CFP: BRASS Online Symposium Spring 2026 (Business Librarianship)

The Business Reference in Academic Libraries Committee of BRASS seeks proposals for engaging presentations to be part of an online symposium via Zoom on Wednesday, April 29 and Thursday, April 30. Potential presenters, mark your calendars for a tech check on Thursday, April 23. Proposals should describe a 45-minute session (30 minutes for presentation with 15 minutes for facilitated discussion and/or question-and-answer) that relates to an aspect of applied academic business librarianship.

Please share your experience with us!  We welcome interactive proposals from a broad range of perspectives that discuss and address professional change, and we encourage materials that attendees can take-away in such topics as:

• Instruction: Designing effective instruction and new teaching techniques and content
• Research: Planning and/or fulfilling research projects and grants
• Outreach: Building sustainable liaison relationships and collaborations
• Professional development: Navigating the terrain of connecting, networking, and engaging for learning and growing
• Services: Expanding service offerings as an information professional

We are especially looking for sessions relating to themes of data literacy, career research, social justice, managing resources and services in the face of budget constraints, critical librarianship applied to business librarianship, ESG resources, collection development, artificial intelligence, and business information literacy one-shots.
Proposal Components (for inspiration, check out the previous Spring 2025 and Fall 2025 symposia):
Spring 2025 (Recording Links): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dtiMZiqGk_O-cDEzDUx7q3014TvIlv6Q
Fall 2025 (Recordings): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QxaiU3LDnKJrIFQjlqyIyhZbX5HBfZm8

• Title (50 words or less): Interesting and descriptive
• Abstract (250 words or less): Summary of your presentation
• Who is the intended audience for your topic? For example, would this be most beneficial for sole business librarians, librarians at community colleges vs. large research institutions, members of a business librarian team, dedicated virtual librarians, etc.?
• Session outcomes (2-3): Describe what participants will learn during your session that they can apply at their library or in their role as a business librarian
• Does your proposed session support our efforts to create a respectful, supportive, and open community for all participants? If yes, please explain.
• Optional Program Description: If you think it would be helpful, please provide additional information about your session. For example, will your session be interactive? Will you use breakout rooms or other polling software? Anything else the committee should know?

The call for proposals will close on Friday, February 27. Please use this submission form to submit proposals:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfpvih6qbag-ckSbV2WQpiGEVSYWxhp1ji95znpCdyW9PFdtQ/viewform

Proposals may be submitted by anyone, but priority consideration will be given to proposals from BRASS members. This year, the BRASS Symposium subcommittee will also be doing a blind review of proposals in order to ensure an equitable evaluation process. Check out the BRASS webinar best practices guide for tips and tricks: https://brass.libguides.com/webinar_best_practices. Questions can be directed to Nora Mckenzie (nora.mckenzie@emory.edu<mailto:nora.mckenzie@emory.edu>) or Kelly LaVoice (kelly.lavoice@vanderbilt.edu<mailto:kelly.lavoice@vanderbilt.edu>).

Call for Panelists on Cataloging Practice - Graphic Novel and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) Metadata & Cataloging Committee (Webinar - April 2026)

The Graphic Novel and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) Metadata & Cataloging Committee seeks panelists for a webinar focused on local cataloging practices. Looking at how comics and graphic novels are cataloged in practice, it seems like every library does things differently. Why does your library do things the way that you do? 

In this webinar, we seek to bridge the gaps between specialized libraries focused on comics/graphic novels, academic libraries, and public libraries. We are seeking panelists from all types of libraries that perform cataloging work with comics and graphic novels and are involved in setting cataloging policy for their institution.

During this 1 hour webinar, each panelist will give a brief introduction to their institution’s collection and their cataloging practices. This will then be followed by a question-and-answer session. Attendees will be encouraged to submit their questions ahead of time so that panelists can prepare thoughtful responses. This event is planned to take place in April 2026. 

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Classification

• Use of subject and genre/form terms, such as LCSH, LCGFT, etc.

• How the type of comic or graphic novel impacts cataloging decisions: “floppies”, trade paperbacks, graphic novels, manga, manhwa, manhua, etc. 

• And more!

Please email a short professional bio with the subject line GNCRT cataloging webinar to Katherine Manifold (katherine.manifold@unlv.edu), the Committee Chair, and Junghae Lee (jlee70@uw.edu), the Committee Vice Chair by March 1st, 2026. The applicants will be notified of decisions by March 9th, 2026.

Your bio should include the following: name, job title, affiliated institution, and a summary of your comics and graphic novel cataloging experience not to exceed 150 words. 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Katherine Manifold (katherine.manifold@unlv.edu), the Committee Chair.