AACSB Accreditation Documentation

Prepared for the AACSB Self-Study
IN.1 Instructional Resources and Responsibilities
Library Resources and Services

March 22, 2002

Overview

The Angelo Bruno Business Library is a department of the University Libraries of the University of Alabama. Its mission is to serve the teaching and research needs of the students and faculty of the Culverhouse College of Commerce & Business Administration (C&BA) and the Manderson School of Business and to serve the business information-related needs of other areas of the University and the greater community. The University Libraries holds memberships in the Association of Research Libraries, SOLINET, the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries, the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries, and other consortia.

The Bruno Library is housed in a 64,000 square foot facility conveniently located in the C&BA complex. The building, which opened in 1994, also houses the Bashinsky Computer Center, creating a seamless business information center. Special features of the library facility include a library instruction classroom equipped with student workstations and a multimedia instructor station, a variety of seating for up to 700 users, and six group study rooms. The building is a fully networked environment.

Coordination between C&BA and the library

Responsiveness to the College is a priority for the Bruno Library. The library operates a dedicated network separate from the University Libraries' network in order to take full advantage of the benefits of working with the technology support team in the College. The Bruno Library Web site (http://www.cba.ua.edu/bruno) is housed on the C&BA Web server, and the library personnel use the College's email system to maintain close contact with faculty, staff and students. The librarian responsible for network support interacts regularly with the C&BA technology team. The business librarians participate in C&BA faculty activities, e.g., attending C&BA faculty meetings and research seminars. A library committee composed of a representative from each C&BA department is appointed annually and meets with the head librarian as needed. The librarians communicate with C&BA faculty and students on a regular basis through widely distributed email announcements, in addition to extensive personal contacts. Librarians offer to work closely with faculty to craft specialized library assignments. The business librarians routinely serve as presenters at C&BA-sponsored programs, such as Small Business Development Center workshops and Business Reporters Seminars. Each year the business library conducts a collections review project to make sure resources are allocated to the highest priority needs and changing needs of the college.

Funding and holdings

The Bruno Library's collections budget is part of the overall collections budget of the University Libraries and typically constitutes about 10% of the whole. Library expenditures for 2000/2001 were $63,010 for books, $303,322 for serials (annual print reference sources, looseleaf services, periodicals, etc.), and $97,455 for electronic databases. Including miscellaneous purchases of other materials, the 2000/2001 collections budget totaled $475,972. Business students and researchers benefit also from databases and materials funded through allocations of related disciplines and through consortium licensing.

C&BA continuously complements regular library funding with financial support from their regular budget lines, e.g., the college funds the premier Bloomberg Financial Markets and News service located in the library for convenient student and faculty access. The Bruno Library enjoys several small endowments for materials, as well as a significant endowment which can be used generally to enhance reference and research services. Many of these endowments were created through the successful efforts of the C&BA dean's office and development office. As of June 30, 2001, the Bruno Library held 181,151 books and received 1,268 serials on an ongoing basis. About 144 electronic journals in the field of business are available, as well as approximately 40 bibliographic, full-text, financial, and numerical databases. Selected important business database services available through the Bruno Library include: ABI/INFORM (Global, Trade & Industry, and Dateline), Bloomberg, Business Source Elite, CCH Internet Tax Research NetWork, Dow Jones Interactive, EconLit, Financial Accounting Research System, FIS Online, Health Source, Investext, JSTOR, Lexis-Nexis, Reuters Business Insight, STAT-USA, USA Trade Online, World Development Indicators, and World Markets Online.

Operations, staffing, and usage

The Bruno Library is open almost 100 hours per week, with a reference librarian available to provide service for about half of those hours. The library also offers an email reference service, with a typical turnaround time of one business day. About 6,800 reference transactions were handled in 2000/2001. During that time, the librarians offered presentations on library use to 39 classes and over a thousand students. The business library circulated over 7,000 items in 2000/2001, plus a circulation of over 14,000 for class reserve items. The number of library visitors for 2000/2001 was 316,676.

The Bruno Library is staffed by four professional librarians and five support staff. The library also employs 8.0 FTE student assistants to assist with routine operations.

Remote access

One of the directions the Bruno Library is currently moving is the provision of information resources and services to users who are not physically present in the library. Remote access benefits all business students and faculty and is especially important for students in the Executive MBA program and distance education initiatives. Whenever possible, database licenses are negotiated to allow off-site use. The Bruno Library Web site (http://www.cba.ua.edu/bruno) has also been designed to provide access not only to information about the library but also useful sources of business information that can be accessed remotely. In addition to remote databases, the Web site offers suggestions about free Web sites in major business subject areas. The Ask-a-Librarian service allows off-site users to email their reference questions to a librarian. The business librarians will continue to develop this particular aspect of the Web site.

Document delivery

The Bruno Library participates in interlibrary loan through the Interlibrary Loan department of the University Libraries. The Bruno Library also offers a special document delivery service originally funded by the C&BA Dean's Office. For C&BA faculty and Ph.D. students who need faster service than that offered by normal interlibrary loan, the Bruno Library will order a copy of an article to be faxed from the ingenta document delivery service. The article is usually received within 24 hours of ordering and is then delivered to the faculty member's or student's department office.

Conclusion

The Bruno Library enjoys an uncommonly high degree of cooperation, coordination, and integration with its primary clientele, the students and faculty of the Culverhouse College of Commerce & Business Administration and the Manderson Graduate School of Business. In all relevant matters of business information resources and services, the business librarians and C&BA administrators and faculty mutually foster a close working partnership to the benefit of C&BA students and researchers at every level.