Financial Literacy and Money Smart Week

Financial literacy is the combined knowledge and skills that allow you to manage your personal finances effectively and to make personal financial decisions confidently.

Money Smart Week (April 22-29) is a national initiative among the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and other organizations including the American Library Association to provide financial education programs for consumers.

Libraries play an important role in the education of their community and financial literacy is one of several literacies that libraries strive to support. The Ridgefield Library’s role in Money Smart Week will be to host three financial education programs:Women and Money Roundtable - Retiring Successfully on Tuesday, April 25 from 1:00-2:00 PM; Save Money on Electricity on Thursday, April 27 from 12:00-1:00 PM; First Time Homebuyers on Thursday, April 27 from 6:30-7:30 PM

Please register online at www.ridgefieldlibrary.org or by calling 203-438-2282 x12004.

We also encourage you to browse, either in person or online, our comprehensive collection of personal finance books, magazines, and newspapers. On the Library’s Business & Finance webpage (found by clicking on Research & Reference from the homepage at www.ridgefieldlibrary.org) you may access Value Line and Morningstar online investment resources and find a list of trusted financial websites. 

Contributed by Adult Services Librarian Christie Mitchell

WSJ Article from Home with your Library Card

Did you miss the Wall Street Journal coverage of the Super Bowl?  Want to read Gear & Gadgets reviews or just curious about a WSJ article you heard about?

Did you know that you have free access to full text Wall Street Journal articles?  The Wall Street Journal from ProQuest is a research resource available on Library computers, from the Library’s website, ridgefieldlibrary.org and from researchitct.org.  It covers the Wall Street Journal Eastern edition from 1984 through current, and includes same day coverage.

This Wall Street Journal research product is different from the wsj.com online product in that photographs and illustrations are excluded, but the complete text of each article is available and it is printable and free.

To find the Wall Street Journal link on the Ridgefield Library website click on Research & Reference and then on Magazines & Newspapers or on Databases A-Z to find WSJ listed alphabetically. You will need to enter your Connecticut library barcode number. To help find your articles, we recommend doing an “Advanced Search” to search by keywords, subject headings, names of companies and people, and by publication date or a range of dates.

We hope you make use of this Wall Street Journal resource!

Contributed by Adult Services Librarian Christie Mitchell

Wall Street Journal Articles Available from Home

Did you miss the Wall Street Journal coverage of the Super Bowl?  Want to read Gear & Gadgets reviews or just curious about a WSJ article you heard about?

Did you know that you have free access to full text Wall Street Journal articles?  The Wall Street Journal from ProQuest is a research resource available on Library computers, from the Library’s website, ridgefieldlibrary.org and from researchITct.org.  It covers the Wall Street Journal Eastern edition from 1984 through current, and includes same day coverage.

This Wall Street Journal research product is different from the wsj.com online product in that photographs and illustrations are excluded, but the complete text of each article is available and it is printable and free.

To find the Wall Street Journal link on the Ridgefield Library website click on Research & Reference and then on Magazines & Newspapers or on Databases A-Z to find WSJ listed alphabetically. You will need to enter your Connecticut library barcode number. To help find your articles, we recommend doing an “Advanced Search” to search by keywords, subject headings, names of companies and people, and by publication date or a range of dates.

We hope you make use of this Wall Street Journal resource!

Contributed by Adult Services Librarian Christie Mitchell

ABI/Inform Complete - The Library's Newest Online Business Resource

Launched in the early 1970s, ABI/Inform remains the gold standard when it comes to business research databases. ABI/Inform’s massive content set includes thousands of sought-after, full-text journals from the business press as well as key trade publications, wire feeds such as 

PR Newswire, newspapers, dissertations, conference proceedings, and market reports.

Journal titles include The Economist, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Crain’s New York Business, and Nation’s Restaurant News.  Market Reports include Economist Intelligence Unit, Euromonitor, Hoovers/Dunn and Bradstreet, Acquisdata, and more.

ABI/Inform is a business intelligence tool that can benefit almost anyone. Log in to ABI/Inform to explore management and leadership styles, learn about a business topic, prep for a job interview, find information on companies and executives, keep abreast of business and industry trends, and review country or industry reports to understand key business challenges and opportunities.

To get started with ABI/Inform, go to www.ridgefieldlibrary.org and click on Research & Reference then Databases A-Z, or find ABI/Inform on our Business & Finance webpage, then enter your Ridgefield Library barcode.   

There will be a training session to introduce ABI/Inform Complete on Tuesday, November 15, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. Register at www.ridgefieldlibrary.org or call 203-438-2282.

Contributed by Adult Services Librarian Christie Mitchell

New Access to an Old Favorite

Consumers Union has checked out some 155,000 products in their test labs since 1936. These include the highfalutin’ and the ho-hum. Sports cars and sneakers. Computers and corn poppers. Cognacs and colas. CU's engineers and technicians eyeball, heft, measure, weigh, taste, use, and abuse those products. They take them apart, leave them out to weather, drop them, crash them, and put them through accelerated-wear tests to assess their durability. All this to determine the best, and sometimes worst, products for all of us to use.

For many years, the Ridgefield Library has offered Consumer Reports monthly magazine and annual index. This heavily used resource has been a boon to redecorators, those with ailing appliances, those needing new cars or suggestions for good used cars and a multitude of things from computers to insect repellent.

Now we are very happy to be able to provide online both Library and home access to this great service. You will find the trusted articles, ratings and even more on the Library website ridgefieldlibrary.org.   Click the Catalog and Collections button and choose Magazines and Newspapers. Keep your Ridgefield Library card handy as the barcode is needed to log in, and read your way to great products and services in the comfort of your home!

Contributed by Adult Services Librarians Victoria Carlquist and Christie Mitchell

Wi-Fi Printing @ Ridgefield Library

For those who bring laptops, tablets, and smartphones to use in the Library, we are pleased to announce that we are now offering wireless printing.

Files supported by Wi-Fi printing include Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint slides, PDFs (Portable Document Format) and picture files. Send these print jobs from your browser by going to www.printeron.net/ridgefield/main and completing the brief online form. You will be asked to enter your email address, which will be used to identify your print job. Printing from your email is accomplished by simply forwarding an email to one of the library printer addresses for either color or black & white copies.

Once a wireless print job is submitted, you may release your documents at any one of our three print release stations located in Adult Services on the Upper Level, the Bossidy Commons near the Circulation Desk, and the Lodewick Children’s Library.

Full details, including step-by-step instructions, are found on our website www.ridgefieldlibrary.org 
as well as on printed bookmarks located at service desks throughout the Library. Of course, staff members are available to answer any questions you may have. Please try out the convenience of Wi-Fi printing the next time you are in the Library!

Contributed by Adult Services Librarian Christie Mitchell