BRASS Business Guides: Business Reference Essentials: Professional Associations

Professional Associations for Business Librarians

Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS)
BRASS is a section of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).
Special Libraries Association (SLA)
SLA is organized into divisions representing subject interests, fields, or types of information-handling techniques. Business & Finance Division includes sections for Advertising & Marketing, Corporate Information Centers, College and University Business Librarians, Financial Services. Other divisions of interest to business librarians are Competitive Intelligence, Insurance & Employee Benefits, Knowledge Management, Solo Librarians and more.
Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP)
An organization for information industry entrepreneurs from 20+ countries.
Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)
A global nonprofit membership organization for everyone involved in creating and managing business knowledge, and, specifically, the legal and ethical collection and analysis of information regarding the capabilities, vulnerabilities, and intentions of business competitors.

Conferences for Business Librarians

Organizations listed above hold annual conferences, regional meetings, and other events throughout the year, which provide invaluable opportunities for networking and professional development. State associations may also offer programs of interest to business librarians.

In addition, explore conferences not for librarians, but for professionals working in the field. See Tomaszewski, R., and MacDonald, K. (2009) Identifying subject-specific conferences as professional development opportunities for academic librarian. The Journal of Academic Librianship, 35(6), 583-590.

Other notable events for business librarians:

Information Today Conferences
Conferences include the Internet Librarian, Computers in Libraries, and more.

Regional Associations

There should be plenty of opportunities to contribute to the association on either a national or a regional level. The following are regional sections of national associations which may offer more cost-effective workshops and conferences if securing funding for big national conferences is an issue. Business programming may be limited, so you may have to look for relevant workshops amongst more general options.