Special Libraries as Knowledge Management Centres

esemertzaki@ath.forthnet.gr

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Special libraries

Abstract:

Special libraries are the libraries that are neither public nor academic or school. This chapter describes their role in the parent institution because they are closely related to its goals and activities. Special libraries are user-centric institutions that compete to fulfil sufficiently the needs of information-seekers throughout the organisation. They provide added-value services to their companies but their funding relies on the parent company. In the current economic downturn, special libraries face shrinking budgets and are vulnerable to library closures when senior management decides to diminish its expenses. On the contrary, library staff face many challenges in their efforts to prove their value. For that reason, the special library’s personnel must be capable and skilful. Special libraries need to adopt changes in services, attitudes and behaviour and to seize all opportunities for improvements but also to get the support of their employer.

Key words

special libraries

reference services

competencies for information professionals

library marketing

senior management support

clients

funding

collections

Special Library Association

special libraries performance

Introduction

The first chapter of this book is an introduction to, and at the same time a description of, special libraries. Although this information is trivial for many readers that work at special libraries, it is considered as necessary information both for the amateur reader and for the reader or the librarian who works at other types of library. This is background information and depicts the context and frame of special libraries in their parent organisation.

This chapter defines special libraries and includes a brief history, a description and main goals, services and functions, core users and their particular importance, organisation, collections, staff and their specified skills, relations with the parent organisation, and marketing and funding issues. Collections and expertise of personnel are the key additions special libraries endow with the library world. In this age of technological advancements, libraries and librarians have to approach people and meet their information requirements. Special libraries are user-centric institutions. They will survive in the competitive future only when they respond sufficiently to the needs of information-seekers by keeping abreast with all new developments in library and information science.

As Kranich postulates (2007: 85) for centuries, scholars, students and the general public have relied on libraries to serve as their commons. Commons in that book is a resource shared by a group of people that is subject to social dilemmas. Researchers, by contrast, have always needed free and open access to knowledge, information and ideas. In the digital era of the twenty-first century, this trend means access to knowledge and information online.

What is a special library?

Special library is defined as the library that serves business, industry and government. Alternative names of a special library are information centre, research, corporate or company library and knowledge management centre. Over the years the predominant term, though, is ‘special library’. Very simply a special library is defined as the library that is not public, academic, school or national but serves a specialised public, which comprises the parent organisation.

John C. Dana, the first President of the Special Libraries Association (SLA), noted that the traditional library is for the ‘reader of polite literature’, while the special library is ‘managed by experts … on the topic to which the library is devoted’ for the benefit of the firm that the library belongs to (Williams and Zachert, 2009: 18; Dana, 1910: 4–5; Hanson, 1991: xiii). The term firm refers to business, industry and commerce sectors.

Another quote, from Elin B. Christianson, states that special libraries serve business, industry and government. A special library has two senses:

1. the general, which includes specialised libraries and collections of many types, and

2. the specific, indicating the library which provides specialised information service in business, industry and government.

(Christianson, 1976: 399, 407)

A special library is not merely a specialised collection of books on a given subject but an information centre that plays (or should play) a vital role in the organisational structure of the parent organisation. It facilitates the work of the organisation, safeguards its resources and assists the specialists of the organisation to acquire information and resources necessary to accomplish their activities. The library must become ‘a weapon of business rather than a storehouse for books and right here very much depends upon the missionary spirit of its staff’ (Marion, 1910: 404). How current this expression is! The special library is a weapon of business when it adds value to the organisation. We realise that in 1910 the special library was not regarded as solely a storehouse of books, but very early it was recognised that its success heavily relies on the competencies of its staff.

In their book, Ellis Mount and Renée Massoud (1999: 4) define special libraries as ‘those information organisations sponsored by private companies, government agencies, not-for-profit organisations, or professional associations. Subject specialty units in public and academic libraries are usually labeled as special libraries as well.’ By experience, though, a common perception of the special library is the library that reports to an organisation that is its employer and supervisor.

In a book on special libraries, Cathy A. Porter et al. (1997: 2) mention that the focus of special libraries is more specialised than that of public or academic libraries. They are an important source of information and play an important role for the parent institution. As we can see by searching the literature, there is a wide diversity in approaching the meaning of a special library. This multiplicity makes difficult the counting of special libraries and their inclusion in directories. Among special libraries are corporate libraries, information centres of government departments, law libraries and health-related resource centres.

What is a ‘special librarian’?

The SLA defined special librarians as information resource experts dedicated to ‘putting knowledge to work’. ‘Putting OUR knowledge to work’, SLA’s revised research statement is the key phrase, the axiom that connects special librarians with the knowledge management process that is the subject of this book. Indeed, in its professional history specialised librarianship has long been characterised as knowledge-centric and the above value statement of the SLA guides its members.

Nowadays, the SLA (http://www.sla.org) delineates special librarians as ‘information-resource experts, who collect, analyze, evaluate, package, and disseminate information to facilitate accurate decision-making in corporate, academic, and government settings’. A similar term to a special librarian is information professional, who strategically uses information in his/her job to advance the mission of the organisation. This is accomplished through the development, deployment and management of information resources and services. The information professional harnesses technology as a critical tool to accomplish goal. The term information professional includes librarians, knowledge managers, chief information officers, web developers, information brokers and consultants. Hence, the spectrum of the meaning of the information professional is much wider than that of solely a special librarian. It includes knowledge managers, which confirms our arguments to relate special libraries with knowledge management projects in this book.

On the website of the SLA it is written that, in the extended meaning and subject coverage, the position of the information professional is found in institutions such as special libraries, information centres, competitive intelligence units, intranet departments, knowledge resource centres and content management centres. Therefore, special librarians are challenged with new roles in their efforts to become valuable for the parent organisation. Special libraries face the challenge to embark on such a significant task as the knowledge management project on behalf of the whole organisation. It is not a secret that, at the present time, the world of special libraries is changing and with it the role of special librarians. Today, librarians are dealing not only with traditional physical artefacts, such as books and documents in printed format, but also with digital images and documents, e-books, photographs, audiovisual material and, increasingly, social information. They are in charge of creating environments that facilitate search and discovery and for generating knowledge that improves productivity and collaboration throughout the organisation (Green, 2008: