In his book Technocracy, Neil Postman alerts us to

							mact Program final project abstract



Interaction and Knowledge Exchange Among
Academic Business Librarians in Ontario
Linda Lowry [llowry1@cogeco.ca], Fall 2005

Introduction and Problem Definition

Academic business librarians are hired for their subject expertise to provide reference,
instruction, collection development and liaison services to business faculty and
students in university libraries. Previous surveys of academic business librarians
found that many librarians assume these positions without an educational background
in Business or a familiarity with business information. The literature provides only
anecdotal evidence of how they learn the practice of academic business librarianship
and little is known about the information sources they turn to when faced with
difficult reference questions or when requiring advice on collection development or
other issues related to their professional practice.

The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to investigate the communication,
information seeking, and professional development activities of a population of
academic business librarians in order to develop a better understanding of how they
acquired and shared knowledge related to their professional practice. Of particular
interest was how these activities varied according to variables such as educational
background, years of professional experience, type of subject responsibility (solo or
shared) and the type of library in which they worked (branch or centralized library).
The second purpose of this study was to use the framework of Communities of
Practice to determine the extent to which this population of academic business
librarians could be characterized as a community of practice.

Methodology

The target population comprised 25 individuals working as academic business
librarians (also known as business subject specialists) at 15 different university
libraries Ontario. A two phase multi-method research design was employed to collect
data using quantitative and qualitative techniques. In phase one, a web-based
questionnaire consisting of 23 closed and open-ended questions was administered via
SurveyMonkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com) to elicit information on each
respondent’s personal characteristics, workplace context, professional development
activities, and professional communication habits. In phase two, in-depth qualitative
interviews were held with eight individuals from six different universities. The
interviews were conducted using the critical incident technique method in order to
elicit details on each respondent’s information seeking behaviour related to the
practice of academic business librarianship.




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mact Program final project abstract


Results

21 respondents (14% male and 86% female) for a response rate of 84%. Less than
15% of respondents had an educational background in Business or Economics. 43%
of respondents worked in branch business libraries and 57% worked in centralized
libraries. 29% of respondents had sole responsibility for business services compared
to 71% who shared this responsibility with at least one other librarian. 61% of
respondents belonged to the Ontario Library Association (OLA) and the OLA’s
annual conference was the most frequently attended conference. Other common
continuing professional education (CPE) activities included attending other library
association conferences, workshops, internal training sessions, and database vendor
presentations. Most respondents subscribed to Library and Information Science (LIS)-
related email discussion lists for professional communication but nearly half of
respondents did not subscribe to the Business Librarians (BUSLIB-L) email
discussion list. 28% of respondents posted queries to LIS-related email discussion
lists several times per year while 49% responded to queries posted by others at least
several times per year. 90% of respondents communicated directly with business
librarians in other organizations several times per year, most frequently via email or
the telephone rather than via face-to-face communication.

Analysis of interview transcripts found that information seeking occurred most
frequently with new and early-career stage librarians who were new to business
librarianship and working as solo business librarians. Individuals who had
experienced a disjunctive socialization process (where they lacked an internal role
model) experienced greater uncertainty and a lack of role clarity, and made greater
use of third parties (external information sources such as business librarians in other
universities) than individuals who had experienced a serial socialization process
(where they were groomed by internal role models). Role-related information seeking
occurred with respect to reference, instruction, collections, and CPE responsibilities
and varied according to organizational context. Less external role-related information
seeking occurred in branch business libraries (which all employed more than one
business librarian and where the librarians worked in collaboration on reference,
instruction, and collections responsibilities) than with solo librarians in centralized
libraries (who were surrounded by colleagues unable to provide needed advice and
support). Information sources included internal colleagues (for institution-specific
help), external contacts such as other business librarians and business database
vendors, email discussion lists (for quick answers to reference questions) and library
web sites for benchmarking library holdings. Respondents identified a number of
barriers to engaging in CPE activities including lack of time, lack of relevant
offerings, and institutional constraints.

Conclusions

Questionnaire findings confirmed that nearly all respondents lacked an academic
background in Business or Economics. While nearly all held a membership in a LIS-
related professional association, there was little overlap in membership, thus limiting


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mact Program final project abstract


opportunities for boundary spanning communication via professional association
channels. The lack of subscriptions to BUSLIB-L raises doubts as to its importance as
a tool for current awareness, professional development and advice for academic
business librarians. Direct communication between librarians occurs via lean channels
such as email or the telephone, typical for individuals communicating over long
distances or conveying routine messages. This study found that various individual and
contextual factors impacted information seeking behaviour including career stage,
type of responsibility, type of library, and organizational socialization processes. This
population more closely resembles a network of practice than a community of
practice; while it is efficient at communicating explicit knowledge it lacks the face-to-
face interaction required to transmit implicit and tacit knowledge. It does have the
potential to develop into a distributed community of practice which could serve as a
socialization agent for new academic business librarians and as a knowledge sharing
forum, thus fostering closer interaction and coordination among community
members.




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