Why startups need libraries (and librarians)

Academic libraries must play a direct role in supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs to get their start. The primary way to do this is through the development of library space to support innovation. Additionally, entrepreneurial library and information science (LIS) students should look for work beyond the library. The knowledge and skills that they acquire in the classroom are exactly those that startup companies need and want in new hires. If academic libraries embrace the need to break from the old and try something new, they can become hubs of innovation on increasingly entrepreneurial college campuses. And if entrepreneurial LIS students embrace the learning objectives of their programs, they can become the ideal new hire for any number of emerging innovative startup companies