Business & Finance Division announces Center of Excellence Award winners - Chapter & Division News

Information Outlook, August, 2002

The Business & Finance Division announced the winners of its first annual "Center of Excellence" Awards at this year's annual SLA conference in Los Angeles. The awards take their inspiration from the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards, which are given annually to U.S. organizations to recognize and promote quality as a critical component of innovation and competitiveness. The Center of Excellence Awards recognize customer-driven quality and leadership within the framework of an organization dedicated to the gathering, analysis and dissemination of information within the business community. The awards serve to recognize the best of "best practices" in three categories: service, management and technology.

The Center of Excellence Award for Technology went to the Business Research Group (BRG) in the Center for Business Knowledge of Ernst & Young LLP, North America. The BRG of Ernst & Young LLP, North America, has a staff of 65 and is located in 15 offices serving the U.S. and Canada. Judges felt this group had harnessed technology particularly well in providing excellent reference service (the goal of the BRG is to recognize all requests within 30 minutes of initial contact). The BRG is one-third of the company's information service and is joined by the Business Strategic Analysis Group and the Competitive Analysis Group.

The Center of Excellence Award for Service was presented to the Lippincott Library at the Wharton School, one of 15 libraries at the University of Pennsylvania. The library's client base is comprised of 4,860 faculty and students. The student body consists of MBA students, undergraduates and Ph.D. candidates. The judges felt Lippincott excelled in its area of service to clients. The staff is dedicated to students and faculty and makes every effort to deliver information in whatever format is convenient for the client, as well as in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

The Center of Excellence Award for Management was not awarded this year.

The Business & Finance Division also gave special recognition to the following libraries for their ability to continue fulfilling their essential information roles after 9/11: Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and the Pentagon Library.