Mercer County Library Blog

Congratulations! You’ve landed a job interview! Now comes the tough part. You’ve got to outshine the competition, overcome your fear of interviewing, and give a show-stopping performance! Conducting an effective interview is easier said than done, but knowing just a few basic strategies can make all the difference. Here are a few tips for mastering today’s tough job interview: • Allow the interviewer to take charge of the interview • Delay salary considerations as long as possible • Dress to fit the job and the job’s culture • Treat everyone you meet as potentially important to the interview • Engage in positive nonverbal cues • Wait to be invited to sit in a particular seat • Be prepared to respond to initial small talk in an interesting and positive manner • Close by asking when to follow up The Mercer County Library System owns several books on interviewing skills, including: Job Interviews for Dummies by Joyce Lain Kennedy; Competency-Based Interviews by Robin Kessler; and Nail ...

The library has always been an excellent resource for job hunters and, in today’s employment environment, the library has many reference sources and programs to assist you. If you find yourself out of work, are thinking about a career change or are just starting college, the following resources are an excellent starting point to explore new opportunities. Websites: Job Hunter’s Bible Excellent advice and reviews of resources in three major sections: Job Listings; Resumes; and Career Counseling. Written and updated by Richard Bolles as a supplement to his job hunting guidebook, What Color Is Your Parachute . Career Jet This simple-looking site actually packs a lot of punch. Once you start a search, you can narrow job listings by state or other factors. Saving your search will allow the site to send updates to your email or you can subscribe to an RSS feed for your search. The site also offers free job alerts, a place to post your resume and a worldwide job portal. Quintessential Careers...

The past decade has seen a dramatic transformation of the world economic system. The increasing interdependencies and the widespread global flow of capital, goods, and services between nations have resulted in new and changing dynamics of economic growth. Our library system includes a rich variety of resources covering different aspects of globalization. This month’s picks explore some key workings of the global economic system and highlight the experiences of two different nations that have sprung into prominence in the global arena – China and India. Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything by Harold L. Sirkin, James Hemerling and Arindam Bhattacharya is an important read for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the dynamics of companies working in a global environment. The authors are affiliated with the Boston Consulting Group and have extensive expertise in markets in developing countries. The book addresses some fundamental questions: how have new...

Who would have thought that the lyrics of Oliver! could arouse so much controversy and angst a mere 50-some years later in 2009. Can we really sing with a clear mind & heart: Food, glorious food! What is there more handsome? Gulped, swallowed or chewed -- Still worth a king’s ransom. What is it we dream about? What brings on a sigh? Piled peaches and cream, about Six feet high! Today, in the midst of an obesity and diabetes epidemic, experts warn that the US spends $147 billion to treat obesity and $116 billion to treat diabetes— that doesn’t even include hundreds of billions on cardiovascular disease and various cancers. And all these diseases are linked to our “Western diet”. Some argue that 30 percent of the increase in health care spending over the past 20 years is simply due to the growth in our rate of obesity. There must have been a lot of cream on those peaches! Want to know more about why this happened and find out what you can do about it? Then dig in to these books -- al...

We are ecstatic to see that patrons have been visiting our blog, reading our posts, and submitting comments! Our blog may not be the only one you read, and checking in with each blog and news source of interest for new posts can take time. So, bring the most recent blog and news posts to you! You only need to do two things: 1) Set up an account with an RSS Reader RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a web feature, which allows you to receive current updates from websites and blogs. In other words, when sites in which you are interested post new material, the updates will come directly to you (via your RSS Reader account you’ve set up). You don’t need to go to each individual blog, website, or news source! A huge time saver! The two most popular web-based readers are Google Reader* and Bloglines . Since both of these readers are web-based, you can login into any computer with Internet access and access your updates. And they are free to boot! *Note: If you have a Gmail account, you alrea...

Every once in a while you come upon a feature that you wish you could find in most programs. In Microsoft Publisher, that tool is the Empty Picture Frame , which is a great way to insert a picture in your document. To find the Empty Picture Frame: locate the Objects Toolbar at the very left of the main Publisher window. The fifth icon from the top is the Picture Frame . When you click on it, a menu will open. Find and click on Empty Picture Frame . Your cursor will change into a plus sign. Hold the left mouse button down and drag the mouse diagonally until you have the picture frame size that you prefer. Now here’s the beauty of inserting a picture into an empty picture frame: You don’t have to spend any time re-sizing the picture since it fit inside your perfectly, pre-sized picture frame. The picture is inserted exactly where you want it, so you don’t have to fritter away your precious hours trying to fix your text, which would have gotten disordered had you inserted a picture witho...

In 2005, Sony made very little noise with the introduction of the first e-book reader to use the E ink technology that mimics the type seen in a typical paperback. Following Librie's success in Japan, Sony revamped the device and released it as the Sony Reader in the North American market in 2006. Less than a year later, Amazon hit the scene with the first version of the Kindle and e-books began to buzz. In 2009 and early 2010, over a dozen similar e-book readers have or will be released, including new versions of the Kindle and Sony Reader. If you haven't thought about e-book readers before, here is a little overview for you, with some tips on what to look for in a reader and a peek at what might be coming up next. First, why consider an e-book reader? If you haven't seen an e-book reader using E ink before, you may be surprised by the clear type and lack of backlighting on the screen. Unlike other forms of computer screens, E ink film uses very little light, so there is n...

The Internet has changed the way we do business, conduct research, gather and share information, and communicate with friends and family. Without a doubt, it has made our lives easier in many respects. Here are a just a few of the plethora of web sites that can help simplify your life: Flickr.com : Upload, edit, organize and share your photos and videos with friends and family. Hulu.com : Watch your favorite hit TV shows, movies and clips! This site brings together a large selection of videos from nearly 170 leading content companies, including FOX, NBC Universal, ABC, Comedy Central, ABC Family, and Biography. Choose from more than 1500 current primetime TV hits, classics, documentaries, and web originals. Etrade.com : Use this online discount stock brokerage to buy and sell stocks, bonds, options, and mutual funds. You can also open checking, savings, and money market accounts; open certificates of deposit; and obtain credit cards. Mapquest.com : Use this site to get directions, view...

The beloved picture book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs , by Judi Barrett has inspired a full-length animated movie by the same name. It will hit theaters on September 18, 2009. The original story was published in 1978 and has been read countless times in homes, classrooms and libraries. Now with the release of the movie, a whole new generation will fall in love with this story. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a tall-tale that takes place in the town of Chewandswallow. It is like any other town except in this town the weather determines what people eat because the town’s precipitation comes in the form of food! The townspeople enjoyed this arrangement until the weather took a turn for the worse. The food coming down was getting larger and larger and so were the portions. In the end, the townspeople come up with a clever solution to their problem. Just like others that have come before, the book has been greatly expanded upon in order to make it into a feature film. To learn m...