Hello,
All of the major free online stock price services, BigCharts, Nasdaq, etc, drop historical coverage when a company's capital structure changes. This includes going private, bankruptcy, delisting from NYSE to pink sheets, etc. The Daily Stock Price Record is the best bet to avoid going through a broker. (Seattle Public Library has DSRP back to 1972 -- I do not know whether they will serve a Beaverton resident directly. Read on until you see the part about ILL) Also we can use the Wall Street Journal microfilm here. Subscription sources like CRSP, Datastream and Mergent Online will have data but they get pricy fast. Multnomah county librarians also routinely look in one of their subscriptions: New York Times Historical database -- with mixed results.
ILL could be utilized here if the quote cannot be located in the microfilm archives of WSJ, NYT, or Oregonian, or BigCharts, Nasdaq, etc, here at the Beaverton Library. Since approximately 2005 there is a drop off in printing stock quotes in the daily paper, so don't leave empty handed -- you could ask the librarian for an ILL form. Never know, maybe some nice library will look it up and do a photocopy request for you.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Support in Difficult Times
Experiencing serious illness in our families or with friends can be heartbreaking. From a patient's point of view, having to keep loved ones informed of tests and treatments can be exhausting. Those who want to be kept abreast of news are in that difficult position of not wanting to bother the patient, and yet wanting the person to know that they care. A website called CaringBridge offers support to both patients and loved ones during these difficult times.As the website states: Every free, personalized CaringBridge website includes:
- Patient care journal to update family and friends
- Guestbook for messages of love
- Photo gallery
- Free online support for using the service
Over 20 million families have turned to CaringBridge for comfort and support. You can create a website for yourself or for someone you love. Examples of those who have used the site include those experiencing a chronic illness, cancer treatment, recovery, rehabilitation, stroke or war injury. For those in need of a site such as this, CaringBridge is a wonderful link for patients and loved ones.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Movie Star Biographies
Here are a smattering of recent books on movie stars.
Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don't Care
By Lee Server
Robert Mitchum created a new style in movie acting--the hip antihero. His colorful life is covered comprehensively in this well-reviewed book.
American Prince: a memoir
By Tony Curtis
A forthright, intimate look at the life and times of this star of the silver screen.
She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography
Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don't Care
By Lee Server
Robert Mitchum created a new style in movie acting--the hip antihero. His colorful life is covered comprehensively in this well-reviewed book.
American Prince: a memoirBy Tony Curtis
A forthright, intimate look at the life and times of this star of the silver screen.
She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography
By Charlotte Chandler
Mae West created a scandal and a hit with the Broadway play Sex in 1926. She was convicted of obscenity and served 10 days in jail, emerging as a star. This biography is based on interviews with the star not long before her death.
By David Kaufman
A fascinating look at the woman behind the "All American, wholesome girl-next-door" box-office queen.
Sector Analysis for Investment Clubs at the Library
Sector Analysis is a task investors do to make sense of many many smaller industries that all relate to one another. For example Energy as a sector includes Coal, Distribution, Petroleum, Power, Natual Gas, & other related lines of business.
Value Line Industry Report
Not only does Value Line have full-page reports on about 1,700 stocks, but there are also analysis on more than 90 industries. Location in Beaverton City Library on 2nd floor,
Index Table 1. Use the slim insert inside the cover of the Value Line, called Summary and Index, look at bottom half of front page, and those list page #s to the various Industries that are included in Ratings and Reports--the thicker packets.
All the company reports in The Value Line Investment Survey are grouped by industry, and at the front of each industry group is a one- or two-page Industry Report. The information contained in each Industry Report may differ considerably from one industry to another, but
there is a general format we follow. The number of industries followed in The Value Line
Investment Survey is constantly changing. As companies drop out, usually because of mergers or acquisitions, we may discontinue an industry. On the other hand, as new industries develop, we add them.
More information on page 13 of this document go into depth about Industry Sectors
http://www.valueline.com/pdf/Complete_Overview_of_VLIS_FINAL.pdf
Mergent Industry Review
Index Table 1, East side of table.
Comparative rankings within 137 industries include: Revenues; Net income; Profit margins; Assets; Returns on equity; Returns on investment; Cash position; Evaluation of stock performance; Price/earning ratios; Yields; Mergent's short- and long-term price scores
Comparative statistics include: Key business ratios on industry groups; Table of comparative statistics;
Special ranking factors on specific industries include: Size of gross/net plant; Sales per dollar of gross; Return on net plant; Capital expenditures;
Standard and Poors Industry Surveys Index Table 1 East Side of Table
Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys are the fastest way to come up to speed on the players and events impacting over fifty (50) of the largest North American and global industries. Ideal for management consultants, strategic planners, money managers, public and academic librarians, students, and business faculty; Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys enable readers to think and act like industry insiders.
Beaverton does not actually subscribe to this quarterly, as it is released. The information inside is helpful to gain an understanding of the sectors, but the Multnomah County Library kindly donates one of these sets per year to us, and it's to be used with the understanding that if you want the current quarter, you could refer to Multnomah County Central Library for that.
Hoover's Handbook of Industry Profiles 2009 will be an item we are anticipating to purchase this year. It contains 300 industries.
Business and Company Resource Center does not do current sector analysis really, but it offers reports on hundreds and hundreds of individual lines of business. What do I mean? Whereas the products listed above will roll together several types of businesses into larger, more broad catagories, Business and Company Resource Center sticks to reports on each kind, each separate from the other. Example, they don't do an Energy Sector. They do a report on Petroleum Refining. There is a report on Coal Mining. A report on Natural Gas Liquid. A report on Petroleum Extraction. But not roll them together in a sector. And their reports are filled with lots of background on industries, whereas the reports above focus on investment oriented statistics.
Value Line Industry Report
Not only does Value Line have full-page reports on about 1,700 stocks, but there are also analysis on more than 90 industries. Location in Beaverton City Library on 2nd floor,
Index Table 1. Use the slim insert inside the cover of the Value Line, called Summary and Index, look at bottom half of front page, and those list page #s to the various Industries that are included in Ratings and Reports--the thicker packets.
All the company reports in The Value Line Investment Survey are grouped by industry, and at the front of each industry group is a one- or two-page Industry Report. The information contained in each Industry Report may differ considerably from one industry to another, but
there is a general format we follow. The number of industries followed in The Value Line
Investment Survey is constantly changing. As companies drop out, usually because of mergers or acquisitions, we may discontinue an industry. On the other hand, as new industries develop, we add them.
More information on page 13 of this document go into depth about Industry Sectors
http://www.valueline.com/pdf/Complete_Overview_of_VLIS_FINAL.pdf
Mergent Industry Review
Index Table 1, East side of table.
Comparative rankings within 137 industries include: Revenues; Net income; Profit margins; Assets; Returns on equity; Returns on investment; Cash position; Evaluation of stock performance; Price/earning ratios; Yields; Mergent's short- and long-term price scores
Comparative statistics include: Key business ratios on industry groups; Table of comparative statistics;
Special ranking factors on specific industries include: Size of gross/net plant; Sales per dollar of gross; Return on net plant; Capital expenditures;
Standard and Poors Industry Surveys Index Table 1 East Side of Table
Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys are the fastest way to come up to speed on the players and events impacting over fifty (50) of the largest North American and global industries. Ideal for management consultants, strategic planners, money managers, public and academic librarians, students, and business faculty; Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys enable readers to think and act like industry insiders.
Beaverton does not actually subscribe to this quarterly, as it is released. The information inside is helpful to gain an understanding of the sectors, but the Multnomah County Library kindly donates one of these sets per year to us, and it's to be used with the understanding that if you want the current quarter, you could refer to Multnomah County Central Library for that.
Hoover's Handbook of Industry Profiles 2009 will be an item we are anticipating to purchase this year. It contains 300 industries.
Business and Company Resource Center does not do current sector analysis really, but it offers reports on hundreds and hundreds of individual lines of business. What do I mean? Whereas the products listed above will roll together several types of businesses into larger, more broad catagories, Business and Company Resource Center sticks to reports on each kind, each separate from the other. Example, they don't do an Energy Sector. They do a report on Petroleum Refining. There is a report on Coal Mining. A report on Natural Gas Liquid. A report on Petroleum Extraction. But not roll them together in a sector. And their reports are filled with lots of background on industries, whereas the reports above focus on investment oriented statistics.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Repair/Troubleshoooting Help
Where do you go when your gadget, computer/ stroller/ refrigrator, breaks? Google works well but only if it’s something popular, like iPods for example. For less popular devices you might need more specialized resources. Two websites that can be of great help are the following:
1) Safemanual's/Diplodocs. http://safemanuals.com/ With nearly 900.000 user manuals this is the first site you should visit. Go and get the owner’s manuals for the device in question. There are a million reasons why your user manual gets separated from your item especially when you most need it.
So, Paris-based Safemanuals is certainly worth putting in your bookmarks. It’s a free service, has 880,000 user manuals online already and grows by around 500 user manuals daily.
Neither the uploading nor the downloading require registration or authentication and the site has already found that some manufacturers are using the site to distribute their user manuals.
If you either can't find your needed manual in the website above and/or already own one but still need help with your problem, then ask about it on the website below.
2) FixYa. http://www.fixya.com/ FixYa is a free tech support community for troubleshooting and fixing electronic gadgets. In 2005, too many product manufacturers were neglecting post-purchase customer support. While there were thousands of shopping sites and search engines, customers were looking to repair, modify and beautify their belongings were left at a loss.
Frustrated entrepreneur Yaniv Bensadon set out to build a community resource capable of providing relevant and up-to-date troubleshooting data for one million products.
Through the sites unique rating system, FixYa is allowing users to find the best solutions for the most common problems of each and every product that the site is covering. The best thing about this database is that it is based on true user experience rather than projected FAQ's by the manufacturer.
One Can: Browse Experts, Search databases of previously answered questions, Find Products, Find Cars, Find Manuals and User/HowTo Guides, Find Warranty Service Plans, Repair Service Directory, Ratings& Recommendations and more.
Happy troubleshooting.
1) Safemanual's/Diplodocs. http://safemanuals.com/ With nearly 900.000 user manuals this is the first site you should visit. Go and get the owner’s manuals for the device in question. There are a million reasons why your user manual gets separated from your item especially when you most need it.
So, Paris-based Safemanuals is certainly worth putting in your bookmarks. It’s a free service, has 880,000 user manuals online already and grows by around 500 user manuals daily.
Neither the uploading nor the downloading require registration or authentication and the site has already found that some manufacturers are using the site to distribute their user manuals.
If you either can't find your needed manual in the website above and/or already own one but still need help with your problem, then ask about it on the website below.
2) FixYa. http://www.fixya.com/ FixYa is a free tech support community for troubleshooting and fixing electronic gadgets. In 2005, too many product manufacturers were neglecting post-purchase customer support. While there were thousands of shopping sites and search engines, customers were looking to repair, modify and beautify their belongings were left at a loss.
Frustrated entrepreneur Yaniv Bensadon set out to build a community resource capable of providing relevant and up-to-date troubleshooting data for one million products.
Through the sites unique rating system, FixYa is allowing users to find the best solutions for the most common problems of each and every product that the site is covering. The best thing about this database is that it is based on true user experience rather than projected FAQ's by the manufacturer.
One Can: Browse Experts, Search databases of previously answered questions, Find Products, Find Cars, Find Manuals and User/HowTo Guides, Find Warranty Service Plans, Repair Service Directory, Ratings& Recommendations and more.
Happy troubleshooting.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Encyclopedia of Environment and Society
One of our newest reference acquisitions is the Encyclopedia of Environment and Society published by Sage Publications. This fascinating 5-volume set covers a wide variety of topics, all written by specialists within each field. Subjects include agriculture, animals, biology and chemistry, climate, conservation and ecology, country profiles, geography, history, movements and regulations, organizations, people, politics, pollution, and society. The introduction states that "despite (and in part because of) the diversity of entries assembled here, it is possible to identify some constant global themes that thread throughout the encyclopedia. Two of the most prominent are: 1) the emerging socio-environmental problems that we face in the next century, and 2) the shifting and expanding theoretical tools available for explaining tackling these problems." Perusing through the encyclopedia you will find articles on the Butterfly Effect (this principle became the cornerstone to the science of chaos theory), consumption, the Green Revolution and literally hundreds of other articles. This set will appeal to the environmentally literate citizen and to the student studying the complex interrelationship of society and the environment.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Learning English?
The library has a selection of guided readers on CD. Guided readers allow you to read the book while listening to the story on CD. This is a wonderful way to expand your vocabulary and understanding of the story.
The guided readers are located in the ESL section. To locate titles search the catalog for: Macmillan readers.
Happy Reading!
The guided readers are located in the ESL section. To locate titles search the catalog for: Macmillan readers.
Happy Reading!
¿Habla Español?
Learning Spanish? Try listening to a book on CD. What better way to practice your listening skills than to listen to your favorite book in Spanish.
Papá Rico Papá Pobre
Kiyosaki, Robert T.
Check out our catalog for this title
Eragon
Paolini, Christopher
Check out our catalog for this title
El Código
Brown, Dan
Check out our catalog for this title
Papá Rico Papá Pobre
Kiyosaki, Robert T.
Check out our catalog for this title
EragonPaolini, Christopher
Check out our catalog for this title
El Código
Brown, Dan
Check out our catalog for this title
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