A Web-based survey consisting of nineteen questions was conducted through Survey Methods. The survey, which ran from April 11 to April 25, 2008, was distributed through several electronic mailing lists, including the following: buslib, libref, Web4Lib, digref, CALA, libadmin, lita-l, mars, and ilf. All BRASS-L members were encouraged to participate as well. A total of 141 responses were collected from librarians working at academic, public, and special libraries. Follow-up interviews, either by phone or e-mail, were conducted with librarians who identified their availability in the survey.
Results
Of the 141 survey respondents, more than 60 percent identified their type of library. The surveyed group was made up of 46 academic librarians, 31 public librarians, 9 special librarians, and 55 others who did not identify themselves. Respondents were asked whether it is important for librarians at a business library to have a business background (see table 1). A total of 44.83 percent of public librarians stated that a business background is important, while many librarians from academic libraries (31.82 percent) and special libraries (44.44 percent) think that a business background is only somewhat important. While our survey found that a significant percentage of academic librarians indicated business background is only somewhat important, a survey conducted by Christopher LeBeau found that a large number of academic business librarians who fielded business questions felt inadequately prepared. According to LeBeau, nearly 50 percent of academic business librarians learned their business knowledge on the job, were self-taught, or took business courses on their own.15 In addition, nearly all generalist librarians who fielded business questions were self-taught or learned on the job. Responses to other questions in our survey follow:
What are the top three to five business needs of your community? What key strategies did or do you use to identify these needs? Services provided by libraries vary on the basis of the type of patrons they serve. Although each patron has a unique information need, we wanted to find out the information needs of users at different types of business libraries. To accomplish this goal, we asked the respondents to list the top three to five business needs of their communities. As shown in table 2, the business information needs of academic and special libraries are research oriented, while the information needs for public libraries are more practical.
What are the top ten resources (print, online, paid, free, etc.) you would recommend for a business collection serving your type of clientele? While it is important to understand the needs of users, it is equally important for libraries to provide necessary resources to fulfill these information needs. The question asked the respondents to list print, online, paid, or free resources that they would recommend for a business collection. Regardless of the type of library, fee-based products dominated the recommendations (see figures 1, 2, and 3).
What technology is offered at your library? The public-access computer is a standard technology offered by many libraries, so it should not be a surprise that it is the number one technology that is being offered in all three types of libraries (see table 3). Closely related to the public-access computer is wireless Internet access. Our survey indicated that 90 percent or more of public and academic libraries provide wireless technology; however, only 44 percent of special libraries offer the same technology. In addition, academic libraries lead in offering any technology when compared to public and special libraries. While more than 60 percent of academic libraries offer laptops, less than 25 percent of either public or special libraries provide laptops at their libraries. The same trend was discovered for ports and portable audio devices. The only exception is the offering of game consoles by public libraries.
What, if any, emerging technologies (e.g., online forums, social networking sites, wikis, blogs, etc.) does your library use? For what purpose (outreach, reference, instruction) are they used? As expectations and demands of users change over time and as libraries continue to develop and implement new services, business libraries are no exception. To better understand innovative services currently implemented by business libraries, an open-ended question, “What groundbreaking or innovative services do you offer your clientele?” provided an opportunity for libraries to showcase any innovative service they offer. Services aimed at outreach dominated the responses. This includes embedded librarians, author cafés, business plan competitions, and collaborations with third parties. Other innovative services include on-demand and point-to-point service, space renovation, and better business collections. In addition to innovative services, we were interested in emerging technology implemented by business libraries. Blogs, wikis, and chat reference are common; other less popular emerging technologies in use include podcasts, screencasts, desktop delivery, and social bookmarking tools.
How does your library promote its services and business resources or business collection? Resources may be under-used if users are unaware of their existence. As a result, this question aimed to find out how different types of libraries promote themselves (see table 4). Distributing information through flyers and brochures is very popular (96.77 percent) among public libraries; it is less common for academic (50 percent) and special (44.44 percent) libraries. At academic and special libraries, the most popular method of outreach is the library website—91.3 percent and 100 percent respectively. Another venue for public relations is through library workshops. More than 80 percent of public and academic libraries promote themselves through in-library workshops; 55 percent of special libraries use the in-library workshops for outreach. To extend promotion efforts beyond the library building, 70.97 percent of public libraries, 58.70 percent of academic libraries, and 44.44 percent of special libraries introduce themselves to their users through off-site workshops.
Findings and Discussion
Through the results, it can be noted that trends may be changing from a more traditional way of delivering services and resources to more innovative and creative ways. It is as if libraries have become scientific labs, exploratory in nature with constantly changing and fluid environments. It also has to be noted that while all libraries have the same basic role in their communities, the type of library plays an important role in what gets done and how things get done. This is because of the size of libraries, their specific purpose, their budget, and how their money is allocated and received. The budget is one of the biggest factors driving what can and cannot be done.
While traditional services are still very much needed in libraries, an argument can be made that subject expertise is important for business librarians. Our survey asked whether or not subject expertise was necessary, and many respondents indicated that subject expertise was only somewhat important or not important at all. Michael Lavin (a business librarian of national stature) takes the opposite position. He poses the argument that business reference is very complex and demands not only considerable time for each patron, but also bibliographic expertise and subject knowledge.16 This issue of the importance of business background for business librarians merits further attention.
The survey also asked respondents to name the top ten resources recommended for a business collection. Broken down by type of library, the results varied greatly. The top recommended resource for academic libraries was Business Source Premier, which barely edged out ABI/Inform and Mergent Online. For public libraries, the recommended resource was Reference USA, which overwhelmingly was the top choice. For special libraries, the top recommended resource overwhelmingly was Lexis Nexis. While there were a few shared recommendations, not one resource was common to all three types of libraries. For example, shared between academic and special libraries were ABI/Inform, Hoover’s, and Lexis Nexis. Shared between academic and public libraries were Business and Company Resource Center, Business Source Premier, S&P NetAdvantage, and Value Line. And between public and special libraries the shared recommendations were D&B Million Dollar Directory and Morningstar. It is interesting to see the differences because the results demonstrate that each type of library tailors their resources to meet the needs of their specific community. While our survey did not further explore how or why particular resources were selected, Golderman and Connolly summarize availability of Web-based reference sources used by business librarians in their excellent and in-depth article “Briefcases and Databases.”17 They organize resources into the following categories: Business Reference Suites, Stand-Alone Databases, Economic Indicators and Forecasts, Financial and Company Information, and Statistical Data Files. In the Business Reference Suites category, Golderman and Connolly suggest ABI/INFORM, Business & Company Resource Center, EBSCOhost, and LexisNexis Academic. It was affirming to see that the top recommended choices found in our survey somewhat mirror the resources identified by Golderman and Connolly. Other resources identified by Golderman and Connolly were also recommended by librarians in our survey (including Mintel, Factiva, Hoover’s, and Mergent Online.) A follow-up survey to the one we conducted would be useful in identifying other resources and to see how closely those resources match Golderman and Connolly’s list.
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