BRASS Business Reference Sources Committee (BRSC)

The BRSC met on June 22. There were ten committee members present. The committee had an agenda to obtain a volunteer as nominations coordinator, discuss the twelve works nominated as potentially outstanding or notable, finalize who would write the reviews to send to Susan Hurst for the RUSQ article, get a publishers forum update, and briefly discuss future directions.

Ed Hahn, one of the new members, agreed to take minutes, and to be the nominations coordinator.

Of the twelve titles nominated, six were identified as outstanding and notable. Members volunteered for the six reviews due on July 19th to Susan Hurst to edit for the RUSQ deadline of August 1st. Becky Smith will help edit as Susan will be on vacation before the RUSQ deadline.

Future directions discussed were having a mix of print works, including updated or revised editions if significant, and best databases, and overlooked works which had not been reviewed before, even though the works may be in their second or third edition. Smith also mentioned that it was possible with the workload that it may be necessary to have two subcommittees. While this currently exists, there was a lot of “double dipping” of the committee members (those who did reviews and the program planning) and those who did very little. It may clarify to have specific subcommittees in order to even the playing field of the work load.

On June 23rd, the Publishers’ forum was held. The theme was “How Private is Private” and covered private company information. The publishers on the panel were Bureau Van Djik, PrivCo, and Reference USA. Despite a building emergency during the presentation, the attendance was good, about 70-75 people.

The BRSC is on track, and Smith would like to thank the committee members for all of their hard work. It was announced that Susan Hurst would be chair for 2012-13.

Becky Smith, Chair, 2012