“For thirty years, Barbie Keiser has worked to bring the availability of electronic information sources to corporations, communities and individuals around the globe. Barbie is a particularly good example of what Dow Jones and SLA hope to recognize with this award,” said Anne Caputo, 2010 president of SLA, and executive director at Dow Jones. “She exemplifies leadership by stepping forward readily with expertise, with good sound judgment, and in a way that serves as an example for other people to follow.”
Keiser has developed and implemented information literacy programs with particular emphasis on business information literacy for economic development. Her international activities include information projects on behalf of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the United States Information Agency (USIA) and State Department in China, Thailand, Singapore, Latvia, Denmark, Austria, Hungary and Germany.
As a Fulbright Specialist in Slovenia (2004) and Lithuania (2007), Keiser worked with and trained information professionals on developing technology, and in identifying and acquiring electronic resources for their institutions. She is a regular speaker at library and information industry events worldwide and a featured author in business, information, and library publications.
“Barbie is helping to take the kind of high SLA professional standards that we have here in the U.S. and bring them to information professionals around the world,” said Donna Scheeder, a member of the Governing Board of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).
Keiser serves on the Board of Directors of the World Computer Exchange (WCE), a global education and environment nonprofit that helps connect youth in 67 developing countries to the skills, opportunities and understanding of the Internet while keeping working computers out of landfills. She was instrumental in the creation of a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding between WCE and SLA that prompted many SLA chapters and members to assist in gathering and donating used computers to the organization.
For SLA, Keiser utilizes her international relations skills as the convener for SLA’s International Information Exchange Caucus and has served in leadership roles for various SLA chapters and divisions. Her extensive efforts on SLA’s Information Ethics Initiative led to the creation the SLA Information Ethics Advisory Council, which is working on ethical guidelines for the association and profession. According to Carolyn Sosnowski, the SLA staff advisor to the council, “When you hear Barbie’s name you know things are going to get done.”
Keiser is currently working with the MetroAg Alliance, an organization that brings together a range of stakeholders who are involved in urban agriculture in North America. When Keiser came to MetroAg Alliance, it was a loose informal network of people and organizations that were not using technology or shared information to their best advantage. “There has got to be a better way,” said Keiser, and she began to help them to create a strategy for information creation and sharing, including a virtual clearinghouse and directory.
Keiser has a consulting practice where she works with her clients to help them use information effectively; she is perhaps best known for conducting needs assessments, audits, and opportunity analyses that provide the basis for strategic information planning and staff skill development programs. Keiser received her Master of Science degree in library science from Case Western Reserve University.
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