//This short introductory video of Martin Osborne and Daren Mansfield, Academic Subject Librarians for the Business School, took an incredible 18 takes to complete – which is the reason why we’re celebrating at the end! You may have to raise the volume on your computer…
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Join the communication revolution and get tweeting to the Library! I’ve added the rolling Twitter account as a widget on the Business Librarian blog page if you would like to tweet….
//It was very good to meet several German students from the distance learning centre at Hamburg for a library induction yesterday. They are studying in Lincoln for two weeks only, with another cohort arriving at the end of the month.
As Academic Subject Librarians for the Business School, Martin Osborne (on the left) and myself, Daren Mansfield (the other chap), wish you Viel Glück on your course!
//Whilst comparing and contrasting various products in various countries may be useful in a business or marketing assignment, such multi-layered information is often hard to find, so I’m offering some guidance on these freshly-produced videos. It is worth remembering as business students such research is carried out by multinationals, particularly those considering expansion into new or emerging markets, or following a trend, so learning about database research has an employability value as well. At the bottom right-hand corner of each video there is a full-screen option available should you wish to enlarge the screen.
The first video shows you how to conduct market research on the Marketline (Datamonitor 360), using the example of bottled water and comparing its market value in Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, and Venezuela; all of which can be downloaded into Excel.
The second video uses the database Global Market Information Database (Euromonitor International) to conduct research into the market sizes of cigarettes in Egypt, Tunisia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Again these statistics can be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet.
If you reference these videos correctly then you are able to insert them into your assignment or appendices, which could boost your quantitative evidence and your final grade. It may take a few moments to familiarise yourself with using these databases, but it would be worth the effort in the end.
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Since leaving school many years ago, embarking on several languages other than my native English tongue is an occasional hobby, ranging from Spanish, Greek, Polish and Turkish, but all have been carried out with the same predictable short-term enthusiasm and lack of commitment. So, what caught my eye this month from selecting August’s Book of the Month was the hugely optimistic title: Easy Peasy Chinese: Mandarin Chinese for beginners (2007) by Dorling Kindersley, as though learning a language which is so different than English, is as easy as a walk in the park, or perhaps a pleasant afternoon spent in Beijing’s Shisanling National Park. You might be surprised by this colourfully illustrated book, which is accompanied by a jaunty CD that you’ll have to play several times to get a sense of this language. The trick, if there is one, is to pay attention to the CD and refer to the book without being distracted. If you’re learning a language whilst driving the car then it’s easy to drift off, and you’ve jumped from learning simple tones to the 43rd track bartering for fish at a Chinese market! Without pressing pause and replaying CD tracks it’s easy to skip some key learning. It’s also advisable to borrow other Mandarin Chinese books to support the CD, such a phrasebook listing days of the week, numbers and so forth. If you’d like to start learning Mandarin Chinese as I am trying to, then the book is located at 495.18 eas on the first floor of the Library. 祝你好運 (zhù nǐ háoyùn) – good luck in Mandarin Chinese!