IASSIST 2026: My First IASSIST Conference

Posted by kimberlycarlo on July 6th, 2026 Posted in: Blog

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From June 2^nd to June 5^th, 2026, I attended the IASSIST (International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology) conference. The theme was “Championing Data: Information Professionals at the Nexus”. This year’s conference was held virtually, allowing data professionals around the world to attend more easily.

The program schedule was packed with speakers, collaborative sessions, casual hangouts, and breakout rooms throughout the week. Personally, I thought there was a wide range of learning opportunities for data professionals at any stage of their careers. Hearing from speakers inside and outside the United States was very insightful. Learning how other institutions approach their data work can inspire you to try something new at work, which can benefit workflows, instruction, and scholarly output for librarians.

 

One of my favorite sessions was the “Fireside Chat” on Data-Related Careers. This was led by Amy O’Hara and Beth Jarosz from Georgetown University. We discussed the many skills needed as a “data person” in today’s job market. Some of the topics included AI use in our work, how to keep up with emerging trends in our career path, and job advice for those new to the data world. Having constant curiosity and a strong network of data professionals was some advice brought up throughout the conference, and this was a point mentioned when keeping up with trends in our work. Storytelling is a key point in working with data. We want to make sure we can properly tell a story with the data we are working with at the end of the day.

 

Many people are curious about AI and its place in our work. Aaron Pahl (University of Alabama at Birmingham) hosted a session called “Augmenting Archival Data: Using AI to Enhance Discovery and Access Through Automated Data”. Discussed was the application of generative AI and named “entity recognition (NER) models to enhance data discovery and access within digitized collections”.  This process can increase the amount of metadata available. The quote taken from this presentation was “more product, less process”. An example shared was to use a Python script to extract the number of pages from each item you’re archiving. This presentation shared how we can add AI in archival workflows that will also give us more metadata, while promoting the FAIR principles along the way.

 

Another one of the sessions I attended was to learn more about the Qualitative Social Sciences and Humanities Data (QSSHDIG) Interest Group. This is one of the many interest groups IASSIST has to offer. Attendees of this meeting had the opportunity to learn more about what this interest group has been working on, what the group has to offer, and to give the floor to attendees to share what would help us do our work. The QSSHDIG has been working on a special issue of IASSIST Quarterly on “Aligning Qualitative Data Services with Open Science and Access”. IASSIST Quarterly is a peer-reviewed, open access publication on social science information and data services. They have also been working on workshops on qualitative technology and approaches to analyzing data. Some of the things attendees mentioned that would help their work are datasets to use for teaching, a one-stop resource on supporting qualitative research, ways to collaborate as a qualitative researcher, and sharing open coding tools (an example of this is this resource on Open Qualitative Research with QualCoder from Library Carpentry).

 

The IASSIST Fellows Program has provided financial assistance for data professionals since 1997. The morning of the first day of the conference, fellows had our own meeting to meet each other virtually and learn more about IASSIST and how to get involved. This was a great way for those new to IASSIST to become involved and feel more comfortable before the start of the conference. I would like to thank the fellowship committee for awarding me the fellowship this year. I learned plenty during the conference that will assist my growth as an information professional. This was a full-circle moment for me since my first project in data services was on the IASSIST Jobs Repository and trends in data librarian job postings. This project was completed during the National Center for Data Services internship in 2024. I look forward to becoming more involved with IASSIST and hopefully attending future IASSIST conferences.