Greetings, my name is Talisha and I'm a Document Control Librarian at the Air Force Civil Engineering Technical Information Center. This is my second time attending the RDAP Summit as my first time was back in 2023 when I was a library student. I wanted to attend again as librarian and compare my experiences and also see what more I can learn now that I'm an information professional.
This year's summit was impactful. I thought the theme Evolutions in Data Services: Forging Resiliency was important not only due to exploring concepts such as "technical, human, and organizational durability and flexibility" but also due to the current times that we're in. With a hostile administration, rapid disinformation, attacks on libraries and other institutions and book banning, it's essential that information professionals are equipped to face these challenges and changes in research and data service needs.
Though work was busy—mostly due to a potential government shutdown—I was able to attend the Summit all four days. On Monday I attended the workshop "Job Crafting with Purpose: Elevating Wellbeing In Research Data Services." This workshop helped me take a new look at my job and how I view it. The workshop had a workbook which featured exercises that attendees worked on in small groups. These exercises helped me think more about what my duties are and how I view them. I learned that work engagement is a positive work outcome. I also learned that flourishing is the opposite of burnout. A term that I hadn't heard before the workshop is job crafting which is the "proactive process of reshaping your work to create more meaning, fulfillment, and alignment with your strengths and values" which I hope to learn more about.
Tuesday started off with an excellent keynote session that informed me more on what role I as an informational professional can play in maintaining public interest during these tumultuous times. For the remainder of the day I attended the sessions Institutional Policies and Resilience ["The Tenuous Juggle: Navigating Research Needs, Policies, and Institutional Challenges"; "The repository of last resort? Exploring the relevance of institutional data repositories"; "Locating Restricted Data Repositories – Access via Data Use Agreements"; "Unwilling, Unable, Unsafe: Policy to Meet Unusual Sharing Requests"] and Enhancing Repository Practices ["Cultivating a resilient research data stewardship community through sustained dialog"; "Lessons Learned: Looking back on 10 Years of DMP Feedback"; "Domain Repository Not Available: Developing Guidance for Researchers Using Generalist Repositories"; "Automation Through Collaboration: Building Trust Across Teams"] which were informative. Throughout the week I attended sessions that were both informative and fascinating and provided and equipped me with information that I'll use to enhance my skills and assist customers. Thursday's closing keynote [Casey Fiesler’s "When Data Is People: Ethics, Privacy, and Ownership for Research and AI Uses of Public Data"] was also excellent.
Overall I enjoyed this summit and this fulfilled my wish from my 2023 blog post to attend again. I want to continue to be a member of RDAP and attend future summits. I'm grateful to the association for granting me a scholarship and I firmly believe that RDAP is an essential organization that provides resources and insightful discussion for librarians and other information professionals.
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