Putting Data to Work for Local Businesses

As a Cal State San Marcos Librarian for Business and Economics, Ann Fiegen is helping to build informed business researchers for the North County workforce.

“One of the really special things about Cal State San Marcos is that most of our students stay local after they graduate,” Fiegen said. “They’re taking the skills they’ve learned from Cal State San Marcos and putting them to work in the local community.”

Fiegen’s focus is teaching students how to become more effective researchers of businesses, nonprofits and community service organizations. Her current research involves exploring the information needs of the local business community so that library collections are more closely aligned to those needs and that students graduate with the appropriate research skills. Topics range from researching competitors to mining data about customers by using geographic information systems.

“The Cal State San Marcos library is a real community resource,” Fiegen said. “We would love for the business community to know what is available here.”

Fiegen earned her Master’s Degree in Library Science from the University of Arizona, in Tucson, where she spent some two decades as an academic librarian. She is a former chair of the American Library Association’s Business Reference Services Section, and she has been published on business research in myriad library and information science journals.

“What is special about Cal State San Marcos, is that the business students are so motivated and goal oriented, and that I see their impact in the community” Fiegen said. “It’s exciting to be here celebrating our 25^th anniversary.”