even if
you have access to research
through the SBTDC for a start-up,
the entrepreneur who is updating
his or her business plan regularly
needs to be able to do some of it on
his or her own.
Trainer Coach

30. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Business
Librarian
In your business we
know it gets tough.
Things get real—we get
that. It does not get
much more real than the
public library….
We have to meet a
budget, balance
inventory costs vs.
personnel costs, keep
stakeholders satisfied to
maintain cash flow, and
do more with less.
Sound familiar?
Tough Cookie

31. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Breakdown of Attributes and
Responsibility
You (Patron) Librarian
• Knowledge of your business
• Knowledge of your industry
(though we will help you
better that through market
research assistance)
• Explanation of information
needs and timeframes
• Some assembly possibly
required—analysis or
bringing together of data from
multiple sources may be
necessary
• Search strategist
• Source expert and friend of
source experts
• Source location and/or
acquisition assistant
• Search coach, trainer, and
consultant rather than
researcher on retainer
(though some libraries do
offer research for a fee)

32. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Types of Libraries
Public Libraries Academic Libraries
• May have generalists rather
than a business specialist
• Open to all—even those from
out of district
• Databases usually accessible
in-house even without library
card
• Can interlibrary loan for
cardholders
• Primary focus is cardholders
in the library district
• More likely to have a
specialty business liaison
• Some sources may be
restricted
• Some access to the library
may be restricted in case of
private institutions. Many
online resources accessible
from within the building
• Larger collection budget
• Primary focus is university
community, though some
places are hiring
“Entrepreneur Librarians” to
assist the public

33. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
And one last note about
resources…
There is no universal library card good at all
libraries—not even for librarians. We can usually see
the electronic resources they have but can’t get into
them—only those who are taxpayers in that library
district or affiliated with that college or university can
access the resources paid for by their taxes or tuition
dollars. However, the Library of Michigan—as do
many state libraries--provides a quality set of online
resources for all Michiganders, as well as the
opportunity to see the holdings of other libraries and
borrow them through MeLCat or WorldCat.

35. Resources
The Bible. Buy It. Now.

36. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Resources
Friend Other Librarians. Keep them in:
• Your Facebook
• Your Messenger
• Your Google Chat
• Your Hangouts
• Your Cell Phone
As Taylor Swift—one heck of an entrepreneur demonstrates, it is
important to have “a squad.”

37. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Resources:
Biz Librarian Organizations
BRASS, Business Reference And Services Section
• Join or prowl its pages at http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/brass ,
especially online learning, professional tools, and publications and
products.
• Join its listservs, BUSLIB-L
http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=BUSLIB-L and BRASS-L
http://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/brass-l
New Business Librarians Google Group
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/new-business-librarians-group
Look for Facebook and LinkedIn groups—always popping up!

38. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Resources:
Some Other Business Web Pages and Blogs
BRASS libguide
http://brass.libguides.com/BusinessReference
Making Sense of Business Reference
Follow the fb page and buy the book. Now.
https://es-la.facebook.com/MakingSenseBizRef/
Biz Ref Desk
Free Sites Compiled by Therese Terry, Wharton’s longterm Business Librarian
http://www.bizrefdesk.com/
Chad Boeninger’s Blog, Ohio State University
He has offered tips, tricks, and tools to Ohio State University business and economics
researchers since 2004.
https://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/businessblog/
University of Vermont Libraries’ Bailey Business Library
Business Research Assistant
http://library.uvm.edu/guides/subjectguides/BIZ/
Your nearby university’s business libguides…

39. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Lets Get
to Work!

40. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
While we do our best to answer as many questions as we can, time constraints
may not allow us to answer every question. Thank you for understanding.
Send us your questions!
Send in your questions
via the Question Box
on your screen. →
Using Twitter? Use
the hashtag
#SAGETalks.

41. Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne #SAGETalks
Webinar recording, slides, and follow-up Q&A will be emailed to you and available on
sagepub.com/sagetalks
Thank you!
Nicolette
Warisse
Sosulski
Be sure to check our website for updates on our webinar series!