1. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
or
How to Access Millions of Resources that Can
Help You Find Data, Conduct Policy Research,
and Get All your Questions Answered
October 11, 2012

2. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
How to Access Library Resources
Our staff is trained to find answers
to your questions and needs,
whether in person or online.

3. Our Staff
• Parkway Central alone has over 60
professionally trained librarians—all with
Masters Degrees in Library Science.
• We have decades of experience delivering
reference services.
• We have specialists in subjects from A to Z.

4. Connect with Us In Person
Parkway Central
1901 Vine Street
There are 54 branches citywide, including three larger
regional libraries and the Library for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped.

5. Connect with Us In Person
Parkway Central
1901 Vine Street

6. Connect with Us Online
www.freelibrary.org

7. Connect with Us Online
www.freelibrary.org

8. Connect with Us Online
Trained staff will reply to your email inquiries.

9. Connect with Us 24/7
Librarians across the state, throughout the US and
overseas are available to answer questions 24 hours a day.
If your question is not Philadelphia-specific, you will be
connected with an expert from around the globe.

10. Connect with Us 24/7

11. Connect with Us on Your Cell
Texting is great for asking quick, simple questions that
can be answered in short responses.
Add the Free Library to your address book right now!

12. Text Us
• Start a new text message to 66746
• Type askfree
• Now save 66746 to your contacts
as askfree

13. More Treasures Revealed
• Podcasts: Subscribe via iTunes or RSS feed to
hear great author events.
• Digital Collections: We have over 20,000
digitized images.

14. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Electronic Resources
100+ databases at the click of a mouse

15. Featured Resources
What if you could…
• Create a demographic report to show age,
gender, race, home ownership rate, or
economic information?
Access Business Decision
from the database link on
our home page!

21. Featured Resources
What if you could…
• Create a list of all restaurants in the city or a
given zip code? All the manufacturers? All the
businesses with over 50 employees? All the
new businesses started in the past 6 months?
Access ReferenceUSA from
the database link on our
home page!

29. Featured Resources
What if you could…
• Quickly synthesize complex and controversial topics
by bringing together news, opinion, multimedia, and
analysis in one easy search?
Access Opposing Viewpoints
in Context from the
database link on our home
page!

31. By Patrick Basham: Cato
Institute, Democracy
Institute
By Lenny Berstein,
fitness columnist
Washington Post
By Dominic Lawson, journalist,
the Independent and the Sunday
Times

35. Featured Resources
What if you could…
• Delve more deeply into your research?
Access General Reference
Center Gold from the
database link on our home
page!

38. legislation

40. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Map Collection
Looking back to move forward

41. 1921

42. 1931

43. 1888

44. 1917

45. 2006

48. 1894
1910
More sinking homes?

49. 1889

50. 2005

51. 1950

53. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
THE FOUNDATION CENTER
Strengthens the social sector by advancing
knowledge about philanthropy in the U.S. and
around the world.

54. REGIONAL FOUNDATION CENTER
• Created in the Free Library of Philadelphia’s
Social Science & History Department in 1974.
• One of 450 Foundation Center Cooperating
Collections in the U.S.
• Designated as a “Super Center,” RFC is the
largest Cooperating Collection in Pennsylvania.

55. MISSION OF THE REGIONAL FOUNDATION CENTER
Informs the nonprofit community and the general
public through their services, their staff,
and their resources.

56. FREE SERVICES
• Research assistance by professional librarians
• Free database searches on foundations and
their grants
• Training Tuesday events – free access
• 7-Day Loan books

57. RFC PRINT RESOURCES
30 Subscriptions to Serial Publications:
Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nonprofit Times, Stanford
Social Innovation Review, Nonprofit World, Grass
Roots Fundraising Journal, Successful Fundraising,
Trusts & Estates
800 Reference Books
• 600 available for in-library research use.
• 200 copies of high-demand, 7-Day Loan titles

58. GRANTS/FUNDRAISING DATABASES
• Foundation Directory Online, Professional
• Grants to Individuals Online
• GrantSelect
• GuideStar Premium
• Pennsylvania Foundations Online
• Philanthropy In/Sight
• WealthEngine

59. FOUNDATION DIRECTORY ONLINE
Provides access to 80,000 grantmakers and over half a million grants.
Results: 19; Grantmaker County: Philadelphia;
Fields of Interest: youth, services; Geographic Focus: Pennsylvania

60. PHILANTHROPY IN/SIGHT
An interactive mapping tool combining data on grantmakers and
their grants with Google maps to reveal patterns of giving and
funding relationships.
Subjects: Children/youth; Grant Years: 2012; Grantmakers: 17;
Recipients: 64; Grants: 76

61. PENNSYLVANIA FOUNDATIONS ONLINE
Zip: 19103; Major Interest Codes: 12 (Child & Family Welfare) and
13 (Youth); Assets from: $1 to $199,000

62. RFC INFORUM
The Inforum is RFC’s electronic newsletter
alerting patrons to trainings, resources, and
notable social sector news.

63. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Government Publications
Researching “obesity and sugary drinks”

64. Archive It
• Started in May 2010
• Phila.gov
• + 47 other sites
• Crawl every two
months

66. Newspaper Databases

74. Summing Up
• City Government and Cultural Institutions – Archive-It
• Local and State Issues – Newspaper Databases
• Background on Issues – CQ Researcher
• Federal – ProQuest Congressional (available at any FLP
branch)

75. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Thank you for joining us!
Q&A