Adding purpose and value to organizational memberships: A case study of Business Librarianship in North Carolina (BLINC)

Abstract

BLINC stands for Business Librarianship in North Carolina. Fourteen public, special, and academic librarians created this group in 2003. In that year, BLINC began its tradition of hosting workshops every three months across the state. Each workshop is free and everyone is invited to attend. The workshops feature peer-mentoring and peer-training on business research resources, services, instruction, programming, outreach, and professional development, with occasional guest speakers. Welcoming new members, networking, and socializing remain core to BLINC’s culture. This case study concludes with a short interview of the current chair of BLINC regarding how COVID-19 is impacting the organization.

Keywords:

• Associations
• networking
• organizations
• outreach
• professional development

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the past and present members of BLINC including its officers.

Notes

1 https://nclaonline.org/BLINC.

2 https://nclaonline.org/.

3 https://www.nclive.org/.

4 https://nclaonline.org/BLINC-history.

5 https://liaisonlife.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/blinc2018/.

6 https://cabalinfo.wordpress.com/.

7 https://www.njstatelib.org/services_for_libraries/consulting_services/business-technology-services/njlibsgrowbiz/.

8 https://connect.sla.org/carolinas/home.

9 https://entrelib.org/.

10 http://soucablconference.mozello.com/.