West Palm Beach Public Library Currents

Looking for a college or maybe a new career? Or perhaps you have found just the right medical information at the library, or picked up a GED book or learned how to use a computer?

This month, Woman’s Day magazine shares the stories of four entrepreneurs who started their businesses using the library. The article appears in the magazine’s March issue, now on stands and in libraries. Featured are the co-owner of a Brooklyn-based children’s clothing business who participated in Brooklyn Public Library’s “Power Up!” business-plan writing contest; a library-supporter who learned about self-publishing; a founder of a home organization business who turned to her library for business seminars, email and Internet access; and a financial advisor who found enthusiastic support from her local librarians.

“When you think of libraries, you think books and magazines, but there’s so much more. There’s almost nothing you can’t find—and no help you can’t get—at the library,” Jessica Sequinot, the featured winner from Brooklyn, is quoted as saying in the article.

Also included in the article is a sidebar with tips on how to “jump-start your small business at the library,” written by reference librarian Celia Ross, a member of the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Business Reference and Services Section. RUSA is a division of ALA.

Woman’s Day announced the initiative last March, asking its readers to submit stories of how they used the library to start a business. This is the sixth such initiative Woman’s Day has co-sponsored with the American Library Association’s Campaign for America’s Libraries to promote libraries and librarians. Previous topics have included “how the library has changed my life,” “why I would want to be a librarian for a day” and “why I want to research my family tree at the library.”

Woman’s Day is a Founding Partner of ALA’s Campaign for America’s Libraries, ALA’s national public awareness campaign to promote the value of libraries and librarians. Other Founding Partners include Dollar General, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Do you have a story about how the library has changed your life? Leave us a comment, we would love to hear it!

Janice