Attending the virtual Southeast Data Library Symposium

Posted by kimberlycarlo on December 1st, 2025 Posted in: Blog, Data, Scholarly Communication

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I had the opportunity to attend the Southeast Data Library Symposium (SEDLS) this past October. This three-day event was full of valuable information for data librarians and those interested in entering the field. The symposium was held completely online and free to attend.

The event had numerous presentations on how to use artificial intelligence (AI) in data librarianship, as well as experiences shared on creating data visualization programs. Attendees also had the opportunity to learn about the potential partnerships between medical and data librarians. It was shared that these partnerships can assist those seeking health information to rely less on unverified sources. Viewers learned how these two kinds of librarians can work together to put together public programs to get the public to understand clinical data and support health equity. There was also a Python workshop where attendees could learn about the widely used coding program. This was a space for those who were interested in learning how to make sense of large bibliometric datasets, even those without any Python experience.

A few presenters discussed approaches to building a data services plan from the ground up, including how to navigate this as a “solo librarian”. Because this is still an emerging field, data librarians can find themselves creating these kinds of plans from scratch and being the only ones providing these services at their institutions. As the field is emerging, data librarians should continue to share what does and does not work when putting these services together. This allows us not only to learn from each other’s mistakes but to know that other data librarians are experiencing similar situations when we are creating something completely new at our institution.

Two of the presentations were done by interns from the summer of 2025 National Center for Data Services Data Internship. One presentation shared insight on how information professionals can make a repository more accessible, reusable, and open. One point made in this presentation was the importance of digging deeply into the repository’s licenses. This is an item of librarianship that most people do not learn about when in library school. The other presentation showcased how they examined free-text fields from a social science data archive and shared recommendations on how to improve the quality of metadata and the interface of the depositor. Making and sharing these critiques is important because this will allow data professionals to think critically about the work we put out. The past interns shared the great impact of the training they received in this internship. These kinds of presentations are important for those who are new to the field of data librarianship, so attendees can see what it is like to begin working in this field as a newcomer.

There were many meaningful conversations held at this symposium, and a lot of the content was practical for data librarians from all kinds of institutions. If you are interested in learning more about the presentations at this year’s SEDLS, you can find that information here.