The BRASS Best of the Best Business Web Resources Award was established in 2009. The Award recognizes 3-5 websites highly-relevant to information professionals involved in providing business reference services. The websites are nominated and selected by the BRASS Education Committee members, typically in October-November. The criteria include the quality of content, ease of use, and technical execution. For further information, please visit the committee roster page (login required) or the staff contact page.
Award Recipients
The Business Model Canvas, https://www.strategyzer.com/canvas/business-model-canvas
Used to create and document business models, the BMC is a strategic analysis tool that visually maps the relationships between customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure. Developed by Alexander Osterwalder and released to the public in 2008 with the Creative Commons license “CC BY-SA”, this tool has been adopted by organizations throughout the world. Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur described the tool in the book, “Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers” (2010). The publisher website, Strategyzer.com, provides free explanatory content and users can register to access an official copy of the BMC.
Free
Ethics Unwrapped, https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/
Designed to teach ethics in “every academic discipline where human beings think, interact, and work”, this educational program encompasses an introductory section and eight focused areas, including ‘Organizational Ethics’ and ‘Sustainability and CSR.’ This resource includes more than 100 transcribed videos, insightful case studies, a comprehensive glossary of terms, bibliography, and engaging discussion questions with accompanying teaching notes. Ethics Unwrapped was launched in 2013 by a collaborative team of authors, artists, and advisors and is supported and maintained by the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Free
Harvard’s Atlas of Economic Complexity (version 3, 2021), https://atlas.cid.harvard.edu/
The Atlas is a globally recognized tool “intended to advance the understanding of inclusive economic growth.” Interactive data visualizations enable researchers to explore relevant international business information focusing on imports/exports, drivers of economic growth, and GDP growth prospects of certain countries. The data, which is collected by United Nations and IMF, covers 250 countries and territories, and is cleaned and presented as 20 categories of goods and 5 services. First published in 2013, the annually updated atlas is part of The Growth Lab at Harvard University.
Free
Tax Notes’ Tax History Project, https://www.taxnotes.com/tax-history-project/
This educational resource presents the history of taxation in the United States through three chronological collections. The ‘Tax History Museum’ is an encyclopedic overview from colonial America in 1660 to the present. The ‘1040 Archive’ provides copies of all IRS 1040 Forms beginning with tax year 1913. The ‘Presidential Tax Returns’ collection includes digitized copies of available individual tax returns for Presidents beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1913 return, most major party nominees since 1976, and the last four Vice Presidents. Additionally, historical research by Joseph J. Thorndike (historian and director) is available in the ‘Article Archive’ collection. Tax Analysts, a nonprofit tax publisher, established the Tax History Project in 1995.
Free
The 2023 Best of the Best Business Web Resources selections were made by the 2022-23 BRASS Education Committee: Gary Arave (Indiana University Bloomington), Adele Barsh (UC San Diego), Chad Boeninger (Ohio University Library), Natalia Tingle Dolan (University of Colorado Boulder), Rachel Anne Kirk (Middle Tennessee State University), Andrea Levandowski (New Jersey State Library), Amy Nykamp (Sonoma County Library), Carmen Orth-Alfie (University of Kansas Libraries), Margaux Patel (University of Cincinnati), Genifer Snipes (University of Oregon) Chair, Alyson Vaaler (Texas A & M University), Nicole Webber (University of Northern Colorado), Jennilyn Wiley (Auburn University Libraries), Alan Witt (SUNY Geneseo). Carmen Orth-Alfie organized the nominations/voting process and authored the awardee descriptions. Editor: Genifer Snipes.
The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Learn more at www.rusaupdate.org.
Census Business Builder (CBB), https://www.census.gov/data/data-tools/cbb.html
This free tool is for entrepreneurs, marketers and other business researchers who want a practical way for finding data from across eight+ U.S. Census data surveys. CBB lets them select and visualize the information meaningfully for use in business planning, marketing activities and other kinds of reports. CBB data downloads to CSV, Excel, or geographic Shapefile. The site is mobile-friendly, for use by smartphone or tablet. The site hosts FAQs and webinars that provide examples of specific ways to use the data. Description for version 4.3 (2022).
Free
Data USA, https://datausa.io/
This visualization engine draws from a variety of U.S. federal and state sources, allowing for easy discovery, comparison and customizations of data. It can be used by job seekers, policy makers, business people, students and other researchers. There are four starting silos: Cities & Places, Industries, Jobs, and Education, which offer information on trends in employment (industry growth, diversity, salaries, etc.), industries, education, public health and more. Data USA started in 2014 as a collaboration with Datawheel, Deloitte, and Cesar Hidalgo, Professor at the MIT Media Lab.
Free
Investopedia Dictionary of Financial Terms, https://www.investopedia.com/financial-term-dictionary-4769738
This free dictionary of 14,000+ financial and business terms is for beginner to experienced information-seekers. Its definitions range from short to article-length, each clearly indicating its author and date. Entries are well-known for being factual and accessible, and the site provides clear, contextual information, even for complex topics. Investopedia’s dictionary terms easily appear in internet search results and it also highlights terminology in the news. The site, which has been around since 1999, and continues to evolve, is owned by New York-based publisher Dotdash Meredith.
Free
Our World in Data (OWD), https://ourworldindata.org/
Our World in Data (OWD) covers global policy “problems of the day” by providing factual articles, historical data and data visualizations, which are available for open access use under the Creative Commons “BY” license. OWD encompasses research related to the environment, economics and social issues, and broadly tracks 100+ sub-topics, like demographic change, economic development, education, energy, food security, health, inequality, poverty, sustainable development and war. OWD emphasizes easily-understood writing and high-quality public data. The publisher, Global Change Data Lab, is a nonprofit registered in England and Wales.
Free
The 2022 Best of the Best Business Web Resources selections are done by the 2021-22 BRASS Education Committee: Adele Barsh (UC San Diego) Co-Chair, Mary A. Aquila (Athens State University), G. Arave (Indiana University Bloomington), Chad Boeninger (Ohio University Library), Sarah Jane Hammill (Florida International University), Amy Nykamp (Sonoma County Library), Carmen Orth-Alfie (University of Kansas Libraries), Margaux Patel (University of Cincinnati), Genifer Snipes (University of Oregon) Co-Chair, Natalia Tingle (University of Colorado Boulder), Alyson Vaaler (Texas A & M University), Nicole Webber (University of Northern Colorado), Alan Witt (SUNY Geneseo). Nominations and voting were organized by Carmen Orth-Alfie. Awardee descriptions written by: Adele Barsh. Editor: Carmen Orth-Alfie.
The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Learn more at www.rusaupdate.org.
No award recipients were chosen
No award recipients were chosen
International Trade Administration National Travel & Tourism Office, https://travel.trade.gov
The International Trade Administration (ITA), an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, provides information, services, and expertise to help U.S. organizations compete in the global business environment. The ITA website menu directs users to a variety of helpful resources, including statistics, industry links, and export guides. One unique offering on the site is TradeStats Express, a tool for retrieving and visualizing annual and quarterly trade data at the state and national levels.
Free
United Nations World Tourism Organization, http://www2.unwto.org/en
The United Nations World Tourism Organization promotes the value of worldwide tourism as a driver of socioeconomic growth and encourages practices that support ethical and sustainable tourism development. The general public can freely access a wide range of information from the organization’s website, including a tourism glossary, country statistical reports, and an Elibrary with over 1300 publications and 1700 tourism data sets.
Free
U.S. Travel Association, https://www.ustravel.org/
The U.S. Travel Organization is a nonprofit association with a membership of over 1200 organizations representing multiple segments of the travel industry. Some of the association’s offerings are available only to members; however, much information on its website is free and publicly available, including industry fact sheets and toolkits, research reports, and interactive tools, such as a travel economic impact calculator.
Free
The Best of the Best Business Reference Web Resources selection committee includes: Robbi De Peri (Vanderbilt University) Co-Chair, LuMarie Guth (Western Michigan University) Co-Chair, Charles Allan (Texas State University), Mary A. Aquila (Athens State University), Cara Cadena (Grand Valley State University), Amanda Click (American University), Kimberly Fama (The University of British Columbia), Bridget Farrell (University of Denver), Heather Howard (Purdue University), Hiromi Kubo (California State University-Fresno), Helen Kula (University of Toronto), Jordan Nielsen (San Francisco State University), Susan M. Norrisey (University of Virginia), Andy Spackman (Brigham Young University), and Teresa Williams (Butler University). Nominations and voting were organized by Jordan Nielsen and Teresa Williams.
The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Learn more at www.rusaupdate.org.
Ceres is a non-profit organization advocating for sustainability leadership. Their website includes financials and industry reports focused on enabling business leadership in balancing sustainability risks and initiatives. Notable among their resources is the SEC Sustainability Disclosure Search Tool which allows users to screen SEC filings by sustainability issue or topic, company name, and industry group among other filters.
Free
United Nations (UN) Global Compact Library, https://www.unglobalcompact.org/library
Global Compact is a voluntary initiative based on CEO commitments to implement universal sustainability principles and to take steps to support UN goals. The UNGC Library contains materials issued by the UN Global Compact and key partners to support implementation of the Ten Principles and other relevant issues.
Free
The World Bank: Sustainable Development, http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/sustainabledevelopment
The World Bank provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. Their Sustainable Development topic section features research and data to support initiatives in that area in a global context.
Free
- American Factfinder: http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
- Data.gov: http://www.data.gov
- SEC EDGAR: http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html
- Patent Lens http://www.bios.net/daisy/patentlens/patentlens.html
- Intellectual Property Basics http://www.cfe.umich.edu/intellectual-property/
- The United States Patent and Trademark Office http://www.uspto.gov/
- SCORE.org http://www.score.org
- Entrepreneur.com http://www.entrepreneur.com
- Entrepreneurship.org http://entrepreneurship.org
- World Bank Data http://data.worldbank.org/
- Doing Business http://www.doingbusiness.org/,
- Occupational Outlook Handbook http://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- globalEDGE http://globaledge.msu.edu/
- Statistical Abstract of the United States http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/
- FRED – Economic Data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/
- U.S. Census Bureau Local Employment Dynamics http://lehd.did.census.gov/led
- Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov
- National Home Builders Association http://www.nahb.org
- BigCharts.com http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com
- Business Planet http://rru.worldbank.org/businessplanet
- UNdata: A World of Information http://data.un.org
- Bank Rate Monitor www.bankrate.com
- HRGopher www.hrgopher.com (no longer active)
- U.S. Small Business Administration www.sba.gov