The Business Case for Informaiton Literacy: Why Training Is an Important Information Services Function

Challenges of sustainability continue to confront corporate libraries and the professionals who work there. They strongly believe that while survival, success, and sustainability of libraries can never be guaranteed, proactively aligning with the goals of the organization and demonstrably contributing to those goals are the minimum paths that must be laid out and followed. This is particularly true for libraries and information centers in corporate settings. In today's slower than expected economic recovery, executives are concerned about meeting earnings targets, growing revenue, and cutting costs. Training, an important service offered by information professionals, can directly impact revenue strategy and ROI. And by training, they don't mean continuing education for information professionals to make them better at their jobs. Historically, corporate librarians have been a bit ambivalent about training. Often it is not clear who is responsible for training the library's customers in the use of its services or even if customers are willing to be trained.