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Hello from the Research Caucus Chair-Elect

Rebecca Carlson, MLSa

aHealth Sciences Librarian and Liaison to the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Health
Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North
Carolina, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4380-8435 , rcarlson@unc.edu, Twitter

I want to introduce myself as the new Chair-Elect for the Research Caucus and share
my background, goals for the Caucus, and thoughts on the future of library research.
I’m currently a health sciences librarian and the liaison to the Eshelman School of
Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where I collaborate on
education, research, and evidence-based practice initiatives. I teach and advise health
sciences students on research methods and have co-authored more than 20 publications,
including reviews, original research, and commentaries. I was also a fellow of the MLA
Research Training Institute for 2021-2022.

Like many other medical librarians, I did not come into the profession with knowledge
of or experience in conducting health sciences research. Rather, I have a BA in English
and my undergraduate thesis was a work of creative nonfiction. During and after my
Master of Library Science degree I gained experience in supporting others’ research
aims as part of my role as a librarian, but did not start taking a more active
collaboration role with research projects and conducting my own research until six
years ago.

I started with projects that were already a part of my work, adding pre- and
post-assessments and user experience testing to expand existing library services, and
pursued continuing education on research methodologies. Then, over time, whenever I
could not find studies that answered questions I had or information I needed, I began
to consider these as opportunities for my own research. From there, I explored my
developing research interests and began to set research goals for myself. My current
research interests are broad and include interprofessional education outcomes, medical
librarian impact on health sciences education and research, and emerging technologies
for literature synthesis efficiency.

Each study I have conducted has challenged me and I have learned from each of them,
and am still learning. As well, I had the opportunity to participate as a fellow in the
Medical Library Association Research Training Institute (RTI) in 2021-2022.
Throughout the past year, I have learned about research from the RTI peer coaches,
research mentors, speakers, and the other fellows and worked through the research
process from beginning to end.

As I worked on my RTI research project, I realized I wanted to take what my
experiences from that community and share them with an even broader group. Over
my three-year term on the Research Caucus leadership team, I hope to see the Caucus
continue to grow as a collaborative, inclusive community for MLA members. The
Research Caucus is already a home for medical information professions who are

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4380-8435 
https://orcid.org/
mailto:rcarlson@unc.edu 
https://twitter.com/carlson_unc 


Editorial Reviewed Article Hypothesis , Vol. 34, No. 1, 2022

engaged in learning about, conducting, and teaching research, and I plan to continue to
expand opportunities for continuing education and networking opportunities for
researchers at all levels of experience.

My goal is to build on the work of past and current Caucus leaders as we strive to
make it the hub for health sciences information professionals interested in or working
on research to support, challenge, and learn from and with each other. The Research
Caucus already offers a supportive, informal setting to share research ideas and findings
through the Reports from the Field forums and I plan to add other times for
discussion, mentoring, and collaboration. I would like to encourage early-career
librarians and anyone not currently engaged in research collaboration or research
leadership to join the Research Caucus, ask questions, explore opportunities, and think
about the questions you face in your life and work that you could help answer. You do
not need to be an expert in research methods and analyses to join or start a research
project. It is never to early or late to grow your research skills, and you can learn from
and share any results—successes or failures.

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