Jane Malcolm, Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of the ORU Library, brings years of research experience from the corporate world to her position at Oral Roberts University. She has worked as a corporate librarian, contract researcher and information professional in many major companies. Her clients have included global consulting firms, market research firms, and professionals in nearly every industry and field. Over the past three decades, she has applied her research skills to finding information for her clients on every conceivable topic.
“Having the right information at the right time is critical to success,” is one of Professor Malcolm’s favorite sayings and is a recurring theme in her teaching. Finding information and teaching others to find, evaluate and use information is her greatest passion.
After completing a Bachelor of Liberal Arts with high honors from ORU and a Master of Library Science from Emporia State University she worked for four years in the ORU Library. Transitioning to corporate librarianship, she developed online research skills during the early (pre-Internet) days of dial-up online databases. In response to growing demand for research and library services in the corporate world, Mrs. Malcolm founded Professional Research Services in 1989.
In 2003, Mrs. Malcolm returned to the ORU where she now serves as Assistant Director of the library. At the request of the Dean of the College of Business, she created a course in Competitive Business Intelligence, which she still teaches. In this course and in special sessions with many business classes, she teaches students to strategically select and use the best tools to find reliable, authoritative information to solve problems and make sound decisions.
She says: “I am passionate about finding information, and thankful for the opportunity to pass on this important skill to those who will truly value and benefit from it. I am convinced that God brought me here to give me the opportunity to plant seeds in the next generation and empower them to find information that will make them more effective in whatever God has called them to do. It is a great honor to help to equip students to become whole leaders for the whole world.”