The Kansas City Public Library’s Central Branch is home to the H&R Block Business & Career Center, a facility dedicated to supporting successful entrepreneurs.
There’s a little-known secret tucked away on the third floor of the Kansas City Public Library‘s downtown Central branch. It’s quiet, high-tech and full of resources for budding entrepreneurs. It’s the H&R Block Business & Career Center.
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Per the library’s website, the Block Center is dedicated to supporting successful entrepreneurs, in addition to helping patrons invest money wisely, find jobs and develop careers, establish and sustain non-profits and improve youth financial literacy. (Left: The third-floor facility.)
With the current economy, the majority of patrons using the facility lately are focused on their job hunt, using the resources it offers to update résumés and apply online for jobs. But when the Block Center was created in 2009 with a grant from H&R Block and the H&R Block Foundation, its primary intention was to support small local businesses and growing entrepreneurs.
“They aren’t used enough,” Eric Petersen, a business librarian at the Central branch and one of the supporting librarians who regularly staffs the center, said of the facility’s entrepreneurial resources.
“We offer both print and electronic resources on writing a business plan; doing demographic, marketing, industry, and investment research; finding information on companies; and doing business and economic history,” Petersen said.
The center includes dedicated computers and televisions for business and financial use, an extensive collection of business and personal development books and periodicals and dedicated business librarian support. Even if you just need a comfortable chair or a quiet nook, it can provide that, too.
For budding entrepreneurs and experienced business owners, the Block Center aims to provide support that can be hard to find elsewhere in the Kansas City area.
To visit the Block Center, stop by the Central branch of the Library at 14 West 10th St. during its regular business hours; no appointment is necessary. More information about the center is available online at http://kclibrary.org/business-career.
Image credit: Photo of library’s exterior from Travelin’ Librarian on Flickr. Photo of Block Center from kclibrary.org.
