Yesterday I attended a free class by the SBA which was all about the other free small business resources that exist in my city. I learned about a lot of great resources but the one that I think is going to be the best one for me is the public library. Of course, I did already know that I could get some free stuff from the library (like books) since I use my library regularly. What I didn’t know was that there is a lot of free information on the line that I can access through the library which I can’t actually access through the Internet.
The main thing that I learned is that my public library system subscribes to numerous databases that would cost me a fortune to sign up for on my own. These are databases like LexisNexis (which I used during my brief stint in law school) and databases to help you find certain companies or suppliers. There are also databases here filled with journals. I’m so excited about this for my online writing work.
The one thing that I dislike most about writing online is that so much of the information that I write about is something I read online elsewhere and am repeating. Sure, I provide my own take on it. I try really hard to do outside research and to interview people to get a new perspective on these re-hashed topics. But the truth of the matter is that, beyond what I share of my own experiences, you can get most of the information that I provide somewhere else on the web.
What I’m hoping is that having access to these databases will change that. I feel like I’ll be able to do much more comprehensive research into scholarly levels of a topic. I could do that before by actually going to the library but I rarely do that because of the time it takes. Now that I’ve discovered that my library card gives me online access to these databanks, I’m going to be able to do that level of in-depth research at home. I think it’s going to benefit my clients and make my writing a lot more interesting.
Yay for San Francisco’s Public Library system!
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