Business Information Center

Gilbert and Ruth Whitaker
Business Information Center

The Business Information Center (BIC) occupies beautiful quarters in Janice and Robert McNair Hall. Since its inception in 1984, the BIC has functioned as a unique entity in Rice University's library service, with Fondren Library and the Jones Graduate School of Management collaborating on its operation. The Business Information Center serves as a business research library not only for the business school, but also for the greater Rice community and the general public. Currently 5,000 volumes in various formats, as well as a variety of electronic databases and services, are housed there.

Features

Designed by noted architect Robert A. M. Stern, the Business Information Center provides about three times the space of the previous library in Herring Hall. The library occupies portions of the second and third floors on the southeast side of McNair Hall. It includes a room for reference materials and journals, a separate room for the circulating collection, and a large reading room overlooking Jamail Plaza and the James A. Baker, III Institute for Public Policy. Also provided are several group study rooms and carrels and two online resource rooms, including one with restricted card access for the Rice community only. Available seating has doubled, and the number of computers has nearly tripled.

Although features from several architectural styles are used, the design of the library is heavily influenced by the late nineteenth-century arts and crafts movement. Elements of this movement are evident in many of the furnishingsparticularly the enormous glass and metal light fixtures illuminating the reading room. During the lengthy planning stages of the Jones School building project there evolved not only a comfortable and spacious study environment, but also ample growth space to meet the demands of the school.

Holdings and Operation

The Business Information Center contains a wide variety of resources relevant to the business community, including materials in accounting, finance, management, marketing, and strategic planning. One collection of note is the Jennet Collection, a non-circulating collection on project management donated by Eric Jennet. This collection is further supplemented by funds from the Houston Chapter of the Project Management Institute.

While the Business Information Center functions as a separate unit from Fondren Library, new materials are processed in Fondren and BIC's holdings are included in Fondren's online catalog. Fondren also houses older issues of business journals.

The Business Information Center is staffed by Business Librarian Peggy Shaw, Senior Library Associate Bill Coxsey, and Library Associate Denell Wiseman, as well as several student assistants. The BIC's summer hours are: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; closed on weekends.

Circulation privileges for staff, undergraduates, and faculty are the same as for Fondren Library. However, graduate students, who make up the bulk of the users, have a loan period of twenty-eight days for most materials, due to the high use of many items.

BIC Contacts:

BIC Phone:
713-348-6062

Peggy Shaw
Business Librarian
Email: pshaw@rice.edu
2005 Fondren Library Shapiro Award Winner

Bill Coxsey
Senior Library Associate
Email: billpc@rice.edu

Denell Wiseman
Library Associate
Email: wiseman@rice.edu

Helpful Links:

Fondren Library

WebCat

Excerpts by: David M. Bynog, assistant acquisitions librarian, Rice University. Reprinted by permission from News from Fondren, vol. 12, no. 1, fall 2002.