Meet Dr. Kay Bjornen
Dr. Kay Bjornen’s role as a Research Data Initiatives Librarian is to provide support for faculty and students conducting research, particularly data management. Most of her interactions with students come through teaching workshops such as the library Data Bytes workshop series and the OSU Carpentries, though she is also available for consultation. Her research interests focus on identifying ways to optimize research data support and introduce hands-on data education at all levels. In addition, Dr. Bjornen maintains an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Jacinta Mutambuki here at OSU and a colleague at the University of North Carolina, Greenville studying the integration of data literacy competencies into undergraduate chemistry education.
With a long-standing background in academia. Dr. Bjornen has created a great relationship with the Graduate College here at OSU. A BS in Chemistry from New Mexico Tech, a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from OU and a Master’s of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from OU diversifies her academic background, allowing her to create stronger and more relatable connections with students and faculty across OSU’s campus.
Dr. Bjornen appreciates her relationship with the Graduate College for creating a connection with graduate students that makes them aware of the different workshops and events offered through the library. She has recently partnered with a colleague on campus and the Graduate College to provide training on research reproducibility to doctoral students in the G-RISE program. She is currently working with Clarke Iakovakis, Scholarly Services Librarian, and Dr. Philip Alderman, Associate Professor for Plant and Soil Sciences, to teach a workshop series that introduces faculty and students to the use of the statistics and graphics software package R for agricultural data analysis and visualization. The workshop is the first they have done that directly addresses the needs of a specific discipline at the request of a faculty member. Alongside these projects, Dr. Bjornen works with the Coalition for Advancing Digital Research and Education (CADRE) group to promote data education, optimize OSU data and computing resources, and facilitate an annual conference as a venue for sharing and promoting data intensive research at OSU. CADRE is an excellent community for discussing cutting-edge research needs.
Dr. Bjornen’s position within the Edmon Low Library allows her to spearhead the Research and Learning Services (RLS) group. This group directly supports faculty and students by facilitating in-class instruction, workshops relating to open educational resources, copyright, software tools, information literacy, and library-specific topics such as effective database searching and setting up bibliographic management software (EndNote).