Lorene Kennard, our Chapter’s Professional Development chair, is the solo librarian with Morningstar Inc., a leading independent provider of investment research. Her path to Morningstar was not a direct one.

The library, the only one in the company, was established at Morningstar in the late 1980s, but Lorene is its first professional librarian, serving Morningstar employees throughout the world. Her main clients, though, are the approximately 900 employees in the Chicago office. She also writes a column in a monthly e-newsletter that is sent to Morningstar.com Library Edition subscribers.

DRAWN TO SPECIAL LIBRARIANSHIP

Lorene has an undergraduate degree in Communications and English from Illinois State University and a MLIS from the University of South Carolina. Prior to attending library school, she held a variety of health insurance-related positions at Metlife/MetraHealth/UnitedHealthcare for almost seven years. While in library school, Lenore supervised the interlibrary-loan department at Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina.

Initially Lorene went to library school with the goal of working in a public library, but found a mentor in a corporate library. Her library projects then were about corporate libraries. Upon graduating, Lorene interviewed with public and corporate libraries and accepted a job offer with Morningstar.

CHANGES AT MORNINGSTAR

She has been with Morningstar almost seven years and has seen great changes in product lines and the number of employees. She has found it exciting to watch the company grow. She also found it exciting when her company went public a year ago.

This year, Morningstar acquired Ibbotson Associates, another investment research company. Although they did not have a librarian, they brought many library resources into the merger. Lorene looks forward to integrating its collection with Morningstar’s.

Lorene joined SLA when she began work with Morningstar. As Professional Development advisor in the Chapter, she hosted an “Investing for Retirement” workshop earlier this year which was very successful. Her committee is planning a series of investment sessions next year. In past years, she was on the Vendor Committee. At the national level, Lorene has been involved with the Solo Librarians Division.

VALUE OF INTERNSHIPS

When not at work, Lorene enjoys attending sporting events, museums, and book signings. She is also rehabbing a recently purchased condo.

She has advice for library school students who would like to start a job as a special librarian. Even before graduation, get an internship in a library. When you graduate, you will have experience. The job market in Illinois is tight right now, so any experience you can get while in school will help with your job search.

Reach Lorene at lorene.kennard@morningstar.com.