Abstract

• Oregon State University has initiated an entrepreneurship program that will engage engineering students

• Entrepreneurship minor as well as residential program

• What do we know about the information needs of these students?

• What collections and services will target those needs?

• What roles can librarians play in the success of this interdisciplinary endeavor?

Weatherford Hall will serve as a residential college for engineering entrepreneurs

The Weatherford Library

Information seeking behaviors

• Business and Engineering Students are:

– Less inclined to use physical library

– Familiar with web-based information

– Confident in their ability to locate information

– Faced with time pressures

– Asked to work in groups

Information needs

• To be successful, entrepreneur engineers need:

– Sophisticated skills for independent information gathering and evaluation

– A broader awareness of the wide range of databases and specialized publications in business and engineering

– To learn both of the above before going into the workplace

Strategies

• If they don’t come to the library, the library will go to them

• Librarian hours in the residential college

• Student involvement in the departmental library and interaction with the librarian

Strategies

• Model a corporate intranet for the program where students can customize library and other information sources to meet their needs

• With student input, develop online tutorials on such topics as creating business plans or conducting preliminary patent searches

Strategies

• Collaborate with entrepreneurship faculty in course assignments, workshops

• Research on the information seeking behaviors of entrepreneurs

• Look for new ideas to deliver information where the students need it

Ideally, information

seeking skills will be

integrated into the Entrepreneurshipcurriculum and residential life of

thestudents