By Becky Malewitz | October 16, 2025
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How do you introduce a campus community to the concept of a library that doesn’t have any books?
That was the first task for Steve Hayes, faculty emeritus and former Entrepreneurial Spirit Endowed Business Librarian, when the Thomas Mahaffey, Jr. Business Information Center (now the Thomas Mahaffey, Jr. Business Library) opened its doors 30 years ago.
It was the fall of 1995. Sony was preparing to release the first PlayStation in North America, a new website called AuctionWeb (later renamed eBay) made its debut, and before the end of the year, the world would meet Woody and Buzz Lightyear when “Toy Story” made its way to the big screen as the first entirely computer-animated feature film.
At the University of Notre Dame, College of Business students were just starting classes in a new building, home to the new state-of-the-art Business Information Center, affectionately known as the “BIC.” The University’s first all-electronic library was a partnership between the University Libraries (now Hesburgh Libraries) and the College of Business Administration (now Mendoza College of Business) with support from the Office of University Computing (now Office of Information Technology).
“In the early days, there was quite a bit of curiosity,” Pete Pietraszewski, current Entrepreneurial Spirit Endowed Business Librarian and head of branch libraries, said. “Departments such as finance and accountancy had already been working with databases on the mainframe and later on CD-ROM, but many people would stop in and ask, ‘Hey, what’s this place all about?’”
The original space opened as a resource center, focusing on providing electronic information and databases, distinct from the general campus computer labs, where office productivity tools like WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 could be accessed. It featured 31 single-user workstations, 10 databases and required patrons to bring formatted 3.5” high-density or double-density diskettes for use with data files.
This year marks the Mahaffey Business Library’s 30th anniversary. It has been and continues to be home to discipline-specific library faculty and staff who offer a wide range of support for classroom instruction, individual research and collaborative study. It provides access to 128 databases, facilitating nearly 300 instruction sessions and research consultations annually. In the three decades since the Business Library opened its doors, it has maintained a commitment to service excellence and meeting the teaching and research needs of Notre Dame’s faculty, students and visiting researchers.
This has been an important partnership for three decades. From the day it opened, the Business Library has tailored services to address the needs of business students and faculty in a rapidly evolving landscape. We remain committed to innovation and to meeting the changing teaching and research needs of the Mendoza community for the next 30 years and beyond.
~ Margaret Meserve, interim Edward H. Arnold Dean, Hesburgh Libraries and University of Notre Dame Press
The importance of data
Since opening in 1995, the Business Library has not only wanted to be a place where researchers could locate data and information, but also a resource to help them better understand it.
“One of the things we would talk about was how to determine the authority of a website,” Pietraszewski said. “The Business Library opened at a time when internet resources were becoming more prevalent. Given that online content can be created and shared by anyone, it was crucial for our patrons to develop the skills to assess the credibility of digital information sources.”
In the three decades since the Business Library’s inception, the need for data curation and interpretation has only continued to grow.
“What is data?” Pietraszewski said. “It is quantitative in terms of numbers, but you have to look at the qualitative side of it, too. Steve would always tell students not to forget the story surrounding the data. That remains as important today as it was 30 years ago.”
For some Mendoza faculty, such as Jessica McManus-Warnell, teaching professor, Rex and Alice A. Martin Faculty Director of the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, Managing Director of Research Strategy, Operations, and Engagement, the Business Library is integrated right into their course curriculum.
“One of my courses, MGTO 30715: Sustainable Communities and Global Business, is one of the options for the ND Core Curriculum’s Writing Intensive requirement,” she said. “It involves completing a substantive research paper. One of the five course learning goals is to ‘Recognize and illustrate fluency in the research resources available in the Mendoza College of Business Mahaffey Business Library.’”
As a part of her course, McManus-Warnell invites the business librarians to facilitate one of the sessions to introduce students to the ways that the Library can support their work.
“Information is available everywhere, all the time,” she said. “The opportunity to engage with professionals who are experts in navigating information for quality, relevance, insight, etc., is invaluable. And they’re live people, right in our building! The librarians have also built dedicated course webpages with curated resources I have used for specific classes and projects.”
In addition to utilizing the Business Library for her classes, McManus-Warnell also uses the Library’s resources and expertise in her own research.
“I regularly reach out to our business librarians for full-text research citations or other articles that support my writing,” she said. “For example, I was writing a paper that required data from the US Department of Labor and from its Japanese counterpart. The librarians provided very helpful guidance. They help with efficiencies, comprehensiveness and capacities for informed teaching and research.”
The people
Currently, the Business Library handles the largest instruction volume of any subject area supported by the Hesburgh Libraries. And people aren’t patronizing the space just for access to databases; it’s for the people and the discipline-specific expertise.
“These professionals help faculty and students navigate ever-changing databases and other information sources,” McManus-Warnell said. “Our business librarians are always willing and able to help with everything from pointing us to resources we may have overlooked to connecting with students in meaningful ways. One example from a recent course was when [Business Librarian] Michael Deike facilitated a discussion with my class after I sent him a list of their preliminary research topics. He had individualized responses and ideas for each student to start them on their way. He also integrated AI tools in an engaging way.”
Like McManus-Warnell, Sandra Vera-Muñoz, Mendoza associate professor and Ernst & Young Faculty Fellow, uses the Business Library in both her teaching and research.
“It’s not the Library itself, it’s who runs it,” she said. “The people make the difference because of their cumulative expertise; having them in-house in Mendoza is tremendously helpful. They understand what I need. I understand their expertise. Then, we put our heads together to get work done. This benefits our students, and of course, it benefits my research, too.”
Vera-Muñoz, who teaches Corporate Sustainability Accounting and Reporting, has been at the University since 1994. For one of her courses, she had Pietraszewski come in to instruct students on how to use the Bloomberg terminals, which, until their recent relocation to the Trading Room, were located in the Business Library.
“She has put together an amazing tutorial of the terminals,” Vera-Muñoz said. “Every time I teach this course, she very generously and very professionally delivers it to my students.”
She describes her relationship with the Business Library as a “long-term partnership.”
“In general, they are an important presence in Mendoza,” she said. “We all need data, articles and expert people. They help guide us if we can’t find something and point us toward any newly acquired databases that may be helpful. I don’t think I could do my work without the Business Library.”
But the librarians’ jobs don’t stop at helping students and researchers locate and understand data.
“When it comes to research skills and relationships across campus, we are a repository of knowledge,” Michael Deike, business librarian, said. “I recently had a consultation, and the student was impressed by my ability to connect them with people across campus. They mentioned that before talking to me, they hadn’t really considered the Library as a place to get connected with other people. I am a resource just as much as our collections. It’s my job to know how to effectively connect you with who and what you need, which sometimes isn’t necessarily just in the Library.”
In fact, Business Library faculty regularly collaborate across campus.
“During the Business Library’s tenure, one of the achievements I am most proud of is our track record of successful collaborations and partnerships campus-wide,” Pietraszewski said. “Business intersects with so many fields, and I’m deeply proud that departments throughout the University appreciate and integrate the expertise we contribute to their research, teaching and even advising initiatives.”
Throughout the years, the Business Library’s collaborations have included the Alumni Association, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Development, the IDEA Center, the Investment Office, and several career units on campus, including the Meruelo Family Center for Career Development.
Pietraszewski said the career advisors — formerly known as career counselors — periodically do an annual in-service to stay up to date on resources that help students prepare for job interviews. “The advisors are so dedicated to supporting students during their conversations that they want to be ready to assist them right when they need it,” she said. “They’ve become so knowledgeable about the library resources that I’d give them honorary librarian awards!”
Library leading entrepreneurship
Business Library resources and expertise also filter beyond campus.
For alumni such as Charles Florance, founder of Indiana Whiskey Company, the Business Library held the stepping stones that paved the path for his entrepreneurial endeavors after graduation. Using the Library’s resources and expertise, the business owner conducted the market research he needed before establishing his local distillery.
“I think sometimes people view librarians as just being custodians of knowledge, but they’re more like sleuths,” he said. “Pete would dig into my business needs by asking for my broad objectives and then come up with a series of prompts to reinforce those insights from the relevant services they had.”
Thanks to the market research he conducted with Business Library assistance, Florance believes he was able to avoid costly mistakes in the early days of his business.
“I was an infantry officer before coming to business school, and we call that ‘intelligence preparation of the battlefield,’” he said. “Pete and Steve were just huge in providing what I would call actionable business insights. They introduced me to data brokerage tools that were kind of ahead of their time in 2011. The fact that they were able to wave their fingers and get me this information was just life-changing.”
New technologies
For 30 years, the Business Library and its librarians have evolved in tandem with the emerging technologies that its patrons utilize to conduct teaching and research and succeed in their fields.
“Business and technology both change at breakneck speeds,” Deike said. “Today, AI is slated to change the way that people interact with information, similar to the dot-com era or even back to the creation of the printing press. It is altering the way people interact and engage with information on the whole.”
As with technologies of the past, Deike and Pietraszewski are finding ways to help their patrons use AI intelligently and ethically, as just one of many tools that can further teaching and research.
“AI is not a tool that I discourage anyone from using, but it is one tool among many,” Deike said. “If you can conduct a traditional library search, if you can make use of online search engines, and if you can make use of AI, you have a more well-rounded skill set. In the business environment, that’s what makes you stand out.”
Since its founding, the Mahaffey Business Library has been an essential resource supporting our faculty’s research and teaching. I am deeply grateful to the business librarians — past and present — whose professionalism and dedication have strengthened our work and advanced the mission of the College.
~ Martijn Cremers, Martin J. Gillen Dean, Mendoza College of Business
Today
This year, due to ongoing construction in Mendoza, the Library looks a little different. Despite its move to a new location, students, researchers and partners across campus continue to depend on the resources and expertise that have been a staple of the Business Library since it opened its doors in 1995.
“We’ve always been a repository of knowledge when it comes to advanced, specialized software in the business research space,” Deike said. “That continues to be the case today.”
Three decades ago, when the Business Library first opened, Hayes wrote in one publication, “The BIC is an experiment and a changing environment.”
“And what a successful experiment it has been,” Pietraszewski said. “We were never intended to be static. Technology changes, digital resources expand, and new information and tools are available constantly. The Business Library today is considerably different from how it was when it opened 30 years ago, and it will continue to evolve in the future. What won’t change is our commitment to serve the business information needs of Mendoza as well as the wider University community.”