Team Librarian Consultation

Web Resources:

Unlike library databases, these Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the UW Connectivity Kit or the UW Libraries Proxy Server for authentication. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.

Education:

• St. Therese Parish:   This parish was "founded in 1926 and has about 1,040 registered households, drawing parishioners from more than 75 Zip Codes." See their link to St. Therese School , with "approximately 230 students in kindergarten through eighth grade." See the parish's most recent Financial Report, dated 2003 (in four PDF pages), with data for the school.

• Epiphany School:   When Seattleites think about private schools in Madrona, Epiphany School is probably the first one to come to mind, the market leader in that neighborhood. See their Frequently Asked Questions about their expansion plans, Development, and Resources.

• Archdiocese of Seattle:   "The Archdiocese of Seattle is one of 170 dioceses--or geographic areas of responsibility--of the Catholic Church in the United States. The Archdiocese encompasses all of Western Washington, stretching from the Canadian to the Oregon border and from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. There are 169 parishes and missions in the Archdiocese, serving 548,900 Catholics." The diocese includes 65 schools, included in the annual Catholic Appeal. See Formation & Education/, for schools information, archdiocese Statistics, and Donor Information.

• Seattle Times School Guide:   This excellent guide covers both public and private elementary and secondary schools, with rankings, including rankings, for Private Schools, and an index by Location. See their statistics for Private Middle Schools in Seattle, and for this category, school Highlights. See also Private Schools, under Unusual Features, for fund-raising notes. See their profile for St. Therese School.

• Education Resources (UW Libraries):   Among the many subjects about which information is available in the University of Washington Libraries is Education. The Libraries has an Education Librarian, Laura Lillard, who has compiled a guide to education-related resources that are available on campus, through the UW Libraries.

• Seattle Public Schools:   Public agency websites are often an excellent source of in-depth information about their agencies and their clientele, with the kinds of data and reporting that are expected of public agencies. This site includes a map of all Seattle public schools, information on their five year plan, budget and finances, etc. A site search for Fund Raising retrieved over 180 references.

• Washington Education Association:   The Washington Education Association represents more than 75,000 school and college employees and is the state's largest public employee labor organization. This site offers a search engine. See their Resource Center for publications, topical issues, references, etc.

• Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools:   "The mission of the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools is to promote high educational quality for our schools through the establishment and advancement of comprehensive accreditation standards, to foster collegial and ethical relations among our schools, and to safeguard and represent their interests." See their Corporate Sponsor Program. St. Therese does not appear to be a member of this association.

• Washington Association of Independent Schools:   This organization constitutes "the umbrella organization for private education in Washington State. With the vast majority of the independent student population enrolled in member schools, WFIS serves as the only state-wide vehicle for regular communication and strategic development between the many diverse religious and independent sponsoring boards." See their Private School Facts.

• The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction:   The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is the primary agency charged with overseeing K-12 education in Washington state, working with 296 school districts, educating more than one million students. See Research, including the Digest of Education Statistics, 2001. See also their Office of Private Education.

• National Association of Secondary School Principals:   This organization consists of 40,000 middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and aspiring principals in the United States and in more than 60 other countries. See their School Improvement.

• National Association of Private Catholic and Independent Schools:   In addition to being an accreditation association, this organization is also a teacher certification program, a resource agency to assist in the start-up of small schools, and a service agency to assist administrators and teachers in the application of Roman Catholic teaching. St. Therese does not appear to be a member of this organization. See their Resources and Links for Administrators, including the section on Development Resources.

• The National Center for Education Statistics:   This agency has the primary U.S. government responsibility for collecting and analyzing data concerning education in the U.S. and in other countries. The site offers both Quick Tables & Figures and a site Search feature. The 2003 Digest of Education Statistics can also be browsed on the web. This site offers a search engine. In particular, see their 2003 Brief Profile of America's Private Schools, in PDF format.

  Demographics:

• American Factfinder:   This U.S. Census Bureau site allows you to obtain demographic information from the year 2000 census on states, counties, cities, metropolitan statistical areas, census-designated places, and zip codes—but not neighborhoods. A Census-Related Place is defined as a "statistical entity, defined for each decennial census according to Census Bureau guidelines, comprising a densely settled concentration of population that is not within an incorporated place, but is locally identified by a name.” A CDP is sometimes the closest you can get to a neighborhood. Go to the People section to select the level of data you wish to obtain. If you want business information about firms in an area, such as in a CDP, go to the Business and Government section. As an example, see the fact sheet for the 98122 zip code for Madrona.

The Foster Business Library Reference Collection is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster.
• Seattle metro yellow pages.
  An excellent and easy to use source for local business information, this directory is also a link to resources often more valuable than web and print resources: people working in business and industry.
  Foster Business Library Reference Desk

  See pages 1185 to 1187 for Schools, Academic, Secondary and Elementary, including St. Therese.

• The sourcebook of zip code demographics.
  This thick paperback provides up-to-date demographic information, by zip code, for every residential and non-residential zip code location in the U.S., with population, households, ethnicity, age, income, spending potential on financial services, home, entertainment, and personal, dominant lifestyle segmentation, business data including number of businesses and dominant industry, forecasts, etc.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA203 .S66 2002.

  See Washington state on pages 348-A to 354-C; for Seattle, see zip codes 98001 to 99403 on pages 348A to 348D, pages 506 to 508, and pages 653 to 655.

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To identify relevant books, go to the UW Libraries Catalog on the Foster Business Library homepage (under Business Databases). Try searching by keyword; use the Modify Search feature to restrict your list of books to the Foster Business Library and in order from newest book to oldest. To do so, use the pulldown menu under Location to specify Foster Business Library. Clicking on the titles in the resulting list will bring up the full catalog record, indicating which Foster area has the book (general stacks, reference, reserve, etc.), the call number and the circulation status.

Circulation status is indicated on the right of each online catalog record, on the right. Available indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. Due and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated. You can have the Request/Place Hold feature to recall the book for your use.

The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

A keyword search for St. Therese School retrieved no records.

A subject search for Private Schools -- Washington State retrieved just ten records, systemwide, but none that were recent or relevant.

A broader search for the keyword Private Schools produced a list of over 400 records throughout the UW Libraries.

See also the narrower subject Church Schools for over 90 records in the UW Libraries, or Catholic Schools, with over 40 records.

Foster Business Library Articles:

In addition to the 800 journals in the Foster Business Library Periodicals Collection, the Foster Business Library offers access to 11,000 full text periodical articles through its full text article databases such as: ABI/Inform Global, Factiva, and Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. These article databases may be found on the Foster Business Library homepage, listed alphabetically under Business Databases.

Of these three main sources, all but Factiva are available from any computer on the campus network (as well as from home) via the UW Connectivity Kit or via the Libraries' proxy server. The easiest of these databases to use is ABI/Inform Global. For more information about accessing Foster Business Library databases from off campus, click here. For more information about business databases, click here.

• ABI/Inform Global:

  This database offers full text articles from thousands of scholarly journals, magazines, industry and trade periodicals, and newspapers. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box. ABI/Inform Global includes journals but not national or Washington state newspapers (though the Wall Street Journal is included). It also does not include valuable trade and industry and other periodicals. Your searches will span the widest possible array of publications by expanding your search to all databases in ABI/Inform. To expand your search to include all collections in this database, click on Select multiple databases, to the right of the search box. Click on all of the databases.

  Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article. For tips on searching this database, click here.

  For example, a search in all databases, for "St. Therese School" and Seattle, produced a list of just ten articles, none of them very relevant, except for a 1992 article that talks about the school's demographics.

  A search for the subject Private Schools produced over 8,500 articles; for Religious Schools, over 7,800 articles; for Catholic Schools, over 100 articles. While a search for SUB(Catholic Schools) and SUB(Fund Raising) produced no articles, a search for SUB(Religious Schools) and SUB(Fund Raising) produced over 130 articles; for SUB(Private Schools) and SUB(Fund Raising), over 90 articles. A search for SUB(Catholic Schools) and SUB(Advertising) produced no relevant articles, while a search for SUB(Religious Schools) and SUB(Advertising) produced just four articles; for SUB(Private Schools) and SUB(Advertising), two dozen articles.

The Foster Business Library Reference Desk is staffed nearly all of the hours that the library is open. The staff at the desk will be happy to help you find business research tools and resources, exploit business databases to the fullest or advise on research strategies. For e-mail questions, direct your query to balib@u.washington.edu. For assistance by telephone, dial (206) 543-8012 during library hours.

For research guides on a wide variety of industries, products, companies, issues and topics, see the Team Librarian Consultation archives.

• Team Consultation Course/Program Index      (Marketing Assignments)
• Team Consultation Industry Index
• Team Consultation Quarter Index
• Team Consultation Title Index
• Team Consultation and Research Guide Index

For many of the questions in this assignment, library sources are unlikely to provide much detailed information. For that information, you will need to contact insiders in the schools under study.