BRASS Notes
by
Elizabeth Malafi, Editor
Greetings, fellow BRASS members!
As we embark on the 31st year of BRASS, I am honored to serve as Chair, with my term ending after 2019 ALA Annual in Washington D.C. I wanted to thank Greg Fleming, Past Chair, and members of the BRASS Executive Board and committees for your service. Also, a huge thanks to those of you who volunteered this year! I look forward to working with everyone. This year will be of utmost importance for BRASS. As you may know, RUSA, and ALA as a whole, are in the process of major changes, driven by declining membership and revenues.
Examples of these changes include:
- Restructuring of the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans that resulted in reductions
to the regular slate of BRASS events - New guidelines and deadlines for conference programming submissions
- Shifting focus to online programming and training
- Implementation of a new platform for ALA Connect
- RUSA staff turnover: on one hand, we have two new hires, Jessica Hughes, ASCLA / RUSA Executive Director, and Nina Moore, ASCLA / RUSA Training and Events
Coordinator; on the other hand, we lost Leighann Wood, a long-term RUSA employee
who many of us worked with on BRASS programming and awards.
There is no more business as usual. This disruption is giving us an opportunity to examine what we do and how we do it. Working together, we will chart the course to adapt to the new organizational realities and ensure that BRASS continues to thrive and stay relevant to its
members.
Please make sure to follow BRASS-L to stay current on BRASS activities during the year. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about BRASS.
Natasha Arguello, BRASS Chair 2018-2019
Natasha.Arguello@utsa.edu
BRASS COMMITTEE REPORTS
Business Reference Sources Committee
The Business Reference Sources Committee met at ALA Annual in New Orleans to discuss and select reference sources to include in the Outstanding Business Reference Sources column. Reviews are currently being written by committee members and the column will appear in the Winter, 2018 issue of Reference and User Services Quarterly. Since the Publishers Forum was not selected to be a part of the ALA Annual schedule, the committee is planning to host two virtual forums. The theme of the first forum centers around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics and will be held in November. More details, including the publisher and dates, will be provided later this fall.
Felipe Anaya, Chair 2018-2019
Business Reference Services Discussion Group
The Business Reference Services Discussion Group hosted an open forum at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans on June 25th and over 88 BRASS members were in attendance. We discussed various database issues, working with entrepreneurs, and other items. Thank you to all the committee members this past year for hosting the virtual discussions and taking notes for BRASS members. Special thanks to outgoing chair, Lisa Martin for all her work. Incoming chair, Halley Todd, will be coordinating and facilitating three virtual discussions this coming fall and winter. All BRASS members are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please feel free to bring any topic to our friendly and open discussion!
Halley Todd, Chair 2018-2019
Programming Committee
The BRASS Programming Committee has been working on a proposal for the 2019 American Library Association Annual Conference. Potential panelists have been secured and a program proposal has been developed, tentatively titled “The Data of D.C.: Open Sources for Business Research”. The program proposal is currently being reviewed by the Government Documents Round Table for possible co-sponsorship. The proposal will be submitted by the end of August.
Ash Faulkner, Chair 2018-2019
Public Librarian Support Award Supported by Morningstar Committee
The Public Librarian Support Award committee will begin their work in September and hope to receive applications by the end of December 2018.
Elizabeth Malafi, Chair 2018-2019