Business Information Librarian for Collections
“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it” – Margaret Fuller
Hello, my name is Chuck Knight. I am the Business Information Librarian for Collections at Vanderbilt University. In December 2023, I earned a Master of Science in Information Sciences (MSIS) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as part of a career change to librarianship. My goal was to become an academic librarian, but I did not know I would become a business librarian. This is an exciting turn in my LIS journey.
Prior to becoming a librarian, I worked for 16 years in the employee retirement and health benefits sector. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I did “librarian” work for several years. In fact, I served as system administrator (sys admin) for OnBase, an enterprise content management (ECM) system. Additionally, I coordinated the digital conversion of thousands of paper records. This involved cataloging and boxing files, sending the files to a scanning vendor, and reconciling and quality checking scanned records. The sys admin role also introduced me to classification and taxonomy within a business environment. In retrospect, I feel I could have benefitted from having a library science degree then, or at least some professional training in records management.
The MSIS program at the University of Tennessee has provided me a broad exposure to the field while also allowing me to go deep. Initially, I did not know I would like information organization. However, after my first semester, I decided to take more courses about information organization, including metadata, cataloging, and information architecture. My interests also include digital libraries, user experience, search engine algorithm audits, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). I gained valuable experience by working on my advisor’s research on DEI. During this work, I coding qualitative data using the grounded theory approach.
I look forward to the adventure that awaits me on this LIS journey. As a curious, life-long lover of learning about many diverse things, I believe the LIS field is the perfect fit for this next phase of my career.