About this episode

The episode features a conversation about research impact and librarianship with Rachel Miles from Virginia Tech University Libraries.

Today's episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Rachel Miles , Research Impact Coordinator, Virginia Tech University Libraries. Rachel is "an expert in the applications and impacts of research in academia and the public sphere: how it's communicated, what makes it most visible to different audiences and why, what makes it "impactful" and how this impact is tracked, as well as how academics perceive impact when they publish, go up for promotion and tenure, and how they view it from a philosophical perspective throughout the different stages of their careers." She is also a strong supporter of open access. In this conversation, Rachel talks with Michael about how her first degree was in psychology, but she became interested in librarianship while teaching English in South Korea. She wanted to help people with their research more directly. She didn't yet know how, but she wanted to be the service point where people could really get the insight that they need to understand the literature. Her interest in metrics began during her last semester in grad school while she was a graduate administrative assistant doing survey research…

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