Librarians and the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans: Helping Disabled Veterans With Business Research

Abstract

The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities is a national educational program that helps post-9/11 Veterans accomplish their dreams of starting their own businesses. Although their story has been well documented, one story that has not been told is that of a group of business librarians who support the program. The authors present unique services and resources made available to participants of this program and discuss some of the challenges, results, and future aspirations of library support.

KEYWORDS:

• entrepreneurship
• library resources
• Veterans
• business research

Acknowledgments

Jo Ann J. Henson is now at George Mason University's Fenwick Library, and Jenna N. Mayotte is now at Simsbury Public Library's Business Resource Center.

The authors would like to thank two of their fellow Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) librarians, Michael R. Oppenheim (University of California, Los Angeles) and Shikha Sharma (University of Connecticut), for sharing information on their libraries and their experiences with the EBV. The authors would also like to thank the following persons who provided information about their individual EBV programs on their campuses: Dr. Mike Haynie, Tina Kapral, and Kevin J. Bailey of Syracuse University; Dr. Richard Lester of Texas A&M University; Melissa Evens of Purdue University; Dr. Randy Blass and Ashley Edwards of Florida State University; and Dr. Carol A. Carter, Robin D. Kistler, and Sgt. Kim Robinson of Louisiana State University.