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Catalog Search Basics

We have recently created video tutorials that cover the basics on how to use our catalog.

If you’re used to finding your next item to borrow by just browsing the shelves in person, or if you’re used to requesting holds through the help of staff, or if you’d just like to find the best keywords to use for catalog searches, then these tutorials will be perfect for you!

All you need is access to a computer or tablet or a smartphone, and access to the internet — plus — the thought that you will definitely get the hang of it, after trying things on your own!

The tutorials are presented in an FAQ kind of label, as these are frequently asked questions here at the Livingston Public Library.

Short but paced comfortably, the tutorials use plenty of examples, pointing out key areas and useful features. As with most videos, playback can be changed to faster or slower speeds by clicking on the gear/settings icon on the lower corner of the screen.

So far, we have published titles such as How to Place a Hold Request on an Item (a step that makes borrowing all the more convenient), How to Search the Catalog for Books (to help you with online browsing, and to note the useful subject areas), How to Search the Catalog for Movies (which stresses the importance of using keywords that the catalog system recognizes), and How to Check the Availability of an Item (for those i-want-this-item-now days).

We’ll make more video tutorials in the next few weeks! Lined up are topics on managing your notification preferences, checking statuses, renewing items, and more. So stay tuned for these FAQ tidbits, to learn more about how to use our library resources.

The tutorials can be found in our Library’s YouTube channel, so it’s very much accessible to anyone. You can go directly to YouTube.com, then search for “Livingston Public Library”. Or you can go to our website, livingstonlibrary.org, scroll down to the foot of the page where our social media links are, click on the YouTube icon, and that will take you directly to our Library’s channel where you can see all the videos our Library staff have created for you to enjoy.

We have also published the video tutorials through our website, livingstonlibrary.org, along with the others we have on our digital collections, and online a-z resources. Where exactly in our website? You might not have noticed it, because they’re tucked in a side panel. Just look for a green vertical tab or button on the far right of the screen labeled, you guessed it… Tutorials! If you click on that, it’ll bring out a screen, with a full list of tutorial titles to choose from. Hope you’ll enjoy these gems as well!

And in case you, our dear reader, are now quite at ease online — doing these bits of the borrowing process by yourself — perhaps you might know someone who could benefit from these videos? If so, please keep them in mind! You’ll hear about these tutorials too on The Livingston Library Podcast, L-town Radio‘s October 2020 track, at soundcloud.com! We’re spreading the word!

All the Staff here at the Livingston Public Library would like our beloved patrons to be able to avail of our Library’s collections, and services. And so with these tutorials, we’d like to help you take care of steps that might be preventing you from enjoying our resources a bit more… all available for your review!

— Janea Agbayani, Technology Department Library Specialist

For more information, visit: www.livingstonlibrary.org/resources-az/.

For other topics, themes, and resources suggested for lifelong learning pursuits, visit our blog under the tag: Keep On Learning.

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Rev Up With Sales

Keep On Learning - Rev Up with Sales SM

Turning that interest in a product (or service) into a yes! clinched deal — a sale — is a major, and all important move.  This step is what increases a business’s raw revenues… with numerous completed sales revving things way way up.  And goodness, it’s a herculean effort, particularly for the low-key, shy, and quiet ones (guess who’s in this group?) in charge of sales.  But it’s got to be done!  Else, all that marketing magic will go poof, if good sales work is not a hand.

Here then is a sampling of our Library’s resources for shaping the determined into the greatest salesperson in the world:

Keep On Learning - Rev Up with Sales

To find these resources, here are some search words suggestions: sales skills, sales improvement, how to improve/increase/do sales, how to sell, sales techniques, sales (+) business, communication for sales, persuasion skills, influencing skills, listening skills, storytelling, negotiation, closing a sale, and “how to sell __”, among others.

Universal Class presents titles like Mastering Sales Skills 101, Creating an Effective Sales Team, Persuasion Techniques, Negotiation Skills, Listening Skills 101, Mastering Conversation Skills, Interpersonal Communication, Assertiveness Training, Cross-Cultural Communication, and Communication with Diplomacy and Tact, to name a few.

Gale Courses offers Effective Selling, Professional Sales Skills, Keys to Effective Communication, Mastering Public Speaking, and Interpersonal Communication.

Online courses on popular sales support tools, such as Powerpoint, Publisher, Photoshop, Excel, Access, and Google Sheets, among many others, are also available, both in Universal Class, and in Gale Courses.

In addition to the above, our digital borrowing collections lists these gems in the form of ebooks, or audiobooks:

Overdrive offers:

  • Getting to Yes by Robert Fisher
  • Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port
  • Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success by Colleen Stanley
  • Stories That Stick by Kindre Hall
  • The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Brent Adamson
  • Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
  • How To Win Friends and People in the Digital Age by Dale Carnegie

Hoopla offers:

  • Succeed Without Selling by Diane Helbig
  • Ask!: The Bridge From Your Dreams To Your Destiny by Mark Victor Hansen
  • Start From Zero: Build Your Own Business, Experience True Freedom by Dane Maxwell
  • Little Red Book of Sales Answers by Jeff Gitomer
  • The Introvert’s Edge: How the Quiet and Shy Can Outsell Anyone by Matthew Owen Pollard
  • Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar
  • Objections: The Ultimate Guide for Mastering the Art and Science of Getting Past No by Jeb Blount
  • Exploding Your Sales Like A Boss by Bane Torm
  • SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
  • SNAP Selling by Jill Konrath
  • The Go Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea by Bob Blurg
  • More Sales, Less Time by Jill Konrath
  • guides to “To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink”
  • Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
  • The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies by Chet Holmes

When you google “best sales books 2020”, most of these titles (classics, or recently published) consistently appear on the search results lists.  To access more, when regular borrowing resumes, use the catalog search bar on our library’s website:  www.livingstonlibrary.org.

On top of our digital and regular collections, business owners (i.e. NJ library cardholders) can use Business Source Elite to look for recently published, and peer-reviewed works in trade publications that fit your exact line of business.  If you need help navigating these databases, reach out to our Reference librarians for more information.

There are plenty of free online resources available to get you going.  The Small Business Reference Center, and the Legal Reference Information Center, can provide templates,  business basics, and a variety of information on running a business.  Another tool is ReferenceUSA, a popular database used by sales and marketing people.

Last but not the least, if you need to learn or brush up on a language in order to do your sales responsibilities, your Livingston Library card provides access to Mango Languages, and Rosetta Stone.

May your business revenues increase, and your business knowledge flourish, with new skills and ideas you can gain from our Library’s reserves of databases, information, reading, and learning materials.  (See more from our Keep On Learning blog post on Marketing Your Business.)

— Janea Agbayani, Technology Department Library Specialist

For more information, vist:   www.livingstonlibrary.org/resources-az/

For other topics, themes, and resources suggested for lifelong learning pursuits, visit our blog under the tag:  Keep On Learning.