Sarah Williams, Life Sciences Data Services Librarian and Associate Professor, University Library, has been elected president of the United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN). Founded in 1988, USAIN’s mission includes taking a leadership role in the formation of national information policy related to agriculture and making recommendations to the National Agricultural Library on agricultural information matters.

After three terms of service as a director on the USAIN Executive Council, Williams will serve as president-elect in 2015-16, president in 2016-17, and past president in 2017-18. She notes that, due to its mission, USAIN is “well positioned to contribute to discussions and plans resulting from the OSTP ‘Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research’ memo,” which requires Federal agencies to plan for the open availability of publications and data from federally funded research. USAIN’s current efforts also include preservation and digitization efforts for agricultural information, and a redesign of the organizational website to help foster engagement of the USAIN membership. “USAIN has been a great professional organization for me,” Williams adds. “Running for USAIN President was an opportunity to build on my experience and take a larger leadership role.”

Williams joined the University Library in 2011 after serving as Science & Technology Librarian and then Head of Web Services and End-User systems at Illinois State University. Her recent research focuses on data services in agriculture and crop sciences. She also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Web Librarianship.