BRASS Notes
by
Elizabeth Malafi, Editor
From the BRASS Chair
BRASS community,
Can you believe ALA Annual was just two months ago?! It’s been a whirlwind. Thank you all for your work on behalf of our organization. ALA Annual 2019 was a great success. Jennifer Boettcher talked the data of DC and we all learned about the guardians of the financial galaxy. We saw old friends and made new ones.
In BRASS library land we’ve been hard at work. We’re working on some great programming for ALA Annual 2020 in Chicago, as well as engaging BRASS discussions throughout the year. In addition, we’ve been doing some excellent work thinking through our identity as an organization, both at the RUSA level as well as at the BRASS level. You can see the work of the previous Future of BRASS task force on ALA Connect.
Thank you again to everyone for your hard work. This is going to be a great year, dare I say the best BRASS year ever?!
Ilana Stonebraker,
BRASS Chair 2019-2020
BRASS Committee Reports
Business Reference in Public Libraries Committee
At ALA annual in D.C. co-chairs had a chance to meet BRASS leadership and new committee members face to face to share ideas and see how other committees are run.
We are continuing our efforts to solicit articles from Business Librarians around the country. We have created a form for potential writers to fill out and submit articles directly. We continue to move forward with plans to overhaul the Public Briefcase via a LibGuides platform.
New membership on the committee for the coming year is exciting. Committee member engagement has brought up ideas surrounding general membership surveying & large group evaluation. We’re seeking feedback from members (and former members) on their interests and needs surrounding this committee. We hope that efforts to schedule calls in advance will encourage more committee participation and input.
Ashley Johnson and Patricia Smolin, Co-Chairs
Business Reference Services Discussion Group
The discussion group hosted a successful in-person discussion at ALA in Washington D.C. this summer. Mintel sponsored a nice breakfast for the discussion group. To see what was discussed please look for the notes on the BRASS ALA Connect website. All notes from the past virtual discussions are posted there, too. Kara Van Abel is the incoming chair and will be coordinating future discussion groups.
Halley Todd, Chair 2018-2019
Program Planning Committee
The BRASS Program Planning Committee successfully facilitated a program exploring open source and government data at the ALA Annual Conference 2019 in Washington, D.C. The program, “The Data of D.C.: Open Sources for Business Research” included presentations by Jennifer Boettcher of Georgetown University and Andrew W. Hait of the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as time for an enthusiastic collection of questions from the audience. Reviews for the program were overwhelmingly positive, though several respondents emphasized that ideally future programs could involve more meaningful audience participation beyond Q&A.
Ash Faulkner, Chair 2018-2019