Information Bridges International, Inc. was founded by Judith A. Siess in 1996 to facilitate exchanges of ideas among librarians and information professionals around the world.

What is a SOLO librarian?

A SOLO librarian is "an isolated librarian or information collector/provider who has no professional peers within the immediate organization." This definition was developed by the founder of the group, Martha Rhine. She saw "the image of featured artists with talents exceeding those of the accompanying group." In Managing the New One-Person Library St. Clair and Williamson said that "the value of this definition is that it recognizes that in his or her immediate workplace this library/information professional works alone, both as a librarian and as a library manager" and called it "the best [definition] we have found.". OPL is a term coined by Guy St. Clair in 1976 to describe a library "in which all the work is done by the librarian." Another interchangeable term is SOLO Librarian. This is defined as "an isolated librarian or information collector/provider who has no professional peers within the immediate organization." This definition was accepted by the SOLO Librarians Division of the Special Libraries Association (USA). The Division was formed in 1992 from the SOLO Librarians Caucus founded by Martha Rose (Marty) Rhine in 1989. OPL's editor, Judith Siess, was the first chair of the SOLO Librarians Division in 1992-1993. The Division now has over 1000 members, making it the fifth largest in SLA.

The Division has its own WWW site, http:// and listserv (send message "Subscribe SLA-DSOL your-e-mail_address FirstName LastName" in the body of the email to lyris@lists.sla.org). We acknowledge the contributions and competence of the many librarians who do not have a library degree (M.L.S. or its equivalent), but the common usage of OPL or SOLO is for a "professional" librarian. However, The One-Person Library and the SOLO Librarians Division welcome all information collectors/providers who feel they can benefit from and contribute to them.