Smart Investing: Reference Strategies and Resources
A Self-paced Course
Welcome to Smart Investing: Reference Strategies and Resources, an online training course originally developed for Santa Clara County Library District (SCCLD) reference staff. SCCLD has partnered with Infopeople to convert it to a stand-alone, self-paced course. It is available to all librarians who would like to improve their reference strategies and knowledge of financial literacy concepts and resources. The goal of the course is to promote confidence and competence in responding to your library patrons' questions on personal finance and investment. As a result of taking this course, you will understand the language and concepts in a variety of financial areas, including:
Note: There are references to the SCCLD catalog and resources throughout the course. If you do not have access to SCCLD’s catalog and online subscription databases, you can substitute the use of your own library’s catalog and resources to work on the assignment options.
Introduction to and overview of the course; reference strategies and resources for questions on personal finance and budgeting; credit, borrowing, and interest rates; home financing, sales, and mortgages.
A young man comes to the reference desk and tells you that he and his wife are expecting their first child in two months. He wants to learn more about financial planning and budgeting in general and he realizes that he needs information on safe investments for his child's college expenses. How can he predict which investments will be better in the future?
Answer these questions:
A young woman comes up to the reference desk and tells you that she is planning to go back to college. She wants to earn a nursing degree and is trying to decide if she should first attend a community college, then transfer to a state university, or whether she should enroll in a university. Her main concerns are financial. She needs to estimate how much money she will have to borrow to get her degree and also how much her monthly loan payments will be depending on how much she borrows.
Answer these questions:
A middle-aged man walks up to the reference desk. He has been reading about the Occupy movements and their views on the banking industry. He is sympathetic to the movement to take personal accounts out of major banks and put them into credit unions. However he is concerned about the safety of his money, fees for basic banking services, availability of bank products, interest rates, etc. He wants resources that can help him make a decision about where to place his savings account.
Answer these questions:
A man and woman approach the reference desk. They are first-time home buyers and want to educate themselves about buying a house. They want to learn as much as possible about credit scores, mortgages, and interest rates. Given the reality of today's real estate market, they also want to know about foreclosures and short sales.
Answer these questions:
A man comes to the reference desk and wants information about bankruptcy. He is stressed financially, can't make his credit card interest payments, and is trying to explore various options in order to find the best one for his particular situation. How will this affect his credit rating in the future? He also wants some referrals to credit counselors.
Answer these questions:
Develop a plan for completing your course project. Download and use the Project Planning Template to develop a first draft of the plan for your course project, filling in as much detail as you know. You are encouraged to work with a partner or in a group. Remember to get approval for your project idea from your supervisor. (Next week you will finalize your Project Plan.)Download: Project Planning Template (.doc)
Reference strategies and resources on investing in stocks, evaluating companies through company and industry research.
A patron who is new to investing wants some background information on stocks and other investments. Describe the sources you would recommend to this patron, including:
A patron wants to find out more about Facebook as a future investment. Describe the sources you would recommend to this patron, including:
A patron is very interested in the investment potential for social networking companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. He wants to know about the social networking industry as a whole, what its future trends are, and who the major players are. Describe the sources you would recommend to this patron, including:
Go back to the Draft Project Plan that you developed last week and do a final version of it, filling in as much detail as you know.
Reference strategies and resources on investing in bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds; information on choosing brokers; finding free financial advice.
Go to the Bloomberg article on Best and Worst Mutual Funds of 2011 (www.bloomberg.com/money-gallery/2011-12-16/best-and-worst-mutual-funds-of-2011.html). Choose one of the best and one of the worst performing funds, and then do a little research on both.
Answer these questions:
A patron indicates that she is researching brokerages for the purpose of investing and she is looking closely at two: Vanguard and Fidelity. She wants to compare the investment products offered, fees, minimums, and commissions. She also wants to know what questions to ask the person who would handle her account.
How would you clarify her information need? What resources would you suggest to her?
Describe how your library can help its patrons find free or low-cost financial advice.
Give us a brief description of your course project and describe your progress to date.
Reference strategies and resources for finding information on retirement accounts; 401(k)s and IRAs; insurance; taxation; and real estate as an investment.
A patron who is planning for retirement wants to find out about how his Social Security benefits may change depending on what age he is when he begins to draw on them. Can he continue to work part-time and still collect Social Security? He is also interested in finding out whether he is eligible for a reverse mortgage and how that could affect his retirement. Describe the sources you would recommend to this patron, including:
A single mother of two children is at your reference desk. She is working but has no job-related health benefits. She wants to find low-cost options for health care for herself and her children, ages 5 and 14. She is also seeking information on both term and full life insurance. Describe the sources you would recommend to this patron, including:
A patron has a daughter moving to Arcata to attend Humboldt State University. He is thinking of buying a two- or three-bedroom house in Arcata or the immediate vicinity, where his daughter can live while attending the university and he can rent rooms to other university students. He wants to know about the rental market in Arcata, state landlord-tenant laws, and the prospects for the house appreciating in value in five years. Describe the sources you would recommend to this patron, including:
A woman is planning to start a daycare center in her home after having been a paralegal for many years. She wants to find out all that she can about filing taxes as a self-employed person. What kinds of home expenses can she deduct? Can she deduct the mortgage payments on her home? Describe the sources you would recommend to this patron, including:
Describe how your library can help its patrons find free or low-cost help with taxes.
Give a final report on your course project.
What to Do Next: Congratulations! You have almost completed the work for this course. Please fill out this short course evaluation. We need and greatly appreciate your feedback; it helps us tremendously as we develop future projects.
