From the “other” side: working for a vendor

The author works for a library vendor, EBSCO Information Services, as director of the Biomedical Division, with responsibility to monitor trends and issues of importance to biomedical librarians and recommend services and service enhancements to best meet the needs of this library community. Most people do not know that there are profound differences between types of libraries, their clientele, the programs they offer and the services they provide. Medical librarians’ issues and needs are different from those of other librarians. Most things librarians know are learned and that knowledge base is not universally understood or appreciated by those outside the profession. Businesspeople think “return on investment”, which is not a concept librarians keep foremost in their decision‐making process. Describes how it is interesting and extremely challenging to serve as a combination of an informationist and translator between EBSCO and the biomedical library community.