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CHICAGO-Stephanie Pitts-Noggle, Business Specialist Librarian at Champaign Public Library (IL) was selected as the 2018 winner of the . The grant, awarded to an individual or team, consists of $5,000 to conduct research in business librarianship.

Pitts-Noggle's research project, "Knowing what you don't know: Uncovering entrepreneurs" will serve as the initial groundwork for the development of a theory of the information needs and behaviors of early stage entrepreneurs. Conducted over two phases, it employs both inductive and deductive methods to build and test this theory. The first phase uses an inductive approach to uncover the information needs and behaviors of early-stage entrepreneurs who are looking to transform their ideas into actionable plans for starting a small business or startup enterprise. Having developed a theoretical model of these information needs and behaviors, the second phase will test this theory.

While sharing case studies and surveys of other libraries have been invaluable to laying the groundwork for developing and sharing best practices and key success factors, there is a notable lack of recent primary research focused on the entrepreneurs themselves. The literature would benefit from a thorough analysis of entrepreneurs using methods specific to the field of library and information science.

The selection committee includes: Kelly S. Janousek (Chair), Jennifer C. Boettcher, Diane K. Campbell and Lisa Louis.

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the 91´«Ã½, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Learn more about the association at .