Executive Information Seeking and the Corporate Library

• Main Author: Washburn, Adrianne J.
• Other Authors: O’Conner, Brian C.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2015
• Subjects: information seeking; library value; executives; special library; corporate library; Information behavior.; Executives.; Corporate libraries.; JET Aircraft Co.
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc801910/

This study began with an interest in corporate libraries and a genuine curiosity in the information preferences and resources valued by executive leaders at JET Aircraft Co. Executive information preferences and the downward trend in special libraries initiated the investigation of information seeking among executive leaders and yielded the inquiry: What resources do JET Aircraft Co. executives value when they need information? Employing an ethnographic approach, this study investigated what JET Aircraft Co. executives know about information resources, what they believe about information resources, and how they act when they require information. While JET Aircraft Co. maintained a special corporate library called the Company Research Library (CRL), the purpose of this study was to determine what resources were of value to executives at JET Aircraft Co., understanding that the CRL may or may not be a resource executives’ value. As a byproduct, this study also sought to establish executive information preferences and perceptions of the CRL. Information seeking at the executive level, studied through an ethnographic lens, provided insight into how executives at JET Aircraft Co. work and what they prefer, and it established a baseline for the Company Research Library’s position among the resources valued by executives.