Ottawa Public Library resources, services and programs help to ensure that local businesses have the information they need to be successful and stay competitive.
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To learn how to start a business and how to do market research for your business, explore the two guides below:
Guide to Starting a Business in Ontario
To get support in starting a business, consult the following directory of services in Ottawa
Directory of Business Services in Ottawa
For general business research, consult these hand-picked resources:
Explore resource lists of books and websites on business topics
Online Resources
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This collection of reference eBooks -- the kind of reliable, in-depth material once in a printed reference collection -- gives full-text access to thousands of articles on a wide variety of topics. Users can search topics within a single reference book or within the entire collection of books. Some sample titles are: Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film, Encyclopedia of World Biography, Business Plans Handbooks (44 volumes of full-text business plans), World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Correctional Systems, Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, Encyclopaedia Judaica, and Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol, & Addictive Behavior.
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Ideal for business schools and entrepreneurs, Gale OneFile: Entrepreneurship is updated daily and provides insights, tips, strategies, and success stories. Users find more than 500 subject-appropriate, active, full-text periodicals on general topics and specific business & Economics and Small Business topics, including: Beverage Industry, Black Enterprise, Economist, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, HR Magazine, Real Estate Weekly, Restaurant Business, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, and more.
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Grant Connect is a fundraising platform that connects charities with funders who share their cause. Find new prospects by searching comprehensive data managed by the expert research team.With Grant Connect, you have access to:
- Over 11,000 Canadian foundations, 560 corporate giving programs, 370 government grant programs, 120 American foundations, and 200 other kinds of grant opportunities.
- Funder profiles that offer insights on specific grant programs, application preferences, financial summaries, and key decision-makers, and more.
- Data on billions of dollars in past donations, categorized by size, cause, population, and region.
- Targeted search filters that help you quickly find the right funder for your charity by gift size, deadline, type of support, and more.”
Grant ConnectAvailable for in-library use onlyUsage info
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LinkedIn Learning for Library is an upgrade to the previous Lynda Library product, providing continued lifelong learning opportunities for all of you.
Customers will now have access to the following:
- Engaging content for every customer, with over 16,000 courses in 7 different languages
- A simple, time-saving login flow for customers that only requires a library card number and PIN, without the need for a LinkedIn profile
- An updated, easy-to-use, intuitive interface
- Your previous course history from Lynda.com
Library Apps
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A directory of 2.1 million Canadian company profiles compiled from telephone directories, annual reports, government data, chamber of commerce information, business magazines, newspapers, specialty directories, and postal services information. Enables entrepreneurs, job-hunters, and consumers to find businesses in any industry. Useful for Business Planning and Market Research to identify potential industry competitors and/or potential companies with which to do business. Specify results based on employee size, sales volume, type of business and location and download results to an Excel file.
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The Value Line Investment Survey and Small & Midcap Survey offers access to over 3,500 stocks across 100 industries. This includes analysts’ reports, statistics and forecasts of stock performance.
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