Dr Julie Mundy-Taylor

Dr Julie Mundy-Taylor is a Research Librarian at the Ourimbah Campus Library of the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her role is to support the research needs of academics and postgraduates in the disciplines of Health and Science. Julie assists researchers with scholarly research, data management, citation software and analysis and finding the appropriate avenues to publish and promote their research.

Research support and storytelling as a perfect partnership

Julie has postgraduate qualifications in information management and continues to actively engage in professional development in this constantly changing field. Having spent her adult life studying library science and literature in 2004 Julie decided to pursue her other passion and commenced a research higher degree in storytelling. In 2013 Julie was awarded a PhD  “Storytelling engagement in the classroom: observable behavioural cues of children's story experiences.” Along the way Julie learned that the communication, listening skills, audience awareness and innate love of stories inherent in storytelling can also be utilised in assisting researchers to develop their information literacy skills.

Julie now shares that knowledge and those stories with researchers and audiences of all ages. It's not uncommon to find Julie opening a training session with a traditional story, whose relevance becomes clearer and enhances the content of the session as it goes on. As a research support librarian, Julie uses every type of technology at her disposal but ensures that she never gets so busy multitasking that she forgets to use the greatest information skills available – the ability to communicate and to absorb and share stories.