Fortune and Fate

Title: Money for Nothing

Author: Ugel, Edward

Check our catalog for this title

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to win the lottery? Edward Ugel learned about winning the lottery from a different angle. For seven years he was part of the industry that buys out winners with a lump sum payment. He explores his own gambling and addiction demons in his description of this manipulative cutthroat industry and how they take advantage of people who find that winning the lottery is not all it is cracked up to be. In the process he finds that he has a lot in common with the winners he manipulates.


Title: Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of How Six Students took Vegas for Millions

Author: Mezrich Ben

Check our catalog for this title

Did you see the movie 21? It is based on a true story of a group of mathematic whizzes from MIT who work as a team counting cards while playing blackjack in the casinos. Although it can be done,it comes at some risk as the casinos keep a close eye out for this type of activity. Ben Mezerich lives this double life as a student during the week and a high roller gambler on the weekends. He becomes addicted to the adrenaline rush of gaming the system and the glamorous lifestyle the casinos offer to their customers who spend a lot of money in their establishments.


Title: The Black Swan: the impact of the highly improbable

Author: Taleb, Nassim

Check our catalog for this title

A Black Swan is characterized by three principal traits: 1) it is a highly improbable event. 2)it is unpredictable and 3) after it occurs we devise an explanation that makes it appear less random and more predictable than it in fact was. In his book Nassim Taleb cites the success of Google and the 9/11 tragedy as examples of black swans. He postulates that black swans are responsible for many occurences in our world from the rise of major religions, to events in our daily lives. Taleb examines our methods of learning and how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. As someone who has spent his life considering problems of luck, uncertainty, probability, and knowledge, he will challenge you to change how you look at the world.

Free Money -- how to get Help version 2010

PLANNING THE "BIG ASK"
Free books ... at the library on writing a grant proposal
-or on writing a business plan for a new business
TYPES OF ASSISTANCE

All grants megasite from SBA

Oregon Microenterprise Network lots of different local and state organizations (depending on your type of business) who have various programs.

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance or come in to the library to flip through the catalog itself in bound form.

View Foundation Grants to Individuals in the library for free or use Foundation Grants to Individuals online at home, fee based.

Microenterprise Development for Small Businesses Individual development accounts.

SBA Loans -- See about Microloans, up to $25,000, if you are a small business. The average loan size is $10,000.

BECOMING NONPROFIT

Books becoming a nonprofit such as the Oregon Nonprofit Corporation Handbook
Books on funding your nonprofitSort results by date for newest items
Filing a 501c3 Application a dowloadable book on the IRS application to become tax deductible.
Help for your local nonprofit: Technical assistance http://tacs.org/
VENTURE CAPITAL
http://activecapital.org/
Venture Capital is NOT available for:
sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability partnerships, "blank check" companies, (companies that raise money to invest in future ventures not yet identified), development stage companies that have no specific business plan or purpose, development stage companies whose business plan is to merge or be acquired by an unidentified company, investment companies, registered or required to register under the Investment Company Act of 1940, companies involved in oil, gas, or other mineral or extractive interests.
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS
CCR-Central Contractor Registration-http://www.ccr.gov/ Central Contractor Registration (CCR) is the primary registrant database for the U.S. Federal Government. CCR collects, validates, stores and disseminates data in support of agency acquisition missions. Click here to learn more about CCR Policy and Background.
Browse Current Available Bids--use FedBizOpps which is on Stat-USA, available at the library. Ask at the Reference Desk, they have to log you on with their password in their rolodex.
http://www.stat-usa.gov/

• click on GLOBUS NTDB
• click on FED BIZ OPPS, type a search keyword. Suggestions of keywords might be "Portland" or "Oregon," or some keyword from his or her line of business such as "transformer" or "janitorial"

Government Contract Assistance Program, or GCAP. Oregon's Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP) is sponsored and brought to you by the Organization for Economic Initiatives (OEI), the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department (OECDD) and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).http://www.gcap.org/
HELP WITH LIVING EXPENSES
Find assistance for Food, Housing, Child Care, Healthcare, Adult Education, and More.

Community Action in Washington County http://www.caowash.org/

Oregon Child Care Subsidy Program http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/children/childcare/main.shtml

Oregon Helps - gives you an idea of what to ask for ahead of time
http://www.oregonhelps.org/

Free legal help for living expenses

Legal Aid Services of Oregon
For legal advice about unpaid bills, click on Consumer, Debt Collection, Garnishment.
http://www.oregonlawhelp.com/OR/

Oregon state bar.
Check legallinks for answers to your Oregon Law questions. With the help of legallinks you can find a lawyer with the Lawyer Referral Service, get information on hundreds of common legal topics and learn the basics of Oregon Law.
http://www.osbar.org/public/legallinks.html


INVENTORS, ARTISTS
Grants for People

Foundation Grants to Individuals REF 001.44 FOU
in reference, but you can reserve a copy of last edition

National Directory of Corporate Giving REF 361.7632 NAT
in reference stacks only

Oregon Innovation Center http://www.oregoninnovation.org/ or

Oregon Entrepreneurs Networkd
http://www.oen.org/

HOUSING AND REAL ESTATE

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) http://www.hud.gov/ click on select a state


Grants for communities, business districts
Office of Community Planning and Development - HUD
http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/

Block Grants, Redevelopment, Enterprise Zones, direct loans to help newer businesses get started in Oregon, etc http://www.oregon.gov/ECDD/finance.shtml

Federal empowerment zones offer jobs, job training and small business development
Oregon Empowerment Zones http://www.econ.state.or.us/enterthezones/

STATE AND LOCAL JOBS ASSISTANCE, EDUCATION & VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS

State of Oregon's jobs page http://www.workinginoregon.com/

Oregon Student Assistance Commission http://www.osac.state.or.us/index.html

Capital career center and Worksource Oregon team up to provide career guidance assistance
http://www.workforceallianceonline.org/

Worksource Oregon
http://www.worksourceoregon.org/

College education
Library books on student aid

Career preparation databases via Washington County Library Cooperative
* Oregon Career Information Service-Start with the desired occupation, discover the outlook for that career, then link to schools, then to scholarships. Free at the library and free in many of the public schools.

* Learning Express Library - Prepare for GED, US Citizenship, ASVAB or SAT and many civil service tests online. Take courses on writing resumes and preparing for interviews.

Send your child to private kindergarten through high school
Oregon voters rejected a voucher program. But the subject continues to come up from time to time in news editorials.

Portland Business Journal - for job hunters, executives, and researchers

The weekly newspaper, Portland Business Journal, (portland.bizjournals.com/portland/ ) is the main resource that discusses the local business news. The Beaverton Library subscribes to it, and reading it each week will help those who are job hunting, prospecting, or just interested in what's going on.

The online version is only a medium level of information, subscribers get full content of the articles. We do have a logon at the Beaverton library, because we are full subscribers. Ask at the Main Reference desk if you would like to be logged on as a subscriber, for free.

It has a careers section which highlights executive level jobs, and you can search bizjournals for keywords to locate articles of interest, for example, to prepare for an interview.

Here's how to search the archives of the Portland Business Journal

1) Go to portland.bizjournals.com

2) Click on News in the tabbed part, at top of webpage

3) Go to right and click (to the right of keyword search box) click search archive and enter keywords that you're interested in, like an officer's name, or a brand or company, or product, BUT include the word Portland!

This works 99% of the time. I tried portland software, and got mostly Portland results, with one Seattle Puget sound result. But for some reason it won't automatically let you search only one newsletter, that's why you have to enter Portland.

FREE Reference sites

Unable to make it to the library and want a quick answer to questions you did not know you had? Here are some great FREE Reference sites worth exploring.


EIA- Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government
http://www.eia.doe.gov/
Provides current and historical energy statistics.
scienc
FLU.gov
http://www.flu.gov/
Everything FLU related: Research, global activity, brochures, 'Ask an Expert', symptoms and prevention.

HopStop.com
http://www.hopstop.com/
If you are travelling to a big city be sure to check out this site. It will calculate the most efficient mass transit route.

National Biological Information
http://www.nbii.gov/portal/server.pt
Provides data about wildlife. Search by species, habitat or geographic region.

Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the Present

For once someone has written a deeply thoughtful book about Saudi Arabia. Mark Weston's conviction in Prophets and Princes is that we need to learn the full, complex history of this region to understand our ally in the context of foreign relations, including oil supply and demand, international terrorism, and Islam. If you know nothing about Saudi Arabia and want to learn, you won't be disappointed by this groundbreaking and thorough book. Author Mark Weston offers an objective and balanced history of the only nation on earth named after its ruling family. Drawing on interviews with many Saudi men and women, Weston portrays a complex society in which sixty percent of Saudi Arabia's university students are women, and citizens who seek a constitutional monarchy can petition the king without fear of reprisal.