Reference Tools

10a. Emailed.

10b.  Article published 3/18/08; 4 sons

10c.  LFPL Does not physically own these journals according to Worldcat.  We do have access to Full Text articles of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy and Clinical Medicine and Research in Academic Search Premier.  We do not have Full Text access to Telos but do have Abstracts available through Academic Search Premier.

11a.  Mutual Fund Vanguard Target Retirement 2020
Name of Manager:  Duane F. Kelly
Stewardship Grade:  B
Overall Morningstar Rating:  4 Stars

11b.  LCD TVs Consumer Reports 2008-2009
We do have access to these reports through Ebsco's Academic Search Premier
Dec. 2008, vol. 73 Issue 12 p. 28-33
Dec. 2009, vol 74 Issue 12 p. 23-28

11c.  No surprise, Starbucks would be the biggest competitor in the 40202 Zip code for someone that decided to open a coffee shop.  (Unless you count Dunkin' Donuts which I don't.)  No one can hope to compete with big business like Starbucks, so the next level of local competition in that zipcode would be Mocha Delight and the Coffee Pot Cafe which both earn between $160,000 - 200,000 and both have a credit rating score of a B. 

What research tool do you find most useful, either for library or personal use? 

For the average user, I think the most used source that we looked at today would be the Consumer Reports information or using the Periodical/Magazines databases to find things such as Obituaries.  For students, the Periodical/Magazine databases are invaluable by being able to access and print off the articles they need for school projects.  For the Business person, the Business Reference USA would be really exciting to have access to.   I was really excited to have such questions to make me do some digging with the databases.  When I sit down and look at them on my own, I tend to not have a question in mind so it's hard to come up with an abstract question to ask myself so that I can learn how to use the databases.  It would be awesome if every now and then someone could throw us some questions (for those who want to do it that is!) to research to keep our database skills honed. 

What research tool should we be telling more people about?

I think more people would be interested in knowing how many journals/periodicals/magazines have full text articles out there.  The ones I saw today were not only full text, but were also in full color and were just a digital version of what was in the actual magazine.  Just with their library card, they have full access to these day or night from a computer. Also, I'm thinking that if more people in the Business community both for work and personal use knew what a great resource Business Reference USA is, they would use it a lot more. 
 Pretty cool.

If LFPL could only keep one research tool to carry out its mission, which one would you choose and why?

Personally, the research tool I use the most is Novelist.  If we HAD to choose, this is the one I would pick because it is invaluable in helping our patrons discover what book to read next in a series, how to find similar series authors, find all the books a particular author has written, etc.