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Ms. Schubert is the Health Sciences & Nursing Librarian at James Madison University

IGI Global Speaks with Librarian Carolyn Schubert, Winner of the Academic Librarian Sponsorship Award

By IGI Global on Nov 26, 2014

At the 2014 Annual Charleston Conference, we had the opportunity to meet with IGI Global's Academic Librarian Sponsorship recipient, Carolyn Schubert, Health Sciences & Nursing Librarian at James Madison University. Here we reached out to her to get some feedback on the conference, as well as some insight on the position of librarians today.

IGI Global: In your experience as a librarian, what are some of the most dramatic changes that have taken place in libraries?

Embedded librarianship, scholarly communication, and data management are the three biggest trends I see changing the field of librarianship at this time. Going beyond the traditional, one-shot classroom experience involves more time but also provides greater insight into the ways students articulate information needs and evaluate resources in context. The increasing access to digital publishing platforms and tools is changing the world of scholarly communication. Vetting reputable publication venues and navigating the funding challenges present in open access scholarship are just a couple of examples. Given my subject area, data management is becoming increasingly important, too. Students are looking to create their own datasets or reuse secondary data; faculty are required by grants to have a plan for managing and sharing research data. Given my training in information technology, these new opportunities to utilize those skills are transforming the ways I interact with faculty, students, and vendors.

Are you finding you are acquiring more on an individual title basis or are you more geared towards bundles / collections?

Currently, as a newer librarian, I still tend to focus on the individual title collecting instead of the larger bundled collecting. The individual title review and analysis allows me to learn about the field and trends among publishers. Over time, I imagine I would shift my collecting to more bundled models.

What can academic librarians do to better prepare for what is most likely an uncertain future?

Learning how to evaluate and, more importantly, assess collections is the best way to prepare for the uncertain future. Making data-driven decisions about collections acquisitions or cuts can help better support patron-centered collections. The general public is becoming more accustomed to outcomes-related reporting on usage so finding ways to demonstrate value can help secure and quantify our relevance to patron needs.

Your library has owned a variety of IGI Global content throughout the past few years. What qualities do you find most useful and valuable about IGI Global e-Resources and products?

IGI has been a valuable resource for reputable reference resources across fields like business, information science, and medicine. Also, I appreciate its design for practical usage in my research workflow. Downloadable chapters facilitate access when I am disconnected from campus. Embedded citation links to major systems, like RefWorks, and popular systems, like EasyBib, make it easy to stay organized and connect my readings to my final products. Finally, products like the Teaching Cases are great ways to translate and support active and applied learning.

In your submission for our Academic Librarian Sponsorship Program, you mentioned the important role that conferences such as this play in granting opportunities for librarians and publishers to interact. Are there any ways publishers can better cater to the specific needs of academic libraries? How can we make your job easier?

The peer-level conversations that occurred at the Charleston Conference will be beneficial throughout the year. As the needs of academic libraries are shifting and changing, collaboration is key. Librarians are seeing more how information is gathered and used by students and faculty in a more qualitative way than the traditional quantitative download usage numbers gathered by vendors. Bringing both of these types of data together can better triangulate actual user behavior and provide insight into future needs.

This is your first opportunity attending the Charleston Conference. How has your experience impacted you as a librarian thus far?

The Charleston Conference was my first opportunity to attend a collections-focused conference and one that had vendors directly integrated into the experience. I found the joint sessions with vendors and librarians very insightful. For example, I attended a session about university presses and their economic models. The variety of panelists provided a great overview of how demand driven acquisition impacts the publishers. We are all struggling with these new economic and publishing models. Overall, the conference helped underscore the collaborative relationship and dialogue that needs to occur among publishers, vendors, and librarians, as well all struggle with the challenging economics of publishing and scholarship today.

Has your award stipend proved useful for your travels? What was your favorite part of the conference?

The award was helpful in supporting coverage of my travel expenses, particularly the hotel costs. Without the award, staying in downtown Charleston would have been difficult. Because of the ability to stay downtown, I was better able to network with colleagues at the poster sessions, receptions, and Aquarium event. My favorite parts of the conference were some of the keynote presentations, as they differed in format from others I have seen at other conferences. A lively debate was a great way to engage the audience in a conversation about patron-shaped collections, more so than a traditional presentation. The faculty panel was also helpful to help bring the actual patron needs (and perhaps some of our blind spots) to the librarian and vendor audience, such as the need for reciprocal facility agreements.

Thank you, Ms. Schubert, for taking the time to discuss your librarianship and conference experience! Best of luck in your future endeavors and we hope to see you at Charleston 2015 next year.

Carolyn Schubert is the Health Sciences and Nursing Librarian at James Madison University. Her research interests include biomedical informatics, information literacy in undergraduate curriculum, and scholarly communication. Current projects include evaluation of student publishing platforms and effective technology integration into Nursing curriculum. She completed her Masters of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and her Bachelors in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Irvine.

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