East Baton Rouge Parish Library InfoBlog

Business Person of the Month: Eric B. Lewis

Eric B. Lewis
President

Ephod Business Solutions

18316 Keystone Ave
Greenwell Springs, LA 70739
225.261.0424
www.ephod-bus.com

“At Ephod Business Solutions, we strive to provide management and consulting services to the small business owner that will allow their firm to reach its full potential. Through this effor, we believe we encourage economic development within the community.” – Eric B. Lewis

Eric B. Lewis is the President of Ephod Business Solutions, a business management consulting firm providing services in the areas of business development, project management, and technology consulting, based in Baton Rouge with a second office in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ephod Business Solutions is a subsidiary of Ephod Company, L.L.C., a holding company.

Lewis has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern University and a Master’s degree from Louisiana State University. He keeps up-to-date in the business world by reading Black Enterprise, The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report, and biographies of successful CEO’s. In his leisure time, Lewis reads The Advocate. His favorite recreational book is Cane River by Lalita Tademy.

Lewis has a vision for the future development of East Baton Rouge Parish. “I believe East Baton Rouge Parish has the capacity to become the center of a major metropolitan area. If we can take full advantage of some of the existing resources, such as the airport, the interstate, and Mississippi River as well as Southern University, LSU, and BRCC, we will be able to develop the foundation for long-term growth. Over the next few years, emerging industries such as software technologies, video gaming, and entertainment should really begin to strenghthen our local economy. Once this occurs, Baton Rouge will become an attractive community for those desiring to live in the southern region of our country,” states Lewis.

He is a member of the Baton Rouge Black Chamber of Commerce, Forum 35, NAACP, and the LSU Dean’s Advisory Committee. His favorite quote is “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.”

Business Person of the Month Archive

FACTS.com

FACTS.com Database

National Black History Month

Did you know? Since 1926 the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) has established the national theme for Black History Month. This year ASALH has chosen a theme that aims to explore the impact that Black fraternal, social, and civic organizations have had on the evolution of African American life and history.

In case you were wondering where you could explore similar interesting facts relating to Black History Month or, perhaps, biographical information about African-American firsts, look no further than FACTS.com! Here’s an example of how it works.

From the EBRP Library home page (URL: http://www.ebr.lib.la.us/), click Online Databases on the left navigation menu.
Click Enter on the next screen.
Look under Statewide Databases; scroll and click Facts.com.
Let’s assume that we want to gather the names of African-American “firsts”.
In the blank text box type “first African American” (place phrase in quotes).
Notice the check box labeled Search Title Only; leave the box unchecked, as we are not looking for articles with these words in the title.
For purposes of sorting search results, chose Relevance Rank*.
Finally, under Available Databases, click the following check boxes:
- World News Digest (1980 to present)
- World News Digest (1940 to 1979)
- Issues & Controversies
- Today’s Science
- World Almanac Reference Databases
- World Almanac Encyclopedia
Click GO!
This search has retrieved 70 documents that are displayed on 3 result pages.
Advance to page 2 of your results and click on #26 to learn that American poet Rita Dove became the first African-American (as well as the youngest ever) poet laureate of the United States in 1993.

* Story Date is useful when timeliness is a factor; in which case, you could also specify a World News Digest database accordingly plus opt to set a date range.

EBRPL’s Senior Connection

Check out the Senior Connection – the new EBRP Library site for seniors! This is a site we’ve put together just for seniors – providing acess to information and services that are important to this large group of library patrons. Use Senior Connection to find a place to volunteer, learn a new craft or hobby, learn to type, find out how to prevent falls, exchange recipes, stay healthy…

Click on the link to the left and explore Senior Connection. It’s a great place to stay informed and continue learning!

LitFinder

LitFinder contains the complete text of 125,000 poems, 5,000 short stories, thousands of essays, and hundreds of plays and speeches. It also provides citations and excerpts for 850,000 poems.

LitFinder can be especially useful during Black History Month — use it to find poetry written about slavery, or by slaves. Find abolistionist essays and speeches. There are also plays about American slavery. And of course, you can find thousands of poems, stories, and essays by contemporary African American writers.

Litfinder has a wealth of full text material suitable for researching your paper or just reading for enjoyment and education — and it’s available from home or in the Library.

Explore Black History Month through literature with LitFinder!

Safari Tech Books Online

The East Baton Rouge Parish Library subscribes to the complete Safari Tech Books Online catalog. The entire collection of over 1,800 titles is available to registered patrons of the library. Users can access any title from their home or business by clicking on the Safari Techbooks link in the Business Databases menu or by selecting the Online Databases link from our website homepage and then entering their library card number.

Once you have arrived at the Safari homepage, you can search the collection by author, title, publisher or subject. If you just want to browse a list of titles, click on the “Library” button. An advanced search feature is available. Special software for reading the books online is not required. Content is displayed with the book’s table of contents on the left side of the page with text in the remaining viewing area of the page. Print, email and bookmark options are included.

A partial listing of business related titles include, Que’s Official Internet Yellow Pages 2006 Edition, Microsoft® Small Business Kit 2004 Edition, and Power Up Your Small-Medium Business: A Guide To Enabling Network Technologies 2004 Edition.

Business Person of the Month: Trina Prejean

Trina Prejean
Owner/Manager

Don-Lyn Florist

4348 Hwy 19
Zachary, LA 70791
225.654.4551
www.don-lynflorist.com

“My little summer time job turned into my lifetime career.” – Trina Prejean

Since 1997, Trina Prejean, a licensed horticulturist, has been the owner and manager for Don-Lyn Florist and gift shop in Zachary, Louisiana. During the summer before her senior year of high school, at the age of 16, Prejean began working for her mentor Earline Durio at The Greenery, a florist shop in Denham Springs, Louisiana. Little did she know that her experience there would lead to her success 26 years later.

Providing beautiful floral arrangements for weddings, funerals, holidays, and other occasions such as the Zachary and Pride-Chaneyville Branch Library grand openings, Don-Lyn Florist has been a thriving business in the Zachary area. “Zachary’s growth is booming! The new library branches that have opened in the Zachary and Pride-Chaneyville are wonderful and I am so excited for our community.”

Prejean is an active member of the Zachary Chamber of Commerce. She keeps up-to-date in the business world by reading Florist Review, Flowers&, and The Florist Magazine, all of which offer the latest tips on merchandise, decorating work/show rooms, and care of flowers. The magazines also provide lists of new vendors and companies with available products.

During her leisure time, Prejean enjoys reading the works of Jeffery Deaver and Nicholas Sparks. Although two totally different genres, Prejean finds an interest and a balance in each of these authors.

Business Person of the Month Archive

The Household Products Database

http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/index.htm

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Other Multi-Syllable Mysteries in Your Toothpaste

We have all noticed those difficult-to-pronounce ingredients listed on most, if not all, of our common household product labels. Many of us have even gone to great lengths to mine authoritative information online regarding chemical ingredients only to retrieve hundreds of thousands of hits oriented towards either marketing or urban legend.

So, next time you dare to perform a Google search on “Carbomer 956”, a substance commonly found in tootpaste, think Household Products Database insead. Here’s an example of how it works.

Go to the Household Products Database website at the URL listed above.
Assume you are investigating ingredients found in different brands of toothpaste.
Click on the “Products” tab at the top.
Click “Search” on the submenu of the products tab.
Click the second radio button to search as “Type of Product“.
Type the word “Toothpaste” in the empty textbox.
Highlight “Personal Care/Use” on the dropdown menu.
Click the “Search” button.
Search results will display listing brands included in this database.
Click Aquafresh All Tartar Control Toothpaste, at the top of the list.
Notice you have retrieved information about the brand, manufacturer, health effects, handling/disposal, plus a complete ingredients list on the product label.
Scroll down the table to the “Ingredients” list.
Click “Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)“.
Notice you have retrieved information about SLS as well as a list of other brands containing SLS.
You’ll want to mouse-over the content in these table to discover links to further information; the hyperlinks are not obviously color-coded or underlined.

Perform similar searches under Ingredient to discover which products contain them.

Household Products Database

http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov

What’s under your kitchen sink, in your garage, in your bathroom, and on the shelves in your laundry room? Search the Household Products Database to find out about the chemicals you handle every day. This easy-to-use database provides health and safety information on commonly used household products — like Comet!.

It will tell you how to store products, how to use them safely, what to do if things go wrong, and who to contact. Feel safer in your home — check out the Household Products Database!

Business Person of the Month: Dwight Brashear

Dwight Brashear

Chief Executive Officer/General Manager

Capital Area Transit System

2250 Florida Boulevard
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802
225.389.8282 (Customer Service, Route, and Schedule Inquiries)
225.929.7740 (CATS On Demand)
225.389.8920 (Office)
http://www.brcats.com/

“We all have a sacred obligation in all that we do to leave things better than when we found them.” – Dwight Brashear

Dwight Brashear is the Chief Executive Officer for the Capital Area Transit System (CATS) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Management from Azusa Pacific University. Brashear is a Board Member for the Young Leaders Academy and the Clean Cities Coalition. He speaks at numerous civic association meetings and is actively involved with local churches.

“My vision for East Baton Rouge Parish is tied directly to those issues that drive our quality of life,” says Brashear. “I envision a time when quality of life issues are given top priority.” He continues, “There must be a a conscious decision to invest heavily in mass transit, libraries, parks, primary education, the arts…”

Brashear keeps up-to-date in the professional world by reading The Baton Rouge Business Report, Good to Great, and Thriving on Chaos.

Back to Business Person Archive

Safari Tech Books

Finding Business Books in Safari Tech Books Online

Safari Tech Books Online contains a number of business-related books. In it you can browse through the full text of books related to customer service, performance appraisals, business plans, and other topics. Just select the “Bookshelf” button at the top of the Safari Tech Books home page to look at all of the titles, both computer and business related, that are listed.

Eric B. Lewis President