Using the Blackberry

I am, along with two other research librarians, testing the usefulness and functionality of the Blackberry 8820. It's not perfect, but by and large I am finding that it is extremely useful. Many of the students who contact me are very surprised with how quickly I am able to reply. I am able to do this with little or no sacrifice on my part as well, and if it is really is a vacation day or a holiday I just turn it off and pretend that it is locked back at my office and attached to the wall with a wire.

I think that librarians deserve mobile telephones, email, and web browsing capability so that we can stay in touch without having to remain seated next to our wall mounted telephones.

Anyway, today's Wall Street Journal (3.31.08) has an article about the emerging technology that will be coming soon to mobile telephone communications. Here is the citation to that article:

Jessica E. Vascellaro (2008, March 31). Technology (A Special Report); Coming Soon to a Phone Near You: Your cellphone is about to get a lot smarter; Here's what to expect in the months ahead. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. R.1. Retrieved March 31, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1454142301).

I will take this opportunity to instruct the Villanova community by telling you that the full text of the Wall Street Journal is available via ABI/Inform Proquest. Look it up there yourselves.

I would like to know how much a mobile telephone costs to acquire, operate, and maintain compared to the traditional non-mobile wall / desk mounted unit with the cords and big, easy to read, buttons.

Manufacturing Costs

Lots of questions about this recently...

I have two really good sources, ThomasNet and Alibaba, but you need to learn jargon for material types, sizes, thicknesses, colors, how many you are planning to order, shapes, colors, coatings...

You can get a lot of this background data from reviewing similar patents and from reading articles related to your product in trade publications.

Addendum to International Trade

For those of you that need to know about what products your target country trades or doesn't trade with the United States. Foreign Trade Statistics by Country from the US Bureau of the Census should be just the ticket. Use either SITA or NAICS interactive queries.

International Economics/Trade Data

A few students in a section of International Economics have contacted Bartley Business Info Center and Falvey Memorial Library looking for detailed export statistics for European countries. Most of our statistical databases (Global Insight, EIU, GMID, World Bank) simply offer time series of overall trade. The country profiles offered by EIU, and Datamonitor through MarketLine briefly mention key trade partners and top commodities exported but don't provide extensive data. OffStats a portal for authoritative statistics by country often links to foreign language sources

The United Nations International Trade Center offers excellent tables of exports by product group for many countries in English. Use the drop down menu to choose your target country and link to the export statistical table. This resource may be your best bet for this assignment. Besides offering basic statistics, the ITC offers trade competitiveness rankings by commodity.

Business Research FAQ

Computer technicians at Falvey Memorial Library are working on creating something similar to this Research FAQ but until they are finished with that effort I have built a very simple Business Research FAQ using free software called del.icio.us and I hope that you find it useful.

I even tagged resources that are extremely useful to particular classes, like MKT 1137, MGMT 1102.

Check it out:

Business Research FAQ

del.icio.us links

Management 1102 Surveys

Many of you have seen and replied to the Library Use survey in your 1102 WebCT pages. Thank you. If you haven't seen the survey but still think that you can make a valuable contribution that will improve library services to yourself and other students just email me and I will send you a copy of the survey.

Also, for MGMT 1102 students, don't forget that you have resource guide online as well as an entire list of tagged resources under the Business Research FAQ.

Library Workout Video