How Librarians Are Helping to Build the Connected, Global Scholarly Community: The Evolution of ScholComm

The Authority File

In this four-episode series, we’re joined by Barbie Keiser, information resources management (IRM) consultant and Reference and Instruction Librarian at Northern Virginia Community College. Barbie highlights broader market forces at play in scholarly communication, including the transformations made by platform vendors, academic publishers, and educational technology companies to support researchers and stay relevant in a rapidly shifting environment. In addition, she discusses library impacts, underscoring “new territory” opportunities libraries can take advantage of, such as aligning verbiage with the administration’s values and investing in both long-term projects and short-term wins. Finally, Barbie looks ahead to new horizons like open access and artificial intelligence. She spotlights several innovative (and useful!) AI tools that can benefit librarians and faculty in everyday tasks.

In this first episode, Barbie explains how ScholComm has evolved over the course of her career, offering insights into the effects of social media, increased teamwork, and the COVID-19 pandemic on library services. Further, she speaks to a key strength of librarianship—being quick to recognize and adapt to change—and why the academic community can fail to acknowledge this strategic asset.

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