The Corporate Librarian’s Role in Today's Information Marketplace by David D. Hursh

• The Librarian’s Role Is Changing … Isn’t It?
• Facing the New Reality
• What is a Librarian Worth?
• Outsourcing: How Real a Threat?
• Meeting the New Reality’s Challenges
• Tips for finding more information about this topic
• Bibliography

The Librarian's Role Is Changing … Isn’t It?

Common wisdom holds that the corporate librarian’s role is changing dramatically. In the age of public-access electronic information services, it is argued, librarians can no longer serve simply as information gatherers. Instead they must become information "advisers" and "consultants," and their primary tasks must be to integrate information technologies and foster end-users’ information gathering skills.

But there is a dissenting view. At least one expert would argue that corporate librarians remain, by virtue of their ability to perform online research better and more cost-effectively than end-users, essential knowledge workers (White, 1996). What need is there, then, for librarians to change?

Facing the New Reality

The "New Reality" is that corporate end-users are connected. Desktop and even portable PCs put a growing number of online information resources at the end-user’s fingertips. Furthermore, those services are encouraging end-user searching by supplying interfaces specifically geared to end-users. The result, not surprisingly, has been a sharp decline in the perceived value of librarian-mediated searches (Stear, 1997).

In light of the New Reality, the special librarian’s only viable option is to change – at least that is the prevailing view. Consultant Judith Ribbler, for example, proposes a reengineered corporate information environment in which the information professional plays a dramatically altered role (Ribbler, 1996). She envisions special librarians as providers of information solutions, not simply information. The information professional’s key functions, in Ribbler’s view, will include integrating information technologies, developing and synthesizing information products, promoting the use of new products and training end-users. Training will be a comprehensive, ongoing process that focuses on research strategy, not just basic search skills. The librarian will remain available, of course, to assist and advise end-users.

Ribbler’s model rests on the assumption that end-users, not librarians, will be the primary information gatherers. But what if end-users turn out to be ineffective or inefficient searchers?

That is precisely the problem, according to former Special Libraries Association president Herbert S. White. He argues that information professionals can do online research better and more efficiently than end-users. He further argues that many corporate end-users do not want to perform their own research.

In White’s view, therefore, corporate librarians remain essential knowledge workers, and the primary hurdle they face is not making themselves valuable, by changing, but convincing senior management that they are valuable.

What Is a Librarian Worth?

White’s argument raises the question of how corporate librarians can best demonstrate their value. Clearly, it would be advantageous for them to establish a monetary value for their services -- after all, money is what upper management understands best.

Research indicates that it is possible to place a dollar value on special-library services. Cost/benefit studies by Jose-Marie Griffiths and Donald W. King, Helen Manning, and others have confirmed that special libraries have a positive value (Keyes, 1995). And a study involving the Ontario Ministry of Finance’s library has demonstrated that a business-case approach to special-library valuation is basically feasible (Harris and Marshall, 1996).

Outsourcing: How Real a Threat?

The outsourcing of specific special-library services -- document delivery, for example -- is a common and widely accepted practice. But the outsourcing of an entire corporate library is not. In 1995 General Electric Co. stunned the special-library community by outsourcing its headquarters information service. Not surprisingly, some corporate librarians find that development, and the outsourcing trend in general, threatening.

Inmagic Inc. Chairwoman Betty Eddison suggests that special librarians, instead of viewing outsourcing only as a threat, should acknowledge its potential value (Eddison, 1997). Visionary librarians, she explains, realize that they can sometimes meet their internal clients’ information needs better by outsourcing basic tasks and focusing more on management functions. Eddison also suggests that librarians take steps to tie themselves and their libraries more closely to overall organizational goals.

Meeting the New Reality’s Challenges

The New Reality undeniably presents challenges to corporate librarians. Technology has put online information resources in the hands of end-users. Senior executives, ever more cost conscious, discount the value of libraries and librarians. Outsourcing threatens to eliminate the need for many, if not all, in-house library services.

Under the prevailing view, the librarians who survive and thrive will be those who adapt. They will become developers, integrators and promoters of information technologies and services. They will train and advise the primary information gatherers – end-users.

Perhaps, as White suggests, some librarians can survive by resisting change -- by remaining highly skilled and productive information providers. But to successfully navigate that path, they will have to quantify and effectively communicate their value to senior management.

Does the New Reality render corporate librarians irrelevant? Of course not. Will its challenges force librarians to adapt? Almost certainly. Can some librarians survive by resisting change? Perhaps, but how many and under what circumstances remains to be seen.

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Tips for Finding More Information About this Topic

Bibliography

Eddison, Betty, Susanne Bjorner, and Edward B. Stear. "Our Profession Is Changing: Whether We Like It or Not." Online Jan.-Feb. 1997: 72+. InSite Pro: Trade & Industry Database. Online. InSite Pro. 25 Mar. 1997.

Keyes, Alison M. "The Value of the Special Library: Review and Analysis." Special Libraries Sum. 1995: 172+. InSite Pro: Trade & Industry Database. Online. 25 Mar. 1997.

Harris, Gwen, and Joanne G. Marshall. "Building a Model Business Case: Current Awareness Service in a Special Library." Special Libraries Sum. 1996: 181+. InSite Pro: Trade & Industry Database. Online. 25 Mar. 1997.

Ribbler, Judith. "Delivering Solutions for the Knowledge Economy." Online Sep.-Oct. 1996: 12+. InSite Pro: Trade & Industry Database. Online. 25 Mar. 1997.

White, Herbert S. "The Politics of Reinventing Special Libraries." Special Libraries Win. 1996: 59+. InSite Pro: Trade & Industry Database. Online. 25 Mar. 1997.

About the author

David D. Hursh, Abstractor/Editor in the Business Publications Group, has been with IAC since 1981. He is also the publisher and editor of Web Fiction Review: A Guide to Online Fiction. Comments to the author should be directed to Dave_Hursh@iacnet.com.

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