liu.p65 Business Librarians: Their Education and Training 555 Business Librarians: Their Education and Training Lewis-Guodo Liu and Bryce Allen Subject expertise has been regarded as an important contributing factor in determining the quality of information services provided in specialized academic libraries. A telephone survey of academic business librarians was conducted to ascertain their level of business education. A survey of instructors of business information courses in library schools was con­ ducted to discover the areas of business considered important in their courses. Results show that a minority of academic business librarians have been educated in business administration. Broad areas of business are considered important for library school course, but specialized and technical areas are considered less important. These results suggest that traditional education and training for business librarians are less than ad­ equate. Partnerships between schools of business and schools of library and information science are suggested as one way to improve levels of business education for business information specialists. he ability to provide high- quality information services depends on many factors. Re­ searchers and practitioners have maintained that subject expertise is one of those factors, particularly in spe­ cialized fields such as science, engineer­ ing, and business librarianship. The pur­ pose of this investigation was to explore the educational background and profes­ sional experience of business librarians. In particular, the authors’ focus was on business librarians’ formal training in the subject of business. The authors wished to ascertain levels of subject expertise that would prepare business librarians to pro­ vide high-quality information service. Jean-Pierre V. M. Herubel maintained that “Subject expertise can only enhance a librarian’s ability to interpret the col­ lections to students and scholars. Public services can make a rich contribution to the educative process when they are per­ formed by librarians who have a solid grounding in a subject disciplines.”1 Crit Stuart and Miriam A. Drake argued that “Some of our colleagues make the argu­ ment that non-scientists can be trained to perform as effectively as librarians with science or engineering degrees. However, without a knowledge of math­ ematical concepts, basic scientific prin­ ciples, engineering applications and the communication channels used by scien- Lewis-Guodo Liu is Business Information Specialist and Associate Professor at Baruch College of the City University of New York; e-mail: lewis_liu@baruch.cuny.edu. Bryce Allen is Associate Professor in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri; e-mail: AllenB@missouri.edu. The authors would like to thank Diana Pratomo for her assistance with the tele­ phone interviews with business librarians. 555 mailto:AllenB@missouri.edu mailto:lewis_liu@baruch.cuny.edu 556 College & Research Libraries tists and engineers to acquire scientific and technical information, the non-sci­ ence or engineering person begins with a disadvantage that is difficult to over­ come.”2 They further argued that “The science or engineering degreed librarian with a grounding in subject materials, practice in scientific and research meth­ ods, and a presumed enthusiasm for the subject discipline is more likely to estab­ lish valuable relationships with clients and be able to provide effective informa­ tion services. A librarian with a science or engineering background will have a greater understanding of the client’s problem and context and will be able to The fact that science and engineering and business librarians lack formal education in subject areas has caused concerns about the profession. evaluate as well as find useful informa­ tion.”3 Julie Hallmark interviewed gov­ ernment, academic, and corporate geo­ science information specialists regarding the importance of their education in the subject area along with other skills. She concluded that “Participants in the study agreed that a strong science background for geoscience information specialists was highly desirable, if not essential. Some library managers, in fact, stated that they would prefer to hire a geolo­ gist and train that person in library and information science than vice versa.”4 Business librarianship also requires spe­ cialized subject knowledge. Shirley Echelman wrote: “To be successful, the business librarian must learn to speak and understand the language of busi­ ness. He must do this not only to be able to serve his constituents, but also to func­ tion as an accepted member of the pro­ fessional and managerial staff of a mod­ ern organization.5 Lewis-Guodo Liu pointed out that the emer gence of Internet resources and services in busi­ ness has created a new responsibility for business librarians: “Business librarians have to identify, select, evaluate, and or­ ganize business information on the November 2001 Internet to meet the information needs of their local patrons.”6 Subject knowl­ edge is crucial to carry out these respon­ sibilities. The consensus reached among special librarians was reflected in the 1996 report to the Special Libraries Association (SLA) board of directors by the Special Commit­ tee on Competencies for Special Librarians. It states that the special librarians should have “specialized subject knowledge ap­ propriate to the business of the organiza­ tion or client.”7 Some original research has been conducted to test the assumption of whether subject knowledge improves in­ formation access and retrieval. Raya Fidel and Ingrid Hsieh-Yee found that subject knowledge had effects on searches by ex­ perienced searchers.8, 9 Hsieh-Yee specifi­ cally observed that “in searching a topic they knew about, they used more of their own terms. The use of these tactics seems sensible and logical. Clearly, when one is not familiar with a topic, more prepara­ tion is warranted and more effort should be made for term selection; whereas, while searching in one’s own field, it is much easier for experienced searchers to simply rely on their own terms for the search.” She also observed that when searching a different, but similar, subject area, experi­ enced searchers with subject knowledge can effectively conduct the search. “Find­ ings on the role of subject knowledge sug­ gest that experienced searchers knew how to cope with their deficiency in this area. Like all good searchers, they took advan­ tage of the thesaurus structure for term suggestions, tried to identify all possible relevant terms (descriptors and nondescriptors), including many more synonyms, combined them in many ways, and monitored their search carefully.”10 Some researchers found that subject knowledge also helps novice searchers. For example, Thomas Jacobson and David Fusani concluded that “Relative to general computer knowledge, for example, our data suggest subject knowledge is of con­ siderable importance and can account for significant amounts of variance in end- user studies.”11 Business Librarians: Their Education and Training 557 It also can be observed TABLE 1 from hiring practices that Undergraduate Majors of Business Librarians many libraries require or prefer a law librarian to have Subject Area Frequency Percent a J.D. degree, a science librar- Humanities 82 55.8 ian to have formal academic Social sciences 23 15.6 training in the sciences, and Business 22 15.0 a business librarian to have Professional schools 15 10.2 an undergraduate degree in Sciences and engineering 5 3.4 business or an MBA in addi­ tion to an MLS degree. Total The fact that science and engineering and business li­ brarians lack formal education in subject areas has caused concerns about the pro­ fession. A number of surveys were con­ ducted on educational background of sci­ ence and engineering librarians and busi­ ness librarians. In 1983, Ellis Mount sur­ veyed sixteen science and technology col­ lege and university libraries.12 In 1993 Meng Xiong Liu and Wei Wei surveyed science and technology librarians in the University of California and California State University system libraries.13 And in 1999, Christopher Hooper-Lane sur­ veyed sixty-seven science and chemistry librarians.14 Mount found that 50 percent of surveyed librarians did not possess academic degrees in the sciences; Liu and Wei found that about 62 percent of the surveyed did not have formal educational background in sciences and technologies; and Hooper-Lane found that only 43 per­ cent of librarians who responded to the survey had formal academic degrees in chemistry and that 63 percent had aca­ demic degrees in one of the science disci­ plines. The overall picture shows that sci­ ence and technology librarians lack for­ mal training and subject knowledge in their subject areas. A 1986 survey con­ ducted by Aubrey Kendrick on the edu­ cation of business librarians showed that among the 162 respondents, 3.1 percent had undergraduate majors in business administration, 3.1 percent in economics, 1.2 percent in accounting, 1.2 percent in management, 1.2 percent in marketing, and 0.6 percent in finance. Her survey also showed that 17.3 percent had MBA de­ grees.15 147 100.0 Survey of Business Librarians Servoyology The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is an inter­ national accrediting agency for postsecondary programs in business and accounting. Approximately 380 U.S. busi­ ness schools meet the criteria and are ac­ credited by AACSB. The authors com­ piled a list of these schools and sampled randomly from it to create a sample of 150 academic institutions. From publicly available information, including the in­ stitutions’ Web sites, the authors compiled a list of business librarians. These librar­ ians were contacted initially by e-mail, and a time was established for telephone contact. A total of 147 academic business librarians were interviewed by telephone in the fall semester of 2000 and the win­ ter semester of 2001, and their responses form the basis of the analyses and find­ ings reported below. Results The following tables show the survey re­ sults. Table 1 shows that a large majority of academic business librarians have un­ dergraduate degrees in disciplines other than business administration. More than 55 percent have undergraduate degrees in the humanities. The second largest group of business librarians is those with undergraduate degrees in social sciences. Only 15 percent of business librarians have undergraduate degrees in business. Table 2 shows that the pattern of un­ dergraduate minors mirrors that of un­ dergraduate majors. About 55 percent of business librarians have undergraduate http:grees.15 http:librarians.14 http:libraries.13 http:libraries.12 558 College & Research Libraries November 2001 The authors also foundTABLE 2 from the survey that busi-Undergraduate Minors of Business Librarians ness librarians who were in­ terviewed had been in theirSubject Area Frequency Percent current positions for an av-Humanities 52 54.7 erage of eleven years. Table Business 15 15.8 7 shows the distribution ofSocial sciences 14 14.7 the length of time academicProfessional schools 11 11.6 business librarians reported Science and technology 3 3.2 being in their current posi- Total 95 100.0 tions. minors in humanities. Only 15.8 percent of business librarians have undergradu­ ate minors in business. Table 3 demonstrates that virtually all (99.3 percent) respondents have master ’s degrees in library science, but only thirty- five (23.8 percent) have master ’s degrees in economics or business. Business librarians with doctoral de­ grees are shown in table 4. Six respon­ dents have doctoral degrees. Only one has a doctorate in business. Most of the de­ grees are in the fields of the humanities and social sciences. Table 5 tabulates the business librarians with second master ’s degrees in fields other than business or economics. Respon­ dents with second master’s degrees from other disciplines (forty-one) outnumbered those with second master ’s degrees in business or economics (thirty-five). Another way of obtaining subject ex­ pertise in business is to take courses that are not applied toward a degree. Table 6 tabulates the number and type of courses taken by business librarians. Approxi­ mately half (50.3%) of respondents took courses in business topics that were not applied to formal degrees. Business librarians re­ ported moving into their current positions from a variety of other library positions. Table 8 tabulates the previous library employment of respon­ dents. It can be observed that most busi­ ness librarians come from backgrounds of reference service (31.3%), special librar­ ies (11.6%), and technical services (10.9%). Tenure and Publications Another way of maintaining and demon­ strating expertise in a discipline is to en­ gage in research and publication. Some academic institutions require these activi­ ties as a condition of employment. A ma­ jority of respondents (56.5%) said that business librarians had tenure at their institution. Only 37.4 percent of respon­ dents indicated that librarians at their in­ stitutions were required to publish schol­ arly articles. Average numbers of publications as reported by respondents are two refereed articles, 0.27 books, and 4.5 nonrefereed articles. Table 9 shows the distribution of self-reported numbers of publications. Comparison with Earlier Research In 1986, Kendrick surveyed 162 business librarians using Barron’s Guide to Gradu- TABLE 3 Business Librarians with Library Science Degrees and Second Master's Degrees in Economics or Business Degree Frequency Total Percent Master's degree in library science 146 147 99.3 Second master's in economics or business 35 147 23.8 Business Librarians: Their Education and Training 559 TABLE 4 Business Librarians with Doctoral Degrees Subject Area Frequency Percent Humanities 2 33.33 Social sciences 2 33.33 Sciences and engineering 0 0.00 Professional schools 1 16.70 Business 1 16.70 Total 6 100.00 likely to have higher salaries than library jobs. The 1999 average starting salary for MBA graduates from top U.S. business schools was be­ tween $66,000 and 106,000, compared with an average starting salary for librarians of $33,682.17,18 The average salary of $55,806 for special librarians is less than the starting salary for MBA graduates.19 Although the ate Business Schools, which listed more data on salaries are not totally consistent than 550 business schools.16 The authors for comparison, they do reflect the fact that randomly selected and surveyed 147 busi- librarianship is not in a very advantageous ness librarians from more than 385 competitive position when compared with AACSB business schools in the United business jobs. Accordingly, it is not surpris- States. The authors chose AACSB-accred- ing that relatively few academic business ited schools because a set of criteria (in- librarians have business degrees. cluding library support) is used to ensure In addition, Gillian Allen demon- the quality of business schools. The au- strated that business students have dif­ thors believe that AACSB-accredited ferent values than library school students schools are most likely to have adequate do.20 These differences may make it even support for their business libraries, in- less likely that business graduates will be cluding qualified business librarians. attracted to business librarian positions. As shown in table 10, despite the small Moreover, contemporary business li- variations between these two surveys, brarians are faced with a number of inter- there does not seem to be any significant esting developments in their area of spe­ changes in number of business librarians cialization. Competitive intelligence has with formal academic training in the field developed as a separate subfield of busi­ of business within this fifteen-year pe- ness information work, and there is an riod. emerging profession and body of profes­ sional literature for this subfield. Informa- Discussion tion resources management, an important The results of this survey show that a aspect of business information work, has large majority of business librarians in been augmented by knowledge manage- academic libraries do not have the kind ment as a separate field and discipline. As of expertise in business or economics that management information systems have would be associated with formal training in those TABLE 5fields. These findings make more sense when placed in Business Librarians with Other Second the context of other develop- Master's Degrees ments in the area of business Subject Area Frequency Percent information. Business graduates are Humanities 27 65.9 able to move directly into jobs Professional schools 8 19.5 in commerce and industry Social sciences 5 12.2 without having to obtain ad- Science and engineering 1 2.4 ditional academic qualifica- Total 41 100.0 tions. Such positions are http:schools.16 http:graduates.19 560 College & Research Libraries November 2001 • Almost all academic librariansTABLE 6 have an MLS, but a large majority of Nondegree Courses Taken in them do not possess academic de-Business Topics grees in business. • Large-scale recruiting of busi-Subject Area Number ness graduates into librarianship isAccounting 19 Human resource management 17 Business information sources 15 Management 15 Computer applications for business 13 Finance 13 Economics 11 Marketing 8 Business law 6 Statistics 6 Strategic management 4 Public administration 4 International business 2 Real estate 1 Ta 1 Banking 1 Entrepreneurship 1 grown and their scope expanded by elec­ tronic commerce and business-to-business Internet systems, a new field of manage­ ment informatics has been created. This includes data-mining from large and var- The authors wonder whether more and stronger partnerships between schools of business and schools of library and information science might provide at least one solution for academic business librarians. ied data resources, and using equally var­ ied information resources for environmen­ tal scanning. Education and research in these emerging areas are focused in schools of library and information unlikely to be successful because of economic and personal factors. • Some library schools are centers of research and teaching in business information. Survey of Instructors of Business Information Courses From these considerations, the au­ thors concluded that LIS schools might be able to help business librar­ ians achieve some of the expertise they need by teaching business in­ formation. With this in mind, the authors surveyed instructors of busi­ ness information courses in library schools to see what they are teach­ ing. Methods The authors first sent letters and e-mail messages to the deans of ALA-accredited LIS schools that provide business infor­ mation courses, requesting the names and e-mail addresses for instructors of busi­ ness information, with a return rate of fifty responses. Survey questionnaires were then sent to instructors via e-mail, with a return rate of eighteen responses. The instructors were asked for their opinions on business subject knowledge and business information sources that might be covered in a business informa­ tion course in a library school curriculum. TABLE 7science (LIS) or in collaborations Length of Time in Current Position between those schools and schools of business. Time Length Frequency Percent The picture that emerges from the findings of this survey and 1-5 years 46 31.3 from these related considerations is 6-10 years 35 23.8 as follows: 10-15 years 26 17.7 • Specialized knowledge of More than 15 years 40 27.2 business is needed by academic Total 147 100.0 business librarians. Business Librarians: Their Education and Training 561 business areas, such as production TABLE 8 function, futures markets, insurance, Previous Positions and real estate. Overall, instructors tend to think that subject knowledgePrevious Positions Frequency Percent is important to teach in their courses.Reference 46 31.3 However, the amount of coverage of Special librarian 17 11.6 more specialized and technical top-Technical services 16 10.9 ics is likely to be less than the basicGovernment document librarian 8 5.4 and foundational topics. This inter-Library director 5 3.4 pretation is supported by an analy-Paraprofessional 3 2.0 sis of the number of respondents Corporate librarian 5 3.4 who said that they were “not sure” Business librarian 5 3.4 whether certain topics would orBibliographer 3 2.0 should be covered in their courses. No previous position indicated 39 26.5 The specialized and technical topics Total 147 99.9 received more “not sure” responses than did the mainline business top­ ics. The authors classified subject knowledge in business in the following areas: ac- Summary and Conclusion counting (financial accounting and mana- Subject expertise is an important factor in gerial accounting), economics (macroeco- determining the quality of information nomics and microeconomics), finance services offered by business librarians in (corporate finance, financial institutions academic libraries. This investigation dem­ and markets, and investment), marketing, onstrated that academic business librarians management, international business, real have taken a variety of approaches to ob­ estate, and insurance. Each subject field taining the needed expertise. Fifteen per- was further broken down into approxi- cent of respondents have an undergradu­ mately one hundred topical areas that the ate major in business, an additional 15.8 authors felt were important to un­ derstand business information pro- TABLE 9 duction, organization, and interpre- Number of Publications tation. To rank the importance of subject knowledge, a scale of 1 Publications Frequency Percent through 5 was used, with 1 indicat- Refereed articles ing “minimal importance” and 5 in- None 79 53.7 dicating “highly important.” In­ 1-5 52 35.4 structors were asked to use N to in- More than 5 16 10.9 dicate “not sure.” Total 147 100.0 Findings BooksNone 128 87.1The survey findings show that, in One 11 7.5general, instructors ranked macro- More than one 8 5.4economics, management, marketing, financial accounting, finance, and in- Total 147 100.0 ternational business higher (above Nonrefereed articles 3.00) than microeconomics, manage- None 53 36.1 rial accounting, real estate, insurance, 1-5 54 36.7 and some specialized areas of fi- 6-10 21 14.3 nance. Low scores (below 3.00) ap- More than 10 19 12.9 peared in the categories that are more Total 147 100.0 technical, analytical, and specific 562 College & Research Libraries November 2001 TABLE 10 Educational Backgrounds of Business Librarians in 2001 and 1986 Surveys Category 2001 Survey 1986 Survey Survey list used Total number of schools on the list Total number of respondents Undergraduate major in business or economics Undergraduate minor in business or economics Master's degree in business administration or economics AACSB 370 (U.S. schools) 147 22 (15%) 5 (5.3%)2 35 (23.8%) Barron 576 162 17 (11%)1 7 (6%)3 30 (18.5%) ITotal number of undergraduate majors in business administration, economics, accounting, management, marketing, and finance. 2Five out of ninety-five with undergraduate minors. 3Seven out of 116 with undergraduate minors. Total number of undergraduate minors in economics, accounting, and business administration. percent have an undergraduate minor in business, and 23.8 percent have a master’s degree in business or economics. Coursework in business not leading to a degree is another way of obtaining sub­ ject expertise. An additional 9 percent of respondents reported having taken six courses or more, the equivalent to one year of academic study in business. All of these business librarians have an MLS. It is possible that they took courses in business information as part of that de­ gree. However, the authors found that business information courses tend to fo­ cus on the major topics of business and to provide much less coverage of special­ ized and technical topics. The overall picture, then, is of profes­ sionals working in a specialized area who are scrambling to obtain the expertise they need to function effectively in that context. The authors wonder whether more and stronger partnerships between schools of business and schools of library and information science might provide at least one solution for academic business librarians. One traditional approach would be a joint master ’s in business and library and information science. Another would be specialized a “business” track within library education. Recruitment of students with business backgrounds into library education could be improved. However, innovative solutions may be necessary. Jointly operated programs in business informatics or business informa­ tion systems could help meet the needs not only of academic business librarians, but also information professionals in the corporate setting. The focus here was on academic busi­ ness librarians. The authors recognize that this is only one segment of the business information sector and encourage educa­ tors and business information profession­ als to work together to develop new ap­ proaches to the education of business in­ formation specialists. Notes 1. Jean-Pierre V. M Herubel, “To ‘Degree’ or Not to ‘Degree’: Academic Librarians and Sub­ ject Expertise,” College & Research Library News 52 (July–Aug. 1991): 437. Business Librarians: Their Education and Training 563 2. Crit Stuart and Miriam A. Drake, “Education and Recruitment of Science and Engineer­ ing Librarians,” Science and Technology Libraries 12 (summer 1992): 81. 3. Ibid, 82. 4. Julie Hallmark, “Education for the Successful Geoscience Information Specialist,” Science and Technology Libraries 17 (1998): 84. 5. Shirley Echelman, “Libraries Are Businesses, Too!” Special Libraries 65 (Oct.–Nov. 1974): 409. 6. Lewis-Guodo Liu, “The Emergence of Business Information Resources and Services on the Internet and Its Impact on Business Librarianship,” Online Information Review 24 (May–June 2000): 234–54. 7. Special Libraries Association, “Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century. Available online from www.sla.org/professilnal.cop.html. 8. Raya Fidel, “Searchers’ Selection of Search keys: I. The Selection Routine. II. Controlled Vocabulary or Free-text Searching. III. Searching Styles,” Journal of the American Society for Infor­ mation Science 42 (Aug. 1991): 490–527. 9. Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, “Effects of Search Experience and Subject Knowledge on the Search Tactics of Novice and Experienced Searchers,” Journal of the American Society for Information Sci­ ence 44 (Apr. 1993): 161–74. 10. Ibid., 169. 11. Thomas Jacobson and David Fusani, “Computer, System, and Subject knowledge in Nov­ ice Searching of a Full-text, Multifile Database,” Library and Information Science Research 14 (Jan.– Mar.1992): 105. 12. Ellis Mount, University Science and Engineering Libraries (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Pr., 1985). 13. Meng Xiong Liu and Wei Wei, “Science/Technology Librarians in California: Their Back­ ground, Performance and Expectations,” paper presented at the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1993. 14. Christopher Hooper-Lane, “Spotlight on the Subject Knowledge of Chemistry Librarians: Results of a Survey,” Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, no. 23 (summer 1999). 15. Aubrey Kendrick, “The Educational Background and Work Experience of Academic Busi­ ness Librarians,” RQ 29 (spring 1990): 394–99. 16. Ibid. 17. U.S. News Online, “2001 Graduate Business School Rankings. Top Business Schools. 99’ Average Salary and Bonus.” Available online from http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/be­ yond/gradrank/mba/gdmbat1.htm. 18. Association of Research Libraries, “Average Salaries and Average Years of Experience of Library Professionals in Libraries with Three-, Four-, and Five-Step Rank Structure.” Available online from http://www.arl.org/stats/salary/1997-98/98intro.html. 19. Special Library Association, “2000 SLA Salary Survey on Special Librarians.” Available online from http://www.sla.org/content/memberservice/researchforum/salarysurveys/salsur2000/ index.cfm. 20. Gillian Allen, “Work Values in Librarianship,” Library and Information Science Research (fall 1998): 415–24. http://www.sla.org/content/memberservice/researchforum/salarysurveys/salsur2000 http://www.arl.org/stats/salary/1997-98/98intro.html http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/be www.sla.org/professilnal.cop.html