Comparison between Corporate Libraries and TribalCollege Libraries

This paper will attempt to make a comparison between corporate libraries and tribal college libraries. During my Corporate Library course I was introduced to corporate libraries qualities and characteristics and I would like to compare and contrast them to tribal college libraries, a field that I am very familiar with.

Definitions

According to Reitz (2004), “A corporate library is a type of special library established and maintained as a unit within an incorporated company or organization to meet the information needs of its employees and facilitate the achievement of its mission and goals. Some corporation libraries also serve as the repository for the official records of the organization. For internal security reasons, most corporation libraries are closed to the public except by special appointment” (p. 184). According to Rubin (2004), “Special libraries and information centers are somewhat more difficult, because of their immense variety. There is no one definition that can aptly accommodate the variety of special libraries and information centers, and usually a distinction is made between the two” (p. 415). Corporate libraries provide services to meet the specialized needs of a company, organization, or group. A corporate library “goal is to provide pinpoint access to exact information in the shortest time possible” (Spiegelman, 2003, p. 723).

A tribal college library is a unique information environment that focuses mainly on Native American materials. Their collections are selected especially to meet the needs of students, faculty, and the surrounding community. In addition, it has to support the mission of the tribal-controlled colleges in order to meet goals and objectives. Tribal- controlled colleges are institutions of higher education that were developed by Native Americans to serve Native Americans. Tribal-controlled colleges offer AA (Associates degree) programs in psychology, business, science, education, and most liberal arts. Their libraries need to support their programs by having materials available in all of those subjects areas and be able to provide reference assistance. On some reservations, tribal college libraries function as both academic libraries and public libraries. Some common roles that are performed by tribal college libraries are delivering materials to off-campus users and providing other public library services, managing tribal records, and serving as archival centers.

Similarities

Collection Development

One similarity between corporate libraries and tribal college libraries is their need to fashion their collection development policies around the parent organization’s own mission. An example of the organization mission from Solar Electric Power Association is: to facilitate the use and integration of solar electric power by utilities, electric service providers, and their customers. To achieve this mission, SEPA strives to:

  1. Provide tools to utilities and electric service providers supporting the use and integration of solar.
  2. Foster business to business networking.
  3. Share information on solar electric technologies, applications, and programs.
  4. Evaluate and report on policies, regulations, and legislation.

An example of the mission from the tribal college is to:

  1. Ensure that the students, faculty, staff, and library patrons have access to library holdings.
  2. Collect items of local history.
  3. Provide informational support for various tribal and community entities and programs.
  4. Provide a collection of print and non-print materials in order to meet the lifelong learning, recreational, and informational reading needs of the students of the college and of the community, from pre-school through senior adults.
  5. Provide materials with cultural relevancy to the Native and non-Native cultures represented in the community.
  6. Offer services and materials that support local history and oral tradition.

Corporate libraries and tribal college libraries are similar because they both offer specialized collections focused on the organization’s mission. Corporate libraries focus on trade or sector materials and their purpose is to provide information in their specific subject area. Tribal college libraries are somewhat different in that they collect more broadly to encompass all college course requirements.

Circulation

Circulation can be similar or different between corporate libraries and tribal college libraries depending on their circulation policies. Corporate libraries will generally circulate to employees and members but generally not to the public. Sometimes books get checked out to individuals on a permanent base because of their research area or interest. Corporate libraries typically do not secure their use of materials because it stays in the corporation.

Tribal college libraries, on the other hand, have tight security on their materials. They security strip their materials, have security gates and have loan periods to patrons who have library cards. Tribal college libraries may have some materials that do not circulate such as rare books, but generally they circulate most of their materials.

Staffing

Another similarity between corporate libraries and tribal college libraries is their staff size. In many cases staffing will be less then six persons. Staff in both organizations is usually cross-trained in all aspect of library activities (i.e. reference, cataloging, purchasing … etc.)

Reference Services

Another similarity between corporate libraries and tribal college libraries is that they both provide reference services. The corporate library librarians are probably more specialized in their subject area. Tribal college library librarians have to provide reference services in more subject areas; therefore they probably have more generalized expertise rather than specialized expertise.

Web-Accessible Services

Both corporate libraries and tribal college libraries offer web access to their information. They will provide a website which offers links to other resources, content information, and subject guides. In the tribal college libraries setting Web-access is provided to e-journal and other paid databases to the public.

In the corporate libraries setting access to e-resources maybe restricted to corporate patrons or associate members.

Differences

Patron/Users

The tribal college libraries can serve as both college and public libraries. They usually have special collections of Native American books, videos and other materials in the library and these materials are usually non-circulating. They may also have a large children’s collection if the tribal college library is serving the general public and K-12 school. Tribal college libraries can also serve as Census Information Centers to provide access to census data for the Native American communities. Tribal college libraries also have to have cultural sensivity to serve their communities.

Corporate libraries on the other hand, generally have a very select clienteles, usually affiliated with the corporation. They can provide public access, but that is generally not their patron base.

Organization Hierarchy

Another difference between corporate libraries and tribal college libraries is that tribal college libraries have a more complex organizational structure in a college setting. Getting library policies approved by the college administration is more time consuming and bureaucratic than a corporate libraries ability to get policies approved by their administration. The decision-making is more complicated in the tribal college libraries setting. In the business world you can usually go to your immediate supervisor to get more timely approval of practices and policies.

Circulation

As mentioned above in similarities in circulation, corporate libraries and tribal college libraries (depending on their size) can have difference in their work flow for processing and securing their materials. In the tribal college library environment, print materials are bar-coded, security-striped, labeled and prepared for circulation. Corporate libraries generally do not have the security procedures of a college library.

Interlibrary Loans

Corporate libraries are often not willing to lend their materials and they generally purchase materials requested by their corporate patrons.

Tribal college libraries will participate in a program (OCLCILL) where they agree to circulate their materials in exchange for the opportunity to request materials that they do not own but that a patron would like to borrow.

Cataloging

Cataloging is different between the corporate libraries and tribal college libraries depending on the size of the corporation. If corporate libraries are large and have online catalogs then their materials would be cataloged into a database. In the corporate library they may not use Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress Classification or they may just group together materials by broad subject area. Corporate libraries may use a specialized thesaurus for classification or go with their own call number system.

In all tribal college libraries materials are cataloged using the Anglo-American cataloging rules (AACR2), Library of Congress Classification system or Dewey Decimal System, and Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Conclusion

By doing this comparison I found that there are some similarities and some differences between corporate libraries and tribal college libraries. They both serve the same purpose to provide information resources to their patrons/clientele and they both support the organization’s mission. I was surprised to learn how similar the two types of libraries were to each other. In fact, the larger the corporate library’s the more it resembles a traditional public or academic library

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References

DinéCollege Libraries. (2006). DinéCollege Libraries. Retrieved on June 27, 2006, from

Mount, E. (1983). Special Libraries and InformationCenters: an introductory text. New York: Special Libraries Association.

OglalaLakotaCollege. (2005). Online Reference Index. Retrieved on June 27, 2006,

from

Reitz, J.M. (2004). Dictionary for Library and Information Science. Westport, Conn.: Libraries unlimited.

Rubin, R.E. (2004). Foundations of Library and Information Science. 2nd ed. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Solar Electric Power Association. (2006). Solar Electric Power Association. Retrieved on June 27, 2006, from

Spiegelman, B.M.& Carlson, N.F. (2003, June 23). Corporate Information Centers. In M.J. Bates, M.N. Maack, M. Drake Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (p. 723-732). New York: Marcel Dekker.

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