Several University of Maryland library science graduate students did a survey on how to save special libraries. The Best Contributed Paper for SLA 2009, Saving Special Libraries in a Recession: Business Strategies for Survival and Success, reported the results of this survey. That same paper has just been published in Information Outlook v13 no5 pp37-43 Jul/Aug 09. One of the case studies is about the Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Library and Penny Sympson, Corporate Librarian. Penny is a member of TRANLIB and frequently contributes to the transportation library community. Congratulations, Penny, on your successful efforts in preventing the Wiss Janney library from being outsourced!
In a recent SLA DC Chapter post, one of the grad student authors, Arlene Fletcher wrote, "One of the best questions we've received since publication is: how do special libraries market themselves? In order to expand on our research, I developed a follow-up survey with hopes of gathering information about preferred marketing styles among special librarians. The information gathered from this survey will be turned into a paper and, with hope, will expand on my group's previous research."