How to Use the Library

• Primary Uses of the Library
• To Switch Between For-Profit and Nonprofit Information
• To Translate to Different Languages
• To Get Acquainted With the Library
• About Copyright Terms, Reprinting Materials and Citations

The Free Management Library can be freely used for your own personal, professional and organizational development (including for-profit and nonprofit organizations). To learn more about the purpose, the information, some history and the developer of the Library, see About the Free Management Library. Here are some tips to get the most out of using the Library.

Primary Uses of the Library

People use the Library, primarily for three purposes:

1. To get to know it as a general purpose resource they can use over time.
2. To find a type of resource to solve a current problem, achieve a goal or meet an interest.
3. To learn how various topics can conventionally be categorized and integrated with each other.

To Switch Between For-Profit and Nonprofit Information

You might be from a for-profit or nonprofit organization that you want to improve. Each type has some unique terms used for concepts that actually are in common between both types of organizations. See Free Management Library Includes Materials for For-Profit and Nonprofit Organizations.

To Translate Different Languages

A translation utility is available in the upper left-hand corner of each page in the Library and near the upper left-hand corner in each blog. It translates into almost 60 languages, using the Translate link, which, in turn, uses the Google translator engine. As with any automated translator, there are often miss-translations. While not as accurate and reliable as a human translator, the automated utility does provide value to users of other languages.

To Get Acquainted With the Library

On the home page, notice:

• The six sections of information and the various categories of information in each.
• The self-assessments to the right in most of the sections, to help you identify which topics you might want to work on. Notice that some of the sections also include videos about the topics in that section.

On the left side of all pages, notice:

• Links to share feedback with us, a list of categories of recommended books and a list of the human guides, each associated with a major topic in the Library. Each guide is an expert in his or her topic, and also has a full-time job 🙂
• You can get updates from the Library by following its Twitter account and/or joining is Facebook fan
  page.

On the right side of all pages, notice:

• You can easily get back to the home page with its major sections.
• There also is an extensive index of all of the topics in the Library.
• You can customize your own learning plan to learn a topic or skill in an orderly manner.
• You also might consider forming your own study group in which members can share support and accountabilities to implement their learning plan.
• Links to a variety of general resources, such as directories of blogs, free training programs, job banks, online groups, organizations that offer free help to organizations, major periodicals, and supersites with vast arrays of useful and free resources.

Now, go into a topic, for example, How to Self-Reflect and notice it:

• Lists the sections in that topic.
• Suggests Related Library Topics in regard to the general nature of self-reflection.

About Copyright Terms, Reprinting Materials and Citing Contents

We want to help you to use the resources in the Library, including to reprint articles where appropriate. Read Copyright and Reprint Terms to see how to reprint materials from the Library.

Regarding citing contents from the Library, for example, in an article or research paper that you are writing:

1. Contact the author of the article that you want to cite from. The Library does not include contact information for each author.
2. If the author is Carter McNamara, then it is very likely that the contents are regularly updated; thus, there is no specific publication date. However, if Carter’s article is a PDF document, then it likely mentioned a publication at the top of the PDF, that the PDF was excerpted from. In that case, the publications and their publication dates are listed at Our Publications.

How to Add Your Links to Library

The Library averages 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 unique visitors a month.

You can get this large audience to see your free web information, e.g., a free article that you wrote.

Just find the web address of that free information and submit that address (URL or link) to the Library.

But the link should be directly to the free resource, NOT to another webpage (e.g., a home page) that makes the reader have to find the link to the free resource.

To submit your link, Click here

Frequently Asked Questions

Below, are the most frequently asked questions from users of the Library since 1995. Many answers are provided in the form of links to other sections of the Library so that you can get used to using those most useful sections and to avoid duplicating their information herein.

What is the purpose and scope of the Library? How is it unique?
What’s its “niche”?

See What Is the Free Management Library?

How can I learn to use the Library to best meet my needs?

See How To Use the Library

What if I want to copy or distribute materials from the library?
Who owns the materials?

See Copyright, Reprint

How can I add materials to the Library?

See Community Rules and How to Add Content to the Library.

Can I get Library materials provided to me on a CD-ROM or
as printed-out documents?

The materials in the Library are owned by the authors and/or publishers of those materials — the Library does not own most of the materials referenced from the Library. Thus, the Library does not have the right to copy, publish and/or distribute those materials. The Library provides those materials primarily by providing links to them. For more information, see Copyright, Reprint.

Where can I find additional sources of assistance to solve management problems or achieve goals?

There is a vast range of free resources available to you in the “General Resources” section on the right-hand sidebar. Also, see the “Related Library Topics” and “Recommended Books” referenced from the bottom of each topic’s page.

Why doesn’t the Library annotate each of the links in the Library?

An annotation is a very short (2- or 3-line) description of the highlights of a particular resource, for example, of an article. Different users often need different results from, and can have different perspectives on, the same resource. Brief annotations are often very generic and, thus, very often can’t be specific and useful enough to those having diverse needs from the same resource.

Also, we’ve found since 1995 that users very rarely ask for annotations — instead, they find it more useful to quickly click on the link to the article and then quickly scan it for themselves according to their own needs and perspectives.

Besides, the links we provide to articles are almost always on other websites — those websites often annotate the articles.

Thus, we do not annotate each article in the Library.

Why doesn’t the Library offer online discussion groups for each of its many topics?

Online discussion groups and blogs are popping up like popcorn. The vast majority of them do not achieve the high rate of participation and feedback needed to make them useful to participants. The vast
majority fizzle out and die altogether.

However, there are several online groups in regard to management that have already achieved that very high level of participation. They have 1,000s of participants and are relevant to the vast majority of topics in regard to management.

Our interests are ensuring that our users get prompt and useful feedback — they’re much more likely to get that kind of feedback from an already established online group, rather than our trying to start a bunch of new groups.

Thus, we link to the current, highly participative groups — see the link to “Online Groups” in the right-hand sidebar.

Why doesn’t the Library include users’ ratings of each article
in the Library?

Our users report to us that ratings of articles are not really useful to them. They rarely look for ratings. It’s just as easy for them to quickly scan an article to see if it meets their own unique needs at that particular time.

Why doesn’t the Library include the text of each article on the Library’s Website, rather than linking to articles?

Nowadays, the vast majority of writers of articles already have Web sites. We don’t see the need to duplicate their articles on the Library’s website. We have no interest in owning or managing other’s articles. We don’t need to.

Why isn’t the Library integrated in an online dynamic system,
such as Active Server Pages or a database-driven system?

From its inception in 1995, 1,000s of organizations began linking to many of the 100s of topics in the Library. Many schools include specific links in their course materials to specific topics in the Library. Many hardcopy, published articles have included links in their articles, as well.

Moving to a different system would result in changing (breaking) those many links and Web addresses and/or in administrating a cumbersome mapping system between the old links and the new links.

We’ve found that we can retain the very useful organization of resources (including categories, topics, subtopics, etc.) and the same link addresses without having the break the links or requiring our users to use links that are 100s of characters long.

Legal Notices

Copyrights

Paradise Media, LLC, is the owner of this Website and its related Services. Paradise Media, LLC, respects the intellectual property rights of others, and requires that the people who use this Website and Services do the same. It is our policy to respond promptly to claims of intellectual property misuse. If you believe that your work has been copied and is accessible on this Website and Services in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify us by providing our copyright agent with the following information in writing:
(1) the electronic or physical signature of the owner of the copyright or the person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf; (2) identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (3) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to permit Paradise Media, LLC, to locate the material, including the full URL. (4) your name, address, telephone number, and email address. (5) a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; (6) a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

Our designated agent to receive notification of claimed infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 is: legal@paradisemedia.com

Disclaimers of Endorsement and Liability

1. Paradise Media, LLC, and its affiliates on this Website and with its Services (e.g., technical service providers, sponsors, contributors, etc, regarding the Library.) do not make warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability for accuracy or effects of use of any resources in the Website or Services;
2. Inclusion of resources, or references to them, in the Website or Services does not necessarily constitute agreement with, nor endorsement of, the content of those resources by Paradise Media, LLC, and its affiliates.
3. Those who opt to publish their content in the Free Management Library grant Paradise Media, LLC, the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, translate, distribute, and display the writing (in whole or part) on the Free Management Library’s blogs and/or Free Management Library. The writing will retain citation of the writer’s name and the appropriate terms of copyright.
4. Use of the resources in the Website and Services do not constitute any agreement or contract, expressed or implied, between the user of the Paradise Media, LLC, and/or its affiliates.
5. Paradise Media, LLC, and its affiliates are not responsible for any direct or indirect misuse of the resources in or referenced from this Website or its Services.
6. Users of the Library are responsible to ensure that their usage is in conformance with the laws and regulations of their own particular country or jurisdiction.

Data Privacy Policy

See our comprehensive Data Privacy Policy

Assessments: Select Library Topics from “Diagnosing” Yourself, Group or Organization?

You can use the information in this section of Library to get a quick impression, or assessment, of the quality of the activities within your organization (whether for-profit or nonprofit) or of other management activities, such as managing yourself or groups. Assessments often can be conducted by your filling out a very convenient, comprehensive online questionnaire.

Assessments can help you to identify “what you did not know that you did not know” or “what you thought was so, but isn’t so.” Assessments aren’t “fixes” or “solutions.” They represent yet another perspective for you to understand organizations, processes and yourself.

You can use the information from your assessment to identify what Library topics might be most useful to you. For example, if the results of your organizational assessment indicate that your organization needs a lot of work in its Board of Directors, then the Library topic of “Boards of Directors” will be very useful to you. Similarly, your organization might need work in strategic planning, business planning, product and programs, staffing, marketing, finances, etc.

Some people dislike the term diagnosis, believing that systems, such as organizations and human beings, cannot be diagnosed as if these systems are somehow static and can be understand merely by answering questions about them. Therefore, the term discovery might be more apt for these systems.

The following information uses the terms assessment and evaluation interchangeably — an approach that is increasingly common. (Technically, an assessment is a measurement and an evaluation associates a judgment and sometimes recommendations to that assessment.)

Sections of This Topic Include

• Selecting Assessment Tools
• Assessing Your For-Profit Organization
• Assessing Your Nonprofit Organization
• A Diagnostic Model to Analyze Results of Your Organizational Assessment
• Assessing Performance of Employees in Your Organization
• Assessing Performance of Groups (Teams) in Your Organization
• Assessing Your Own Personal and Professional Development
• Other Types of Assessment Tools

Selecting Assessment Tools

Many of the questionnaires were placed on the Web by their authors for others to use. An assessment often reflects the philosophy and values of the author of that assessment. For example, some authors favor focus primarily on peoples’ values and beliefs, others on business policies and operations, others on both. You should consider this when you select a particular assessment.

Many assessments are in the form of quick questionnaires. Others are more comprehensive, sometimes validated (scientifically developed for accuracy, validity and reliability) tools that can include questionnaires, interviews, observation, etc.

Here are some guidelines to selecting from among publicly available assessments. The following sections suggest a variety of assessments, as well.

• How to Select From Among Public Data Collection Tools

Below, are links to a wide variety of assessments in the form of online questionnaires. When selecting an assessment tool, first scan the various tools. Seek to find assessments that are understandable and realistic for you to use. Some tools might match the nature and needs of your organization or yourself more than others.

NOTE: You must enter any of the following Web addresses EXACTLY as it appears below.

Assessing Your For-Profit Organization

Various Organizational Assessments for For-Profits

Here are a variety of online assessments for for-profit organizations.

Here Is a Comprehensive Organizational Assessment Tool for For-Profits

The following comprehensive assessment takes about 30 minutes to complete. The tool attempts to focus on both the business systems and the people in the business. To assess your for-profit organization, go to the following Web address. The assessment tool includes directions to use the tool. The information that you provide in your assessment is not shared with anyone else.

Assessing Your Nonprofit Organization

Various Organizational Assessments for Nonprofits

Here are a variety of online assessments for nonprofit organizations.

Here Is a Comprehensive Organizational Assessment Tool for Nonprofits

The following comprehensive assessment takes about 20 minutes to complete. The tool also attempts to focus on both the organizational systems and the people in the organization. To assess your nonprofit organization, go to the following Web address. The assessment tool includes directions to use the tool. The information that you provide in your assessment is not shared with anyone else.

A Diagnostic Model to Analyze Results of Your Organizational Assessment

You might choose to address each of the areas that your assessment suggests need attention. You might not be concerned in which order you address those areas — you’ll address all of them. Also, you might not choose to analyze for the root causes of the various issues — and instead just do the best you can to address as many issues as possible by going forward. In that case, a diagnostic model isn’t necessary.

However, if you do want to do further analysis of the results of your assessment, including to understand more about root causes of the issues in the organization and in which order to address the different issues in your organization, then a diagnostic model will be handy. Here’s one model to consider for either for-profits or nonprofits.

• Systems-Based Model to Diagnose For-Profit Organizations
• Systems-Based Model to Diagnose Nonprofit Organization

To improve your organization, see Guidelines, Methods and Resources for Organizational Change Agents

Assessing Performance of Employees in Your Organization

This type of assessment should be done very carefully and in accordance with up-to-date personnel policies that conform to the employment laws of your state/province and/or country. The following link is to a comprehensive description of employment performance management.

Assessing Performance of Groups (Teams) in Your Organization

Similar to assessing employees, this type of assessment should be done very carefully and in accordance with up-to-date personnel policies that conform to the employment laws of your state/province and/or country. If your group is rather large, for example, over 12 members, then the dynamics of the group can be very similar to that of an overall organization, in which case organizational assessment tools might be suitable (see above). The following link is to a comprehensive description of team performance management.

Assessing Your Own Personal and Professional Development

The is a vast number and range of assessments for you to choose from, depending on your nature and needs. The following link is to a long list of tools. With personal assessments, it is even more important to select a tool that meets your own nature and needs.

Other Types of Assessments

The Library includes information about assessing a wide range of topics. The following link will give you a choice from among those topics.

Guidelines, Methods and Resources for Organizational Change Agents

If you are using the Library to improve the performance of your organization, then you might be very interested in how to use the results of organizational assessments to improve your organization. The following link is to a vast amount of guidelines and materials for that purpose.

• Guidelines, Methods and Resources for Organizational Change Agents

Copyright and Reprint Terms

Can I Reprint Items from the Library?

When Requesting Permission, You Must Specify Each Article With Its Title and Web address — Do Not Request Permission for Entire Categories or Topics

In a public Library, you must specify each book you want — you cannot ask to borrow an entire category or shelf of books. Similarly, in the Free Management Library, you must specify each article that you want to reprint. You can do so by specifying the title of the resource and its Web address.

Before Requesting, Find Out Who the Author Is — We Cannot Grant Permission for Resources That We Did Not Write

There are many authors who have an article or more referenced from the Library. The Library cannot grant permission to reprint an article. That permission must be granted by the author of the article. For example, for resources that mention “written by Carter McNamara” or “copyright Carter McNamara” near the top, contact carter@authenticityconsulting.com. When contacting an author, be sure to specify the Title and Web Address of each article.

To find out who owns an on-line resource, follow the tips below.

1. Try find the author’s contact information (name, e-mail address and/or postal address) in the article, Website, etc. Then contact the author.
2. If you can’t find the author and contact information that way, then try find a link that links to contact information, for example, try find links to “contact us” and follow those links.
3. If you can’t find contact information that way, then try backing up from the address of the article. For example, if the Web address of the item is “http://www.website.com/topics/articles/crisis_management.htm” then try:
   a) Connect to http://www.Website.com/topics/articles and see if there is contact information there.
   b) If there is no contact information there, then try http://www.Website.com/topics/ and see if there is contact information there.
   c) If there is no contact information there, then try http://www.website.com/

Can I Link From My Web Site to the Library or Any of its Topics?
Yes!

Absolutely. The Library is a community resource. If linking to it from your Web site will make it handier for you and others to use materials from the Library, then go for it!

Similarly, if you want to include description of the Library and its Web address in a publication or on your Web site, that’s fine, too.

However, if you would like to reprint materials from the Library to include in another publication, on your Web site, etc., then read the above guidelines about reprinting. Thank you.

Free Management Library may NOT be Mirrored at Other Web Sites

The Library design and/or its pages may not be copied and maintained as a service at another Web site. While this mirroring (which produces significant, duplicate copies of the Library and its contents) may be convenient means to help others benefit from the Library, the mirroring too often causes loss of central control over administration and versions of the contents of the Library.

This central control is needed to ensure that the Library design and all copies of materials are up-to-date, and that up-to-date reprint terms are applied to the Library and its contents. Mirroring also might be a copyright violation, depending on what you copy from the Library.

We are excited to provide you with all of the information we can to better your business and your professional life. We realize that many of our readers have feedback or questions from time to time and welcome your outreach to our team. To reach us directly you can fill out this form below and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Mailing Address

Management Library
c/o Paradise Media, LLC
954 Ave Ponce de Leon
San Juan, PR 00907
Paradise Media, LLC

Community Rules

Rules for inserting links and recommending books are:

• Be sure to first read How to Add
  to the Library, if you have not yet done so.
• New link must be directly to free substantive information.
• Do not require users to register to receive the information
  — even if registration is free.
• Don’t make users follow more links to the free information.
• Link must not be primarily about ad’s, a company, etc.
• Be sure you can legally link to that information.
• Information must be within purpose of Library. See the “About
  Library” section referenced in the sidebar.
• Training programs, groups, periodicals, blogs, supersites,
  reference materials and jobs – are in the “General Info”
  section referenced in the sidebar.
• Abusers will be banned from adding content. (We can detect the specific
  IP address in effect when the abuse occurred.)