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Approximately 3 years ago, I unexpectedly found myself wearing the hat of an academic business librarian. I was a die-hard corporate librarian before starting this new chapter of my life-always had been, always was going to be, no question but that I would retire with my eye on that bottom line. Within a year of receiving my M.L.S., I was living my dream job as director of Arthur Andersen's Business Information Center. I loved every minute of it and never, ever considered working in any other type of environment. Then came Enron. On July 3, 2002, I closed the door of the last remaining Andersen library and on my career as a corporate librarian.
In late December 2002, I started my new job at Emory University's Goizueta Business Library. I was thrilled to be back working closely with accounting and finance resources and research, a natural fit given my years at Andersen, but wondered how I would fit into academia. To be perfectly honest, unemployment was no fun; in fact, it was downright frightening. I was excited to get up every morning and go to work; the fact that it was such a good job working with great people in an intellectually challenging environment was icing on the cake. I have to admit, though, that serendipity rather than strategy played its hand in deciding my fate.
It did not take me long to realize that working in an academic business library was going to be more challenging, interesting, fascinating, exciting, difficult, and much more work than I could ever have imagined. And those are pretty high marks coming from a corporate business librarian. Now promoted to executive director of the business library, I have found a career every bit as challenging as my corporate life, one that has reignited my passion for my work. I believe that the business library is a better place for having brought onboard a librarian with a corporate background (and we've hired a few more), but I believe I'm also a better academic librarian due to my corporate sensibilities.
I have been thinking about writing this article almost since my first day at Emory. I would like to take you on the journey of what I have learned over the...