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Main Library - Business, Law, and Government
Overview of the Business, Law, and Government (BLG) Services Section
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Business, Law, and Government Services Section
The Business, Law, and Government (BLG) Services Section, located on the fifth floor of the Broward County Main Library, provides reference services and reference materials in many areas of business and law. It also houses documents from federal, state, county, municipal, and international agencies. The BLG Section is an official Federal Depository Library, State of Florida Depository Library, and Patent and Trademark Depository Library.
Strengths of the Collection
Business
Law
Government
Intellectual Property
BUSINESS
The Business area of the BLG Section includes a collection of business books, company directories (at the local, state, national, and international levels), investment newsletters, and computer databases.
Types of Information
Career and Employment Information
The BLG Section has a Career and Job Information area that includes publications that aid in choosing careers and finding job leads. Materials offering information on working conditions, education and training requirements, starting salaries, employment trends, and resume writing are also available. One-hour appointments for assistance in using the materials may be scheduled with a librarian.
International Trade Materials
The BLG Section provides a variety of import and export material, including a subscription to Stat-USA, an online international-trade database from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Stat-USA is available in it entirety only at the BLG Section of the Broward County Main Library. Ask a librarian to assist you in logging on.
Investment Services
A collection of business and investment newsletters is available in the BLG Section. Retrospective collections of Value Line Investment Survey, Morningstar Mutual Funds, and Mergent Manuals (formerly Moody's Manuals) are available for historical research. Online investment information is available through the Business and Company Resource Center database.
Small Business Start-up and Expansion
The BLG Section has information on all aspects of starting a small business and expanding an existing business. Print resources include current titles in the areas of planning, accounting, finance, marketing, management, and personnel. Other print resources include a selection of small-business newspapers and magazines.
Computer resources include general business databases and accounting and business-plan software. Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Pagemaker are also available.
Free, one-on-one counseling services from volunteers of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) as well as from certified business analysts from the Florida Small Business Development Center at Florida Atlantic University (FAU-SBDC) are available, by appointment. Click on the following websites to register for counseling sessions: www.score17.org or www.fausbdc.com.
In addition to all of this, a wide variety of seminars on special business topics are held each month.
Tax Information
Tax information, from governmental and commercial sources, is located within the BLG Section. This information includes legal publications as well as "how-to" publications. Among the resources you will find are the code, regulations, forms, and publications of the Internal Revenue Service. You will also find U.S. Tax Court decisions and the Standard Federal Tax Reporter, from Commerce Clearinghouse.
Trained volunteers provide one-on-one tax assistance for basic tax returns between February and April of each year in the BLG Section.
Business Journals
The BLG Section houses a variety of newsletters, newspapers and periodicals relating to small business start-up and expansion, some relating specifically to South Florida and others focusing on minority business enterprise. In addition, the library subscribes to national business journals, such as Business Week and Fortune. These journals are located on the third floor of the Main Library in the Magazines and Newspapers Section.
Business Databases
Electronic databases include Business and Company Resource Center, General Business File, and Reference USA, all of which are available through remote access from the Library's web page.
Business and Company Resource Center provides directory listings and profiles of major companies, with links to periodical articles, investment reports, financials, rankings, suits and claims, products, industry overviews, and associations relating to each company. In addition, it includes industry information and full-text articles on a wide variety of business topics.
General Business File provides information on business and management topics. It includes full-text articles from business, trade, and regional journals as well as directory listings and profiles of major companies. The database also provides full-text reports on major public companies and industries by investment analysts.
Reference USA provides directory information and company profiles for businesses of all types and sizes throughout the U.S. Lists of companies may be accessed by type of business, geographic area, business size, and many other categories. Information on large, public companies as well as small, private companies is included.
LAW
BLG maintains a print collection of primary legal sources that provide the official text of laws. These include statutes and codes, regulations, and court cases at the federal, state, and local levels. Secondary source materials, including legal encyclopedias and books of legal forms, are also available. In addition, a database called LoisLaw, which provides the text of statutory, regulatory, and case law for all federal and state jurisdictions, is available within the BLG Section.
Primary Law
Statutory Law
Statutory law is law passed by a legislative body. These laws are first published as individual "slip laws" and later in a codified version, by subject. Examples of statutory law include the United States Statutes at Large and the United States Code as well as the Laws of Florida and the Florida Statutes.
Administrative Law
Administrative law takes the form of executive orders and proclamations as well as the rules and decisions of administrative agencies.
Executive Law
Executive orders and proclamations are issued by the President of the United States, by the state Governors, and by county administrators and city managers. The BLG Section has an extensive collection of orders and proclamations of the U.S. Presidents and has access to some of the executive orders and proclamations of the Governors of the State of Florida and administrative orders of the Broward County Administrators.
Regulatory Law
Federal and state administrative agencies write rules and regulations to implement statutory law. The Federal Register provides daily notification of the proposed and final rules of each federal agency. These are later codified, by subject, in the annual Code of Federal Regulations. The Florida Administrative Weekly and the Florida Administrative Code provide the equivalent information at the state level. Broward County rules appear in the Broward County Administrative Code.
Federal and state administrative agencies also hear matters relating to their rules and issue decisions, which have the same authority as case law. BLG has collections of decisions from several federal agencies.
Case Law
Courts provide another facet of law by issuing decisions on cases presented before them. Court opinions and judgments are published in case reporters at the various levels of courts. The following are examples of case reporters:
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United States Reports - U.S. Supreme Court
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Federal Reporter - U.S. Courts of Appeals
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Federal Supplement - U.S. District Courts
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Southern Reporter - State Appellate Courts
Finding Case Law
A number of specialized publications provide additional assistance in locating the law. These include popular name tables for specific laws, indexes for tracing current and past legislation (including Congressional hearings), and citators for finding additional cases related to the topic being researched.
Treaties
Treaties are agreements between two or more sovereign states or powers on any subject of mutual concern. Treaties may end wars, set fishing limits, arrange for international taxation, set boundaries, or arrange any number of other issues. BLG has a collection of texts for both national and international treaties.
National Treaties
Treaties between the U.S. and other parties are published in the following sets:
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Treaties and other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949
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United States Treaties and Other International Agreements,
1950-present, and
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Unperfected Treaties of the United States of America 1776-1976.
International Treaties
Treaties in which the U.S. may or may not be a party are published in these sets:
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Consolidated Treaty Series, 1648-1918
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League of Nations Treaty Series, and
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United Nations Treaty Series.
A large collection of treaties between the United States Government and Native-American nations are also housed in the BLG Section.
Secondary Law
Secondary source materials provide additional information, interpretations, and explanations about legal subjects. Law encyclopedias (such as American Jurisprudence and Florida Jurisprudence), law dictionaries (such as Black's Law Dictionary), and books of law forms are located in the BLG Section.
Legal Databases
BLG has a subscription to LoisLaw, which provides full-text access to federal statutory, regulatory, and case law as well as statutory, regulatory, and case law for all fifty states. Rules of court are also included for all jurisdictions. This database is available only by visiting the BLG Section of the Main Library.
GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
The Government Documents area of the BLG Section consists of a collection of materials serving the information needs of the general public, students, and individuals involved in business and government. From coloring books to consumer pamphlets to scholarly research, the Government Documents area makes available a wealth of current and retrospective materials, produced by all levels of government, on a wide variety of topics. Formats include paper, microfiche, microfilm, CD-ROM, DVD, and online databases and websites.
Types of Documents
Federal Documents
Many current federal government documents are now available online through the websites of the various federal government agencies. In addition, the Government Documents area, which has been part of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) since 1967, when the documents collection was housed at the Fort Lauderdale Branch Library, receives some of the printed publications of federal agencies that are made available to depository libraries. The collection also features historical sets such as the Papers of the Continental Congress and the Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies and Navies.
Most titles can be found in the Broward County Library's online Library Catalog. Some of the documents in the Library Catalog can be accessed, in full-text, simply by clicking on the link in the bibliographic record of the document. Bibliographic records of documents may also be found through GPO Government Publications Online. Many of the bibliographic records include PURLS (permanent URLs) which provide links to the full-text of the documents.
State Documents
As a State of Florida Depository Library since 1968, the BLG Section receives many of the publications of Florida government agencies from the State Library of Florida, which is located in Tallahassee. Publications include annual a variety of reports, budgets, technical reports, projects studies and informational brochures. Listings for most of the BLG Section's state documents are in the Broward County Library's online Library Catalog.
Local Documents
The BLG Section maintains a collection of publications from local government agencies, emphasizing documents from Broward County government agencies and from county and municipal governments within Broward County. Publications include budgets, comprehensive plans, and special studies. Documents of other cities and counties, throughout the U.S., are available through a microfiche collection called Current Urban Documents (1972-2000).
Note:Since most local documents are not listed in the online Library Catalog, call the BLG Section at 954-357-7439 to obtain information regarding local documents.
United Nations and Other International Documents
In addition to a microfiche collection of UN documents from 1982 through 2000, the BLG Section has a collection of statistical data and reports from other major international organizations. Most of these are available through the Index to International Statistics (IIS) Microfiche Library.
Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights
As a Patent and Trademark Depository Library (PTDL) since 1984, the BLG Section disseminates information on behalf of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It has the resources needed to conduct patent and trademark searches. Patent and trademark information is also available through the website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov). Information regarding copyright protection is also available in the BLG Section and on the website of the U.S. Copyright Office (www.copyright.gov).
Public Administration and Urban Affairs
The BLG Section houses a collection of general books on public administration and urban affairs as well as the publications of the International City Managers Association (ICMA).
Formats
Microform Collections
A number of full-text microform sets are included in the Government Documents area. They contain research materials, both current and retrospective, in such diverse fields as the environment, law, science, sociology, and urban affairs. These sets include statistical Censuses of Population since 1790, colonial records (including a Florida Gazetteer, 1700-1823), environmental impact statements, Indian Tribal Codes, and NASA Technical Reports.
Click here for additional microform collections.
CD-ROM Products
Discs from federal government agencies include the Economic Censuses, GSA FIRMR/FAR, HCFA's Laws/Regulations Manuals, OSHA CD-ROM, and U.S. Foreign Affairs on CD-ROM.
Databases
A great deal of federal government information is now available on the web pages of the various government agencies. Websites such as USA.gov (www.usa.gov) and GPO Access (www.access.gpo.gov) provide access to much of this information. Bibliographic records of government documents, with links to full-text online documents (when available), may be found in GPO: Government Publications Online, (LINK) which is accessible through the Broward County Library's "Free Online Resources" menu.
Links to Websites
Librarians' Internet Index: Websites You Can Trust
http://lii.org
This is a searchable and annotated subject directory of internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries. Select "Business" "Law" or "Government", from the list of broad categories and then select a sub-topic, or type a keyword in the search box.
Access to the Collection
The documents collections are organized by issuing agencies in an alpha-numeric classification system. While many documents are cataloged in the Broward County Library's online Library Catalog, the BLG Section also maintains many specialized indexes:
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American Statistics Index (ASI), for federal statistical publications,
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Statistical Reference Index (SRI), for the statistical publications of all 50 states,
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Index to International Statistics (IIS), for international statistical publications,
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Index to United Nations Documents and Publications CD-ROM, and
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CIS Index (CIS), for Congressional documents.
Searching and access to the full-text of many federal government publications is available through GPO-ACCESS (www.access.gpo.gov), a searchable full-text database consisting of recent federal bills, the Congressional Record, United States Code, Federal Register, and many additional titles.
LINKS: [BLG Home Page] [Business Home Page] [Law Home Page]
[Government Home Page] [Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights Home Page] [Document Guides] [Presentation - Business, Law, and Government]
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