Lori Walter worked as a Scholarly Communication Librarian at UBC Library from 2014 to 2020.
Changes to the scholarly publishing landscape have been significant and rapid – as a result, the work of librarians such as Lori Walter, Scholarly Communication Librarian at UBC Okanagan, has become essential for researcher and student success.
With the launch of the innovative UBC Okanagan Writing and Research Centre and its embedded location along with the Centre for Scholarly Communication, Walter is focused on providing seamless service to the entire campus for writing, research and scholarly communication.
“We want to deliver a responsive, integrated program of services to meet the needs of the campus in one physical (and virtual) place,” Walter says. “Our goal is to support scholars at all levels as they communicate their ideas to their peers and to the community at large.”
Walter, who has a background in both scholarly communication and writing instruction, sees everyone at UBC Okanagan – undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctorates, faculty and staff – as writers who participate in scholarly communication. Her role is to help this community of scholars through education, resources and direct support.
Before coming to UBC Okanagan, she worked with faculty and graduate students in the Nursing Research Office at the University of Alberta, and was managing editor of the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. Walter has also taught writing courses at Mohawk College in Ontario and at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Navigating key areas of change will present exciting opportunities, as well as challenges, for the Writing and Research Centre and the Centre for Scholarly Communication. Scholars are met with new possibilities for the communication of their ideas as online and remote learning continue to grow; the drive for open access to publicly funded research increases; and the ability to use social media to disseminate research develops.
The Writing and Research Centre and the Centre for Scholarly Communication offer one-on-one consultations, online resources and workshops to support excellence in academic communication. The teams will collaborate with their counterparts at UBC Vancouver, sharing resources and expertise.
“Writing and research is an iterative process and the new Writing and Research Centre reflects the reality of how students work. Students will be able to receive help and find resources throughout their research and writing process – from proposing a topic to polishing a final draft, and all the stages in-between.”