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The purpose of this paper was to examine on a national scale how academic business librarians are working with community organizations and other libraries to assist local entrepreneurs with their information needs.

A multi method approach was used to gather information. In spring 2012, a survey and follow-up interviews were conducted with academic business librarians. Additionally, business consultants who have worked with librarians were interviewed.

The survey had 53 respondents. Of those, 40 percent indicated that they collaborate to assist entrepreneurs. Five interviewees confirmed the findings of the survey and discussed their collaborative arrangements. The consultants discussed best practices in working with entrepreneurs.

This research studied academic business librarians and reached those who monitor the buslib-l and brass-l listservs. Not all librarians have the time or take the time to respond to a survey. Additionally, this research only explored collaborations to assist local entrepreneurs and did not specifically focus on campus entrepreneurs and outreach to business schools.

This study provides information on academic business librarians' efforts to assist community entrepreneurs. It also provides some information on lessons learned.

A national study of academic business librarians' outreach to entrepreneurs has not been conducted in the past.

Academic libraries are increasingly involved in the support of student entrepreneurship on their campuses, both in programming and the curriculum. As the understanding that librarians are a key component for student success as part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem widens, libraries have been adapting and designating various staffing models in response. This chapter includes a literature review of case studies to examine various types of staffing in academic libraries providing support to entrepreneurship and innovation programs. The chapter highlights best practices for each of several staffing models. Potential models range from entrepreneurial outreach done by business librarians, creation of the entrepreneurship librarian position within an institution, how library-owned innovation/incubator spaces are staffed, and other creative models deployed for providing support to the entrepreneurial student.

Reports a survey of business librarians in the USA which investigates the role that they have played in the process of the accreditation of their business schools by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. Two important findings are the reported lack of documentation available to the business librarians, and the perceived low levels of their involvement in the accreditation process. Argues that the involvement of the librarians will assist in the overall quality of business education and increase the visibility and usefulness of academic librarians to university administrators and teaching faculty.

Strategic business partnerships inform business faculty‐librarian (BFL) collaborations. This paper seeks to address how the motivations for business partnerships and faculty‐librarian collaborations are similar. A conceptual model suggests that the depth of the BFL relationship significantly enhances electronic collection development outcomes.

Literature concerning strategic business alliances, faculty‐librarian collaborations, and collection development was examined to determine whether principles that are applied to strategic business alliances can also be applied to BFL collaborations. A case‐in‐point is included for illustration.

Specific principles of strategic business partnerships can be applied to BFL collaborations aimed at improving electronic collection development. In addition, driving forces such as assessment, communication, and technology influence the nature of alliances across the business and academic arenas.

The findings are significant because they demonstrate how BFL collaborations can be made more effective through the application of business principles. BFL collaborations can positively influence electronic collection development in a variety of ways. The paper offers a new and unique conceptual model that improves understanding of the nature and depth of BFL collaborations in the context of electronic collection development. This paper will be of interest to business faculty in particular and faculty in general, and librarians working in diverse library settings, especially librarians aligned with management and business departments. Librarians in management positions will likely find this information useful as a means to increase faculty‐librarian collaboration across all disciplines.

This article reports the results of a survey of computer database searching activities by business librarians. The survey shows that over half of business librarians search databases other than those related to business subjects, that most searches are for citations to articles, that over half of computer database searches are paid for on a cost recovery basis, and that approsimately seventy percent of business librarians do computer searches for patrons from outside the college or university. Librarians who read this article will probably think of other aspects of this subject which could be studied more thoroughly. The author encourages anyone who is interested, to follow up with another survey or more study on this subject. The author of this article recently conducted a survey to gather data on the educational background, work experience duties, and professional activities of business librarians in colleges and universities. This article discusses the part of the survey which dealt with computer database searching and the databases used by business librarians.

The emergence of business information resources and services on the Internet is discussed and its impact on business librarianship. Important resources in various business areas are identified, such as economics, finance, marketing, international business, and real estate. It is argued that business information on the Internet has become a very important part of business information services and that it poses great challenges to business librarianship. Subject knowledge in business has become increasingly crucial for business librarians to effectively identify, evaluate, select, and organise business information on the Internet. Without subject knowledge, or with a lack of subject knowledge in business, business librarians will not be able to maintain the quality of business information services. The article further argues that, given the fact that a large percentage of business librarians in the USA do not have formal training in business, it is time for library and information science schools and libraries to address this issue by setting high standards for recruiting instructors in business information and by setting high standards for employing business librarians.

The purpose of this paper is to provide practical guidance to business librarians in academic and public libraries for applying essential concepts of licensing electronic resources in entrepreneurial contexts.

The paper is an outcome of a preconference presentation on licensing business resources, based on the practical experience of the authors in licensing and vendor negotiations. It also presents results of the preconference presurvey, gauging awareness among business librarians about licensing concepts and concerns about the usage of licensed databases by entrepreneurs.

For-profit goals of entrepreneurs using library e-resources lead to concerns among business librarians about compliance with non-commercial clauses of library license agreements and potentially to unnecessary restrictions on patrons’ database use. License agreements of business e-resources are likely to have more restrictive terms of use because of perceived value of their intellectual property by vendors, a wider range of content types and clauses carried over from commercial license agreements. Business librarians generally have only basic awareness of licensing concepts. Because of organizational silos, special terms of use sometimes are not clearly conveyed from the licensing staff to librarians who work directly with entrepreneurs.

The paper proposes a definition of entrepreneurial uses of licensed e-resources and practical approaches to manage compliance risk.

The paper provides a practical framework for business librarians to assess compliance with license agreements in the context of entrepreneurial uses.

This paper aims to highlight recent resources on information literacy (IL) and library instruction, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and IL published in 2015.

This paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain either unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and IL.

The aim of this paper is to examine the versatility of the MLIS degree through the lens of special libraries in terms of education, core competencies and benefits. Special libraries show the value of the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree in preparing professionals to work across institutional boundaries in non-library and non-educational organizations and bring their services to the populace in sometimes unexpected places.

The authors first conducted a literature review of special librarians and their skillsets, as well as how to properly define “special library”. They then examined different MLIS programs geared toward special libraries and how library schools prepare special librarians to benefit their organizations.

The conclusion drawn is that possession of an MLIS degree lends a special librarian more credence in the execution of their duties because they have been educated in how to best benefit their institution. While additional subject expertise is an advantage to the special librarian, the skills learned in MLIS degree programs provide an essential foundation.

This is a collaborative view that brings together outside research regarding various types of special libraries and the librarians that work in them in an effort to illustrate the value of the MLIS degree in an original way.