1. Librarians have a vast knowledge of subject-specific resources and can navigate directly to different sorts of data, rather than than having to fumble their way to it via a search engine.
2. Librarians have access to proprietary databases. While it may seem like you can “just Google it”, some of the best research isn’t available freely on the web. Licensed databases offer company profiles, market overviews and industry reports that aren’t available in other places.
3. Librarians Google better than anyone. Google indexes trillions of web pages. Trillions. You’ll need a professional searcher to make sure you don’t miss anything.
4. A librarian is the next best thing to a private investigator. Librarians can track down company email addresses, create executive profiles and assemble corporate timelines.
5. Because librarians are trained to do reference work, they are adept at helping users refine their queries, which enables them to provide those users with the most essential information.
6. Librarians don’t quit just because something is hard to find. They keep digging, asking questions and retooling search strategies until they discover something useful.
7. Librarians are part of a loyal, tight-knit network that stretches across international borders, and they make a habit of leaning on each other for information or expertise.
8. In addition to knowing how to find hard-to-find stuff, librarians are seasoned customer service professionals who know how to make the experience of asking for and receiving information a pleasant and rewarding one.
9. Librarians are cheaper than MBAs. The Average MBA Salary is $113,000 while the average librarian salary is $47,000 (Updated to note that the average Business Librarian salary is $56,000 according to Indeed and $70,000 according to the Special Library Association) Business Librarians have experience doing company, industry and financial research. Pay the MBA for the analysis and leave the search for information to the librarian.
10. Librarians have superpowers.