How entrepreneurs can use their local library to access free resources and get ahead in their business

Amelia Longo, 36, Philadelphia

When Amelia Longo crammed into a small room at the Free Library of Philadelphia last spring for an introductory workshop on starting a business, she was thrilled to look around the room and see at least 60 other eager, like-minded individuals all striving towards similar goals.

The workshop, led by a peppy, knowledgeable librarian, was "a good walkthrough of what resources are available (at the library) and what some of the steps are in thinking about starting a business," Longo said.

"It's nice to get an overview," she continued, "but also to connect with other folks who are in the same space as I am, thinking through some of the same questions."

Longo is a 36-year-old freelance strategic communications professional based in South Philadelphia and a long-time user of her local libraries. She visits her South Philadelphia branch weekly to have meetings in a no-cost space, or to get work done in a vibrant coworking area. She also volunteers with the library's Friends group.

In 2016, she first visited the Free Library's Parkway Central Branch looking to get business development assistance for a local tech startup she worked with at the time. There, she found the Business Resource and Innovation Center, or BRIC, and immediately took advantage of the resources.

"I started out with a one on one meeting with one of their librarians who walked me through the different resources they had and gave me a free copy of Business Model Generation … (which) has this worksheet for planning your business or evolving," Longo said.

The librarian walked her through resources including the online databases, and how to research and find potential clients and competitors. Then, the librarian connected her with Wharton Small Business Development Center at the University of Pennsylvania, a center that provided free support to small local businesses for 40 years before deciding to shutter its doors in 2019.

"(Librarians are) very useful in knowing what other resources are out there and making those connections," she said.

Aside from business assistance, she's gotten free headshots taken, had her resume reviewed, and attended more workshops and programming at the BRIC.

Marilyn Dyson, 74, Philadelphia

At the end of January, Marilyn Dyson penned an email to the Free Library of Philadelphia president Siobhan Reardon.

"I'm sure this happens to many people every day with several of your librarians," she wrote, "but yesterday was very special for me."

The email came a few days after she visited her local library, on a vigorous hunt for a 1994 article in Crisis Magazine which featured her cousin, disputing claims of the controversial 1994 book The Bell Curve.

Part of Dyson's life work has been to stitch together her family ancestry and gain an understanding of what life was like for those who paved the way for her. A lifelong writer, she then tries to retell their stories, in an effort to connect with her past.

Online, she said, the article "was going to cost me a lot of money."

So, she visited the library instead, with a dash of hope and some details scrawled on a sheet of paper. When she arrived and explained her situation to a librarian, the librarian walked her to the library's Newspapers & Microfilm Center.

Soon after, they found the article on microfilm. And it was free.

It was a milestone finding for Dyson; a piece of a family puzzle she's putting together. One of many the library has helped her to find.

Dyson, a longtime Philadelphia resident, said she visits her local Free Library of Philadelphia branch weekly. Like many, she uses the library for books and music records. She also advocates with a library group and teaches a weekly knitting and crochet class to children.

For her, the library has been an invaluable resource in aiding her with reliable historical insights and knowledge the internet can't provide.

"When you go on the internet and do research you're only going to get recent information," Dyson said, but, "the library gives historic information."