At the University Libraries, faculty and staff bring diverse backgrounds and interests to their roles, elevating the Libraries’ culture of interdisciplinary collaboration and lifelong learning and curiosity. We asked Business and Economics Librarian Ryan Splenda a few questions about his work, to find out more about the inspiration behind his contributions to the campus community.
Q: In your own words, what is a quick overview of your role at the Libraries?
A: I am a business librarian by training and have been the liaison librarian to the Tepper School of Business for the past nine years. I see myself as a relationship manager, point person for business and economics data sources/strategies/tools, and resources specialist for the Libraries and Tepper faculty, staff, and student communities. Additionally, I am very fortunate to collaborate with several Libraries/Archives colleagues on a variety of interdisciplinary projects and consultations, and often work with folks at other schools and departments on campus since “business” plays a role in many of the different units at CMU.
Q: Talk a little about the work you’re most passionate about. Why have you chosen to pursue this work within a library setting?
A: The main reason I became a librarian is to help and work with people. Information and knowledge are powerful…and one of the best places within history that collects, disseminates, creates, and preserves knowledge is the library. It particularly brings me joy when we get to help students hone and develop their skills as they navigate their academic and career journeys. This is what fuels me on a daily basis. :)
Q: Share an experience or skillset that people might not expect a librarian/library worker to have. How is it a game changer for the work you do at CMU?
A: I think there may be a general misunderstanding of the in-depth skills that various librarians bring to the table that help in our daily work with our various constituents. For example, as a business librarian I can help with strategies, tools, and techniques for doing competitive intelligence, secondary market research, advanced company financials, and more. I’ve also been trained on evidence synthesis (ES) methodology which gives us as librarians the potential to work within interdisciplinary research teams on projects that require in-depth literature searching and retrieval in order to complete systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses, etc. I’m fortunate to be a member of the Libraries’ Evidence Synthesis Program, which has been a game changer for the work that I and my colleagues do here at CMU. And these are just two personal examples. ALL of our colleagues bring advanced skills like these and others to the table when working with people at CMU!
Q: The Libraries serves as a neutral convening space to bring different areas of campus together. How do you value collaboration in your work? Can you give us an example of a recent collaboration that has helped a project reach new heights?
A: Collaboration is absolutely essential in my work. I’m a big believer in leveraging the knowledge, expertise, and diversity of opinions of many individuals that can help in achieving a project. I can not do my job on a daily basis without collaborating with several of my colleagues in the Libraries as well as the folks that I liaise with at Tepper (and potentially other areas). A recent collaboration that I can highlight is work that I’ve done with colleagues in the Career and Professional Development Center (CPDC) and Alumni Relations to help diversify, update, and grow our Career Collection in the Libraries. We tapped into the expertise of folks within the CPDC and CMU alumni network to achieve this, and I’m happy to say that this work has led to increased engagement between campus units, with our current CMU members, AND our alumni.
Q: What’s an area that you want to innovate and push boundaries in? Why is it exciting to you?
A: To build on previous comments about work we are doing in the Evidence Synthesis Program, I would like to help push the boundaries of how AI can be used effectively within ES projects. We have begun experimenting with AI-capabilities in the SysRev platform (a tool that can be used to manage ES projects). What’s been fascinating so far is that we are finding other possible use cases of the AI features within SysRev that are outside of traditional ES projects. For example, it may be possible to help classify/label various business/industry project proposals by NAICS sector-level codes (a current project being explored by a Tepper faculty member with help from the ES Program team). It’s still early, but the exploration has been interesting so far!
Q: What’s something in the Libraries that speaks to you personally? This can be a book, something in the Archives or Special Collections, a space in one of the buildings — anything you want to highlight!
A: I’m going to have a lot of fun with this one (and expose one of my passionate hobbies!) I am a massive Notre Dame football fan — it runs deeply in my family. I was thrilled to find out that we have several pieces of Notre Dame/Carnegie Institute of Technology football artifacts in our University Archives! Our wonderful archivists have pulled several ticket stubs, football programs, photos, video footage, and more for me to regularly view on occasional visits. And to top it all off, we have a framed, post-season award that was given to a former CIT/CMU football player that was signed by the most famous college football coach in Notre Dame football history, KNUTE ROCKNE!! I regularly visit our Archives team to bask in the glory of this unique relic! THANK YOU, ARCHIVES AND GO IRISH! ☘️