BRASS Notes
by
Elizabeth Malafi, Editor
BRASS Committee Reports
Business Reference in Public Libraries
There are eight active members on the committee, and it has met on three Zoom calls since last fall. Committee members joined to review past content on the Public Briefcase, and completed a share project to note brief summaries, and highlight topic/tags for each article. Co-chairs anticipated using this data when refreshing content and planning a site redesign in LibGuides. There have been no additional articles submitted since 3Q 2018.
The co-chairs are concerned about the lack of attendance and participation on these calls, attribute this trend to demanding work schedules of committee members. Both co-chairs are attending ALA in June 2019 and are interested to hear from other committees how they’ve been able to sustain membership interest, as well as learn what the future holds for RUSA.
Ashley Johnson and Patricia Smolin, Co-Chairs
Business Reference Sources Committee
The Business Reference Sources Committee is hosting the next online Publishers’ Forum on Friday, May 31 from 2:00 – 3:00 PM EST (11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST). The theme of the Forum is on data visualization resources and representatives from SimplyAnalytics and Data Planet (Sage Publishing) are presenting. More information and a link to the meeting has been posted to BRASS-L and ALA Connect.
The Committee is meeting at ALA Annual to review the Outstanding Business Reference Sources nominations and select the winners. Afterwards, reviews of each titles will be written and included in the Winter issue of Reference & User Services Quarterly.
Felipe Anaya, Chair
Conference Program Planning Committee
The BRASS Conference Program Planning Committee has been hard at work developing the BRASS Program for the 2019 ALA Annual Conference. Our program, “The Data of D.C.: Open Sources for Business Research” will be held on Sunday, June 23, 2019 from 4:00 – 5:30pm in the Washington Convention Center, room 145B. Our interactive panel will include Jennifer Boettcher, Business Reference Librarian at Georgetown University Library, and Andrew W. Hait, an economist with the U.S. Census Bureau. They will first discuss open data broadly, including major government publishers of social science data, open data portals, and potential problems with open data, before diving into Census Bureau data products in more depth, including the Census Business Builder tool, the new Census Bureau data exploration platform, and the role of APIs in accessing data. More information can be found via the Scheduler: https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/ALA-Annual/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=496346.
Ash Faulkner, Chair
Discussion Group
The Discussion Group held three virtual discussions this spring. Notes from the discussions will be shared with BRASS members on our BRASS ALA Connect site. There will also be an in-person discussion during ALA Annual in Washington D.C. to which we invite all BRASS members. The in-person discussion will be held on Sunday June 23, 2019 from 8:30am to 10:00am at the Washington Convention Center, room 207A. We look forward to seeing everyone at ALA!
Halley Todd, Chair
Education Committee
The committee coordinated another successful preconference this year, “Guardians of the (Financial) Galaxy: How Financial Regulators Generate Free Data, Tools, and Information Along the Way.” Committee members continued the curation of the popular BRASS Business Guides and have updated the increase access for users to BRASS and RUSA websites and publications. The committee voted on and awarded three resources for the Best of the Best Business Websites in the category of Travel and Hospitality. Look for more information in RUSQ reviews.
Robbi De Peri and LuMarie Guth, Co-Chairs
Excellence in Business Librarianship Award Committee
Todd Hines is the 2019 award winner!
Chris LeBeau, Chair
Membership Committee
The committee communicated via email in 2018 and has met monthly via Zoom video conferencing in 2019. The following are the completed and in-process activities of the Membership Committee:
- September 2018 – Completion of BRASS New Chairs Orientation
- November 2018 – completion of updates to the Membership Committee section in the Handbook
- April 2019 – completed engagement survey on what people value with their membership and completed membership drop-list poll
- May 2019 – Planning membership reception at ALA Annual in Washington DC.
Lori Lysiak, Co-Chair