It was reported today the the U.S. consumer sentiment rose to it’s highest in five years. The article reports that, “What changed was how they (consumers) evaluated economic conditions,” survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement. “Economic conditions during the year ahead were expected to be ‘good’ by more consumers, and more consumers expected ‘good’ economic times over the next five years.”

If you wanted to check out the Consumer Sentiment Survey and/or other websites about consumer please go to the library’s Business Web Sites: Economic Data: Consumers.

Library Open House
Tues. Oct 2 between 11am - 4pm
Grab some snacks, sign-up for upcoming workshops, & learn about our services!
- Jump-start your individual, group, and class research
- Learn about Drop-In Research @ Schwab & 1-on-1 Research Consultations
- Get started on looking at company info, financial markets, industry benchmarks, SWOT analysis & MARKET RESEARCH!

The Library can also help with…
- Student Club event prep - future speakers & panel info
- Student Club wiki page-building
- Job Search Planning Tools

Spain is now experiencing drought conditions and as a consequence the olive crops are suffering. That means the olive oil that you might buy in your local super market is going to be more expensive. The Economist reports that “over the past three months the price of extra virgin olive oil, the best-quality stuff, has risen by over 50%, to about $3,400 a tonne.”

Are you curious as to how much olive oil is imported? Check out the library subscription to the database UN Commodity Trade Statistics (remote access restrictions apply) to see import/export statistics.

As it is every year in September, we welcome in the football season and get ready to close out the regular baseball season. For those of you who are at all curious about the statistical side of these sporting activities along with other sport statistics, please check out our collection of Sports Industry websites.

Also if you’re interested in recent business related sports books check out these titles in our library:

There is an I in team: what elite athletes and coaches really know about high performance by Mark de Rond; Harvard Business Review Press, c2012. HD66.R6482012 Business Library-Main

It’s a whole new ballgame: how social media is changing sports by Jimmy Sanderson; Hampton Press, c2011. GV742.S262011 Business Library-Main

BusinessWeek Online has compiled some recommended readings from prominent professors and business professionals. Their recommendations range from Kotler to Kerouac and from fantasy to finance. Perhaps you’ll find your favorite book among the recommended ones. Happy reading!

“Just as high fidelity failed to kill concerts, and movies failed to kill live theater, and high resolution photos failed to kill museums, so the ability to audit a college course in one’s bedroom will not kill the desire to rub shoulders with other students and a professor. Somewhat paradoxically, by drawing millions more people into serious reading and learning, the digital revolution has in fact created the need for more spaces of physical interaction,” writes David A. Bell in a thought-provoking article in The New Republic. He makes a compelling argument that libraries are, for several reasons, well-positioned to provide that – and will be needed for this purpose and for knowledge curation for many years to come.

I tried an experiment today. I did a keyword search in our business library catalog for books containing the keyword “new” and were written in 2012. I came up with a total of 85 titles and here are the first 5 titles:

India inside : the emerging innovation challenge to the
West / Nirmalya Kumar, Phanish Puranam.
Call Number: HC440.T4 K86 2012

The end of business as usual : rewire the way you work to
succeed in the consumer revolution / Brian Solis.
Call Number: HF5415.32 .S599 2012

Startup Weekend : how to take a company from concept to
creation in 54 hours / Marc Nager, Clint Nelsen, Franck
Nouyrigat.
Call Number: HD62.5 .N335 2012

Culturematic : how reality TV, John Cheever, a Pie Lab,
Julia Child, fantasy football, Burning man, the Ford
Fiesta movement, Rube Goldberg, NFL films, Wordle, Two
and a half men, a 10,000-year symphony, and ROFLcon
memes will help you create and execute breakthrough
ideas / Grant McCracken.
Call Number: HD30.19 .M34 2012

The intention economy : when customers take charge / Doc
Searls.
Call Number: HF5415.5 .S448 2012

If you’re in the neighborhood come in and take a look!

Just a reminder about our remarkable Selected Business Web Sites page. Broken down by subject category, this list embraces dozens of sites that our staff have found useful and informative. Topics include advertising, baseball, bankruptcy, corporate reports, forecasts, healthcare, international trade … and so on, A-Z. Keep in mind that these are “public” sites; we don’t have any special paid Stanford access. Therefore there may be portions of the sites that are off-limits, or that may require a payment. But we included them because there seems enough free ”meat” there to make it worth checking out. And … we’re always open to recommendations.

Since today is the opening ceremony for the 2012 summer games, I thought it appropriate to highlight the Olympic Studies Centre housed in Switzerland and point out their library site.

The library also houses an historical archive and it’s charge is to be “responsible for collecting, conserving, describing and communicating about the written documents produced or received by the International Olympic Committee in the exercise of its activities, as well as private collections. In this capacity, it provides a valuable service in promoting knowledge of the global Olympic and sporting phenomenon.”

And continuing with summer reading … The Library has a great selection of magazines, and not just all on business topics. We suscribe to Time, Newsweek, the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic and others. Just read an article in Harper’s, “Broken Heartland: The Looming Collapse of Agriculture on the Great Plains”. Since my wife and I had driven through the Midwest a few weeks back, this struck a chord. Fascinating to learn about the gigantic Oglalla Aquifer, once thought an inexhaustible source of water for agriculture. But as they say, nothing lasts forever, and Plains states are facing major challenges - and opportunities. Other interesting pieces include a dissection of the latest works by the New Atheists, “Reason for Living: The Good Life without God”, and “Citizen Walmart” about the retail giant. This is just by way of saying that you might want to drop by our Current Periodicals rack in the Library and see what’s cookin’.