Its Not Just Business As Usual at the Library Connecting Partners to Boost Economic Development Presented by the South Carolina State Library: Deborah Hotchkiss, Denise Lyons & Kathy Sheppard

A Little Background 2007 Brought a New Director to the State Library: New Director = New Goals Libraries are essential to… Education & Cultural Heritage Economic Development The wellness of SC Citizens Family Literacy Good Governance

Storms on the Horizon Libraries are essential to Economic Development… what if the economy changes course?

Use Trusted Resources DISCUS – SC Virtual Library Resources for Small Business include: Small Business Resource Center Encyclopedia of Small Business Business Safari Books Online

DISCUS Resources for Business

Partnerships SC Business One Stop SC BOS enables anyone with an existing business or anyone starting a new business to file permits, licenses, registrations, or pay taxes

WWPLD? What Were the Public Libraries Doing? SCSL conducted a survey to Public Libraries on Business Reference Services May 2008

The Results! 80% reported up to 25 business-related questions per month 50% of libraries reporting felt like they were not always certain who to refer a business patron to in the city and the county.

Results II 80% of libraries would be willing to host workshops on library resources for the business community Partnership opportunity!!

Regional Economic Development Georgia offered a Plug into Profit seminar Focused on Growing Local Economies Christine Hamilton-Pennell was the speaker : a librarian AND economic developer/research analyst

What is Local Economy? Necessary to define some region as the local economy for practical reasons (i.e. data availability) Often defined according to political jurisdictions, such as municipalities, counties or states

More Basic Economics Classic economy is failing: Goods and services no longer produced locally No longer exported Returned income back to the community decreasing Local retail cannot compete with big box New regional economy Looking for niche markets Trying to grow these products and services to external markets E-commerce

Libraries CAN Help LIBRARIANS can provide useful information for: Entrepreneurs SBDC Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Agencies Professors, Students, Academics Businesses in a community Actionable Intelligence

Economic Development Seminar Held in May with speaker and facilitator Christine Hamilton-Pennell Librarians learned how to put information-seeking skills to work to foster entrepreneurship and encourage business growth. Nonprofits and govt. agencies learned how to work with libraries to gather information to support local business clients and foster economic development through partnerships and collaboration.

What We Learned Needed to get Libraries to understand their role in Economic Development Get those Librarians off the desk and in the community once in a while Other agencies had to realize the value of the public library; LIBRARIES ADD VALUE to a community for many reasons…this is just one.

That Day in May Groups were doing similar activities Many did not know what these different organizations do and were missing out on possible programs and partnerships Many learned about the resources that different organizations were using and would share Crossed all lines

State Library Too… We had people come to the State Library who had never been in the building; didnt know what we do An opportunity to advocate for libraries and continued support

Its Not Just Business As Usual One participant said it confirmed something I'd suspected: helping business helps us, too Libraries have the same problems as small non- profit organizations: we don't work in libraries to get rich, so we tend not to think like business people

Recap Small businesses are the primary drivers of local and regional economies Everyone needs good market information Public libraries have assets valuable to the business community Partnering is a WIN-WIN situation

The Secret We have to think more like business people in order to save our budgets when times get hard. Having as robust a business services program as possible will help you & your community down the road when times are bad (as they are now). A. Holling, CCPL

Can YOUR library answer basic biz questions? Be Prepared!

…Kicking Library Services Up a Notch! Basic Business Services, and…

Dont be Intimidated!

From Here South Carolina State Library is… Working on business portal (resources on a wiki site) Adding and promoting new business friendly services Working on pilot program in small and rural community to promote business services

From Here II Balancing the needs of workforce development Getting our communities back to work is also a way to put income back in local communities Joining Committees & Making Presentations Rural Economic Development Council: Keeping in the loop for issues that affect our rural communities New Carolina/Connect Adults: Connecting Adults to Jobs and Educational Opportunities, reps from chamber, business community, govt., nonprofits Having table at business events