Biography for Brent Mai

Brent Mai has been the Director of the Walker Management Library of the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, since 1999. The Walker Library holds the distinction of being ranked the #1 Academic Business Library by the Princeton Review. The Walker Library’s primary academic clientele are the 530 students of the Owen Graduate School of Management. The Library also operates a fee-based service (the Business Information Service) that provides business and technical research for clients that include Vanderbilt alumni, local and regional business communities, and international corporations.

Previously, as an assistant professor of library science at Purdue University, Brent developed a bibliographic instruction program in the Management School that focused on how knowledge of information seeking skills and information resources can be leveraged to resolve critical information needs both in the classroom and in the context of the students’ future careers and personal lives. He was involved in the development and implementation of an asynchronous web-based version of the GS175 course that was awarded a statewide technology grant.

Before joining the academic library world, Brent worked as a business analyst and researcher in the corporate libraries of Brown & Root (Houston) and Nortel (Dallas).

Supporting his profession, Brent has been active in many areas of SLA: SLA Finance Committee (1999-2003); Business & Finance Division: Chair-Elect, Chair, and Past Chair (1999-2002), Treasurer (1997-1999), Nominations Committee (1997-1998), Membership Chair (1995-1997); Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Division: Strategic Planning Committee (1995-1997); Engineering Division: Publications Committee Chair (1993-1995); Indiana Chapter: Treasurer (1996-2000); Local Planning Group for the 1998 SLA Annual Conference in Indianapolis (1997-1998).

Brent has a master’s degree in library science from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree in international finance from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and is completing a doctorate in education at the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. He has published numerous articles and several books.