The Impact of the Special Library on Corporate Decision-Making is the valuable product of the 1991 recipient of the Steven I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Grant, Joanne G. Marshall, professor of library and information science at the University of Toronto. The study found that library and information services in the corporate setting significantly facilitate individual and organizational decision making. The study was based on data collected from 390 randomly selected managers and executives from five major financial institutions. Both library users and non-users were included. The participants were asked to request some information from their special library related to a current corporate decision-making situation and to evaluate the impact of the information received.
The study found that 84% of 299 managers and executives surveyed at the Toronto financial institutions affirm that information provided by special librarians contributed to better informed decision-making. The special libraries were particularly effective in supplying new knowledge in decision-making situations and in increasing the level of confidence of managers and executives in the decisions being made. Moreover, in over 40% of the cases, the participants indicated that the information provided by special librarians made them think of a dimension that they had not thought of before. Marshall's work is especially significant because it quantifies the importance of the corporate library. These results could be an important tool of leverage in current and future evaluations of a special library.
Published by SLA, the title of Marshall's book resulting from this study is The Impact of the Special Library on Corporate Decision-making is no longer in print, but can be purchased in PDF from the SLA Store
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