ABSTRACT
Business librarians do not enter into the world fully formed and often do not begin their library careers with a clear focus on business. Many different factors in individuals’ educational, work, and personal backgrounds combine to lead librarians on the path to business librarianship. Corporate librarians are a special case. Librarians entering this sphere tend to have more direct business experience, whether from prior work or education. Regardless of setting, business reference and collection development present special challenges. The training of new librarians must develop comfort with not only the content, but also the style of business reference interactions. Many business information resources also differ qualitatively from the standard range of books, journals, and indexes that library school students are usually exposed to. Any training program should be founded on sound basic principles of librarianship. General training for all public services staff is useful and to be most effective must be supported with release time and appropriate incentives.
