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For years I've used the terms "business librarian" and "business researcher" more or less synonymously. I'm rethinking that. Two things sparked my change of opinion. First was a Google search for business research where I realized Google considers market research a synonym for business research. This is doubtless Google's algorithm reflecting, from machine learning, that people who search for one of those phrases often click on results from the other. Although I consider them to be different entities, most Google searchers apparently do not.
The second eye-opener was the Fall 2021 BRASS Symposium held online Dec. 13-15, 2021 (drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tMPJTPM7mUUNrEq2q8ZQw5z4DqAvPBL2). BRASS (Business Reference and Services Section) is one of the Sections & Interest Groups of the RUSA (Reference and User Services) division of the ALA (ala.org/rusa/ sections). BRASS members are almost exclusively from academic institutions, with a few public and special librarians also in the mix. The nine talks during the symposium highlighted changes and new directions for business librarians and had very little to do with what I have considered to be business research in the past. They focused strongly on instruction rather than hands-on research.
A dichotomy has long existed between the roles of business librarians in academic settings versus those in the corporate world. Susan Klopper, who transitioned from Arthur Andersen's corporate library to Emory University's Goizueta Business Library, documented her experience 16 years ago ("The Journey From Corporate to Academic Librarian," ONLINE, v. 30, n. 5, Sep/Oct 2006, pp:14-20). By definition, academia is about teaching and learning. Business librarians, as one of their job responsibilities, help students understand the resources available to them at their institutions along with how to do research projects using those resources. In the corporate world, business librarians do the research projects unless requested to teach someone how to do the research themselves.
At least, this is how I envisioned it in the past. The trend in the corporate world has certainly been toward having employees do their own research with the concomitant decrease in the number of librarians employed in the corporate sector and the closing of many corporate libraries and information centers. The decline in SLA membership is testimony to this.
The notion of business research also has several permutations. It could be primary or secondary...