Posted on January 16th, 2013 by Gregor Smart in Internet Resources, Kirstein Business Library
When looking for historical foreign exchange rates try using the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System website. This site offers daily, monthly, and yearly rates for various countries.
Posted on January 16th, 2013 by Gregor Smart in Internet Resources, Kirstein Business Library
If you are looking for economic data, FRED is a great place to start. Put out by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, it’s an online database consisting of more than 61,000 economic data time series from 48 national, international, public, and private sources.
A sampling of the types of data available:
This resource also offers a set of data tools that will enable you to create your own graphs, access archival data, and download data with an Excel Add-in.
Posted on January 2nd, 2013 by Amber De Angelis in Internet Resources
Tags: amber, Small Business
Do you need extra guidance in starting and managing your small business?
The Small Business Administration has taken the time to create several tutorials and videos on a wide variety of topics.
Tutorials
If you go the the SBA learning center page you can view a variety of courses for free on topics such as:
Each of the 29 courses is about a half hour long and is intended to give you the basics as well as to point out SBA programs that can help you. Users can toggle between the presentation outline and slide notes using the tabs in the pane on the left hand side. One note: they are presented using Flash so you can’t view them on any iOS devices, but you can view the text based versions as PDFs.
Videos
The Learning Center’s videos are also valuable. Some videos are a great way of seeing how other small business owns came up with solutions to problems. If you go to the SBA’s Youtube account you can see more videos too. This video from their Youtube channel explains SBA issued Loans:
Other videos include more niche topics such as:
If you still need help please take advantage of our SCORE Business Fridays. You can ask a librarian at the Kirstein reference desk or call 617-859-2142 to make an appointment. Each appointment lasts an hour on Fridays between 10am and 1pm.
Posted on December 14th, 2012 by Amber De Angelis in Internet Resources
Tags: amber, careerleaf, job hunt
With the holiday season upon us, it can be difficult to keep track of your job hunt. But luckily there is a tool that can help.
Careerleaf is a great portal for managing your job hunt. Setup is easy. When you create your account you can import your resume or data from your LinkedIn account. Your account includes a profile, an email account, and three powerful tools– the job search function, Application Manager, and the Tracklet.
Job Search
The job search function makes it simple to search across multiple job boards quickly. Career leaf pulls from multiple sources including SimplyHired, USA Jobs, Career Builder, Mashable and more. Just type in the job title and your zip code into the search bar and you’re in business.
The Tracklet
Once you find a job posting to your liking, Careerleaf makes it easy for you to apply to openings and keep track of the postings. All you have to do is install the Tracklet into your browser. Clicking on it will launch the app and you’re ready to rock.
You can use the tracklet to:
Application Manager
Careerleaf’s Application Manager allows you to keep track opportunities and add notes. The notes can be especially helpful when you are prepping for an interview. Moreover, you can add contact infomation and set the stage you are in the hiring process. It also makes it easy to add your correspondence to the Application Manager when you use your Careerleaf email.
Two more things…
Take the tour of the website and look at the FAQs Here you can learn about privacy settings and a little bit more about the features CareerLeaf has to offer. Check out their blog too.
And two, if you next extra support, Neighbors Helping Neighbors is going to be meeting every Wednesday at 7pm here in the Kirstein Library.
Cheers and good luck!
Posted on December 12th, 2012 by Amber De Angelis in Internet Resources
Tags: amber
The page on the calendar is about to flip to 2013. Why don’t you get control of your finances for the new year and beyond!
Start plotting out your financial goals for next year by using Planwise. Planwise is a tool to help you organize and manage your finances. The best part about it is that it’s free. You don’t have to include any personal information.
Planwise encourages you to really think about your monthly spending and saving. If you enter your basic financial information (monthly income, loan payments, bills, rent, etc), the tool plots your expenses on a graph. Then you can plan for one time expensive purchases, buying a home, job loss and more. You can see how your savings or your debt to income ratio are affected.
It’s very easy to learn.
Just a note this is just a tool and not a substitute for actual financial advice. If your really need help managing your finances we suggest contacting a certified financial planner.
