[Baynet] Infopeople's "Library Services to Small Business" - online course

[Linda Rodenspiel]

Title:  Library Services to Small Business (online learning course)

Dates:  January 31, 2006 - February 28, 2006

To register for this workshop:  Use the online registration form at
http://infopeople.org/WS/workshop/Workshop/244

Fee:  Because of grant funding, California residents can take this course 
for the subsidized fee of $75.00. The out-of-state fee is $275.00.

Small business entrepreneurs represent a large potential source of new 
users for your library's services, if you know what they're looking for and 
how to reach them. According to the Small Business Administration, small 
businesses in the U.S....

...represent 99.7% of all employers.
...employ 50.1% of the private work force.
...represent 97% of all U.S. exporters.
...provide approximately 75% of the net new jobs added to the economy.
...hire a larger proportion of younger, older, and part-time workers.

To serve this clientele effectively, you need to build - and familiarize 
yourself with - a print and virtual collection of best tools for small 
business. You need to understand the broad categories of questions small 
business people ask. And you need to target your outreach for this audience.

This course will increase your ability to serve small business by 
introducing you to the best reference tools and proven outreach strategies.


This four-week online learning course will provide a guided tour through 
the best resources for helping entrepreneurs at each stage of their 
business development. Through individual exercises you will gain direct 
experience in using these resources to answer real-world questions. You 
will also complete an action plan for upgrading your library's small 
business collections, services, and outreach. The instructor will provide 
sample plans, templates, cheat sheets and a webliography, as well as 
practical, useful tips that can be applied immediately.

During the course, you will be doing exercises and taking quizzes. You will 
also participate in online discussion forums as part of the online learning 
process.

Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web browser and your Internet 
connection, you will log in to the Infopeople online learning site and 
complete the following learning modules:

Module One: Overview, and Business Startups
--What do entrepreneurs ask, and what tools can libraries offer them?
--Helping users find and evaluate business startup ideas and opportunities
--Checklists for business startups

Module Two: Business Plans and Finance
--Why write a business plan?
--Resources to help research and write a business plan
--How to get financing to start or grow a business

Module Three: Marketing, Sales, and Customer Retention
--What does marketing encompass?
--Resources to help users research, design, and price a product or service
--Resources for promotion, sales, and generating repeat business.

Module Four: Managing and More
--Legal, personnel, accounting, tax, and technology resources
--Doing business with the government
--Women and minority business
--Disaster recovery
--Business ethics and social responsibility
--Libraries serving small business: success stories

(Optional) Pre-workshop assignment: Students will be asked to complete a 
survey before the workshop, outlining their library's current small 
business resources, services, and outreach.

Workshop Instructor: Mark S. Hall.  Mark is the Reference Services Manager 
for San Francisco Public Library's Business, Science & Technology 
Department. His department oversees a Jobs & Careers Center and a Small 
Business Center. Mark regularly teaches classes on business resources for 
the programs such as the U.S. Small Business Administration and Women's 
Initiative for Self-employment. Mark enjoys working with small business 
owners and turning them into fans of the library.

Online Learning Details: This four-week course will be taught online using 
the web. When you register, you will receive a registration confirmation, 
which will include the URL to get to the course, as well as a username and 
password.

Every student proceeds through the online learning modules at his or her 
own pace. However, students should expect to commit to spending a minimum 
of 2 to 2½ hours per week on this course in order to be successful. You can 
work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night. 
However, you will be expected to log in to the course each week to do that 
week's assignment. We ask that you log in sometime during the first week of 
the course to begin the course work.

Your instructor will be available for limited consultation support for two 
weeks after the official end date of a course, and the course material will 
stay up for an additional two weeks after that, to give those who have 
fallen behind time to work independently on the course. However, you will 
be expected to accomplish the majority of the course in synchronization 
with your peers during the first four weeks.

Who Should Take This Course: Anyone from the library community with an 
interest in improving connections with small business owners and the 
entrepreneurial community.

Prerequisites: This course is taught over the web. You must:

Have an Internet connection and Internet Explorer 5 or higher (some of the 
quiz functions do not work properly in Netscape).

Be able to save Microsoft Word .docs or Adobe .pdf files to your computer 
and print them out. (For .doc files, a free Word Viewer is available at 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. Search for 
"Word Viewer." For .pdf files, a free Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at 
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html).

Be comfortable navigating on the web and navigating back and forward on a 
website that uses frames.

If you are not comfortable with any of the above, please consider taking 
this course with a colleague who does meet these requirements.

To view a complete list of Infopeople workshops and for general information 
about Infopeople training opportunities, go to the main Infopeople 
Workshops page at http://infopeople.org/WS/workshop

If you have questions about registration or scheduling of workshops, please 
contact Linda Rodenspiel, the Infopeople Project Assistant, at 
assist at infopeople.org or by phone at 650-578-9685.