Can your organization afford to have a library? Can it afford NOT to?

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” -- Thomas Alva Edison

Large organizations support libraries. Academic institutions support them for reasons both practical and legal … without an academic library which meets academic standards, the accreditation of the entire institution is jeaopardized.

Organizations like Exxon and Saudi Aramco support them because they know that without them, they will spend more for the information they require to remain competitive and profitable . or, what is worse, miss an important opportunity by not acquiring the informtion at all.

Small businesses have a difficult time justifying the expense … typically, they are lucky to make payroll each month.

However, at some point on its road to success, a company gets large enough that even the C3 … the CEO, CFO and CIO … recognize that employing an information professional makes economic sense.

If you are a desulfurization expert in a midsize organization, you can do yourself and your colleagues a favor by advocating to upper management that they employ a librarian.

The three most important things a librarian can provide …

1) Research … searching publicly available sources for articles, conference papers, and presentations pertaining to a specified research topic
2) Advice … advising on best practices for managing your print and online resources to fit your research needs
3) Training … educating your users to make the most effective use of their time researching topics on the Web’s free and subscription based databases

If I were setting up a library in your organization, I would be sure that the librarian had access to the following, at a minimum …

a) Dialog … for literature searches
b) SAI ILI Infodisk … for industry standards
c) TDI & Ingenta … for document delivery
d) Corporate credit card … for ordering information items not covered by existing accounts set up with various providers.

So much of what we need is available on the Internet these days … but so much of what is on the Internet COSTS MONEY. A librarian can help you spend that money strategically.