Updated: Ford Library Closed Friday-Sunday, 8/17 – 8/19

August 17th, 2018

UPDATED (8/19/2018) : Ford Library will re-open to patrons at 1PM on Monday, August 20

At 8:30am, Friday morning (8/17/18), Ford Library experienced major water pipe breaks in the spaces above our main circulation and service desks and many staff offices.

As a result, Ford Library is closed to patrons effective immediately until further notice (Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, 8/17-8/19).  An update will be posted Sunday evening (8/19/18) regarding our hours for patron access (if any) on Monday, 8/20.

Delivery of and access to physical materials will be delayed until next week.  Reference and research assistance services will be available by email — reference-librarians@fuqua.duke.edu — during our normal hours.

Online services and resources provided by Ford Library have not been affected, and remain available through our web site.

Please send any questions related to this matter to us at library@fuqua.duke.edu.

Thanks for your patience and understanding as we work to deal with this challenge.

New Movies for August

August 15th, 2018

Our latest additions to the DVD collection are:

DisobedienceExpanse DVD Cover
The Expanse, season 3
I Feel Pretty
Isle of Dogs
Journey’s End
Kings
Lean on Pete
The Miracle Season
A Quiet Place
Ready Player One
Truth or Dare
Tully

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

Welcome, New Students!

August 10th, 2018

Student studyingThe Ford Library welcomes you to Fuqua! We can help you reach your peak performance at Fuqua by connecting you with key information resources.

Students bring an energy and vitality to our university and to our city. We hope your move went smoothly and that as you explore the city and the university, you come to enjoy your new home as much as we do.

Duke Libraries are among the elite libraries of the world. Since you have found your way to the Ford Library blog, you must already know that the library web pages give you access to the library 24 hours every day. You can access the online catalog for all of Duke’s libraries as well as the libraries of other research universities in the area, including UNC and NC State (noted in the catalog as TRLN Libraries). Besides print resources, the Duke catalog gives you access to the thousands of full-text journals, eBooks, and audiobooks that you can download to your own device or borrow as a Ford Library Kindle.

I also invite you to come to our library, one of Duke’s best study spots (“like reading in a forest” – an actual quote from an MBA), and a quiet place to study. Introduce yourself to Jane Day, our fabulous director of reference services or consult with any of our reference librarians in person, by e-mail or by online chat.

We can help you be successful during your time here at Fuqua.

New Movies for July

July 18th, 2018

Our latest additions to the DVD collection are listed below:

The EndlessWestworld DVD cover
Love, Simon
Pacific Rim: Uprising
Thoroughbreds
Westworld, season 1
The Death of Stalin
Game Night
A Wrinkle in Time

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

Book Review: An American Sickness

July 16th, 2018

Rosenthal, Elisabeth. An American sickness : how healthcare became big business and how you can take it back. Penguin Press, 2017.

book cover imageAn American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal is a sobering look at the history and current state of the American healthcare system. Rosenthal, a journalist and former physician, paints a bleak picture, but her accessible style and systematic organization make the book an engaging read.

Rosenthal pulls no punches, beginning with “Ten Economic Rules of the Dysfunctional Medical Market” which include “A lifetime of treatment is preferable to a cure,” and “As technologies age, prices can rise rather than fall.” She periodically refers back to these rules when logic and common sense fail.

Each chapter begins with a brief history of a part of the system such as insurance, hospitals, or pharmaceuticals, and then proceeds with an explanation of how each has changed in response to shifting values, to legislation, and to transformation in other parts – for example, how physician practices have affiliated themselves with hospital systems. Rosenthal pairs this overview with stories of patients, families, and doctors to help connect this complex system with personal healthcare decisions. While she presents a system that has moved from advancing patient well-being to delivering maximum profit, she generally absolves individuals; patients and caregivers are cast as victims of a predatory system. This portrayal may be an accurate reflection of the current system, but it is also the result of past decisions by many individuals who abdicated control of their healthcare decisions and dollars.

Rosenthal concludes with her solutions, which seem small and ineffectual against a vast and complicated system that hides true costs and deflects outside scrutiny. Her solutions are two-pronged: things to do immediately – such as asking for the cash cost of prescriptions or for an itemized hospital bill – and changes to advocate for on a systemic level over the long haul. In the appendices, she provides a number of useful tools to put these solutions into action. Rosenthal acknowledges that these solutions seem inconsequential, but encourages them nonetheless, emphasizing the power of numbers. If enough individuals take control of their healthcare and its costs, the system can be transformed into one that is both patient-centered and affordable. The book is a solid, if sometimes simplistic, introduction to a complicated topic.

Also available as an eBook and audiobook on OverDrive.

Book Review: Tribes

June 25th, 2018

An emerging concept in business is the tribe, a group with its own identity and culture and sometimes its own language. With a clear sense of belonging and intense loyalty, a tribe has a clear purpose. A tribe of committed individuals with a common vision and shared values can change the world.

book cover imageJunger, Sebastian. Tribe : on homecoming and belonging. Twelve, 2016.

Journalist, author and film director Sebastian Junger uses examples from his personal experiences as a war correspondent and his research on native Americans to explain that the wealth of modern society has spawned a desperate cycle of work and financial obligation, and also alienation, anxiety and depression. What is missing is a sense of belonging; an ethos that values loyalty and courage; and a fundamental egalitarianism. Junger’s “tribe” is a small group defined by a clear purpose and understanding. Recommended.

Also available as an eBook and audiobook on OverDrive.

book cover imageDean, Will. It takes a tribe : building the Tough Mudder movement. Portfolio/Penguin, 2017.

Will Dean is the founder and CEO of Tough Mudder, a $130M company that offers hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle mud run challenges that push participants to their limits. Promoting values of personal achievement and courage, Tough Mudders are also based on mutual cooperation and fun. Team based events offer a physical rite of passage that fosters loyalty and creates lasting bonds among members of the tribe. This is the entertaining story of the company and its founder.

Also available as an eBook and audiobook on OverDrive.

book cover imageFerris, Timothy. Tribe of mentors : short life advice from the best in the world. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.

Tim Ferris’s tribe is in name only. Ferris has made a lucrative career on getting the most impact out of the least amount of work. For his latest book, he sent 11 questions to 100 people and collected their shallow responses. Amazon reviewer Pop Tarts?! ROTFL has done my work for me when he sums it up this way: “This book is basically attempting to do what Tools of Titans has already done, but with way less valuable content. Kind of like that awesome blockbuster movie you saw that they made a lame, half-baked sequel to.”

Also available as an eBook on OverDrive.

© Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.

New Movies for June

June 20th, 2018

Here are latest additions  to the DVD collection:

AnnihilationAnnihilation Cover
Early Man
Mary and the Witch’s flower
Please Stand By
Red Sparrow
Black Panther
I Kill Giants
Miss Stevens
Wonderstruck

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

Book Review: Never Split the Difference

June 4th, 2018

Voss, Christopher. Never split the difference : negotiating as if your life depended on it. HarperBusiness, 2016.

Never Split the DifferenceNever Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It (2016) by Chris Voss with Tahl Raz explores a wealth of negotiating techniques presented in a framework of topical chapters that are meant to build on and to inform one another.

Throughout the book, Voss shares stories about his work as an FBI negotiator, beginning each chapter with a dramatic kidnapping or hostage situation. These anecdotes make the book hard to put down. The reader’s attention is kidnapped as well until the situation is resolved – and each technique explained.

An over-arching theme of the book is that creating adversarial relationships, quid pro quo bargaining, and compromise – what could be considered aspects of traditional negotiation – aren’t the best techniques or outcomes. Voss instead advocates listening actively, creating empathy, becoming comfortable with “no,” and humanizing your counterpart as just some of the tools of successful negotiators.

Voss teases out each technique, explaining it, showing how it is used in the process and providing tips, tricks, and easily memorized phrases to use. He also points out that negotiation is not a 1-2-3 process but a fluid dynamic where the skilled negotiator uses these tools interchangeably, repeatedly, and with emotional insight to move toward resolution.

The book can be challenging as Voss pushes his reader to understand that negotiation will at times be an uncomfortable and self-conscious process. For example, mirroring – an active listening technique that involves repeating what your counterpart is saying – can seem transparently manipulative, but can also be an effective way to build empathy.

Voss’s success in engaging his reader does falter, especially when he moves away from the life and death FBI negotiations to more mundane negotiations where one party can simply walk away from a deal. Further, his writing is sometimes gratingly self-promoting, as he repeatedly reminds his reader of his prestigious titles and positions. The experiences he relates are already more than sufficient to cement his reputation.

If the reader chooses to set aside these weaknesses, they can enjoy Never Split the Difference, as it delivers the excitement of a thriller with its hostage negotiation stories and presents the practical techniques that made these negotiations successful.

Also available as an eBook or audiobook on OverDrive and on Notable Business Books Kindles.

New Movies for May

May 17th, 2018

Here are our latest additions to the DVD collection:

All the Money in the World
The Commuter
My Friend Dahmer
The Greatest Showman
Hostiles
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
Molly’s Game
Peter Rabbit
Phantom Thread
The Post
Proud Mary
Winchester

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

Services and Resources for Alumni

May 15th, 2018

Congratulations on completing your Duke MBA! Whether you’re re-entering the working world, or continuing a job search, Ford Library has provided access to a select set of online databases and services that can help you.

Visit our Library web site and select “Alumni” from the top menu row to browse and access our services and online resources for alumni.

If you have questions about your access to resources not listed on our Library Databases For Alumni page, please visit our FAQ.

And again, CONGRATULATIONS!