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Janet Weiss, Associate Director of the Scientific Library at Daiichi Sankyo Pharma Development, Inc., was recently inducted into the Special Libraries Association’s Hall of Fame. Over the course of her long career, Janet has woven together her professional interests and service to the profession as a whole. We sat down to discuss her career path and contributions to the field. After graduating from college in 1972, Janet found a job at a special library within a bank on Wall Street where they needed an assistant with library experience. “My boss was very involved in the New York Chapter of SLA, in their Downtown Lunch Group. I got to participate in those events and really developed a sense of what was possible in corporate librarianship; that interest stuck with me throughout graduate school and beyond.” Loving the job and hating the commute soon led Janet to the MLS program at Rutgers. |
Janet’s particular enjoyment of the medical bibliography course led her to a position as a cataloger and manager of small medical library at Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., located in Bridgewater. Later in her career, layoffs and other circumstances unexpectedly led to one of Janet’s favorite experiences in special librarianship, developing libraries from scratch at small companies. “I was able to do very interesting contract work with very positive long-term effects. One of the companies grew to the point where they now employ ten library staff members! It was very rewarding to work at companies that had decided that information access was a corporate priority for research staff, and followed through so significantly. I was able do that type of work several times over the years, and it’s been exciting and energizing each time.”
As for her notable success over the years in securing vendor sponsorship for SLA Chapter and Division meetings, Janet credits her experiences in fundraising coursework and volunteering with other nonprofits with knowing how to frame a successful request. “When you establish good relationships with vendors who will value those relationships, they are often happy to help SLA. You just have to be brave enough to ask for what you need.”
Janet and her husband celebrated her Hall of Fame induction with SLA friends, and as for the Lucite award itself, “I keep it on top of my file cabinet at the office! I prefer to keep it low-key.”
Congratulations to Janet on this career milestone - your consistent excellence does the Garden State proud!