Sponsored by East Baton Rouge Parish Library
The East Baton Rouge Parish Library isn’t only a place to take your children for story time – its free resources can help position your business to achieve even greater success if you take advantage of them. Along with reference books and online databases, specially trained business librarians can show you how to use those resources to their full potential. Whether your business is still a dream, just starting out or well-established, here’s how the library can help you reach your goals.
EBRPL Small Business Services
For someone just starting out, EBRPL Small Business Services offers online planning tools, access to online courses, e-books and many other resources. Its business librarians, who now have set office hours every Thursday from 4-6 p.m., can help with creating a business plan that could be used to secure funding, market analysis to determine what sort of competition exists in a specific area, or exploring demographic information to research potential clients or customers.
The library can also provide a wealth of information for longtime business owners. For example, the library’s databases can generate sales lists to be used for marketing purposes, while its digital library offerings include training courses for owners and employees. Online courses include both hard and soft skills – think customer service, computer skills or bookkeeping – and the business librarians can help put together a customized plan.
“People may think the library is just for babies and story time, but more than half of the resources we invest in are for adults, and not just the latest novels. These are premium materials that adults in our community use to better their lives,” says Assistant Director Mary Stein.
For business owners who may know a lot about their product or service, but very little about how to run an effective business, the tools offered by the library can help. An even bigger value is that when you visit the library, you don’t just have access to these resources, you have a trained professional who can help pull the specific data you need.
“All of this business intelligence data that normally you’d pay good money for, we can do it for free,” Stein says. In 2023, tens of thousands of East Baton Rouge Parish Library patrons visited business databases, searched for information and viewed reports. Here are details regarding the top databases and their use this past year.
Business database highlights for 2023:
- A directory used to generate sales leads and consumer info
- 10,415 logins and 16,338 searches in 2023
Gale Business: DemographicsNow
- Demographics and consumer data
- 40,867 page views in 2023
- Investing and market data
- 16,752 views in 2023
- Statistics, industry outlooks, consumer market outlooks
- 1,570 reports viewed in 2023
Business Librarian Office Hours:
East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s business librarians are now holding office hours where library patrons can discuss all things business. Librarians are available at the Main Library at Goodwood every Thursday from 4-6 p.m. or by appointment at other times. Whether your business is still a dream, just starting out or well-established, these business librarians can help you optimize its potential.
