Blake Robinson, Business Librarian, Rollins College, winner of the 2021 BRASS Academic Business Librarianship Travel Award sponsored by Global Financial Data

Blake Robinson has been selected as the 2021 winner of the BRASS Academic Business Librarianship Travel Award sponsored by Global Financial Data. The grant consists of $1,250 and is awarded to an individual new to the field of academic business librarianship in order to support attendance to the ALA Annual Conference.

Blake Robinson has already become quite involved with RUSA BRASS serving on the Business Reference Services Discussion Group committee as well as becoming a recent member of the ad hoc AACSB Steering Committee. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is the major accrediting body of top business schools globally, which released new accrediting standards in 2020. The goals of this committee is to spread awareness of the new standards among business librarians, including creating documents assist with the accreditation process.

In a short time, Blake has become an essential resource across disciplines at Rollins. He hit the ground running and has worked tirelessly to become an active partner with faculty and able mentor to students. As one example, he has made several tutorial videos for Rollins College’s Business and Social Entrepreneurship programs and is continuing to solicit more video ideas from their faculty. This project is part of a mentor/mentee program sponsored by ACRL’s Distance and Online Learning Section. Blake also has been heavily involved in business-related collection development since his arrival at Rollins and has been adjusting the mix of electronic resources he inherited in order to better meet curricular needs. Last spring at the request of the Provost, Blake served as an embedded librarian in an innovative course, “From Sputnik to the Space Coast”, which is a testament to his versatility and “can do” approach to his work.

Business Librarianship Travel Award committee was Chaired by Katharine Macy.