spotlight on: Sue Eipert     return to other professionals

Your primary responsibilities:
For 15 years I was a corporate librarian at an engineering and environmental consulting company. Here, I evolved from 'librarian' into positions as library manager, and then Director of Library Information Services for the U.S. company, and also started and developed the global company intranet. Responsibilities here ran the full spectrum of library and information tasks: literature searching, cataloging, collection development, index design, library management, staff management, web development, training, etc. I was also an Associate in the company, and participated in various project or management teams with senior management, the Information Technology department, or scientists and engineers.

As an independent, I have the full responsibilities of running a business (marketing, accounting, etc), along with the responsibilities related to whatever I am doing for a client. Currently, I mostly do business and scientific/technical research for a variety of types of clients, but also have been involved in projects dealing with information audits, database design and library development.

About the responsibilities of a corporate librarian: They can often be what you make them to be. Employers will often not be aware of what you, as an information professional, can do unless you do it and show them. Taking charge of how you put your skills to work for the benefit of the organization can go a long way in making your job exciting and rewarding - to both you and your employer.

Knowledge & Skills:
An information professional working within or for a business needs to understand the range and availability of information resources and to have the research skills needed to get at the information. It's also important to be knowledgable about the goals of the organization and its information needs - and then to be creative with the ways information acquisition and/or organization can help further the goals of the business or a specific project. The more you can understand the information needs within your organization in general, or in a specific situation, the better able you are to align information services with the mission of the organization, or to align the content and organization of research results with the specific information needs.

The Future:
The sources and availability of information, and the technologies for communication and organization of information, have changed greatly since I was in library school, and will continue to change. It is essential to continue learning about these areas - which are your professional areas of expertise as an information professional - and to be flexible about where this might lead you. It's also important to monitor news and developments outside your core information expertise, in subjects or industries which may be of special interest to you or your employer.

(February 2002)