Posts by Kristin McDonough

In this season of gift giving, the New York Public Library has just added a wonderful new resource — lynda.com — for New Yorkers who need the top of the line in online software training. NYPL's business library, SIBL, has entered into a year long pilot to provide free access to the continuously expanding library of 1,500 online training videos.

As soon as your holiday reveling has wound down, head to SIBL and plunk yourself down at one of the nine dedicated lynda.com workstations or at any of the other 

Do you need a BIG push towards realizing that elusive goal of business ownership? If so, the 2013 New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition offers you the option for multiple wins: a piece of the more than $30,000 "pie" of cash prizes, technical training, one-on-one business advisory, and participation in a vibrant small business network. But, hurry! There is just a week left to meet the first requirement -- attending an orientation.

With the generous sponsorship of the Citi Foundation, the New York 

Steve Forbes presents award to NYPLWhat do the late Louis Rukeyser of Wall Street Week, Jonathan Clements of the Wall Street Journal, Consuelo Mack, anchor for PBS Wealth Track, Maria Bartiromo of CNBC, Don Phillips of Morningstar, Muriel Siebert, first woman to own a seat on the NYSE, Jean Chatzky, financial editor of the Today Show, Ben Stein, economist, and NYPL's business library, SIBL, have in common? All are winners of the Malcolm S. Forbes Public Awareness Award for Excellence in Advancing Financial Understanding. Named in honor of the late Malcolm 

Last Spring, I invited my niece Molly and her husband, Ted Fienning, to SIBL to trace the meteoric rise of their new company Babiators, which, in less than a year, grew from an idea sketched on a napkin to a thriving enterprise. The audience's avid response to their nuts-and-bolts account of launching a startup in NYC inspired a series of talks by other successful metro-area entrepreneurs that will kick off in Fall 2102 as SIBL heads into its fourth StartUP! Business Plan Competition season. For now, I asked 

Did you know that there were more than 150 books about New York City published last year? Given this prodigious output, the New York Society Library, in hosting the New York City Book Awards, makes a significant contribution by directing Big Apple lovers to books that "evoke the spirit or enhance the appreciation of New York City." The 17th annual awards ceremony this May was my first, but it won't be my last. This is a literary event I'll surely try catch in the 

With SIBL's Financial Empowerment Day approaching on Saturday, April 21, I caught up with Steve Poppel, an independent financial advisor at NYPL's Financial Literacy Central. After our chat it's even clearer to me why Steve consistently receives 5-star reviews from his clients. Here's a preview of his common sense approach to helping clients improve their personal 

As the mid-April tax return filing deadline looms, for many last-minute filers this week ushers in a frenzy of organizing forms, receipts, and statements.  Imagine your panic if your accountant asked for a piece of missing data, i.e. the 1997 price of the stock your Fidelity mutual fund had recently sold.

This was precisely the situation facing my daughter, Anne McDonough, who is an archivist-librarian with an entrepreneurial bent. Though based in Washington DC, she 

NYPL's business library, SIBL, learned recently that it had been named the 2012 recipient of the Malcom S. Forbes Public Awareness Award for Advancing Financial Understanding. The Financial Planning Association of New York will present the award at its annual spring forum in April, but why wait until then to highlight the resources and services that garnered NYPL this recognition?  The Library can help you better understand your personal finances starting now.

Financial Literacy 

Seeking connections to people, organizations, communities, employers, resources, services, information, opportunities, potentials, and ideas? NYPL — the super-connector — is there for you.

Whew! My friend, the social protocol maven, assures me that you can extend New Year's greetings through the (blessedly vague) period of "mid January." By extension, then, perhaps it's not too late to share my New Year's resolution, inspired by a fellow NYPL blogger and 

If running your own business is your goal, let SIBL help! It's not too late to enter the 2012 New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition with three remaining orientations scheduled for December. In this posting, though, I glance back to September's lively Awards Ceremony closing the 2011 New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition. The evening epitomized the synergies that SIBL 

The 100+ events that the Financial Women's Association (FWA) runs annually are often quite special. The 2011 FWA Annual Dinner and Women of the Year Awards was remarkably so. For the first time in the dozen years that I've been at this gala, both of the honorees — Sylvia Ann Hewlett, who runs the 

Here's a shocker! According to Pamela Yellen, CEO of Bank on Yourself, whom Michel Martin interviewed recently on NPR's Tell Me More, 41% of adults give themselves a C grade or lower in their knowledge of personal finance. To help New Yorkers ace this subject NYPL runs Financial Literacy Central (FLC) at its business library,

Hearing the capstone presentations of 20 aspiring business owners in a FastTrac New Ventures program last week inspired me to talk to Shagun Malhotra, who recently told Crain's New York Business what she learned at FastTrac en route to taking second place in SIBL's 2010 New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition.

Shagun, here's your 

Inspiring America's youth to study engineering is an Obama administration priority. Many professionals—from trade associations to campus-based groups—focus specifically on getting more women into the engineering pipeline. Participants in Dow's recent virtual conference undercored the importance of exposing young women to ways 

Women’s History Month brings inspiring events and March 2011 has proven no exception. Earlier this month, the New York County Lawyers Association and the Financial Women’s Association co-sponsored a Trailblazers Celebration to spotlight women who have been among the first in private or government practice to achieve senior level executive positions.

The four panelists were all attorneys, three in the 

Can’t think of a more apt way to wrap my trio of Black History Month postings (1, 2) on entrepreneurship than a chat with Paisley Demby. A familiar figure in the New York City  small business community—formerly at both the Queens Economic Development Corporation and CAMBA—Paisley has helped to launch the two 

Who stole my days?   With February simply too short a month in my book, please indulge me as I continue into March observing Black History Month with a few short profiles. First up is Michelle Newson,  2nd place winner in the 2009 Harlem Business Alliance Competition and a recent alumna of the Workshop in Business Opportunities.

Michelle, tell me more about your firm Onederland Events.

Onederland Events is a special events company that creates