"Is Corporate a Bad Word?": The Case for Business Information in Liberal Arts Libraries

Abstract

Literature on business information literacy primarily focuses on business students. This paper instead explores business information literacy for students in liberal arts colleges: aside from career preparation, are there reasons to teach them to critically grapple with business information? This paper brings together survey findings, concepts from critical information theory, and the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education developed by the Association of Colleges and Research Libraries to bear on this question. It argues that business information is a powerful genre for teaching core concepts central to both information literacy and liberal arts: critical inquiry, authority, access, incentives, rhetorical practices, and more.