ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 12, 1994                   TAG: 9408120100
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

LIBRARIES TO OFFER START-UP GUIDES FOR BUSINESSES

A collection of materials to help entrepreneurs start or expand new businesses will be available at public libraries in Wytheville,Independence, Hillsville and Galax starting Monday.

The 160 start-up guides, three-volume small-business encyclopedia, women's guide to owning a business, two-volume set on writing business plans, six small-business videos and a guide to America's hottest businesses for the 1990s also will be available to other public or college libraries anywhere in Southwest Virginia through interlibrary loans.

The collection, valued at $13,500, was purchased jointly by Virginia Tech's Small Business Development Center at Wytheville Community College and the Wythe-Grayson and the Galax-Carroll regional libraries.

The only other places it was available in Virginia were Manassas and Lynchburg.

Rob Edwards, director of the Wytheville Community College center, said he had seen the Manassas collection ``and I saw what a great tool it was ... a wealth of information.''

He approached Michael Gilley, director of the Wythe-Grayson Regional Library, and Gilley enlisted Laura Bryant, Galax-Carroll director, to purchase it jointly because none could afford it individually.

The materials will be divided among the four libraries, but their catalogs will list the entire collection, and any part can be made available to any library on a day's notice.

The materials will be available only for use in the libraries, rather than being taken out. That way, Edwards said, their use can be tracked, and materials of particular interest in areas served by a particular library can be moved there. The collection will be updated yearly with new businesses and data being added.

``It's just something we've not seen in Southwest Virginia before, and there's been a desperate need for it,'' Edwards said. ``I'm really excited about it.''

The collection is aimed at people looking for ventures to pursue, those needing more specific information to get started and existing entrepreneurs needing fresh ideas and data to expand.

Additional information is available by calling Edwards at 228-6751. 


 by CNB