59 SPEC Kit 355: Campus-wide Entrepreneurship
We reach out to faculty to tell them we’re available to provide instructional services and research
consultations for the various course-related entrepreneurship activities offered. We promote the
availability of databases that COULD be used for entrepreneurship research to faculty, students,
university staff, and the Technology Ventures Office. We identify and collaborate with university
personnel at various campuses to secure shared subscriptions to specialize resources that support the
university’s entrepreneurial research (e.g., Cortellis, ReCap) where feasible.
Word of mouth or newsletters
24. Are there any significant gaps in library services that specifically support entrepreneurship? N=53
Yes 33 62%
No 20 38%
If yes, please briefly describe the gap. N=31
Because there is no entrepreneurship librarian the responsibility to liaise with the various
entrepreneurship entities on campus becomes an “add-on” to other duties. As a result, there is no
consistent effort to create and evaluate services at the university.
Database subscriptions related to venture capital, e.g., CB Insights or Pitchbook. Also staffing—there’s
one librarian covering business &economics for the whole campus.
Developing a service or product to track post-Penn entrepreneurial successes and failures. What
companies do alumni found? How can that be connected to the experiences and knowledge that
they gained while at Penn? More sophisticated design services for visualization and product design/
development.
If we had more resources and people, we could do custom research for entrepreneurs, create
professional documents (UNC does a terrific job). We also should have either a makerspace or
have equipment that people could check out, items like sewing machines, circuit kits (for teaching
yourself), etc.
It would be ideal to have a half-time position for entrepreneurial programs, especially in teaching how
to conduct patent searching, but at this time, there are many other competing demands.
iZone will address the gap that was identified in an extensive research process.
Lack of specialized skills and entrepreneurship resources
Large business data sets
Library subscriptions to applied (vs academic) market research databases, access support for university-
affiliated startups without library access
Likely, but this has not been assessed and therefore, we are not able to comment further.
Most of the entrepreneurial inquiries are related to local markets and we just don’t have a lot of data or
information on the region to draw upon for the types of business ideas that students pursue.
Need access to local- or state-level market research data.
Need to support business plan competitions and other experiential activities
No coordination of library efforts on campus.
Not so much gaps as the need to figure out how to build our services in a sustainable way.
Our databases are currently licensed for educational purposes. We will need additional funding in
order to renegotiate terms to allow for broader access.
We reach out to faculty to tell them we’re available to provide instructional services and research
consultations for the various course-related entrepreneurship activities offered. We promote the
availability of databases that COULD be used for entrepreneurship research to faculty, students,
university staff, and the Technology Ventures Office. We identify and collaborate with university
personnel at various campuses to secure shared subscriptions to specialize resources that support the
university’s entrepreneurial research (e.g., Cortellis, ReCap) where feasible.
Word of mouth or newsletters
24. Are there any significant gaps in library services that specifically support entrepreneurship? N=53
Yes 33 62%
No 20 38%
If yes, please briefly describe the gap. N=31
Because there is no entrepreneurship librarian the responsibility to liaise with the various
entrepreneurship entities on campus becomes an “add-on” to other duties. As a result, there is no
consistent effort to create and evaluate services at the university.
Database subscriptions related to venture capital, e.g., CB Insights or Pitchbook. Also staffing—there’s
one librarian covering business &economics for the whole campus.
Developing a service or product to track post-Penn entrepreneurial successes and failures. What
companies do alumni found? How can that be connected to the experiences and knowledge that
they gained while at Penn? More sophisticated design services for visualization and product design/
development.
If we had more resources and people, we could do custom research for entrepreneurs, create
professional documents (UNC does a terrific job). We also should have either a makerspace or
have equipment that people could check out, items like sewing machines, circuit kits (for teaching
yourself), etc.
It would be ideal to have a half-time position for entrepreneurial programs, especially in teaching how
to conduct patent searching, but at this time, there are many other competing demands.
iZone will address the gap that was identified in an extensive research process.
Lack of specialized skills and entrepreneurship resources
Large business data sets
Library subscriptions to applied (vs academic) market research databases, access support for university-
affiliated startups without library access
Likely, but this has not been assessed and therefore, we are not able to comment further.
Most of the entrepreneurial inquiries are related to local markets and we just don’t have a lot of data or
information on the region to draw upon for the types of business ideas that students pursue.
Need access to local- or state-level market research data.
Need to support business plan competitions and other experiential activities
No coordination of library efforts on campus.
Not so much gaps as the need to figure out how to build our services in a sustainable way.
Our databases are currently licensed for educational purposes. We will need additional funding in
order to renegotiate terms to allow for broader access.