Ford Library

I  love to hear a student ask about a city’s cost of living because it means they’ve begun salary negotiations.  This morning, at 10:43,  I noticed the beginning of that happiest of times – job offer season.  A student asked for a reliable source for local level cost of living data because he couldn’t trust what he’d found on the web.

Sometimes those words are like angels singing to my ears.  It means there are still a few things I have tucked away in the reference collection that can really help someone with a major decision.  In this case, it’s the ACCRA Cost of Living Index.  Not a stunning title, but this quarterly publication issued by the Council for Community and Economic Research, provides cost of living and comparative price data for 390 US urban areas.  In addition, it also offers an equation that allows users to compare the cost of living in one city to another.

So when that offer comes through, look for the latest AACRA Cost of Living Index.  Better yet, stop by the reference desk and I’ll show it to you.  Happy Job Offer Season!

Silk, a Taiwanese film, focuses on a group of researchers who have captured the ghost of a little boy.  In a sublimely creepy scene, one of the researchers does manage to capture the spirit’s attention, and the ghost shifts from mysterious to menacing. This film provides the viewer with far more character motivation than the average horror flick.

File The Children under the “creepy kid” genre of horror movies. Actually these children go past creepy straight into homicidal. As a bonus this twisted, frightening British production is set during Christmas and well-acted to boot.

Not the Angelina Jolie movie but an older George C. Scott film from 1981, The Changeling contains the best seance scene in a movie ever. It’s a haunted house/ghost story done far better done than most. Director Peter Medak includes very few cheap “jump” scares, but there are numerous chilling scenes. Highly recommended.

Be sure to check out the other horror movies right next to our latest DVDs and feel free to ask me for other recommendations as horror is my favorite genre!

Many years ago when I still worked on Wall Street, I used a set of directories called simply The Yellow Books.  There was one for the federal government that helped me locate people within departments that I could never find before and after the internet.  It was my one source to find direct contact information for people who made decisions.

Fast forward 20 years, the publishers, who also created corporate directories, turned their suite of products into the Leadership Library.  This powerful tool allows me to not only look up individuals within an organization, but also search across the entire database for a person’s college, job title, and expertise.  The Leadership Library then provides contact information that can include phone numbers and email.

If you’re interested in using the Leadership Library and need help, let me know, jnday at duke dot edu.

Founded in 1916, The Conference Board is an independent research group that focuses on corporate leadership; economies, markets and value creation; high-performing organizations; and human capital.  Their reports are considered by corporate decision makers to be the best on key issues such as economic analysis as well as management, leadership, and corporate citizenship best practices.

In addition to their white papers, The Conference Board is also known for its Consumer Confidence Survey as well as its annual executive salary report.

Though not a resource used by our students daily, it is one that is essential to business leaders looking for trusted, thorough analysis on today’s most important issues.

Continuing the focus on international resources, I thought this would be a good month to highlight Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands (KBS), a database of dos and don’ts around the world.

Searchable by country, KBS provides you with a look at the country’s history, government, key phrases, views, protocol, business etiquette, and more.  If you need to know what’s expected of you if hosting a dinner party or what you can expect during a deal negotiation, this will be a useful source for you.  In addition to business settings, you will also learn about cultural norms and safety tips thus giving you a better insight on why dinner starts after 9pm or when to be wary of volcanoes.  This is an entertaining and informative resource whether you’re traveling to Europe this summer or staying home.

Last month I posted on the language program Byki, this month I’d like to highlight ISI Emerging Markets, a database that covers the world’s most dynamic economies.  Several times a year, Fuqua students study about and travel to locations such as China, South Africa, and India.  On these trips, they tour major companies which allows them to witness how business is conducted, products are made, and strategies are planned.

One of the resources I point them to when they’re planning their visit is ISI Emerging Markets, a database covering more than 30 countries.  Pulling their content from current economic data, company and industry information, news both in English and non-English, and financial market reports, this source is a one stop shop for much of their research.  In addition, our international students find it a useful repository for current and past news from familiar sources which may be hard to locate when abroad.  While much of this information might be found on the open web, ISI’s ease of use and scope make this an essential database for anyone interested in global economics, news, or business.

Many  Fuqua students travel – hmm – scratch that and replace with all Fuqua students travel.

Over the years we’ve collected a number of Pimsleur language instruction CDs which have been extremely popular campus-wide.  And though we have CDs for French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, and Hindi, there were languages we didn’t have.

However, all that’s changed.  The Duke Libraries have recently subscribed to a new online language instruction resource called Byki Online.  With over 70 languages, from Afrikaans to Zulu, you’ll find blogs, flashcards, words-of-the-day, and many other tools to speed your conversational skills.

You can locate additional information here, and after signing up, start your new language adventure.

Tomorrow is the first day of March, and in honor of the In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb month, I decided to feature Zephyr, the Bureau van Dijk corporate deals resource.  Of the M&A databases the Ford Library subscribes to, Zephyr is the easiest to access, search, and download current and historical deals worldwide.  In addition, the user can create league tables on deal vendors such as the firms providing legal representation or acting as the financial advisors.

Located on the Ford Library database page, users can either perform a simple company search or can select the expert search link to locate deals according to geographic location, deal type, industry, or financials.  Then the user can select from the tabs located at the top of the page to list the deals, see them as a brief record or in full.

If you have questions about using Zephyr, let me know.  Happy searching!

What was once a series of advertising related directories became an online source a few years back.  Regrettably, the publishers of SRDS hasn’t figured out how to integrate all these directories into a more integrated search platform, leaving  the user to trawl through each publication rather than being able to search them all at once.  To me, this is unfortunate because deep within this hodgepodge of directories are details not found anywhere else.

Wondering how many cooking magazines there are, how much it would cost to advertise in them, or how many subscribers there were for each?  Then use SRDS Consumer Media Advertising  Source.  Or my favorite gem,  Local Market Audience Analyst includes demographic and lifestyle information on the city/county level, so if you’ve wondered what the average person in Greensboro thinks about buying locally this would be your source.

Hopefully the publisher will upgrade their search engine, but use patience, you’ll be glad you did.

Our latest additions to the DVD collection:

Howl
Legacy
Machete
The Other Guys
Resident Evil : Afterlife
Salt
Social Network
The Town
Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps
Pillars of the Earth