Blog Posts by Subject: Consumers

In an environment of globalization, economic volatility and rapid advancement of technologies, the American world of work is evolving with an upward spiral of academic requirements and qualifications. In preparing for the 21st century workplace, an increasing number of students are enrolling in both public and private higher education institutions. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, education pays.

• Landlord-Tenant Disputes: Heat and Hot Water, Eviction, Foreclosure
• Complaints with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTA)
• Consumer Fraud and "Rip Offs"
• Discrimination based on Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation

"When is the best time of year to buy a diamond?"

This question was recently posed to the ASK NYPL virtual reference service of The New York Public Library. First, if you're looking for a diamond whose size is a half carat or larger, make sure your jeweler offers you a grading report from one of the reputable diamond-grading labs below. To properly evaluate these reports, you must understand the four "C's" of diamonds: carat weight, cut, color and clarity.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have entered our lexicon as the first days of the traditional holiday shopping season, marked by door-busters and free shipping for online purchases. The deals come fast and furious, almost keeping pace with our ever-expanding shopping lists...

Why not give yourself a gift you can enjoy when reviewing your bank and credit card statements in January 2012? The gift of consumer-savvy! The library can help.

It's already been a couple of months since I and a colleague attended a morning of presentations by budding entrepreneurs finishing up their session of FastTrac® NewVenture™. Two weeks before that event my colleague and I did a presentation here at SIBL for them - our Market Research and library resources "boot camp". Now we had a great opportunity to see for ourselves how, and to what extent, these folks have used our SIBL resources to help create a five minute "pitch" of their businesses.

The first Earth Day was proclaimed on April 22, 1970 by one of its principal founders, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Already frustrated by the attitudes of big business, Senator Nelson, as the chairman of the White House Conference on Small Business, wisely noted that "the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around." He became greatly influenced by John McConnell, a grassroots organizer from San Francisco and Harvard graduate student, Denis Hayes. He asked the latter to organize nationwide events on college and public school campuses that would bring awareness to the environmental crises facing the world. As a 

It is striking the United States has not developed a discourse of precarity. Today, the gap between rich and poor stands at its widest in history, and the unemployment rate hangs around at 8.9%; this statistic does not include the long-term unemployed, the underemployed (those working in part-time positions), and those simply not seeking work at all. There is no discourse or vocabulary for precarity, yet it is structurally integral to how our economy (whatever that word might mean) functions.

Sick of NYC’s cold weather?  Got the traveling bug in you?  Why not stop by the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building to check out our latest travel magazines for the newest tips, trips, and activities abroad?  With over 100 international, regional and local traveling magazines, the DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Division can help you plan your next destinations! 

Would you like to learn how to knit or improve your bird watching skills? The DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Division currently holds over 100 hobbies and leisure activities magazines for hobbyists, amateurs and enthusiasts alike.  

Update 2/15/11: OverDrive Media Console Version 2.2 now adds native iPad support.

Update 12/7/2010: Good news Apple fans, OverDrive Media Console now adds support for eBooks. Same app, if you already have it, just be sure to update to the newest version. You might have to restart your device for it to recognize your checked out items the first time. While the app also works on iPads, it is not full screen. iPad users may want to continue to use the Bluefire Reader app but just a reminder neither we at NYPL nor OverDrive officially support this third-party product. Happy 

The day has come, and the sound of cash register bells still ring in your ears. Or, the bells would ring if the cashier's computer had sound effects. But it doesn't matter, for you are riding the surging thrill of attaining the hailed product of the latest media bliss.

Unusual connections abound in hyperspace, and not just from html linking within web pages. Take for example the unlikely cohabitation between a teen pop star and human rights activism on the same website. With the egalitarian nature of content available on the Internet, unlikely partners such as Justin Bieber, the TV-like Really Annoying Orange, and human rights abuse reporting in Iran, can come together in one multi-interest forum- YouTube.

The United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division estimated that by the end of 2008, for the first time in human history, the Earth's population was more than half concentrated into urban areas. 

Food, Inc. is the latest and one of the most successful films to investigate the politics of produce- exactly who is controlling what we consume and the consequences of unethical industries- but it is certainly not the first.