Three Ways Our Librarians Help People Find Key Information

When you think of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, a variety of professions might come to mind: bank examiners, economists, cash operations specialists, to name just a few. Librarians, too, have an important role to play. There have been librarians working at the St. Louis Fed for more than a century.

But what exactly does a librarian do to address the economic information needs of their colleagues and the public alike? Read on for a few relevant examples.

Keeping St. Louis Fed Employees Informed in a Changing World

Daily News Bulletins

On May 23, 1924, the library at the St. Louis Fed began providing a daily news bulletin to the organization’s officers, the beginning of a service that the library still offers. In the earlier days, this work required scouring printed newspapers, then carefully clipping, copying and summarizing the relevant material. Librarians at the St. Louis Fed today deliver top news articles to their colleagues each morning with help from digital tools that aggregate important stories, format them quickly into digestible emails, and send them to hundreds of employees at once.

The daily news service keeps people throughout the Bank informed not just about the economy and monetary policy, but also about additional subjects, including cybersecurity, regulations and central bank activity around the world.

Aid for Researchers

When deeper dives into important subjects are necessary, librarians are ready to help. Collaborating with subject matter experts throughout the St. Louis Fed, the library works with other areas of the Bank to meet the various financial, legal and technical requirements involved in providing colleagues with secure access to:

• Cutting-edge economic data
• Tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journals
• A rich array of additional information resources, from books to archival documents

St. Louis Fed librarian Mary Austin meets Senior Economic Education Specialist Mike Kaiman in the Bank’s library to help him with a project.

Librarians also use sophisticated databases to track thousands of mentions of research produced by the Bank’s employees. This detail-intensive work helps ensure St. Louis Fed researchers continue to produce high-impact economic research and analysis that informs policymakers and the public.

Connecting the Public to Vital Economic Knowledge

In addition to providing St. Louis Fed colleagues with information they need to do their best work, librarians also engage with the public.

Aiding Users of Online Economic Database FRED

The St. Louis Fed is home to FRED, an economic data aggregation service featuring more than 800,000 data series from more than 100 organizations. When one of the millions of FRED users around the world emails the St. Louis Fed seeking help, that person often connects with a librarian. Indeed, librarians process thousands of FRED user-support messages per year. Questions come from students, teachers, retirees, data engineers, business analysts, bankers and people from many other backgrounds. As a first line of support, the library ensures that the FRED team can stay in constant communication with users even as complex technological challenges require attention.

Delivering an Economic Research Digest

As experts in capturing information about Federal Reserve System research, librarians are also well equipped to help people stay up to date on this material. In July 2024, St. Louis Fed librarians launched an email digest, Latest Working Papers from the Federal Reserve Banks, to distribute academic work from economists at all 12 Reserve Banks in the Federal Reserve System. (See box.) Topics explored by these papers range from monetary economics to labor markets to quantitative methods and beyond. In fewer than 30 days, more than 1,300 people from more than 30 countries had signed up to receive this freely available information on a monthly basis. Those numbers have continued to grow steadily.

Fed Working Papers Delivered Right to Your Inbox

Want an easy way to keep up with scholarly economic research from the Federal Reserve? Sign up today for Latest Working Papers from the Federal Reserve Banks, a monthly digest showcasing the academic work of economists from all 12 Federal Reserve banks.

Helping with the Economic History Perspective

Beyond new data and research in progress, librarians also help researchers do valuable work on the topic of the Federal Reserve System. The St. Louis Fed’s award-winning Digital History and Archives team supports the FRASER and Federal Reserve History websites. By leading the day-to-day improvement and growth of these sites, librarians at the St. Louis Fed benefit hundreds of thousands of users who seek to engage with the past to better understand the present.

Bringing Librarians and Other Professionals Together

While technology empowers the St. Louis Fed to come to the public, conferences empower the public to come to the St. Louis Fed. Librarians host the biennial Beyond the Numbers conference, which regularly attracts more than 100 business librarians and other professionals from around the United States and beyond. These individuals from prestigious universities, government agencies and other organizations assemble to discuss the opportunities, rewards and challenges of connecting users to economic data and expertise. Keynote speakers at Beyond the Numbers conferences have included a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, as well as a commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, contributors to the Financial Times and National Public Radio, and staff from the U.S. Census Bureau and the World Bank.

An audience at the November 2022 Beyond the Numbers conference listens to a speaker in the St. Louis Fed’s auditorium. Business librarians and other professionals attend the biennial conference.

Embracing Continuous Learning and Improvement

A job title like “librarian” might evoke dusty stereotypes of tweed jackets, stern shushing and little change. But librarians at the St. Louis Fed constantly seek out new opportunities to learn and share practical knowledge for the increasingly digital world of work. Striving to add more value in less time, these librarians streamline tasks using robust software tools, powerful programming languages and proven problem-solving skills. They offer the St. Louis Fed a one-stop shop for information needs, a nerve center for Federal Reserve System knowledge, and a trusted set of advisers for the always challenging responsibility of organizing information as complex projects unfold.

The next time you learn that someone is a librarian, ask them what a normal day looks like. You’ll probably learn that there is no such thing, and you might be surprised by their exciting range of skills and experiences.