Metropolis of Business

    Little l.a. traveled down the yellow brick road when she began to see a dark looming city ahead of her. She had heard of the this city before but she had aways managed to avoid it. This city with its tall dark skyscrapers and pitch black streets caused her to tremble from head to toe. This city was the Metropolis of Business and Little l.a. wanted no part of it, but she knew in order to complete her journey she would have to go through it.  Little l.a. straightened her self up, put on a brave face and walked in to the city to see what she could find.  After walking in Little l.a was overwhelmed with all the information and much of it seemed Greek to her but she reminded herself that she wasn't there to learn everything but to gain an overview of this great city.  With the help of  tour guides Little l.a. navigated the city  and learned enough to visit again on her own if need be. Little l.a. was eager to leave as soon as possible.  Little l.a. left the Metropolis not as scared but the city still intimidated her.  She was eager to move on to her next destination and leave the big dark city behind her...
   As you can probably tell this assignment did not excite me in the least. Anything dealing with the business world has always seemed like Greek to me so this was a challenging assignment for me. I do feel I learned a lot and that I am now more knowledgeable in getting a patron to these resources if they need to use them.
   The Business Source Complete was easy to use in finding information about "FM radio" and then being able to narrow down the subject to find exactly what you are looking for. The visual search function is useful in getting a broad picture of the search results but it can be overwhelming.
  The Econ Lit was also easy to use in finding information for small business owners. I did have problems when searching  about small business owners and the EPA. I only brought up one article and I believe it may be because of the way I was searching for it. When searching for small business owners and tax policies I pulled up more results. Over all it was easy to use.
  The Regional Business News seemed to me to have a wealth of information about major companies such as the Ford Motor Company  and less from small companies such as L.L.Bean.
   The Wallstreet Journal was easy to use when searching about "small business" and "health care". I really liked how the database then suggested topics that help you further narrow down your research.  Like other databases that we have used  you are able to send yourself email alerts or RSS feeds when new information is acquired by the database.
  Value Line was very intimidating to me and this is  because most of this subject I don't understand.  I was able to navigate the site and find the information I needed after much exploring.  I did like that Value Line had a link to "About Value Line" that explained the site and what I was looking at so it didn't seem so confusing to me.  I now feel that can help others look for some basic information on this database even though I am far from being an expert.
  Overall this assignment wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I am now more knowledgeable  in helping patrons with business resources.
   My book recommendation this week is "Nicolas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King" the first book in the "Guardians of Childhood" series by William Joyce. I was pleasantly surprise by how fun and fast I got through this book. I believe children who love adventure and fantasy will love this book. I also enjoyed the illustrations and of course this book is being made into a movie. Have a good week everyone and stay warm!