New York SBDC Research Network

2002 SURVEY OF BUSINESS OWNERS (SBO) , formerly known as the Surveys of Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (SMOBE/SWOBE) "Half of U.S. Businesses Are Home-Based, Majority of Firms Self-Financed, Census Bureau Reports The Survey of Business Owners (SBO)...provides statistics that describe the composition of U.S. businesses by gender, Hispanic or Latino origin, and race. Additional statistics include owner's age, education level, veteran status, and primary function in the business; family- and home-based businesses; types of customers and workers; and sources of financing for expansion, capital improvements, or start-up. Economic policymakers in federal, state and local governments use the SBO data to understand conditions of business success and failure by comparing census-to-census changes in business performances and by comparing minority-/nonminority- and women-/men-owned businesses." Meanwhile, the Census Bureau has also released 2004 employment size data

We used to have password access to an online database of manufacturers' reps. However, the rules of information access are constantly changing, and the site's owners pulled the plug on our access. I've only recently discovered that you can obtain lists of manufacturers' reps from the Thomas Register site . Some of you may have already discovered this, but for those that haven't, it's pretty cool. On the home page, type a word or phrase in the "Product/Service" tab for what you're seeking. When you get results, notice the column titled "Modify Results" on the left hand side. Looking down that column, you'll see a box titled "Company Type". Notice "Manufacturers' Reps" is one of the options. The number of reps appears in parentheses (and, if there are none, expect to see a zero). Click on the link, and boom, there you have it. I'm pretty sure that the TR's geography is limited to the U.S. and Canad

Another interesting tidbit on the radio this morning was concerning ageism in the workplace – in both directions. The British government is only now introducing legislation to attempt to curb age discrimination in the workplace. On PersonnelToday.com, a favorite magazine for the HR professional, they ran a story in about a small survey done by a consultancy called Water for Fish that revealed that 27% of the recruitment ads in a national Sunday newspaper contained language that might put the listing companies afoul of future laws. The article suggests it may be challenging for companies to rethink their hiring practices. Elements like requiring a specific number of years experience, asking for information that would reveal the applicant’s age, and using language such as “young”, “mature”, “dynamic” or “new graduate” won’t make the cut in the future. Survey exposes ageism in recruitment ads PersonnelToday.com Mike Berry 12 May 2006 09:32 Ageism laws set to transform job adverts BBC New

Indeed.com, one of the free agregator sites of online job postings, has just released a beta version of a salary search tool, available at http://www.indeed.com/salary Type in the job title you are interested in and a location, and it will provide average salaries for that, and related, positions. Or change it up and create a comparison of jobs or locations.

From SBA: Small businesses in the United States have received a share of federal procurement dollars not quite commensurate with their relative importance in the U.S. economy, according to a research study released by the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy . The study states that while 99.7 percent of all employer firms are small, they receive about 23 percent of direct federal procurement dollars and almost 40 percent of subcontracting dollars. The Government's Role in Aiding Small Business Federal Subcontracting Programs in the United States was authored by Major Clark III, Chad Moutray, and Radwan Saade from the Office of Advocacy. The study discusses the importance of the small business sector to the overall economy and the policy framework for the federal government's involvement in requiring federal prime contractors to subcontract with small businesses. It examines the policy from 1958 to the present; and discusses steps needed to improve the Ame

Each year, the magazine Advertising Age publishes a supplement called the "Hispanic Fact Pack". This year's version can be found here . The table of contents for this 27-page PDF file promises such things as: Hispanic ad spending by media and category Top Hispanic DMAs by media spending Top web sites by viewers & ad revenues U.S. Hispanic population by race, origin, projected growth And other items, too. It's a macro view, to be sure, but the document provides a nice intro to this subject.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com , would like you to know more about their online encyclopedia. Usually available only to subscribers, the renowned publication has just announced that they will make full-text, extended articles available to websites and blogs that wish to link to them. Users can then see the full entry, rather than the usual stub that appears for non-subscribers. They even give webmasters the code to add the link. Here's an example. Information from Encyclopædia Britannica about business organization * Don't be put off by the flags promoting full access through a free trial- there are 25 pages of information here. But only for this topic. Read more in their press release: http://corporate.britannica.com/press/releases/faf.html

One recent reference question was about enforcement of the Americans with Disablilities Act. I scowled a bit. Even before I attended a workshop on the ADA at an ASBDC conference a few years back, I knew that the focus of the law was not so much on enforcement, but on creating accessibility. I remember one example from the workshop: a store trying to be more accessible might create a ramp, but that might not be practical; so one dry cleaner installed a bell at the bottom of the steps, so that the clerk would come out to the client. Accessibility achieved. This is not to say that there isn't any enforcement, and even fines imposed by the US Department of Justice. It's just not the route of first resort. Read more about the ADA here .

Way back in May at staff training, we talked about your responses to a survey the Research Network had created one month earlier. Among the results to the survey was the majority's wish to have more information transmitted electronically. It's something we were interested in doing, so it's a good fit. Tomorrow, Amelia & I will be attending a day-long seminar titled "Developing Digital Collections". It's the first of a four-part series, spread out over the next four months, on the subject of employing digitization in a library setting. We're very curious to hear from other librarians who've adapted this to their collection. On another note, we're also close to upgrading our ancient copier. We'll be switching to one that will allow for scanning documents (for instance, our collection of 80+ start-up information packets), which can then be stored into specific files on our network. Scanning these will take some time, so it isn't lik

Many of our favorite information sources for general business advice are in Spanish as well as English. The following links provide access to some articles and documents that might be helpful to your Spanish-speaking clients. Do you have other non-English resources? Things you’ve prepared? We’d love to be more multilingual on our website, so please think about what you might be able to share. SBA en español: Online Library http://www.sba.gov/espanol/Biblioteca_en_Linea/ SBDCNet Document exchange en español http://sbdcnet.utsa.edu/docx/espanol.htm SoyEntrepreneur.com http://www.soyentrepreneur.com/ Mi Propia Negocio http://www.myownbusiness.org/espanol/index.html

When I get a question about the number of international students in the United States, or U.S. students studying abroad, the source I check first is the Open Doors Report on International Exchange. There is a great deal of free information, such as: Total Enrollment Source of Funds Source of Funds by Academic Level Fields of Study Leading Countries of Origin Institutions with 1,000 or More International Students while other data, such as All Countries of Origin All Institutions Enrolling International Students Countries by US State Fields of Study by State are available in publications to members. A Research Membership is available for $50 for a month's access to all member data. Here's some more examples of the great free data: STATISTICS ON INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE IN NEW YORK From the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors Report 2005, statistics particular to the state of New York are listed below. Additional statistics are available at IIE’s Web site

Being a Monday, it's my day to post to this blog. However, it's a different kind of Monday - a day of reflection for many people in our country. Instead of small business, I had a poem that I read in the aftermath of those sad, chaotic days from five years ago. It speaks of hope, and it reassures me. Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June's long days, and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. You must praise the mutilated world. You watched the stylish yachts and ships; one of them had a long trip ahead of it, while salty oblivion awaited others. You've seen the refugees heading nowhere, you've heard the executioners sing joyfully. You should praise the mutilated world. Remember the moments when we were together in a white room and the curtain fluttered. Return in thought to the concert where music flared. You gathered acorns in the park in autumn and leaves eddied over the

It may be one thing to find opportunities to network, but it is quite another to succeed at it. For many people, the mere idea of networking is frightening, let alone entering a room full of strangers and striking up a conversation. I’ve come across a few articles that have some advice on how to network if you are not a natural. Learning to Love Networking: How a Shy Guy Became a Master Glad-Hander Inc. Magazine August 2006 by Mike Spinney Describes techniques to overcome anxiety including acknowledging the fear, and then having a plan of attack. First, avoid the boring intro, keep the listener engaged. As an example, the author explains how Reed Thompson, the focus of the story, improved his delivery: You also have to keep them interested. To that end, he stopped telling people he was a personal financial adviser, which usually prompted glazed-over expressions and a change of subject. Instead, he began describing himself as the founder and president of a company that helps people take

Web 2.0: The power of 2 This article gives a very perceptive and thoughtful overview of howWeb 2.0 applications can change the nature of marketing. Some Excerpts: "Social networks, blogs, user-generated content, tagging, wikis, P2P - all those are about conversation and fall neatly under 'reputation management', which is, essentially, PR," says Howell. Companies need to be out there, looking at what people say about them online, and respond in an open and appropriate way. Ignoring even one customer's negative comments on a blog could do serious damage to a brand's reputation. Brands can learn an awful lot from blogs and social networks, which they can use to their advantage; not just to get their marketing messages right but also on a deeper business level, by involving consumers in product development. An interesting example of this approach backfiring: ...car brand Chevrolet placed tools on its site that allowed users to remix and 'mash-up' its lates

" This report describes the prominent features of New York’s personal income tax, with particular emphasis on the 2003 tax year. It also includes taxpayer profiles consisting of number of taxable returns, sources of income, federal adjustments, New York modifications, deductions, dependent exemptions, tax liability and credits by NYAGI class, filing status and return type. In addition, it includes separate sections on income, itemized deduction amounts, exemptions, available credits and information on refundable credits. Finally, it compares statistics for 2003 with those from the prior year for most of these items." The PDF of this report is 125 pages long, but if you feel so compelled to print it out, please note that a number of even-numbered pages are actually blank. On a related topic, "The Rockefeller Institute of Government has released State Revenue Preview # 65P , the first in a new series of releases covering state tax collections. The Preview provides an earl

It is only too easy to find fall into a rut. Everywhere you look it is easy to see examples of situations where the joy has gone out of a thing, and no creativity is being used to solve problems. So, how to keep things fresh? How does that creative problem solving go away? The main thing seems to be to exercise your mind, by thinking. Like the cardinal rule of brainstorming, don’t censor. Spend time looking beyond your realm of expertise, to other disciplines and exercise your imagination by using it. Here are a couple of articles and sites that explore how we maintain our creativity. The Brain Behind Creativity USA Today: Science and Space Updated 8/27/2006 10:04 PM ET Creativity Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Creativity Techniques – an A to Z Creativity Innovation mycoted Science and Technology de Bono Consulting "The quality of our thinking will determine the quality of our future." -Edward de Bono Books by Edward de Bono: Teach Your Child How to Think by Edward de Bono

I enjoy the irony of celebrating Labor Day by not working. Even though there are 2 1/2 more weeks of the season, it's dubbed "the end of summer." Well, who am I to be contrary? Labor Day, as described by: The US Department of Labor Wikipedia Geocities PBS How stuff works something called Wilstar

I think it is fair to assume that most science editors are smart people. But who knew that they could put together such a nice list of internet reference links? The Council of Science Editors has indeed put together lovely pathfinder page, available at http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/links.cfm . Having stumbled upon this site when I interned for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, I’ve bookmarked it ever since. Some links are particularly science-y (like the link to FishBase, a database of over 28,400 species of fish), while others are just cool (check out the link to the dictionary of clichés or the internet anagram server). I probably should have just blogged about the neatest links individually, thus providing myself with blog fodder for some time. But I’m nicer than that, so here’s the whole kit and caboodle.

Reference Community Sourcebook of zip code demographics 2006 Community Sourcebook of county demographics 2006 Kids count data book NACS State of the industry 2005: Northeast Center for Small scale food entrepreneurship: Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.: Distilled spirit sales The PMI Book of Project Management Forms Circulating Klees, Emerson. Entrepreneurs in history-- success vs. failure : entrepreneurial role models Klees, Emerson. Staying with it: role models of perseverance Moltz, Barry. You need to be a little crazy: the truth about starting and growing your business Godfrey, Joline. No more frogs to kiss: 99 ways to give economic power to girls Hornjak, Boris. The Project Surgeon: a troubleshooter's guide to business crisis management

It's likely you've read about the 2005 American Communities Survey , which was released last week. The new "data products include estimates of demographic, social, and economic characteristics of people, households and housing units (both occupied and vacant) for every state in the Nation, Puerto Rico, and most areas with a population of 65,000 or more." The 2004 ACS was limited to places with 250,000 or more. In the Capital District, it's already created controversy, with the Albany mayor indicating that there is an undercount, and Colonie officials elated with their town's growth. This article , which talks a bit about the survey process, may be helpful. Surveys are sent to households, and if there is new construction in a geography which the Census Bureau doesn't know about - usually because the geographic entity has failed to provide information to the Census Bureau - then this could lead to the appearance of an undercount. The ACS is still a fairly ne

Some of you may have already gotten wind of this, but a brief article appeared in last week's issue of the Central Valley (CA) Business Times titled " Survey: What it costs to start a small business ". The text was based on a press release from Wells Fargo, based on their latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index study .

As if the folks who contribute to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia don’t have enough fun in cyberspace, they recently convened for the second annual “Wikimania” convention. Here, founder Jimmy Wales discussed his intent to focus on quality over quantity. Although a recent article in Nature gave Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Brittanica close marks in accuracy for their scientific articles, Wales appreciates that the whole encyclopedia isn’t there yet. There’s work to be done, but Wiki devotees seem up to the task. Home page for the convention: http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Article about Wales’ comments: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060804/ap_on_hi_te/wikimania Read more about the study from Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html

Under the category: a lot of stuff in one place, this site is a gateway to a lot of good international organization sites, directories, and advice relating to international trade. I had a look at the "Getting Started in Importing or Exporting?" and found a number of information sheets or pathfinders for various aspects of a international trading company. It offers a nice compilation of a number of other sites on all aspects of import/export.

The NNY Tourism Research Center was created in 2001 to fill an information void felt by communities, tourism professionals, entrepreneurs and others. Among its reports are the 2004 STATISTICAL COUNTY TOURISM PROFILES, 12 - 16 page PDF files for these counties: Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego, St. Lawrence, and Warren; plus the Town of Webb in Herkimer County.

As some of you might know, Dr. James Chrisman (from Mississippi State University) frequently conducts impact studies on behalf of the SBDC program. Surveys were mailed from Central earlier this year to those long-term clients (i.e., those with a minimum of 5 hours of contact time) seen during 2004. This, from the report: "In 2004 the New York SBDC provided long-term consulting assistance to 14,984 clients. Of these, 4,226 owned established small businesses and 10,758 were seeking to start new businesses (pre-ventures). A mail questionnaire was sent to the 9,368 long-term clients for whom the SBDC still had valid mailing addresses in 2006. A total of 1,405 clients returned questionnaires. This represented a 15.0 percent response rate." From these responses, Dr. Chrisman was able to compile his analysis of the New York program's performance for 2004. It's a detailed report, but here are some of the highlights: Aggregate sales impact: Established Firms = $354,294,30

The contents of more than 10,000 libraries, with 1.3 billion records for books and lots of other materials are now available in one place, free, and online. If a library owns it, it’s probably in here. OCLC’s WorldCat is available at the new beta site, http://www.worldcat.org/ . To learn more check out http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/ . Give it a whirl.

Another helpful site I don’t think we’ve mentioned before is www.nationsonline.org which is what it sounds like: information on nations and regions of the world. It promotes itself as “among other things, a more or less objective guide to the world, a statement for the peaceful, nonviolent coexistence of nations.”, which works for me. It also includes some useful information like population statistics, international news, maps, culture, flags, languages, currencies and airports. And most useful at this time of threat to air travel, there is a link to compilations of global travel safety advice.

From Entrepreneur magazine: The process by which persons conduct inquiries for the purposes of timely, sufficient and accurate disclosure of all material statements/information or documents which may influence the outcome of the transaction. Due diligence is a critical component in mergers and acquisitions. Due Diligence definition – usually associated with contracts or investments, this term , in general, means that proper efforts will be made in investigations or examinations of efforts put forth in a transaction. Good faith efforts are to be made in performing obligations. First, the definition should mean nothing more than an investor being "diligent" when checking out the substance of the claims made by an entrepreneur with respect to the market, the product or service concept, the competition, the management team and so on. The term "due" means that it's expected and someone has to perform this task. So the concept is really all about the diligence that is

Two quick things this week. I've been remiss in giving an update regarding the turnaround time for your requests. Right now, there's a seven-day gap between when you ask a question and when we answer it. We plan on keeping it around that level for a while longer. Secondly . . . after many delays, and a lot of work, the website for the SBDC book "What's Your Signage?" is nearly complete. It's a collaborative effort between the SBDC and the International Sign Association (ISA). Right now, a volunteer team of fifteen ISA members are looking it over to see if we've got the details correct regarding their industry. Next week, I'm going to send an e-mail out to some lucky group of SBDC advisors to look at the site from a small business perspective. You could be the big winner! Seriously, it won't take too much of your time, and your feedback will be valuable. It'll be a random selection of advisors, with a mix from upstate & downstate. (

Sent by the LaGuardia Community College SBDC in Long Island City Are you in the import or export business? Attend the LaGuardia Community College International Trade Fair & Symposium "Growing American businesses through strengthening trade opportunities with the world" August 22 - 24, 2006 in the E- building Atrium on the LaGuardia Community College Campus MEET DIRECTLY WITH SUPPLIERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD! Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Greece, Mexico Agro-industrial Products Leather Goods Textiles Handicrafts & more! · Business trade fair with up to 50 foreign and domestic exhibitors · Educational seminars and workshops on trade · Business networking, matchmaking and marketing opportunities :: Be an Exhibitor · US wholesalers and importers of international products · Multinational businesses looking to sell in the US market · Transportation & logistics companies · New York trade and business assistance providers :: Be an Attendee · No fee to attend · Regi

The Three Ways of Great Leaders “In a new study, some leading business thinkers identify the attributes of great leadership -- and nominate the best bosses of the 20th century.” From: Issue 98 September 2005 Page 50 By: Bill Breen Fast Company This Fast Company article looks at “contextual intelligence” or the ability to see opportunities in the winds of change. C.W.Post and his product samples, Louis B. Neumiller of Catepillar, taking advantage of circumstances to become a permanent fixture on the global scene, or Lee Iococca’s ability to use demographics in his favor: they all capitalized on what was going on in the world and used their individual styles to put their products in the limelight. Another Fast Company article on leadership offers the flipside: Ten Self-Defeating Behaviors to Avoid "Want to Succeed at Work? First Step: Get Out of Your Own Way" 2005-09-26 by Mark Goulston Fast Company The article starts out with some advice from Warren Buffet and goes on to

Just how are you supposed to spell website these days? Darrin and I pondered this very question the other day, and here’s the answer: Depends who you ask. Merriam-Webster and the Associated Press will tell you it should be Web site. Afterall, "Web" refers to the World Wide Web, which as a proper noun always gets capitals. American Heritage goes both ways, but offers this usage note: http://www.bartleby.com/61/57/W0075725.html “The transition from World Wide Web site to Web site to website seems to have progressed as rapidly as the technology itself. The development of website as a single uncapitalized word mirrors the development of other technological expressions which have tended to evolve into unhyphenated forms as they become more familiar. Thus email has recently been gaining ground over the forms E-mail and e-mail, especially in texts that are more technologically oriented. Similarly, there has been an increasing preference for closed forms like homepage, online, and

Here's what the press release says: The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has published a convenient quick reference guide and research tool to help business and individual taxpayers meet their New York sales and use tax obligations. Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Andrew S. Eristoff today unveiled Publication 850, New York State and Local Sales and Use Tax: Quick Reference Guide , designed to provide general information about State and local sales and use taxes. Commissioner Eristoff said, "Sales and Use tax can be confusing for many taxpayers. Over the past 12 years the Department of Taxation and Finance has made great strides in simplifying our rules and regulations, clarifying our forms and instructions, and making interaction with the Department more convenient. "Publication 850 takes this a step further by bringing all of these simplified and revised resources together in a handy reference guide. No longer will taxpayers need to wade through a p

Both Van Morrison & Kermit the Frog know that bein' green isn't easy. However, for clients whose businesses are environmentally-conscious, there exists the Green Seal website to help them out. Its home page describes this group as "an independent non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products and services." If your client has an environmentally-friendly product, a link exists to information as to how they can get a Green Seal certification to add to the product's resume. If your client seeks a "green" product, a link exists to a member directory that'll help find out who sells it.

Two cities in New York State made the list: New York City and Ramapo. Have a look to see where your city ranks. Top 100 finalists City Population New York 8,143,200 Ramapo 112,500 Other cities City Population Albany 96,253 Amherst 114,942 Brentwood 55,720 Buffalo 285,058 Cheektowaga 77,785 Clarkstown 85,350 Clay 59,679 Greenburgh 89,942 Hempstead 58,010 Irondequoit 51,903 Levittown 52,577 Mount Vernon 69,884 New Rochelle 74,320 Niagara Falls 53,728 North Hempstead 223,903 Rochester 216,598 Schenectady 61,698 Syracuse 146,404 Tonawanda 59,894 Union 54,827 Utica 57,721 White Plains 55,763 Yonkers 199,611 Also, check out http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2006/faq/ for "how we picked fthe Best Places to Live".

Have you ever tried to give driving directions and you just can’t remember the number of the highway exit you take everyday to get to work? Here’s useful tool. The Upstate New York Roads Site http://www.upstatenyroads.com/ An independent labor of love, this site provides massive amounts of information about New York’s highways. Find the highway you need, and the page provides a list of all its exits, complete with numbers and the towns or routes listed on the highway sign. You can even find out what vendors are in the rest areas! There is also a mileage chart, and links to other New York road web sites.

There's a column in the Wall Street Journal called "Small Talk", which currently appears every Tuesday. Readers are encouraged to send their small-business questions to smalltalk@wsj.com . A question last month was about prototypes. Columnist Kelly Spors recommended Thomasnet.com/ , from the people who put out the Thomas Register. Click on Engineering & Consulting, then Prototypes. Also, the United Inventors Association makes recommendations. Another more general useful tool from WSJ is the Startup Journal , from the paper's Center for Entrepreneurship, with tabs for franchising, finance, running a business and more.

If you work at Central, you have the option of getting candy every day. However, that's not why I blog. Recently, I did a request for a client who wanted to open an environmentally-friendly cleaning business. As with many research requests, this one included an inquiry as to how to begin marketing this type of service. During my work, I came across the aforementioned Daily Candy site. It promotes itself as being "The Insider's Guide to the Sweet Life". It has several online "editions," each focusing on a specific metro area. One for New York City is available. Once there, the site fancies itself as a broadcaster of what's new, hip, or innovative in that city's scene - fashion, food & drink, beauty, etc. So I read an article on a "green" cleaning service that promoted itself through this site. It exists for businesses to promote themselves (as long as they meet the site's criteria), as well as for people looking for such pla

While it is not particularly new, visual searching seems to be catching on. With a visual search, users type in their search string, same as always, but results are displayed visually and clustered into subtopics, related areas, etc. The goal is to conceptually organize results and to allow users to look beyond the top 10 that appears in a traditional results list. Check out a couple of these engines on their own: http://www.kartoo.com/ http://www.grokker.com/ Grokker’s homesite allows users to “Grok” (and get visual result displays) using Yahoo’s search engine, but more and more databases are using it too. EBSCO Publishing and Factiva now use Grokker to provide a visual results display for several of their databases, and even the Internet Public Library, http://www.ipl.org/ , is now on board. Read more about the use of visual searches in these articles: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6328082.html http://library.stanford.edu/about_sulair/special_projects/stanford_grokker.html

A Review of trends and Activity in the Investment Company Industry 46th Edition146 pages; PDF. ICI Investment Company Institute www.icifactbook.org For an overview of the investment landscape, this report lays out what investment customers are doing, and how the various investment funds work, and industry employment facts. This 146 page report offers a detailed look at how people are investing. It also includes a description of the roles involved and a glossary of terms.

You may recall that I have mentioned the American Communities Survey (ACS) and other enhancements to the Census process, contingient on the budget process. Those improvements have been severely compromised recently this past week, when the House of Representatives shifted $50 million from the Census Bureau to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. From Census Briefs: Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA) countered that the amendment would "devastate the census" and "impact fundamental missions of the Census Bureau." "The immediate ramifications are a disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations, irretrievable loss of testing opportunities to identify problems," the chairman warned, referring to efforts to improve coverage of historically hard-to-count populations in the census. Noting that the Census Bureau is "vulnerable" to cuts to fund other popular programs, Rep. Wolf said, "There is not a

An advisor recently called me on behalf of a client, who sought legal information relating to commercial leases. I'm very leery about passing as a legal research expert (that's a whole other world of librarianship, unknown to me). However, there does exist a site that attempts to provide insight into common legal issues (both individual- and business-related). It's called FindLaw.com , and its home page breaks down its contents into several recognizable broad categories (bankruptcy & debt, real estate, intellectual property, and so forth). By drilling down from there, you'll eventually encounter articles written in clear language that provide brief, introductory articles relating to a specific subject. The site is also useful for finding attorneys in the numerous specialties within the legal profession. FindLaw.com is similar in intent to the web site for Nolo Press . They're a publisher of self-help legal books, and have been mentioned in previous Research Net

By popular demand, a little bit about our summer interns: Chunhui Song is a graduate student in the Department of Information Studies at the University at Albany. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Information Management & Information System from University of Science & Technology of China in 2000. Following graduation, she served as a Computer Support Consultant in China Construction Bank, Fujian Branch, and was responsible for providing technical assistance, support, and advice to the branch until she came to the United States. Chunhui started attending the University at Albany in January 2005 and will receive her Master’s degree in August 2006. She has worked as a student assistant in the reference department in the Science Library at SUNY Albany for one year. She is also a member of American Library Association and Special Libraries Association. "I like traveling. I have been to many places in China and plans to travel around the US as much as possible. My other int

With broadband Internet access, comes the ability to do more, share more, in particular, the sharing of short clips, vlogs etc. Like when brief segments of video were circulated of the tsunami hitting a coastal hotel, or various humorous tidbits, stupid pet tricks, sports highlights and now more regularly, ads, and news stories. These video clips have for the most part been supplied by amateurs but I’m sure will become more popular in the business world. To help get businesses going, there is Coull , a British company, here to rescue those without video editing knowledge and get them playing too. They offer a software product called coullvlogger that allows the user to edit and upload video simply and quickly. Lycos offers JubiiBlog , a blogging service available in 7 European countries, is now using the coullvlogger tool to enable users to vlog for free. Another opportunity for business owners to get creative!

Each year Beloit College releases the “Mindset List,” a list meant to show the world view of incoming freshman. The list presents many of the things this class has not grown up with (like rotary telephones) and the things that have existed all their lives (MTV). There’s nothing too scientific here, but it is an interesting way to think about a group of people and to explore what seems normal to them and what doesn’t. While its target audience may be college professors, this type of information would be useful for anyone marketing to a younger generation. Check it our yourself: http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/ N.B. Okay, my class is still listed on the site, and I have to admit that it is not all correct. I do remember the Challenger blowing up, and just because I didn’t see the original “Mork and Mindy” doesn’t mean I didn’t catch it on Nick at Night…

From our intern, Chunhui Song: The World e-Book Fair , sponsored by Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library, will be offering up to 300,000 books online from July 4 to August 4, 2006. Fiction, nonfiction and reference books plus classical music scores and recordings will be available for free downloading.

From the Brand Identity Guru: Google the term "magic advertising words" and you'll instantly get over 8 million results. But caveat emptor -- don't buy into everything you read, because your prospective buyer certainly won't. From the time marketing began, there has never been a shortage of self-appointed experts who claim to have identified the words that will unlock your customer'swallets. In the Internet age their advice is even easier to come by. They promise that words such as "you," "guarantee," "easy," "limited-time," and the old standby, "free," will generate surefire results. If only it were that simple. As a smart businessperson, you probably know that there are no such things as magic words, particularly in a culture that has been saturated with advertising. But there's something else you should know: Not only do magic advertising words not exist, several of them actually work against you. And ch

For those of us whose eyes strain at the end of the day from viewing the tiny text of Web sites, here's an option that might bring some relief. Big.com is a search engine that, among other things, enables a viewer to see search results (and photos) in a larger font. In addition, the site is now promoting their "Big Toolbar," a free download that can help you make any page look bigger. You can increase text size in Internet Explorer or Firefox, but this toolbar makes it an easier process.

Licensing is a form of strategic alliance which involves the sale of a right to use certain proprietary knowledge (so called intellectual property) in a defined way. The intellectual property may be registered publicly, for example in the form of a patent or trademark, as a means of establishing ownership rights. Or, it may be retained within the firm: referred to as know-how, it is commonly based on operational experience. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licensing_(strategic_alliance) LIMA or the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association Who publish the Who’s Who Licensing Resource Directory and compile statistics and other information on the industry as well as organize an annual convention. Their website has licensing database available to members and a database of licensing agents and consultants open to all. Licensing and Licensing Agreements in a Nutshell also The Royalty Deal byRobert Townsend, Attorney At Law Is a good overview article on licensing and other informatio

Grants are not so easy to find. So when I saw an article about a grant awarded to a company that sold New York food products, I wanted to know just who it was giving out this free money. Turns out it was New York State’s Grow New York program, a “multi-faceted program that assists the economic development efforts of New York's agricultural production, processing and marketing industries.” More information can be found at: http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/GROWNY/GNYHome.html Looks like a good resource for those food entrepreneurs. From this site it is just a hop to the Farm & Market Search through the NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets. While the library has a paper copy of the Farm Fresh Guide, there is an online version as well: http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/AP/FFGSearch.asp This database has information on different farm products or services organized by region or county, particularly useful for restaurants wanting to use local products. There is also the Farmers’ Market