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Business Resources
Magazines
How to Access Ebooks & digital Magazines
- Libby App: Free ebooks & audiobooks"Borrow ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more from your local library for free! Libby is the newer library reading app by OverDrive, loved by millions of readers worldwide." --Libby
- Libby Help VideosLearn to use the Libby App with these interactive tutorials. If you have any questions, feel free to stop by our Reference Desk for further assistance.
- RCLS Gateway"Access Ramapo Catskill Library System from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Manage your account, search the catalog, renew and reserve books."-RCLS
- RCLS Gateway TutorialHelpful video for installing and using the RCLS Gateway App for the first time.
Best Business Books 2023
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A landmark manifesto" (The New York Times) that's a revelatory, inspiring call to action and a blueprint for individual growth that will empower women around the world to achieve their full potential. In her famed TED talk, Sheryl Sandberg described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her talk, which has been viewed more than eleven million times, encouraged women to “sit at the table,” seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto. Lean In continues that conversation, combining personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to change the conversation from what women can’t do to what they can. Sandberg, COO of Meta (previously called Facebook) from 2008-2022, provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career. She describes specific steps women can take to combine professional achievement with personal fulfillment, and demonstrates how men can benefit by supporting women both in the workplace and at home.
The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business
Master the fundamentals, hone your business instincts, and save a fortune in tuition. The consensus is clear: MBA programs are a waste of time and money. Even the elite schools offer outdated assembly-line educations about profit-and-loss statements and PowerPoint presentations. After two years poring over sanitized case studies, students are shuffled off into middle management to find out how business really works.Josh Kaufman has made a business out of distilling the core principles of business and delivering them quickly and concisely to people at all stages of their careers. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time. In The Personal MBA, he shares the essentials of sales, marketing, negotiation, strategy, and much more.True leaders aren't made by business schools-they make themselves, seeking out the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to succeed. Read this book and in one week you will learn the principles it takes most people a lifetime to master
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
"Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day — as start-ups, as midsize companies, and as large corporations. Throughout, the authors asked: "What makes the truly exceptional companies different from the comparison companies and what were the common practices these enduringly great companies followed throughout their history?
Filled with hundreds of specific examples and organized into a coherent framework of practical concepts that can be applied by managers and entrepreneurs at all levels, Built to Last provides a master blueprint for building organizations that will prosper long into the 21st century and beyond." -Barnes & Noble
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It
"A former international hostage negotiator for the FBI offers a new, field-tested approach to high-stakes negotiations-- whether in the boardroom or at home"-- Amazon.com.
Outliers: The Story of Success
The best-selling author of Blink identifies the qualities of successful people, posing theories about the cultural, family, and idiosyncratic factors that shape high achievers, in a resource that covers such topics as the secrets of software billionaires, why certain cultures are associated with better academic performance, and why the Beatles earned their fame.
Best Business Books of 2022
The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future
Analyzing the current remote-based workforce created by the pandemic, one of the foremost thinkers in business and organization voices the problems that beset work and advocates for using this moment to initiate the biggest transformational change in the workplace in a century.
Level Up: Rise Above the Hidden Forces Holding Your Business Back
"Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson draw on firsthand experience starting and scaling multiple companies over nearly two decades to crystallize their advice in Level Up, a how-to guide for small business owners. They share stories of building their own businesses, as well as actionable principles for founders looking to propel their ventures forward. They cover such topics as hiring, identifying a revenue strategy, recognizing when growth is a trap, and managing cash flow, and share the experiences of other successful founders including Jules Pieri of The Grommet, Alisa Clark of Glory Professional Services, and Sheila Jordan of Knowledge Architects"-- Provided by publisher.
The Price of Time
"A comprehensive and profoundly relevant history of interest from one of the world's leading financial writers, The Price of Time explains our current global financial position and how we got here. In the beginning was the loan, and the loan carried interest. For at least five millennia people have been borrowing and lending at interest. The practice wasn't always popular-in the ancient world, usury was generally viewed as exploitative, a potential path to debt bondage and slavery. Yet as capitalism became established from the late Middle Ages onwards, denunciations of interest were tempered because interest was a necessary reward for lenders to part with their capital. And interest performs many other vital functions: it encourages people to save; enables them to place a value on precious assets, such as houses and all manner of financial securities; and allows us to price risk. All economic and financial activities take place across time. Interest is often described as the 'price of money,' but it is better called the 'price of time': time is scarce, time has value, interest is the time value of money. Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, interest rates have sunk lower than ever before. Easy money after the global financial crisis in 2007/2008 has produced several ill effects, including the appearance of multiple asset price bubbles, a reduction in productivity growth, discouraging savings and exacerbating inequality, and forcing yield-starved investors to take on excessive risk. The financial world now finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place, and Edward Chancellor is here to tell us why. In this enriching volume, Chancellor explores the history of interest and its essential function in determining how capital is allocated and priced."- Jacket flaps.
The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
"From the New York Times bestselling author comes the astonishingly frank and intimate story of success and failure inside Silicon Valley's dominant venture capital firms-and how their strategies and fates have shaped the path of innovation, and the global economy, writ large"-- Provided by publisher
Databases
- Academic OneFile (Gale) - Monroe
More than 13,000 titles, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals and more than 5,000 in full text with coverage of hard sciences, medicine, engineering and business.
Funded by the New York State Library NOVEL Program.
CLICK TO ACCESS FROM HOME:
- Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA) - Monroe
Contains, in module format, detailed information on more than 12 million U.S. businesses; 102 million U.S. residents; 683,000 U.S. health care providers; 1 million Canadian businesses; and 11 million Canadian residents.
Funded by the Monroe Free Library Library.
CLICK TO ACCESS FROM HOME:
Please note: If unable to access Reference Solutions remotely using Google Chrome, please try using a different internet browser. The most recent version of Chrome has been known to cause access issues.
- Business Insights: Essentials (Gale) - Monroe
Info on 448,000 US and international companies: histories; chronologies; rankings; statistics; and more.
Funded by the New York State Library NOVEL program.
CLICK TO ACCESS FROM HOME:
- Coursera via NYS Dept of Labor
Access to nearly 4,000 online programs taught by leading professors and industry professionals on Coursera, with a focus on high-growth and in-demand sectors like advanced manufacturing, technology, and health care, among others. [When you use the free version of Coursera, there are classes that give a free 7 day trial but charge for continued access for periods longer than that. The NYS version allows access to these paid classes.]
- Consumer Reports - Monroe
Consumer Reports tests, rates, and reviews thousands of consumer products and services at both its testing center in Westchester County, N.Y., and its auto test center in Colchester, Conn.
Funded by RCLS member libraries
CLICK TO ACCESS FROM HOME:
- Glassdoor Jobs & Recruitment Site
Glassdoor holds a growing database of more than 8 million company reviews, CEO approval ratings, salary reports, interview reviews and questions, benefits reviews, office photos and more.
REMOTE ACCESS LINK IS SAME AS ON-SITE.
MFL Pop Up Creative Studio
- Reservation Link for Pop Up Creative StudioComplete this form to reserve the Pop Up Creative Studio
Recording Studio Technology and Equipment
Please note that this is an “amateur” recording studio! The room's sound quality and lighting are not what you might find in a professional studio. It is an opportunity to work with quality equipment and introduce you to the production process; it does not guarantee a perfect product.
The Studio Equipment includes:
- Cloth green screen
- Laptop w/ access to wifi & Microsoft Office Suite
- Yeti Microphone
- Ring Light
- Osbot Tiny 4K Camera w/ tripod
- Ring light
- Audacity ( audio recording software)
Studio Use
All You Need…
- Active RCLS Library Card in good standing
- Valid state-issued photo ID
- Must be over the age of 17 and present during the studio session
- A large-capacity (16GB or more) flash drive if you wish to save your work
Video Creation Resources
Audiobooks
Born to Win Your Ultimate Success Audiobook
Zig Ziglar's Born to Win: Your Ultimate Success Audiobook, compresses four decades of life-changing tools and practices into one inspiring, concise, easy-to-use format for people who want to grow and improve the whole spectrum of their lives now! Zig has always taught that "You were born to win, but to be the winner you were born to be you must plan to win and prepare to win. Then and only then can you legitimately expect to win." Born to Win guides listeners through this plan-prepare-expect strategy. You will learn that when you have the hope that things can change, and a plan to make that change possible, you can take action. Zig Ziglar's whole-person, balanced-living approach to life has inspired millions to enjoy good health, a new depth of love and gratitude for family and friends, financial security and independence, and spiritual peace of mind. His instruction on how to live a life that leaves no room for regret or worry is the starting point for a joyful, exciting, vibrant life. It is true that when you have prepared yourself to be the right kind of person, you can do what you need to do to expect success. When you truly understand that you were born to win, you can change the world!
Getting Things Done
In today's world of exponentially increased communication and responsibility, yesterday's methods for staying on top just don't work.Veteran management consultant and trainer David Allen recognizes that "time management" is useless the minute your schedule is interrupted; "setting priorities" isn't relevant when your email is down; "procrastination solutions" won't help if your goals aren't clear.Allen's premise is simple: our ability to be productive is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve stress-free productivity and unleash our creative potential. He teaches us how to:Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box emptyReassess goals and stay focused in changing situationsOvercome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmedFeel fine about what you're not doingFrom core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done has the potential to transform the way you work — and the way you experience work. At any level of implementation, David Allen's entertaining and thought-provoking advice shows you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.
Leading Change
John Kotter, the world's foremost expert on business leadership, distills twenty-five years of experience into Leading Change. A must-have for any organization, this visionary and very personal audiobook is at once inspiring, clear-headed.
How to Talk to Anyone at Work: 72 Little Tricks for Big Success Communicating on the Job
"You face tough communication challenges every day at work, both in person and online. Here are immediate, effective, eye-opening actions you can take to resolve those infuriating problems. Listeners will find stories and examples drawn from corporate communications consultant Leil Lowndes's more than twenty years of training business professionals, from entry-level new hires to CEOs."
The Entrepreneur's Toolkit
"All of us have dreams, goals, and perhaps a project or two on the back burner. The Entrepreneur's Toolkit is your chance to make these aspirations a reality. Professor Goldsby provides a detailed roadmap for starting, nurturing, expanding, and eventually selling a business; and he shows how the same valuable skills translate to other spheres of life."-- Publisher's website.