BRASS Notes

John Gottfried, Editor

Message from the BRASS Chair

The election results are in—congratulations to our new office holders!
RUSA
-President-Elect – Chris LeBeau
-Director at Large – Jennifer Boettcher

Jennifer was also elected as an ALA Councilor! Jennifer, way to go!!!
BRASS
-Vice Chair/Chair-Elect – Greg Fleming
-Secretary – Ilana Stonebraker
-Member-at-Large – Annette Buckley

We are grateful for your investment of time, energy and effort to BRASS and RUSA…and for making our section and division a great place to serve and grow professionally!

I hope everyone is getting ready for the Annual Conference (AC) in sunny Orlando, FL (Friday, June 24 – Tuesday, June 28, 2016).  BRASS has some great activities, programs, meetings, and, of course, the Monday night BRASS Dinner planned to make for a great conference.

If you have never been to a BRASS Pre Conference BEFORE then try to make this one your FIRST! Business Data for Librarians will be held on that Friday. You can still register in advance and save some money from the on-site registration! I recently registered and I hope to see many of you there.

The RefUSA BRASS Membership Reception will be on Friday night at Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar.

The BRASS Forum (Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee) on Saturday will feature “Lighting Talks” on a variety of intriguing and innovative topics.

The Sunday morning BRASS Discussion Group will meet, as usual, and this will be an excellent opportunity to learn many new and wonderful things happening in Business Librarianship as well as being informed of recent job openings and other important items.  There will be a coffee and refreshment break sponsored by MINTEL and then feel free to stick-around and meet some of our new colleagues at the BRASS New Business Librarians’ Discussion Group gathering.

The Monday morning BRASS Program will be a great opportunity to learn about the hospitality and tourism industry resource information landscape. I plan to get into the spirit by wearing a Hawaiian shirt, Crocs and shades! Come join the laid-back, enlightening experience!  S&P will be graciously providing coffee, juices and refreshments, as in the past.

Be sure to make your flight reservations to leave on Tuesday and NOT Monday!  You don’t want to bypass the Monday night BRASS Dinner immediately after the BRASS Exec. Committee meeting which will be from 4-6PM. This dinner is a great opportunity to catch-up with colleagues, meet new ones, and network in order to increase your professional capabilities to better serve your patrons back at your libraries.

Take a look at the BRASS website for more details and continue to monitor BRASS-L to keep up with RSVPs for the BRASS Dinner at Cafe Gaugin (first one going out around May 9) and other important scheduling email related to this fantastic upcoming AC!

These are just several of the many happenings—can’t name them all here!—coming up at the AC and I hope you book your reservations accordingly to not miss any of the great things planned!

Best regards and I hope to see you all in Orlando,

Paul Brothers
BRASS Chair 2015-2016

Business Reference Services Discussion Group
The BRASS Discussion Group facilitated a virtual discussion on March 25th. 27 BRASS members were in attendance for this lively discussion about a myriad of topics, including RUSA Voices, the Springshare blog functionality and the new S&P interface. For more details, check ALA connect for the recording and the chat transcript. Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in the discussion.  The next virtual discussion will be at 2pm EST on May 13th with an open agenda.

Emily Treptow 2014-2016 Chair

Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee
For the past 6 months our committee has been actively engaged in preparing for the BRASS Academic Forum that will be held at ALA Annual: “Lightning Talks on Innovation and Risk Taking in Business Academic Librarianship.” We collaborated in many ways—holding virtual meetings, using Google tools, creating a sub-group, and email—to determine criteria, draft messages, solicit presenters and evaluate finalists. Our committee reviewed 24 proposals and selected 7 for the BRASS Academic Forum. Because there were many good proposals that could not fit into the Lightning Talk format, we will sponsor a Lightning Talk webinar after annual to include several more by innovative academic librarians. I look forward to this risky new event for BRASS at ALA Annual!

Van Houlson, 2015-2016 Chair

Business Reference Sources Committee
The Business Reference Sources Committee is in the process of nominating and selecting reference resources that will be reviewed in an upcoming issue of Reference and User Services Quarterly.

The Business Reference Sources Committee has also selected its program to present at the annual Publisher’s Forum which will take place at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando. The title of the forum will be: “One Part Social, One Part Commercial: A Recipe for Supporting Social Entrepreneurship.” The publishers will include Berrett-Koehler, Emerald, and Greenleaf.

Ed Hahn, 2014-2016 Chair

Education Committee
The BRASS Education Committee continues to pursue our goals to provide for the educational needs of business reference librarians and other librarians involved in business reference services. The Committee Teams continue to work on individual projects:

  • Pre Conference Planning Team
    • Work continues on developing the 2016 BRASS Preconference “Business Data for Librarians” at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando June 24 from 8:30am – 4:00pm. Our speakers are working on their individual presentations and the Team will continue to work on logistical details as well as facilitation for the Q&A portion of the event. Advertising for the Pre Conference has met with considerable success and we anticipate a hearty group of participants this year. Join us if you can! (http://brass.libguides.com/2016brasspreconference)
    • The Committee has decided not to offer an in-person Preconference at ALA Annual 2017, instead focusing our efforts on a possible webinar series as an educational offering of similar depth with the benefits of lower cost and increased flexibility to potential participants. Emerald Group Publishing is interested in offering a Preconference at ALA Annual 2017 and the Education Committee will continue our involvement with member Bridget Farrell serving as a liaison (as well as Vendor Relations liaison Ann Fiegen) to this symbiotic venture.
    • This team benefits from the efforts of Tom Ottaviano, Peter McKay, Charles Allan and Eimmy Solis.
  • Best of the Best Business Websites Award Team
    • Award winners were announced at Midwinter. The team continues to explore the possibility of changing the award from a print certificate to a web badge; the proposal is pending consideration by the Executive Committee.
    • This team benefits from the efforts of Monica Hagan, Cara Cadena and Bridget Farrell.
  • Webinar Team(s)
    • Originally the Committee had two webinar teams – the Free Webinar Team and the Paid Webinar Team. It is likely that the 2016-2017 season will see these teams combined, however, as the Education Committee pursues the possibility of a webinar series offering. This will be discussed along with the report the Paid Webinar team will give at ALA Annual 2016 regarding the results of their environmental review for webinar offerings in the business reference space.
    • The Webinar teams benefit from the efforts of Phebe Dickson, Robbie De Peri and Christina Sheley, Kelly LaVoice, Hiromi Kubo and LuMarie Guth.

The BRASS Education Committee is further pleased to announce that Robbi De Peri has accepted the role of Co-Chair of the Committee for the 2016-2017 term. The Committee welcomes this additional leadership and looks forward to her continuing ideas and insights. The Committee looks forward to ALA Annual 2016 and the year ahead!

Ashley Faulkner, 2012-2015 Chair

Membership Committee
The ReferenceUSA BRASS Member Reception, generously sponsored by InfoUSA, will be held at Cuba Libre Pointe in Orlando at 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. on Friday June 24. Pointe Orlando is conveniently located near the Orange County Convention Center and conference hotels.

Don’t miss the opportunity to meet BRASS members and network over appetizers and drinks!

RSVP at http://evite.me/P6PT8wpNEZ

Jennifer Boettcher and Cynthia Slater, 2015-2016 Co-chairs

Vendor Relations Committee
BRASS is fortunate to have sponsors that support the section activities and awards. As annual approaches be sure to thank our long time BRASS friends S&P Global Market Intelligence, Emerald, InfoGroup ReferenceUSA, Morningstar, Global Financial Data, and Springshare. New in the last year are Mergent, the sponsor of the Excellence in Business Librarianship, and SimplyMap, sponsor of the Student Travel Award.

Ann Fiegen, 2015-2016 Chair

AWARD COMMITTEES

BRASS Mergent Excellence in Business Librarianship Award
The BRASS Mergent Excellence in Business Librarianship Award committee is looking forward to officially recognizing this year’s recipient, Jared Hoppenfeld of Texas A&M, at the RUSA Achievement Awards Ceremony during ALA Annual in Orlando. Congratulations, Jared!

Celia Ross, 2014-2015 Chair