Freiwillige vor: Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) der New York ...

Kristin McDonough, director of the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL), welcomed Maren Krähling and me to her library on Manhattan’s 34th Street. SIBL is one of the New York Public Library’s four research libraries. The NYPL system also encompasses over 80 branch libraries with collections like we know them from public libraries in Germany.

SIBL must master a balancing act. Its goals include supporting the New York economy, helping people with their job search, preparing business people for running their own businesses, and offering resources for research in business studies. Its freely accessible location in Mid-Manhattan also makes it a popular place for reading and surfing at lunchtime.

In perusing SIBL’s program on the internet, I’m curious how librarians are prepared for training sessions in:

- Job Searching (especially for those ages 50 and up)
- Business Counseling and
- Financial Literacy

But Kristin McDonough introduces a completely different concept: cooperation with volunteers from the business world. Former or active consultants, personnel managers, and investment or financial advisors volunteer their services in the library for both individual counseling and group training sessions. Videos of some of these training sessions can be found on the SIBL website. The library provides volunteers with technology and rooms and trains them on database use. Furthermore, the library coordinates the individual meetings and group sessions, reports about the events in its blog and organizes 2 breakfast buffets a year as a chance for the teaching volunteers to network.

What motivates the volunteers? Kristin McDonough believes it’s the desire do something useful with their time as well as the wish to socially engage. Those with newly founded businesses are eager to distribute business cards or spread word-of-mouth propaganda to win new customers.
The 130 (!) volunteers are also ambassadors for SIBL’s databases, which include expensive products such as Bloomberg (market and finances), Market Research Monitor (market research), and Dun and Bradstreet (business information). Classes for the use of these databases are taught by the librarians of SIBL.

Overall, calls for donations, fundraising, and support through volunteers at NYPL is much further developed than what I’ve seen in Germany so far. The famous main building of the NYPL on 42nd Street is named the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, after Mr. Schwarzman’s $100,000,000 donation. It would be worth investigating how library’s decisions are influenced by large donations or what other impacts such donations make.

By the way, SIBL is the first library in which I’ve witnessed the so-called roving reference practice. This type of reference is not given at a desk. The librarians roam the stacks and workstations and offer support there. The concept is known in Germany, but I hadn’t yet seen it in practice. As soon as I step into the computer work area to take a few pictures, I am asked if I needed help with any databases. That’s proactive reference and database training!