“Mastering Business Acumen (MBA) in a Day,” a preconference at ALA’s 2009 Annual Conference will arm a wide variety of librarians with the know-how needed to address patrons’ basic business questions.

Public, academic and special librarians as well as library school students new to business reference can reap the rewards of this professional development event hosted by the Business Reference and Services Section (BRASS). Experts representing a variety of fundamental business disciplines will share their knowledge with attendees and prepare them to support business-related reference services. Attendees will also participate in small group networking lunches at nearby restaurants organized by BRASS member ambassadors.

The program complements the consistently sold-out “Business Reference 101”, a RUSA online course next scheduled for May 4-May 29.

Speakers for the preconference include Elisabeth Leonard, consultant, Library Solutions, and instructor for RUSA’s Marketing Basics for Libraries online course (Management); Chris LeBeau, business reference librarian, University of Missouri, Kansas City and clinical instructor, School of Information Science and Learning Technologies (Finance); Susan Klopper, executive director, Goizueta Business Library, Emory University (Accounting); and Gary White, head, Schreyer Business Library, Penn State (Marketing).

The preconference will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, July 10, in Chicago. Advance registration rates, available until May 22, are $135 for RUSA members, $180 for ALA members, $255 for non-members and $80 for students and retirees. Lunch is not included in the registration fee.

Ready to register? Check out our post on how to register for Annual Conference. If you want to add this event to your conference registration, you can do so through Step 6 – Your Events of the online form.

To register for the preconference only, use the printed registration form and mail or fax it in per the instructions on the form.