It’s probably not necessary to always try to expound on a unifying ‘theme’ in all my introductions, but this issue really does focus on ‘expansion’ or ‘exploration’ or ‘adventure’. All of the articles in this issue discuss business librarians who expanded their work beyond their comfort zones and dared to explore something new. These authors tried out new instructional design ideas, pushed beyond our national borders, pulled more support on board at the library, or attended a conference focused on economic data (gasp!). Even our Feature Article explores how academic business libraries are evolving and expanding their collections to include popular business titles and how these titles fit into the rest of our collections. Our fellow business librarians are certainly not content to sit in the status quo and ignore opportunities to innovate.

Our Teaching & Learning article, “Zombies in the Library: How Game-based Learning Revived Our Instruction” by Melissa A. Johnson in the Business Library at Southern Methodist University (SMU), explores the gamification of business information literacy instruction. When the business library at SMU was invited to participate as instructors for a 2.5-hour class as part of the University’s Online MBA on-campus immersion experience, the librarians worried about keeping students engaged. It took some convincing, and some experimentation, but ultimately their idea to teach students business information literacy skills via a competition for student teams to develop zombie apocalypse survival plans has seen undeniable success. So much so that the librarians are now looking to expand the zombie apocalypse experience to their undergraduate students.

In our International Outlook section, we have an article co-written by librarians at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada; FIA Business School in São Paulo, Brazil; ITAM in Mexico City, Mexico; and, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA. In “A collaboration across borders: supporting Executive MBA Americas students” Moninder Lalli, Robbi De Peri, Carolos José Chavarría Valenzuela and Nydia Sánchez García discuss their work on a joint panel presentation (and subsequently individual panels) to students of the Americas MBA program, a collaborative program between their schools seeking to help students understand the business environments and practices in the four largest economies of the Americas. In an experiential learning project, students are asked to help real world clients with business challenges, so the librarians were asked to introduce students to reliable business information sources. Challenges faced included navigating access to resources at other institutions and the question of how much detail should a librarian at one institution share regarding a student’s reference question(s), but the co-authors report that the collaboration helped grow their familiarity with others’ collections so they could more confidently make referrals.

Our Tips section takes on an issue probably near and dear to many of us: “How to successfully advocate for a second business librarian”! In this article we get the perspectives of both a business librarian – Elizabeth Price – and her supervisor – Carolyn Schubert – as they discuss how they worked together to successfully hire a second business librarian at James Madison University Libraries. Tips include “get data and make it your friend”, wherein the authors discuss gathering data both about external peers and gathering internal data, the suggestion to “turn your data into a story” so your library colleagues will be better able to understand your need for an additional librarian to support business school and research needs, and consider mitigation strategies for short term solutions (but know they’re likely not a permanent solution). Potentially the hardest suggestion for many librarians to embrace might be their final tip: you might have to say ‘no’ more often. The authors warn us that we might need to be patient as well. Their advocacy work took six years.

Our Conference Report from HD McKay at Vanderbilt University allows us all to vicariously explore the “Beyond the Numbers Conference 2023”, which HD tells us is “a highly accessible option to skill up in business, economic and data literacies”. This free conference offered by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis focuses on economic data and information and brings together not only librarians, but also corporate analysts, research staff, government employees and more. Specific sessions highlighted included a discussion regarding how to build a standalone data repository; getting to know the new North American Product Classification system, as it is newly being implemented in the Economic Census; and a review of the process of developing the highly successful Data Quality Evaluation project funded by the IMLS in 2022.

Lastly, in our feature article, Georgette Nicolosi and Lauren Reiter explore “The presence of popular business titles in ABLD collections”, using select data from the catalogs of 39 American Business Library Directors (ABLD) libraries within the United States. The authors attempt to determine if business libraries are collecting popular business titles; if so, where are these titles shelved; and what does this suggest about associated collection practices? They conclude with ideas for future research and a discussion of the possible purposes, and impacts, of popular business titles within academic libraries.

I found it energizing to read about all the adventurous work our colleagues are doing. I hope you will too.