Is the business cybrarian a reality? Internet use in business libraries

The Internet is now with us and as a result fundamental changes in information work encompassing the ‘virtual library’ and the ‘cybrarian’ are being forecasted. But how much of all this is hype — and have we not all been here before, when online in the shape of full‐text systems like FT PROFILE first arrived? And PROFILE has been with us more than a dozen years and, yes, the basic shape of the information service has changed as a result — a little more buying in of the full text and less indexing it yourself. Indeed it was the advent of full text information services that first enabled librarians to run a purely electronic library. Why then should we look to more fundamental changes as a result of the arrival of the Internet? Since business librarians have often been at the forefront of technological and management changes within the information world — the early learners — their experiences with the Internet are of interest to us all. Can they tell us where we are all going? Since the business sector is such a large and multivariate group the assertion has been tested out on just one sector — the banking and finance sector. There are sound grounds for choosing this sector, for it employs more information professionals than any other business field. It is also, perhaps, the most influential business sector since anything that happens in the banking world is soon felt by all those working in other areas. The largest proportion of information professionals in the banking and finance sector are based in the City of London. However, this group contains two diverse banking areas, namely investment and dealing. While many of the target group were involved in in‐depth project finance research, others had to answer questions on companies and currencies within minutes. The information professionals in this sector are under intense pressure to deliver quality information at speed. It was assumed that if the Internet was a welcome part of this environment, it would not be long before it was a staple part of any efficient library. And after all, unlike PROFILE, the Internet is free isn't it?