Laura Barnes serves as ISTC’s Sustainability Information Curator and as Executive Director of the Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR). In her role as Sustainability Information Curator, Barnes develops new information resources (RefWorks, LibGuides, databases, etc.); responds to scientific or technical inquiries from ISTC researchers and the public; conducts orientations to University Library resources; assists ISTC researchers with developing data management plans and managing their research data; and identifies funding opportunities and publications of interest to ISTC researchers. She also authors the Environmental News Bits blog; writes for the Prairie Research Institute Library’s News from the Library blog; and maintains the Sustainable Technology page on the Institute’s Library website.
In her role as GLRPPR’s Executive Director, Barnes develops and directs regional programs to benefit the organization’s members. She collaborates with the staff of the other centers in the Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange’s national network to develop national pollution prevention information and networking tools, which include the Pollution Prevention 101 LibGuide and the Social Media Best Practices LibGuide.
Barnes joined ISTC as a graduate student in 1991. She earned a B.A. in American History (1989) and an M.S. in Library and Information Science (1993) from the University of Illinois.