Zinio: digital magazines

Welcome to 2014 and your library's subscription to 50 digital magazines you can download to tablet, smartphone or PC. To take advantage of the Zinio service:
1. Go to Zinio Morris subscription page; log in with your library card number.
2. Create new account (remember this email and password..you'll use it again!)
3. Review and check out your magazine issues (See link for checkout under each issue)
4. Scroll to bottom of page to get the Zinio app you need, for Android, IOS or the Zinio Reader for your computer. (Kindle Fire instructions here.)
5. In the Zinio app or reader set up account again (this is your Zinio account, first one was your subscription account). Avoid confusion? use same username and password both times.

Now! whenever you log into the Zinio app or reader tap My Library and you'll see the magazine issues you borrowed, available for reading. Questions or problems? Let us know. It's a new service and we're all learning together. Thanks.

Foundation Directory online

We now have the Foundation Directory Online (sorry, in library only, not from home). Very useful! if your non-profit is looking for money. 700 funders listed in NJ alone. Can search by various geographies (town, state, congressional district), by areas of interest supported, etc. Stop by Reference and ask the librarians to log you in. Results can be downloaded as Excel spreadsheet, so bring a flash drive! (or, email the list to yourself from our workstations).

New for ebooks

Our ebook vendor, OverDrive, has announced a new way to read within your web browser. This should make ebook retrieval easier, less dependent upon which device (smartphone, tablet, desk top?) you're using. It's still under development for Nooks and Kindle fire but is ready to go for both Mac and Windows operating systems.

Transparent government

Transparent government is an important section of the recently retooled County web site.. bills paid, minutes of Freeholders meetings, OPRA request form, etc. Give it a test drive?

Your collection

Pulling together our year-end stats..what you have available in your County Library:
252,122 books
16,491 music CDs/cassettes
14,515 movies
5,929 audiobooks
70 computers and wireless

2,886 e-books are also available through the county consortium OverDrive subscription

MCL an Outspoken Library

Under a grant from Disability Rights NJ to the State Library Talking Books & Braille Center, we're able to offer preloaded flash drives of audiobooks to eligible area residents. Those dealing with low vision, who register with the TBBC, can select from free services of the Outspoken Library:
audiobook player; audiobooks; braille books; downloadable audiobooks and audio magazines and news reading services (Audiovision, Newsline).

For more information on obtaining an audiobook flash drive contact our program coordinator Joanne Cronin or call Reader Services at (973) 285-6970.

IDing new businesses

Reference has just been asked: how do I identify new businesses in the area? There are several sources:

1. Search County Clerk's filings, document type search for TN (tradename), specifying the date range you want. Return includes name(s) of the principal and the incorporation document, which ID's type of business, location, etc. (We've also used searches for tradename surrenders to locate business space availability, as where a pizza parlor might be available for take over.)
2. NJ Business Gateway, Division of Revenue, Dept of the Treasury, sells tradename records. Do a tradename/service mark search, specifying your date range. You can purchase the list online, from the state ($4.17, for 119 filings Jan. 1-Mar. 1, 2013.)
3. Use ReferenceUSA, in our remote services page. Do a Custom Search, use Special Selects/years in business plus any geography or business type you might want. Since this search does not include cyber- or homebased businesses the list is miniscule compared to the state and county government lists.

Contact the reference desk if we can help with any of this.

Business focus group

The library would like to put together, in the first quarter of the year, a focus group of businesspeople from local small to mid-sized companies. Do you know the business resources we have for you? Are they in your preferred formats, print or online? Does your operation need research assistance? Let's talk about it. The northwest New Jersey Small Business Development Center has offered to also do an info session for the group.

Call (973-285-6969) or email the reference desk to sign on to a roundtable about your business information needs

Your databases

With adds, drops and tweaks, we begin 2012 with 35 databases, about half of which you can also use from home. (Sometimes the cost of remote access is prohibitive!) New this year are:
PowerSpeak: instruction in seven foreign languages and ESL for Spanish and Mandarin speakers
Dow Jones LP Galante, venture capital firms
S & P Industry Surveys (has been added to our existing S & P NetAdvantage)
Prices for Antiques, auction prices for collectibles and art
LoisLaw
PACER, the US Courts electronic case tracking system

Expanded is Foreign firms in../US firms overseas, from UniWorld. We had a subscription to NJ only, have expanded it to national. This resource is particularly valuable to those of you who are bilingual and might look for employment with overseas firms having offices here, or vice versa.
Questions about any of this? Contact our Reference desk, (973) 285-6969.

FamilySearch

We've just been granted Family Search affiliate library status by the Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. This means we'll be able to rent ($5 per reel is your fee) microfilm from them, for you, through our interlibrary loan office.
The Utah library recommends these tools for determing what's in their collections:

FamilySearch Pilot
FamilySearch Indexing
FamilySearch Wiki

The bottom line

Among our spending reviews is year-end unit cost analyses of the databases we buy for your use (Ancestry (library edition), Mergent, Morningstar, Dun & Bradstreet, etc. etc.) At the end of the calendar year we divide the annual cost of a database by the number of uses, to get the per session amount. $2 or less is acceptable, over $2 means its time to reconsider the subscription.

A few titles are on the 2012 chopping block at this point, will be dropped if use doesn't increase substantially and lower the per use cost this year. AllData Automotive, Mergent Online, Morningstar Investment Research Library and Valueline are all candidates for a drop..the last for an announced $3,000 price increase, the others for low use. Best ROI? Ancestry, the library edition (which is far superior to the home edition); folks love genealogy research.

Databases you can use from home are found on our remote resources web. Our library value calculator estimates the cost benefit of your library visits.

Jobs & Career Accelerator

New database, from the NJ State Library and a jobs grant: Jobs & Career Accelerator/Learning Express allows you to take practice tests and software lessons (Excel, Viseo, PowerPoint, etc.). Register (free) to set up your own work space to save those practice exams or come in and use the library's login if you just want to try out the product, first. For home use, contact the Reference desk (973-285-6969 or e-mail ) for the password.

MCL on your cell

What's your preferred method of keeping up with library events and programs while on the road?
Twitter?
Facebook?
Foursquare?

or, use our micro web for your cell.

Geocaching

Meet Geomate Jr, available at the Music & Media desk for a 14-day loan, so you can try geocaching, the GPS assisted scavenger hunt for caches left by folks out and about in open, public spaces. There are 3,101 of these "geocaches" within striking distance of Whippany, alone, including one 331 ft from the front door of the library. (See getting started with geocaching for information. We also have books about geocaching.)

This device from LLBean is preloaded with 250,000 geocache locations, allowing you and your family to try out seeking and finding. Wear sturdy clothes, for you might end up tromping through brush and bush; sign and date the log in the cache when you find it; if you take something from the cache, put something in its place; and always, always put the cache back where you found it, for those who come after you. For more information and a list of local caches, visit geocaching.com They estimate there are currently 997,008 active caches, 3-4 million worldwide, and were 2,097,268 cache log sign-ins in the last thirty days. Have fun!

Homeschooling?

Is your family homeschooling? The library offers resources and support.