Starting from the Margins of the Field
As an early-career librarian stepping into a data services role, navigating the complex and evolving landscape of research support has often felt like learning to build the road while walking on it. When I entered my role as a data services librarian, my expertise was in quantitative analysis and working directly with data, not in librarianship. I came into the profession not through a library and information science (LIS) degree, but through a commitment to supporting researchers in managing and using data effectively. I knew I wanted to help, but I didn’t yet know the language, culture, or expectations of the LIS profession. Like many early-career professionals transitioning into library roles, I arrived with subject matter knowledge, but without a clear roadmap for translating that expertise into effective, sustainable services.
Stepping into the intersecting worlds of librarianship, research data services, and emerging technologies such as AI, I’ve found myself constantly asking: How do we prepare for what’s next, when what’s next is always evolving? This question continues to shape how I approach my work, and how I position myself in relation to the communities I serve. In a landscape that demands agility, reflection, and empathy, professional development has been central to cultivating both my skills and my identity within the field.
The opportunity to attend and participate in the Research Data Access and Preservation (RDAP) Summit (RDAP 2025), along with several other professional learning opportunities over the past year, has been one of the most formative aspects of my first year in libraries. More than just a set of workshops or panels, professional development became a scaffold: helping me situate my work in a broader context, introducing me to a community of peers and mentors, and providing models and materials that directly informed how I built services at James Madison University.
In this commentary, I explore how professional development, especially through programs like the Data Services Continuing Professional Education (DSCPE, n.d.) program and communities like RDAP, provided the grounding I needed to build services, shape values, and find belonging in a rapidly evolving field.
Professional Development as a Site of Belonging
As someone who entered librarianship laterally, professional development didn’t just provide content, it gave me an orientation to the culture and ethos of the field. I often learned about the principles and values of library work as much from webinars, conference sessions, and informal conversations as from institutional onboarding. As I began building out workshops, consultations, and resources at my institution, I leaned heavily on materials shared by others: slide decks, templates, sample guides, and real-world examples of how data services are evolving at other institutions.
This kind of growth doesn’t happen in isolation. It requires time, funding, and institutional support. I was fortunate that my institution had the resources to invest in a year-long immersion of professional development activities. But I also know that’s not universally available. Many professionals, particularly in smaller institutions or those facing budgetary constraints, do not have access to the same range of opportunities. That’s why it’s so important that professional development environments like RDAP (2025) remain accessible, welcoming, and open to practitioners at every stage of their career. This foundation, built on shared values, resources, and community, became the bedrock for my service development.
Building Services While Building Skills
In practical terms, the professional development I engaged in directly shaped the services I was able to offer. For example, participating in ACRL’s Exploring AI with Critical Information Literacy (Morris 2024) course helped me develop lecture content I could immediately integrate into my institution’s programming. Conversations with peers refined how I frame services to faculty and how I think about the intersections of data ethics, privacy, and emerging technologies.
These were not abstract benefits, they translated into real programs, consultations, and collaborations. More importantly, they provided a framework for making decisions in a still-evolving role. I came to understand that it’s okay not to have all the answers at the start. What matters is building a process: staying attuned to needs, staying connected to peers, and remaining flexible in the face of change.
Being able to present at RDAP, both the poster and the presentation, was a meaningful extension of that process. It marked a turning point where I wasn’t just learning from the community, but contributing back to it (Harmon 2025; Harmon & Moore 2025). That’s a powerful shift for any early-career professional, made possible through my engagement in these professional development opportunities. The 2025 RDAP Summit was both a milestone and a reflection point, offering a chance to give back to the same professional spaces that had helped shape me.
AI Literacy and Data Services at RDAP
My poster, Strengthening Resilience in Research Data Services: An Early-Career Perspective on Building Capacity Through Professional Development (Harmon 2025), reflected on my participation in the DSCPE program, a multi-institutional initiative designed to support early-career librarians in developing research data skills (DSCPE, n.d.). The experience was formative, not only for the technical skills I gained, but because it provided a model for how libraries can support learning through mentorship, cross-institutional dialogue, and a shared culture of experimentation.
The program wasn’t about becoming an expert overnight. Instead, it emphasized the importance of scaffolding professional growth: starting with foundational knowledge, connecting with peers, and having the freedom to explore ideas without the pressure of mastery. This slower, iterative approach felt especially important in a field where new tools, platforms, and requirements emerge constantly.
In my presentation with [co-author name hidden for review], Navigating AI’s Ethical Complexities: Building Resilience with a Library-Centered Literacy Framework (Harmon & Moore 2025), we proposed a way to approach AI ethics through an information and data literacy lens. We asked: How can libraries develop responsible, values-driven approaches to AI that support users and avoid harm? It grew out of a shared recognition that librarians are being asked to support AI use across disciplines, often without institutional guidance, and in the face of rapidly shifting technologies.
Our framework focused on helping faculty, students, and librarians develop the skills to critically assess how AI tools work, what assumptions they embed, and what values they support or undermine. We emphasized the importance of transparency, privacy, accountability, and equity, drawing from both critical AI studies and traditional library instruction principles.
This presentation was the direct product of my DSCPE capstone project, which involved curating an evolving annotated bibliography in Zotero. This resource continues to grow as the AI landscape shifts, drawing on sources such as Artificial Intelligence and Its Discontents (Hanemaayer 2022), ARL/CNI AI Scenarios: AI-Influenced Futures (ARL & CNI 2024), and The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Education (Holmes & Porayska-Pomsta 2022). Common themes included research integrity, surveillance, critical data studies, and the politics of algorithmic systems.
Our goal wasn’t to arrive at definitive answers, but to build a starting point for critical inquiry. We emphasized that AI literacy is not just about knowing what the tools do. It's about being able to ask: Who benefits from these technologies? Who is harmed? What values are embedded in the systems we adopt? We aimed to create something other libraries could adapt: a foundation for developing their own AI literacy initiatives grounded in values like transparency, justice, and reflection.
RDAP 2025 was an affirming experience. Presenting both a poster and a presentation allowed me to integrate different aspects of my work and begin to see myself not just as a service provider, but as a contributor to the field. It was also a reminder that our questions, even when they are tentative or emerging, have value. Sharing them publicly opens space for conversation and collaboration.
Resilience as a Collective Practice
The RDAP 2025 summit theme, Evolutions in Data Services: Forging Resiliency, invited topics exploring technical, human, and organizational durability and flexibility in response to changes in research and data service needs (RDAP, 2025). Resilience, in this context, encompasses the ability to adapt, grow, and support others in environments of continuous change.
Much discourse around resilience focuses on an individual’s adaptability, perseverance, and grit. But in academic librarianship, resilience is often collective. For librarians, it includes developing new literacies, nurturing professional networks, and building structures that can weather uncertainty. It is the outcome of relationships, mentorship, mutual support, and shared infrastructure. It’s not just about whether one person can manage change; it’s about whether our systems are designed to foster learning, experimentation, and even failure.
In that spirit, my reflections are less about personal achievement and more about the professional development, mentors, communities, and networks that made my growth possible. Colleagues who shared their materials, program committees that welcomed first-time presenters, and informal networks that helped me navigate challenges all contributed to my resilience.
To sustain and grow our field, we must continue building and protecting these scaffolds. That means advocating for funding to support early-career participation, developing open-access resources, and ensuring that professional development spaces remain inclusive and adaptable. Professional development is not just for advancing one’s own knowledge, it’s a way of making the entire community more resilient.
Closing Reflections
Reflecting on my first year in research data services, I’m struck by how much has been possible because of professional development, both structured and informal. It helped me move faster, with more confidence, than I could have on my own. It provided me with a foundation and connected me to others navigating similar terrain.
Looking ahead, I’m excited not only for what I might learn next, but for how I can contribute to the professional development ecosystem that supported me. Whether through future RDAP presentations, peer collaborations, or by sharing the materials that have helped me, I hope to help keep this field accessible, resilient, and responsive to the diverse paths people take into it.
For anyone else navigating a similar transition, into data services, into libraries, or into the early stages of a new role, I offer this reflection as a small assurance: you’re not alone. The path may be nonlinear, but the support structures are real. And they matter.
References
Association of Research Libraries & Coalition for Networked Information. 2024. ARL/CNI AI scenarios: AI-influenced futures. ARL and CNI. https://doi.org/10.29242/report.aiscenarios2024.
Data Services Continuing Professional Education (DSCPE). n.d. “Data services continuing professional education (DSCPE).” Retrieved August 8, 2025. https://dscpe.github.io.
Hanemaayer, Ariane. 2022. Artificial intelligence and its discontents: Critiques from the social sciences and humanities. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88615-8.
Harmon, Samantha, and Jennifer Moore. 2025. “Navigating AI's ethical complexities: Building resilience with a library-centered literacy framework.” Presentation at Research Data Access and Preservation Association (RDAP) Summit 2025, Virtual, March 12, 2025. https://osf.io/frsmk.
Harmon, Samantha. 2025. “Strengthening resilience in research data services: An early career perspective on building capacity through professional development.” Virtual poster presented at Research Data Access and Preservation Association (RDAP) Summit 2025, Virtual, March 13, 2025. https://osf.io/bmzyw.
Holmes, Wayne, and Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta. 2022. The ethics of artificial intelligence in education: Practices, challenges, and debates (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429329067.
Morris, Sarah. 2024. Exploring AI with critical information literacy [Online course]. Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association. https://acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/exploring-ai-with-critical-information-literacy-online-course.
Research Data Access & Preservation Association. 2025. “Evolutions in data services: Forging resiliency.” Retrieved January 7, 2026. https://rdapassociation.org/summit/past-summits/2025.