Entrepreneurship Librarian
Company Information: The Rivet
- The Rivet websiteThe Rivet's website will be an excellent source of information about what the organization does, how members and the community can use the workshop, offerings such as The Winter Market, etc.
- Access World News (NewsBank) This link opens in a new windowSearch for newspaper articles about The Rivet. Enter "The Rivet" (including quotation marks) in the search box to get started. After you run the search, use the filters to narrow your results.
Recommended filters:
- Under Source Location, select North America, then USA - Pennsylvania
- Under Source Type, select Newspapers
- Under Language, select English
Additional Resources
Check out the Nonprofit Research and Company Information guides to explore potential additional sources of information about Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania - The Rivet's parent organization - and similar companies and organizations.
Industry: Makerspaces
Researching makerspaces as an industry may be more challenging than industry research you may have done in the past. It will rely more on performing article searches than looking at industry reports like those found in IBISWorld and other University Libraries databases.
In addition, many makerspaces are found in K-12 and higher education settings. You may find that you have to do additional digging to find information on issues faced specifically by community-based makerspaces like The Rivet.
If you have any questions while conducting your research, please email me or book an appointment to meet with me via Zoom or in my office in Paterno Library.
National Trade and Advocacy Organizations
- Nation of Makers"Nation of Makers is a national nonprofit supporting America’s maker organizations through community building, resource sharing, and advocacy..." Includes a Membership Directory that links to the websites of makerspaces and related organizations across the US
Search for Articles
- Access World News (NewsBank) This link opens in a new windowSearch for news articles about specific makerspaces located in other parts of the US and beyond. Enter the term makerspace as a starting point, then use filters to narrow down the results. You may also want to limit the date range of the articles you're looking at and/or change how results are sorted to Best Match instead of Newest.
You can also add additional search terms to narrow the results to articles that cover or mention a specific topic. For example, searching for makerspace AND tool rental will look for articles that include both terms. - ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from business-focused national and international newspapers, trade journals, magazines, and more
- Business Source Premier This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from business-focused national and international newspapers, trade journals, magazines, and more
Search Tips
Using the following search tips in many of the article databases PSU Libraries provide access to will help you find relevant articles more quickly.
Combining search terms:
- Use quotation marks (" ") to search for words in a phrase together such as "fab lab"
- Use the connector AND to find articles that contain both search terms. Ex: makerspace AND "tool rental" will return only articles that contain both of those terms
- Use the connector OR to find articles that contain either search term. Ex: makerspace OR "fab lab" will return articles that contain at least one of those terms
- Use parentheses ( ) to create more complex searches. The database will look for articles that fit the criteria within the parentheses first, then apply the rest of the search string.
- Ex: if you enter tools AND (makerspace OR "fab lab"), the search function will first look for any article that contains at least one of the terms materials or tools, then look for the term makerspace within those results only
Recommended types of sources/publications:
- In databases like ABI/INFORM and Business Source Premier, there's an option to narrow your results to specified types of publications or sources
- Recommended source types include:
- Magazines/periodicals - written for the general public. In business, these will include publications like Forbes, Fortune, and BusinessWeek
- Newspapers - written for the general public. Includes publications like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times
- Trade journals/publications - written for an industry-associated audience. Includes publications like Engineering News-Record (ENR), Architectural Record, and Automotive News
- Scholarly/academic journals - written for a scholarly audience, usually by academic researchers at universities, government agencies, and other organizations engaged in research
Other tips:
- Limit your results to articles from the past 3-5 years
- If you find an article you're interested in, look for the Subject or Keywords section in the article details to find additional terms to use in searches