The Written Nerd

I spent the morning at the fabulous Brooklyn Business Library -- I wanted to make sure I got there in time for the 10:15 Wednesday tour listed on their website. As it turned out I was the only person there for the tour, but the librarian was just all the more helpful for that -- she asked me about what I was working on and what I was looking for, and quickly passed over all the boring stuff to take me to the information I needed (in my case, Brooklyn demographic statistics). She admitted (actually several times) that much of the information in the massive folders lining the walls can be found more easily on the Internet, and that the library was being forced to shift its focus toward mentoring entepreneurs rather than supplying hard data. She proved her point by giving me the names of several websites for research that proved extremely helpful, and even letting me photocopy the zip code map in the Brooklyn phone book. (I'll spare you the details of my research, but one of these day...