Barry Brown is an associate professor at the University of Montana Mansfield Library in Missoula, Montana, where he has worked as the science librarian since 1990, and where he also holds a position as an affiliate faculty member in the Environmental Studies Department. Prior to arriving in Montana, he obtained a master’s degree in biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (with a research emphasis in freshwater ecology), and a master’s degree in information and library studies from the University of Michigan.

Brown was an early "internet pioneer/ evangelist" – teaching campus and statewide classes for librarians and library users on using the net for research, education and communication, beginning in 1991. As a science librarian he has provided extensive science information literacy instruction to university students and faculty. Recently he researched, presented and published on comparisons of traditional discipline-specific databases versus newer multidisciplinary or freely available databases for various science disciplines. He has developed an outline for comprehensive science literature reviews and emphasizes a handful of databases which cover most science topics well.