Stacy Brody

While librarians held essential roles in disaster response prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global spread and the novelty of the pathogen engaged more information professionals in response than ever before. Librarians leveraged their ability to navigate information resources to support decision-makers, healthcare providers, and frontline responders faced with the challenges of efficiently locating, interpreting, and applying limited and low-quality evidence. Librarians are critical partners in ensuring information can be found by end-users and in creating curated collections of evidence for decision-makers and healthcare providers.

Along with librarians and information professionals around the world, Stacy and Sara have watched the evolution of information resources and the transforming information response. Globally, librarians continue to support decision-makers directly by conducting searches and creating repositories of the best evidence. Taking advantage of its unique position, the LRC supports the information infrastructure used by these librarians and develops guidance and evidence unique to conducting searches in emergency situations.

During this presentation, Stacy and Sara will describe the founding and evolution of the Librarian Reserve Corps, as well as the various projects the LRC supports and leads. They will identify unique roles for librarians in response, locally and globally, and discuss opportunities for future efforts.