While many of us struggle with the massive changes in information delivery wrought by the Internet explosion, some of our colleagues have seized the challenge to transform their library/client relationship. In the Financial Services industry, with its round-the-clock timeframe and need for immediacy, timely access to information is a "must" for a competitive edge. Recognizing this, the Libraries at two  New York City investment banks, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and Lehman Brothers, have created a value-added presence on their company intranets. 
 

Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB)
In 1996, Pam Rollo had a vision. As director of Library Services for the Americas at CSFB, she dreamt of delivering relevant full-text information to the investment bankers' desktops. She envisioned the transformation of the Library from a physical, paper-based location to an electronic "24X7" (24 hours/day, 7days/week) resource. She didn't know how it could be accomplished, but she planted the idea with her staff and designated Angela Oxley, the systems librarian, to lead the charge.

Four years later CSFB is the home of a sophisticated information delivery system with a library cataloging backbone (SydneyPLUS from ILS) and an Internet front end that allows all of the firm's U.S.-based professionals to search a series of library-designed subject lists and retrieve full-text documents. C.L.A.R.I.F.Y. (CSFB Librarians Accessing Reliable Information For You) is the latest incarnation in a continuously developing intranet site.

Oxley initially focused on moving the online catalog away from "locator mode" to "finding and delivery mode," providing desktop access to the actual documents. To better understand how bankers look for and find information, library staff talked with several bank professionals. The results showed that the bankers' approach usually revolved around three criteria, industry, location, and company, used singly or in combination. Library staff then developed a list of 120 industries, breaking each into subcategories such as overviews, market analysis, statistics, etc. For location, the library adopted the World Bank list that covered the sites their bankers were concerned about. But for company info? It was clear from the outset that it was almost impossible to predict what companies might pop onto a banker's radar screen. So, the system was built to access a variety of both external and internal sources that would cover the spectrum of companies large to small, domestic to international.

While Oxley and her team were re-thinking the cataloging scheme, Amy Cohen, the projects librarian, worked with an outside consultant to design the initial library Web site for CSFB's intranet. Combining text and video, they created an introduction to the library, its staff, policies, and resources, as well as a virtual tour of the facility. This "electronic brochure" was the library's main Web presence for 2 years.

By late 1998, however, everyone agreed that using the Web site to "just tell everyone we're here" wasn't enough. On January 2, 1999, work began on Phase 2 of the site. The goal was to tell bankers what resources were available, what they would "find" in those resources, and how to use them. 

Three fields were added to the Web site:

Research Guidance: Major topics were distilled into a couple of pages based on the kinds of questions users ask, why they might want to know that information, and which resources would answer them. Geared to newer analysts and junior bankers still learning the business, each Guide is a PDF file, easily downloaded for future reference. 

Tips & Tutorials: These are usage instructions for specific resources. The instructions are continuously updated as new sources, either print or electronic, are added to the library's collection.

Evaluated Web sites: This is an industry-driven directory, to which all professional staff contribute. Criteria for inclusion are ease of use, reputable provider, and free access. If multiple sites are available for an industry, the librarians select only one, to keep the list easy to navigate. 
 

The Vision Continues to Develop
Phase 3 of the library's intranet site is now underway. The collection-driven C.L.A.R.I.F.Y. system is evolving from operating on stand-alone Windows PCs in the library to becoming an active "button" on the desktop. Bankers can now access a broad base of the library's collection without ever leaving their desks. In keeping with the vision of becoming an electronic resource, the library either buys publications in electronic form or scans in the appropriate data. When volumes are too large to be scanned efficiently or publishers are unwilling to have their material made available electronically, C.L.A.R.I.F.Y. still maintains its original functionality as an online catalog for those physical items available only in the library. 

The library is currently partnering with a major provider of news articles to test end-user company queries based on searches preformatted by the CSFB librarians. The user indicates company name, time range to be searched, whether interest is in company news or merger and acquisition activities, and whether the company selected appears in the news frequently, occasionally, or hardly ever. These criteria trigger a search template that provides responses very similar to those that would be achieved by library staff. Since the librarians know the bankers experience difficulty formulating free-form searches with no guidelines, the preformatted option has many advantages. Using this approach, CSFB is freeing up library staff to do more involved queries while maintaining approximately the same cost basis.

With C.L.A.R.I.F.Y. now a primary focus of information retrieval for bankers, the library continues major marketing and training efforts. C.L.A.R.I.F.Y.'s unveiling in mid-1999 was heralded with a series of open houses to demo the product. Cohen includes formal training in  orientation sessions for new analysts. C.L.A.R.I.F.Y. posters greet everyone as they enter the library, and the staff is more than willing to explain its workings. As Craig Milberg, the firm's Internet Librarian, points out, this is a truly collaborative effort involving all 26 staff members. 
The foundation of Rollo's vision is in place, but the work towards the future isn't slowing. Oxley and Milberg are implementing a library server to support C.L.A.R.I.F.Y. Until now, the library shared a server with other business units, and, as in any shared server environment, clashes inevitably occur when multiple users vie for space. A group in Princeton, New Jersey, that supports all CSFB servers, and with whom the library team has developed a strong working relationship, will support the library server. 
 

Lehman Brothers
The Corporate Library at Lehman Brothers has followed a slightly different path. In 1995 the firm began building a structural gateway to the best available free Web sites. "External Data" began as an alphabetical list of 20 sites compiled by the firm's Webmaster, with an emphasis on links to popular business sites and the Web sites of major technology vendors.

Tom Fearon, Lehman's vice president, Corporate Library director, saw an opportunity to broaden the appeal of this information service for the bankers, and volunteered to take over the project, an idea the technology people were more than willing to embrace. By late 1997 the library had transformed the initial product into the Web Library with 200 links, all HTML hard coded. The first links were selected by the library staff who also gathered bookmarks from bankers and research analysts. Information was organized by industry, and within industry by type of site (e.g., associations, periodicals, etc.) to allow users to select sites quickly and easily.

The site has prime real estate with a button on the main Lehman site. Users are reminded of its presence without having to work through a series of pages to find it. 

Once this basic foundation was laid, the library's two systems librarians, Rick Riccomini and Reinhard Engels, began refining the process. Using Inmagic's DB/Text Web Publisher, they moved the system to a database structure that enables the addition of many thousands of links without the need to continuously code in HTML. CSFB followed a similar process using Microsoft Access as its database software. The Lehman system now includes links to 15,000 Web sites. As with CSFB's C.L.A.R.I.F.Y., information can be accessed by industry, location, or company. Unlike CSFB's system, however, the Lehman site provides users with a pre-selected list of companies based on the firm's client list and the companies covered by their research analysts. There are also links to some external sources, formerly available on networked CD-ROMs. Bankers can enter ticker symbols for any publicly traded company. This triggers a pop-up list of different types of data available for viewing (e.g., price charts, news, internal reports). Lehman has relationships with some content vendors, including Standard & Poor's, IDC (International Data Corporation), and Commerce Clearing House to reframe its Web sites and maintain the Web Library look and feel. To support this, Lehman's team prefers to use API (application programming interface) to outside sites rather than buying data to load in-house.

As with any venture of this type, marketing is a key success factor and Lehman has done an excellent job in selling the service. The library highlights the site and its use in Data View, a publication distributed to all Lehman staff. Demos are presented in Equity Research and at Investment Banking analyst orientations, and the library staff promotes the product to all bankers using the library services. The results cannot be disputed. The site has 14,000 hits per month, more than the corporate phone directory.

Web Library is truly global, with content coming in from the libraries in Europe and Asia as well as New York. The server that supports the system resides in the New York Library and is managed by two systems librarians. While the librarians have good relationships with Lehman's technology support staff and rely on them for major technical issues, they felt that having their own server on site diminished shared space issues and facilitated updates.

Both Lehman and CSFB have embraced the Internet as a valuable asset for enhancing customer service. They exemplify those librarians who understand strategically where their organization is headed and who ensure that the library's strategies are linked with and supportive of these organizational directions. These libraries are not only supporting their clients with mission-critical information services, they are forging their own destinies. 
 
 

Ellen Miller is a freelance information professional providing consulting services in library, knowledge, and information management. She holds an M.L.S. from Columbia University and has 30 years' experience in library/research management in the investment banking and consulting industries. She can be reached at libelady@aol.com.

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