BLINC Workshops, 2003-May 2011
March 2003 (Greensboro): "At 10:00am, we began the first of hopefully many great BLINC meetings with 14 business professionals attending. What a great start!" (from the minutes). Introducing ourselves; our specialties. What this group could do. Sharing favorite research tools. BLINC's next steps? Let's meet quarterly for workshops, sharing, etc. Communicating through Blackboard.
July 2003 (Winston-Salem): Discussion of if BLINC should become a section of NCLA. Round robin reports on recent conferences and training events, including new vendor products and library service programs. Trying to figure out NC LIVE's database selection process, and how BLINC can suggest databases to increase libraries' role in economic development. Vendor presentation on ReferenceUSA.
October 2003 (Elon): discussion of NC KNOWS launch. Ranking BLINC's goals. Presentation on NC SLA; discussion of opportunities to work together. Unanimous decision to ask NCLA to take us as a section. Beginning of our discussion on NC LIVE resources; too much existing overlap; other content areas that need to be considered. Sharing business resources.
January 2004 (Greensboro): training on state demographic resources by Michele Haslett. Drafting recommendations on business databases for NC LIVE. Finishing up the BLINC by-laws and other organizational details as we prepare to join NCLA as a section. Update on business support for NC Knows.
May 2004 (Burlington): Updates on our NCLA section transition. Resource sharing and discussion.
August 2004 (Chapel Hill): Gale Group presentation by its national manager of business content; presentation and discussion by the IRS' service to small business and the self-employed.
February 2005 (RTP): GIS research tools and strategies; NCLA conference planning; Carolina Consortium & business databases
May 2005 (Winston-Salem): WSSU professor presentation on faculty expectations of librarians. Discussion of providing business research training around the state. Vendor presentation from Standard & Poor's.
August 2005 (Cullowhee): presentation and discussion on regional development; NCLA conference planning; discussion of NC LIVE new databases
November 2005 (Wilmington): recap of BLINC activities at the NCLA conference. Preview of new NC LIVE line-up. 2-year strategic planning for BLINC; SWOT analysis of BLINC.
February 2006 (Raleigh): Ebsco presentation on developments in Business Source Premier. Discussion of the Carolina Consortium. Demonstration of Euromonitor Global Market Information Database.
May 2006 (Greensboro): Morningstar demonstration; ReferenceUSA update; vendor presentation by Business Decision. Resource sharing and discussion.
August 2006 (Charlotte): ? [Can't find the minutes]
November 2006 (Durham): CCH vendor presentation. More resource sharing. Planning our first fee-based workshop.
February 2007 (Shelby): joint workshop and networking with the Community & Junior College Libraries section of NCLA.
May 2007 (Boone): review of our NCLA conference plans, including our first preconference. Presentations from SCORE, Small Business Technology Development Center, and ASU's Center for Entrepreneurship, with discussion.
November 2007 (Greensboro): ReferenceUSA vendor presentation. Discussion of NC LIVE databases with the NC LIVE executive director. Planning our Entrepreneurship Summit involvement.
February 2008 (Winston-Salem): Real estate data through American FactFinder/Census. Sources for demographic projections. NCLA update and goals. Supporting the NC Entrepreneurship Summit.
April 2008 (Burlington): IBIS vendor presentation; NC LIVE feedback on trials; review of our involvement with the Entrepreneurial Summit in Greensboro and the Small Business Expo in Raleigh.
July 2008 (Raleigh): Ebsco vendor presentations. Discussion of how we market our business resources to patron groups. ALA conference recap.
Special workshop:
September 2008 (RTP): Business Intelligence on a Budget, a joint workshop with NC-SLA
Special workshop:
September 2008 (Greensboro): Business Collection Development
November 2008 (Raleigh): Review of our special fall workshops. Research project overview: analysis of chat reference questions from NCSU. Discussion of staff training programs. SimplyMap vendor demonstration.
February 2009 (Greensboro): BLINC programming at the NCLA conference. BLINC moving from using Blackboard to a Google Group for communication. Discussion of libraries' budget issues. Overview of EDIS from the NC Dept. of Commerce.
May 2009 (Raleigh): ReferenceUSA update; preview of BRASS events at ALA next month; discussion with the Business Consultant, NC Dept of Commerce, Business Services Division. NCLA conference planning. Overview of the financial literacy grants awarded to Durham County and Greensboro Public. Update on EDIS content, NC Dept. of Commerce. Library programming on job hunting.
Special Workshop
May 2009 (Greensboro): Business Collection Development, part 2
August 2009 (Burlington): NCLA conference planning. Gale Group presentation on Career Transitions. Update on our Update on Business Research Support Initiative. Discussion about BLINC helping NC LIVE with business questions (becomes AskBLINC).
Special workshop:
August 2009 (Elon): hands-on training on SimplyMap, Mintel, Euromonitor, Marketresearch.com, and other resources.
December 2009 (Durham): all about nonprofits -- researching them, serving their needs, etc.; social networking/Web 2.0 training
March 2010 (Charlotte): Economic Census training from the local US Dept. of Commerce office. Web 2.0 training and discussion.
May 2010 (High Point): Best practices in teaching business research skills. Instructional design/active learning, outreach to faculty, Outreach to business community. Best practices in helping non-business librarians answer business questions. Economic Census follow-up (case study). The new NC LIVE business portal.
August 2010 (Elon): Services and resources for supporting job hunters; breakout sessions for public and academic libraries. More Web 2.0 training and discussion. Follow-up on best practices in teaching and training. Presentation on NC LIVE's Job and Career Accelerator Demonstration. Vendor update on ReferenceUSA (new mapping function).
November 2010 (Raleigh): innovative or entrepreneurial business librarianship programs and proposals; techniques for teaching business research, part 2: using the NC LIVE business portal; instructional tech tool kit. Promoting our AskBLINC/NCLA service.
January 2011 (Winston-Salem): BLINC's NC LIVE recommendations for 2012-14. Brainstorming BLINC programs for the NCLA conference.
May 2011 (Wilmington): research & support for small businesses and entrepreneurship: hands-on training of research tools and strategies, and discussion of library service activities.
