To BI or not to BI, that is the question... Corporate libraries and business intelligence relevance for LIS professionals?

Abstract: The topic of this masters thesis regards the situation between corporate library and business intelligence units in 5 selected companies in Stockholm Province. The aim of the study is threefold: is there any cooperation between the corporate libraries and the business intelligence units; what is the position of analysis in the work of corporate librarians and; what is the status of library and information science education from the perspective of the corporate world. In total 8 interviews were done. The results of the interviews were analyzed according to a theoretical framework of a business intelligence cycle and professional competencies and job descriptions for both corporate librarians and intelligence professionals. The theoretical section showed that corporate librarians should have the capabilities to do most of the phases in the BI cycle except for need determination and need re-determination. It was also noticed that the LIS education in Sweden is really not providing studies to become a professional in business intelligence. The results implicate that the competence of the corporate librarians are not fully used by the BI units and that the corporate librarians are in fact doing analysis of information, even against their own belief. The study also showed that in the perspective of the corporate world the current library and information science program is lacking in many fields. The conclusion is that the corporate library is a resource that is not fully used by the business intelligence functions in companies. But in order to make the students more capable for business intelligence functions, changes need to happen in LIS education.