An AI-powered business research platform that leverages relevant official sources of government information and the expertise of librarians to produce credible information that is tailored to the needs of early stage innovators and entrepreneurs taking their idea to market.
Libraries are in a unique position within the business information landscape.
Libraries face many challenges in their mandate of supporting early stage entrepreneurs with business research. Regardless of size, budget or location, libraries are plagued by common constraints: business databases are very costly; their terms of use often restrict commercial purposes; and access is typically denied to relevant campus communities (e.g., Alumni, local and regional community program participants that are served by campus innovation centers). Furthermore, many business research platforms are tailored to the workflows of finance professionals rather than entrepreneurs.
As a professional community, librarians have broad and deep knowledge of business information products, including their unique strengths and weaknesses across a variety of use cases. Librarians also have the technical and subject matter expertise needed to critically evaluate all aspects of user experience, such as usefulness, credibility and value. However, this knowledge is unevenly distributed and not organized in ways that could have more positive influence in the business information ecosystem.
Today the proliferation of relatively low cost of large-language-models (LLMs) and related computing services allows for the development of new, inexpensive ways to explore novel technical solutions for persistent business information problems. At the same time, the popularity of LLMs has presented many complex socio-technological challenges, such as how to responsibly steward the development of uncharted technologies in order to allow productive and empowering use, rather than displacement or degradation of human capabilities. These challenges are dynamic, complex and have no clear answers. They require "experimentation and the capacity to allow a path forward".
The dataweb.ai initiative is an experiment by two business librarians to confront these challenges at the "jagged frontier". Through this initiative, we work on projects that lead to practical strategies for moving forward in uncertain times. This approach is guided by the following principles:
Our first project is in developing an AI-powered business research platform that leverages relevant official sources of government information and the expertise of librarians to produce credible information that is tailored to the needs of early stage innovators and entrepreneurs taking their idea to market.
If you would like to test our work in progress and provide feedback, please reach out at info@dataweb.ai.
Subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates, beta test invitations, and opportunities to participate in future governance.
Subscribedataweb.ai is led by two academic librarians who also develop and design digital research tools.
Recent Talks:
McKay, H. & Groenendyk, M. (Nov 20, 2025). dataweb.ai – Better Market Intelligence for Supporting Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship & Libraries Conference (ELC) 2025. November 19-20. Online.