SPECIAL LIBRARIES/WORKPLACE LIBRARIES

Patricia Layzell Ward, Editor, Library Link

Anyone who has worked in a special library knows that they are special in so many ways. The users or clients are a defined group with whom a close working relationship is established. There is the challenge to develop knowledge of the subject field. The feedback on success or failure to meet the information needs of those served - is immediate. Generally the working conditions, financial rewards, and benefits are excellent.

So it is good to see that the Library Association has taken the theme of workplace libraries for the October 1999 issue of The Library Association Record as part of its Workplace Libraries �99 campaign.

To create wider awareness in the business community Dr De Anne Julius has written of the changing role of the corporate library. Now the name of Dr DeAnne Julius should be familiar to those in the UK, but for those elsewhere it is important to know that she is one of nine people who form the Bank of England�s Monetary Policy committee which sets UK interest rates in order to meet the Government�s inflation target. She has also been Chief Economist to British Airways and a non-executive director of several UK companies. So her credentials are immaculate.

Her view is that life for the corporate executive has changed out of all recognition during the last 10 years and, along with it, so has the role of the corporate library. There have been two driving forces behind these changes. Firstly, the flattening of organisational structures, with the downsizing wave that hit middle management levels especially hard. Secondly, the explosion of available information, both on internal databases through new client server software, and from external sources through the Internet.

For the senior executive, this has meant less scope to delegate research and information-based tasks to others just when the pay-off from such work has increased because of the greater range of information available. (S)he needs someone with the specialist expertise in defining, searching for, and then rapidly accessing the relevant sources, wherever in the information universe they may be located. Information now comes in many forms, a database, a CD, a book, a journal, and a newspaper. The form is unimportant - it is the ability to retrieve the relevant information that is the essential skill for today�s corporate librarians.

The busy executive relies on the corporate library to provide the knowledge and information management skills that underpin the success of the organisation as a whole. The library or information centre is increasingly used to advise the parent body on search and retrieval skills, on data management, on sources, on Web presentation and management issues, and on connected topics such as copyright. It needs, therefore, to be staffed with highly trained professionals who are able to deal directly with the most senior people in the organisation. In addition to being at the forefront of information management technology, today�s library staff need to understand the business of the organisation and how it fits into the global marketplace. In that way the information centre can both add value (by knowing where to look) and increase efficiency (by knowing where to look). She provided two examples of where libraries had helped her.

• Going into a first meeting with a supplier armed with a briefing pack on his company prepared that morning by our corporate library. Knowing more about him than he knew about me gave me a clear edge in negotiations.
• A query to our corporate library saved us from engaging consultants to do an expensive benchmarking study when they turned up an obscure comparative report prepared by a trade association that contained all the information we were about to set out to acquire.

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