The Information Institute Presents: 21st Century Business Research Tactics And Sources

If you'll be in the Austin area this January and would like a crash course in competitive intelligence, check out this new course presented by The Information Institute from the University of Texas School of Information. The class is called "Boiling the Ocean: 21st Century Business Research Tactics And Sources". Presented by Yours Truly along with Claudia Chidester, Gary Hoover and Joel Lang, who will be sharing all our best business research secrets. This is a 3-Day course from January 7 - January 9, 2013. Check out the description below and you can register for the class here.

Boiling The Ocean: 21st Century Business Research Tactics And Sources: Understanding Difficult-to-Size Markets and their Competitive Landscapes

This is a hands on workshop with industry experts in entrepreneurship and business research that will teach industry standards and the latest tools in the practice. You will receive hands-on practice using resources you've likely never used before.

• Are there any competitors to your new idea?
• If anyone is making money in a particular space?
• Is a particular private company growing or faltering?
• Who your potential customers are?
• How to set up a system of monitoring your competitors or customers and finding new competitors and customers?

Why is this course useful? You'll learn how to:

• Save money: what resources are worth their cost and when is free good enough.
• Save time: understand the 80/20 of research. Tips and tricks.
• Network with other researchers

You will receive hands-on practice using resources you've likely never used before. Solutions like Capital IQ and other subscriptions at the University of Texas and Austin Public Library will be used to develop research strategies. Be sure to bring your own research problems to class—there will be free consultation on strategies.

Who should take this class? Entrepreneurs, legal researchers, development officers, corporate librarians, market researchers, and anyone who wants to learn how to gain a competitive advantage.

Topics Covered

• Does market sizing matter? How the venture capitalists do it. Defining a thesis.
• Where to start: Use what you know. Define what you don't know.
• SEO tools: Compete, Alexa, comScore, Hitwise and Nielsen Online, crowdsourcing
• Database tools: Capital IQ, Thompson One, Bizjournals, Special Issues, Census
• People tools: Zoominfo, Linked-In, Associations
• CI Knowledge management: keeping up to date: Sharepoint, Google products

Online MBA Programs

If you are helping someone find an online MBA program, check out MBAOnline.com. The site offers program rankings and a search by specialty and state. The site offers an online MBA guide, and an Q&A section with information about online MBAs, but what I found most interesting were the interviews with students from different programs. "[The ] interviewees will give you insight, based on personal experience, regarding issues such as the application process, program curriculum and faculty and the job search. These interviews not only cover the basics of pursuing an online MBA, but they also tackle more in depth topics including determining how an online MBA program is legitimate, whether pursuing an online MBA is worth the cost and how employers view online MBAs."

A little research bonus, each of their blog posts includes a great infographic. Check out the recent post on Twinkies.

bizologie Favorite Tools: 10 Minute Mail

Don't you hate when you have to register your email to download that perfect report or gain access to an article? Check out 10 Minute Mail. This free service will give you a temporary email for just such an occasion. "Any e-mails sent to that address will show up automatically on the web page. You can read them, click on links, and even reply to them. The e-mail address will expire after 10 minutes."  Providing a free service that reduces our spam earns 10 Minute Mail a spot on our Favorite Resources page.

Common Craft Explains: The U.S. Election Process

We love Common Craft and their great, simple explanations of complicated subjects. Today on Election Eve, we thought you might like a brief reminder of how our presidential election process works. You can check out other Common Craft explanations (e.g. big data, cloud computing, QR codes and much more) here.

Casual Friday: Tank on Empty

Ever wonder just how far you make it on an empty tank of gas? Check out Tank on Empty to find our just how many miles people have been able to drive with the gas light on in your car's make, model, and year. I like to know I have plenty of gas to get where I'm going, so I don't push my luck since I can't push my car.. But, there have been times where I was a little nervous about getting to the gas stations. Kind of nice to know I probably have a little more fuel to get me to the pump. I do know a few people (won't name any names here) who will just keep on driving long after that light comes on. This site does shows that they are probably just fine going that extra 20 miles. But really, there are quite a few comments about burning up your fuel pump if you actually go completely dry. So not a good idea.

Still kinda fun to see how the experiments went and to learn what others in your car have experienced.

Form D Free For All

Do business research for any length of time and you'll likely be called upon to locate Form Ds. And as we bizologists like to say, why not find them for free? First of all, what is a Form D? Our friends at Investopedia define it as "a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) required for companies that are selling securities in reliance on a Regulation D exemption or Section 4(6) exemption provisions." But for our purposes, let's use a simpler definition. Start-up companies file Form Ds when they raise money. And while there are a couple of paid subscription databases you can use to track down Form Ds, you can also find them on FormDs.com.

FormDs.com, founded by  former private equity firm investor Robert Hunt, offers a couple of paid services like monitoring or custom projects, but you can also get quite a bit of great information for free.

My favorite feature is their "Local FormDs" showing investments in a particular city. I simply click on my city of choice and I see a list of recently funded companies in my area which shows me the date and the amount of funding. Even better, once I click on a particular company, I can see their address, company directors and executives, a link to the actual Form D and, better still, a link to other companies in the same industry.

Speaking of industries, I can also filter by industry, location, amount and dates. And then display these results as a list or as a map. Below you'll see I've created a filter showing all the biotechnology companies recently funded in Texas.

FormDs.com definitely earns a spot on our Favorite Resources page.

"One Card to Rule Them All"

I am not one of those people that uses different credit based on the rewards I get. I have picked one credit card and use if for just about everything. The problem with my plan is that I'm losing out on all those points and cash back offers from credit card companies. Who knows how many vacations I could have had covered by now! Wallaby Financial to the rescue. "Wallaby keeps track of all of the different rewards offers for each of the credit cards you own, including limited-time and one-time discounts... Wallaby automatically picks the right card for you–every time you swipe." So many credit card companies now offer special monthly deals, this month it is on gas and next month you get extra points for restaurants. I would never keep up with this. With Wallaby I don't have to, I just use their card and let them select the best card for the purchase so that I can maximize my points and cash back. Wallaby calls itself "one card to rule them all." Pretty good idea and since they are all about points, I will give them extra points for the geek reference.

How much will will this convenience cost? The rate is $50 per year, and they are offering six months free right now. They are still in beta and they aren't working with private label cards yet, but it sounds like that might be coming soon. Since this isn't a credit card, there is no credit check and you still pay all the bills separately. Now, if they could simplify that last piece it would be even better! I'm going to test it out and see if I can earn enough point for my next flight!

Cycling for Libraries - SLA Texas Chapter 2012

Cycling for Libraries Day 10-11: Last Days on the Road

Day 10 - 47 miles

We began the day by touring the delightful Rakvere Public Library. In the photo above you can see Katarina Jee, Estonia's only bookmobile, parked next to the library.

The Katarina Jee is part of the Tallinn Public Library system, and she followed us throughout our journey from Vilnius to Tallinn. We had many fun events that involved Katarina Jee, including this fantastic performance of a folk song performed by Estonian school librarians.

Later that day we cycled to the Palmse Korts, an amazing restaurant that is on the grounds of one of Estonia's manor house. We had a very tasty meal that included some of the best pork we've ever eaten.

Day 11 - 49 miles

The last day had finally arrived. It was a long ride in a headwind and took forever. I think we were just getting excited to be in Tallinn and to reach the our final destination. When we had lunch at the half way mark, it felt like we had already been riding for the entire day. We had been on the  highway and then took a detour through the forest. When we stopped for lunch we understood why we had taken this route, we walked past the lunch tent to discover this amazing waterfall! What a wonderful surprise and beautiful backdrop to our last lunch on the road.

To pass the time on the long, hard last day. We belted out the hits of the 70s, 80s, and today. We definitely entertained ourselves and our captive audience seemed to enjoy the musical styling of the Texas Girls (the name of our new coverband!). When we hit the city limits of Tallinn we were so excited. Our trip into the center of town was along the coast and we had this incredible view of Old Town. Cycling by the ocean is pretty, but the wind was blowing so hard we had to concentrate on not blowing over.

We cycled through the cobble stoned streets and were greeted for the last time by the smiles, waves, and cheers of the Estonian people. When we got to Freedom Square, we jumped off our bikes and hugged and congratulated everyone. We had done it! We cycled a total of 366 miles over 11 days. We met the most incredible librarians from around the world and we were changed by the international experience off a lifetime. Where are we going next year?

By April Kessler and Karen Holt of Librarian Lifestyle. April & Karen are librarians at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Looming Red Herring Shortage: How the JOBS Act Affects CI Analysts and Business Researchers

This April (4/05/2012), President Obama signed the landmark Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act into law.  The law is designed to encourage entrepreneurship both by making it easier and safer to go public and by relaxing certain fundraising requirements imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  The act also has some profound consequences for business researchers and CI analysts, as it changes the SEC filing requirements that certain types of companies (Emerging Growth Companies) have to follow when preparing to go public. Emerging Growth Companies—A New Category Under the JOBS Act

Before jumping into the new SEC filing requirements under the JOBS Act, it is first useful to discuss the types of companies that the new rules apply to: Emerging Growth Companies.  Quite simply, Emerging Growth Companies (hereafter EGCs) are those that posted revenues of under $1 billion during their most recent fiscal year.  Most IPO-bound companies, with some notable exceptions like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), meet this criteria.  In fact, according to David Westenberg of the high-tech business and economics news sight Xconomy, 90% of all companies that went public prior to December 8^th, 2011 would have qualified as EGCs under the JOBS Act.  Thus, the changes in the JOBS act will impact the vast majority of companies that plan to file an IPO in the future.

But what about the actual changes to SEC filing requirements?

New Filing Rules under the JOBS Act:

Under the JOBS act, EGCs are able to confidentially file drafts of their registration statement (S-1) for non-public review prior to their actual public filing (adventurous readers might want to check out the full text of the law HERE, specifically Part I section 106).  An EGC's S-1 is only made public 21 days before it conducts a roadshow (if you’re not familiar with the term “road show” as it applies to IPO filings, here’s how Investopedia defines it: Road shows refer to when the management of a company that is issuing securities or doing an initial public offering (IPO) travels around the country to give presentations to analysts, fund managers and potential investors.)

So why should librarians, researchers and CI professionals take notice?  There are two reasons that this provision of the JOBS act makes our job more difficult:

No Red Herring Left Behind…

Each year, multiple companies withdraw their IPO as a result of poor market conditions or lacking investor enthusiasm.  In the past, when a company decided to withdraw its IPO, it did so knowing that valuable and previously confidential information about the business would remain in the public record.  With the new confidential filing rules, companies that decide to withdraw their initial public offering can now do so without leaving behind a so called “red herring” S-1 statement (i.e. a publically available draft of their S-1).  With the new confidential filing provisions in the JOBS Act, unless EGCs get to the point of conducting a roadshow, no one will have access to their business plan.

7 Week Wait for S-1 Filings?

How long will we have to wait for new S-1 filings to enter the public record?

According to Gus Fuldner, a VP at Benchmark Capital in Menlo Park California, the time commitment between filing to go public and actually selling shares on the open market can be as long as 10 weeks. Why?  Often, companies will have to bounce several drafts of their S-1 statement prior to the roadshow, which usually occurs in the final three weeks leading up to the sale of shares on the open market.   This means that interested parties could have to wait as long as seven weeks to get access to an IPO-bound company’s business plan. This is not a huge deal, but still could cause frustrating delays for researchers.

Less Transparency: More IPOs

The JOBS act is a very interesting piece of legislation that will have a tremendous impact on the American economy.  While I have outlined a couple annoying aspects of the legislation, keep in mind that the ultimate goal of the so called “IPO On Ramp” (the nickname of Part I of the law), is to simplify the process of issuing a public offering.  This, in turn, should lead to a steadily rising number of IPOs in the coming years.  More IPOs means more public companies and more S-1s, 10Ks and 10Qs for us all to sink our teeth into.

Stay tuned: in my next post I will be describing some of the new scaled back disclosure requirements in the JOBS Act and how these affect what information researchers will have access to.

Casual Friday: A future made of Glass

A glimpse into the future. An amazing glass house brought to you by Corning. I've been on lots of home tours and have seen the mirrors that display video, but the future brings us a mirrored touch screen. And, I love the glass countertops that turn into video screens when you put your phone down -- pretty awesome!

Cycling for Libraries Day 7-9: From Mountain Retreats to the City

Day 7 - 30 miles We left the mountain trails for actual mountains during the next stretch of the trip. This part of Estonia is called the Switzerland of the Baltics and now we know why. We cycled in the same spot the Russians send their Olympic skiers to train in the summer! The ride to Otepää was actually pretty short but the climbs were incredibly difficult. If you could get some momentum from the down hill, you could make up the next hill a little easier. That meant we were doing some serious flying downhill. Very fun, but kinda scary too. We visited just one local library, and then stopped early for the day at the mountain ski resort for some much needed R&R. We had a dip in the lake, a sweat in the sauna, and a soak in the hot tub. Just what our worn out bodies needed.

The sauna in Otepää

Day 8 - 55 miles

We call this part of the ride the highway to hell. We were actually on the way to the lovely Tartu and the scenery around us was gorgeous, but it was difficult and scary to ride single file along a busy highway. Because we could not talk to our peers, we realized how much we appreciated the library discussions that keep our minds busy and buzzing.

We stopped in the little town of Elva to tour their beautiful library.

This is also where Karen's bike got arrested.

We also visited a little public library in Ülenurme, which is on the outskirts of Tartu. They had charming little nooks in their library where you could visit with friends.

Once we arrived at some very nice dorms in Tartu, we cleaned ourselves up and met as a group for a discussion on library issues like marketing and publishing. It was very interesting to learn more about how libraries in other countries tackle issues like eBooks. We have so much in common, but when the topic turned to copyright we learned so much about we differ as well. We take the concept of Interlibrary Loan for granted in the States, but it is not the norm in Europe.

That evening we were free to explore the city of Tartu on our own and we went to the seriously amazing Italian restaurant, La Dolce Vita, which we would highly recommend to anyone traveling to Tartu. Thanks to our new Cycling for Libraries friend, Eve, for the recommendation!

Eve & April in the Ülenurme Public Library

Day 9 - 10 miles

This day involved very little biking. We spent the morning and afternoon in Tartu. We rode by Tartu University Library, the oldest and largest research library in Estonia. Then, after meeting the mayor and riding with him to the Tartu Public Library, we had a discussion about book publishing by libraries in Finland and Estonia. The Tallinn Public Library works with a local author to publish a book each year and then every 2nd grade student in Tallinn gets their own copy. The catch is that this book isn't for sale. It is only available from the library. Of course this limited printing makes it quite special for the country. All the kids and teachers are trying to get their hands on this hot commodity!

The discussion was followed by a special session on erBooks. Because libraries in Estonia can't buy eBooks, the Tartu Public Library has partnered with the Estonian Literary Museum to convert print books in eBooks, and one of the leaders of this project gave a very interesting demonstration for us on how they convert the books into a digital format.

Mural in the Tartu Central Library.

Next, we took a bus ride to Rakvere. That evening we went to the historic castle ruins, which featured a reenactment of castle life.

And then we had a lovely dinner and danced to a local rock band. Like we always say, there's no party like a librarian party.

American Business Leaders of the 20th Century...

...is  brought to you courtesy of Harvard.  We tip our hats to them for making a free and searchable database with hundreds of prominent business people from last century.  As they (Harvard that is) state,  this was, "an effort to identify and chronicle the lives of 20th century men and women whose business leadership shaped the ways that people live, work, and interact." Well it's a great effort, and the result is a good-looking and straightforward browsable list/advanced search interface, wherein you can narrow by basic demographic factors like gender, birthplace, and education.  (It's not unlike playing the Guess Who? boardgame, am I right?!)  Individual-level results also include a small blurb about their business success.  Oh and even better, if you ask nicely, they can apparently send you data in an Excel Spreadsheet.

Free Market Intelligence for Franchise-Heavy Industries

The other day, a client came to me with an interesting request: How many independent pizza restaurants operate in the US.  After consulting the usual library resources and pizza industry associations, I was still unable to fully answer this question (I had the total number of restaurants, market size etc, but I did not have the number of non-franchise establishments).  I turned to Google for answers and in the process found not only the answer to my question, but also an interesting free resource: Franchise Direct (http://www.franchisedirect.com/).  What is Franchise Direct?

Franchise direct is a site designed for people who are considering taking the plunge and opening up their own franchise, say a Starbucks, for example.  The site, as far as I can tell, makes money by directing interested parties to franchise opportunities.  To make the site more attractive to prospective franchise owners, Franchise Direct provides industry information for each franchise vertical it profiles, for example coffee houses or housecleaning services. 

How Can Librarians and Researchers Benefit from Franchise Direct?

The reports on Franchise Direct are actually pretty good and typically contain market sizing, demographic, and industry-trend data.  Their data and analysis are not de novo.  The information for their typical industry report comes from major research firms like NDP and Frost & Sullivan, in addition to data from industry associations etc.   Franchise direct also has data on the capital requirements for various franchises, which is an interesting data point in its own right.

Are there any Problems with the Site?

Franchise Direct does have some major drawbacks, though.  Consistency is a big problem for this site.  Some industries have very light industry profiles while others have no information at all.  Thus, mining Franchise Direct for market intelligence is something of a tossup.  You can rest assured that popular franchises like coffee houses or pizza restaurants will have good market reports, while less popular verticals, like courier franchises, will have less attention.  The site, which has been around for approximately 9 years, does not seem particularly interested in filling in these gaps. 

In any case, Franchise Direct is a great resource to keep in your back pocket.  It has very useful market information on consumer industries that have a multitude of franchising opportunities, not to mention details and data on starting a franchise.  Check it out here: http://www.franchisedirect.com/

Follow That Dollar!

I'll file this post under "Am I The Last To Know About This?".  Today I got a dollar stamped with "Track me at www.wheresgeorge.com". How could I resist? I went to the site and was greeted with a button saying "I found a WheresGeorge bill, and I want to see where it has been". So I typed in the serial number and found out that my bill  "has travelled 688 Miles in 177 Days, 1 Hr, 1 Min at an average of 3.9 Miles per day.  It is now 688 Miles from its starting location. "  It even came with a handy Google Map showing me its route. You can even set up an alert to keep track of where your bill goes after you spend it. Fun! According to their homepage, WheresGeorge is currently tracking 212,927,508 bills for a total of $1,145,953,996. They've also got a great page of links for interesting money facts as well as links to sites tracking bills in other countries, including the United Kingdom (www.whereslizzy.com), India (www.trackgandhi.com) and Germany (Wo ist Mein Geld (Where's My Money?) www.woistmeingeld.de) among others.

Cycling for Libraries Day 5 & 6: On to Estonia

Day 5  - 34 miles After waking up at the mountain day spa in Ligatne, Latvia, we were treated to a delicious breakfast buffet and we got the see for Cycling for Libraries videos of the trip on the big screen. Hopefully, you have been following along with the videos. It was truly amazing for have an entire film crew following our every move. This just wasn't any film crew. These guys are from the Finnish Library television station, Kirjastokaista. Their job is to film library events and promote libraries full-time. How cool is that?!

One of the many forest trails we rode (or maybe walked :) in Latvia

We set off for Cesis on a cool overcast morning. We had no idea what a treat we were in for. We cycled down the mountain and then did some real mountain biking over the river and through the woods. We biked to a castle in Cesis where we were greeted by the local librarians and the mayor. To top it all off our fearless leader Mace Ojala was knighted during the reenactment ceremony. Although it rained on us, that didn't stop the party atmosphere. While waiting  for lunch, we danced in the drizzle to disco and the Beach Boys.

The knighting ceremony

That afternoon we arrived in Valmeira and were treated to a feast of traditional Latvian food and local beer at a museum. After dinner there was a ceremony of folk traditions and peals of laughter rang out as we attempted to dance some traditional Latvian dances. One of the highlights of our trip was the focus on the singing culture of the Baltics. All three countries, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, have strong folk song traditions, and many of our Cycling for Libraries cultural events involved singing. We loved it!

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Our delicious meal in Valmeira

Day 6 - 50 miles

This was another long day of riding that took us to the half way point of the trip. We saw two very different types of libraries as finally made our way to Estonia. Our first stop was the Valmeira Library. It is a combined academic and public library with the Vidzeme University College in one half of the building and the public library in the other. The library just opened in 2007 and it was  a beautiful space. Questions raised during the presentation and tour were about shared spaces and resources and how it was possible. Valmeira is making it work and it brings to light a different approach to allocating limited resources.

Valmiera Library

Our next stop was what we called the prairie library. The Jaunklida Public Library is located in a rural community of 250 inhabitants. Because it is so remote, the library also serves as a community center. Once a month the library hosts the local doctor, social worker, and even the hairdresser, making the library the epicenter of the town. It is such a cool space that patrons also have their weddings there.

The Jaunklida Public Library

The sister cities of Valka, Latvia and Volga, Estonia share a border where you cross seamlessly between countries, but they don't share the same language or currency. We were greeted with music and fruit in Valka.

Valka Town Hall and Mayor (in the distance)

The delicious berries and water that were presented to us at nearly every Latvian library we visited

Then, we rode our bikes across the border to Estonia. We were hours late by the time we got to the town of Volga, but our greeting party was still there waiting. We toured the local library. Then, we met the mayor and saw an entire show put on by the dance/singing troupe in Volga. We were blown away by the talent and generosity of the people there.

Dinner that night was a traditional Estonian meal and it was worth staying up late and cycling in the dark to get there.

Stay turned for more Cycling for Libraries adventures!

By April Kessler and Karen Holt of Librarian Lifestyle. April & Karen are librarians at the University of Texas at Austin.

Retro Ads from Ad*Access by Duke University Libraries

Whether they prompt you to scratch your head and ask "They said what to sell that?!," or incite your inner-vintage-monster to go on yet another Mad Men bender, the high quality scans of advertisements in Ad*Access are worth a look back in time.  Chock full of thousands of printed ad spanning the early-mid 1900's, this database's five primary categories are Beauty & Hygiene, Radio, TV, Transporation, and WWII. Because I can't state it any better, here's what the About page says:  "Ad*Access is a pilot project to make a selection of historical advertisements available for study and research. The project draws on part of a large collection of magazine and newspaper ads within the Duke library's J. Walter Thompson Company Archives." (I especially recommend reading the Preservation paragraph if you want a bit of perspective on how Duke's archivists managed these materials.)

Simply put, this is a major tool for those doing advertising or marketing research through an historical lens.  And this database, an end-product with hundreds of hours of work behind it, is free for anyone to use.  Sold!

You'll find more free advertising resources here.

The Arab World Unbound

This week I had the honor of hearing Dr. Vijay Mahajan speak at the Texas Enterprise Speakers Series about his latest book The Arab World Unbound: Tapping into the Power of 350 Million Consumers. Mahajan spent 3 years of traveling the region and interviewed over 600 local and multinational companies like Coca-cola and Unilever already doing business in the large and growing market. He breaks down stereotypes about the people and culture and demonstrates  how globally connected and vibrant the Arab markets are.

The Financial Times says "Prof Mahajan's excitement about the Arab world is almost palpable...he is a fine writer and he presents factual details, statistics and concepts in a breezy, easy to read manner."

This is Mahajan's third book about consumers markets in developing countries. Also check out The 86 Percent Solution: How to Succeed in the Biggest Market Opportunity of the Next 50 Years and Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think.

Free Email Address Verification

Quick Email Address Verification: The other day, I found myself in an interesting situation.  I wanted to get in touch with the VP of marketing of a local company and all I knew was that their company email addresses ended with @companyX.com.   I had a hunch that this person’s email address adhered to one or four common email-address conventions, but couldn’t be sure.  My experience has been that most company email addresses are built accordingly:

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

To verify that I was correct, and to ensure that I wasn’t targeting the wrong person or sending my message blindly into the ether, I set out to find a good, free email verification tool.  There are actually several sites out there that allow users to validate emails for free.  Here is a breakdown of the free tools that have risen to the top of the search heap:

http://www.verifyemailaddress.org/

http://verify-email.org

http://my-addr.com

http://www.email-unlimited.com/tools/verify-email.aspx

The tests I ran on all of these programs yielded the same results.  However, there were some features that distinguished the good from the bad—namely the number of addresses you can validate in one sitting.

Of these programs, I liked www.verifyemailaddress.org the best.  These folks pay at least some attention to usability, allow you to verify lots of addresses (some sites only allow 5/hour), and don’t bombard users with ads.  All and all, not bad.  If you’re working in a company and want to scrub the email addresses in your database, this site also offers a bulk verification tool (not free).  Here is a screen shot to demonstrate the look and feel of the site:

 

Tools like these are incredibly useful for librarians, CI analysts, sales people, or anyone else who wants to reach out to an expert, potential client, or anyone with whom they are not immediately connected.  I suggest keeping verifyemailaddress.org in your back pocket, should the need to figure out someone’s email address ever arise. 

In the Emerald Multimedia Zone

For those who are not familiar with Emerald, it refers to both a prized variety of beryl as well as the name of a major publishing group in the realm of academia.  And with any "major" company, we really like when they dole out free swag, because, well, it's usually good swag.  While Emerald tragically is not giving away their mineral namesakes, we can't complain about their Multimedia Zone. It deserves a (green perhaps?) thumbs-up for being seeded with some kernels of business insight in the form of short videos and podcasts for anyone's viewing and listening pleasure.  First dig into the Talking Management video channel, which per Emerald, "features insightful interviews with leading business figures and management writers." Then if you still haven't gotten enough, try burrowing into the Podcasts page, where you can listen in or view the transcripts- they read not unlike news articles- to uncover new insights across a range of business topics.