Rate My Professor Natalie Taylor

Dr. Natalie Taylor is the Director of the School of Information at the University of South Florida and an Associate Professor in the Masters of Library and Information Science program. She earned her Ph.D. in Information Studies from the University of Maryland in 2015, with a dissertation on youth access to digital government information, an M.L.S. from the University of Maryland-College Park in 2011 specializing in e-government and school library media, and a B.A. from American University in 2009. While at the University of Maryland's Information Policy & Access Center, she participated in projects concerning e-government, school and public libraries, and youth health and information literacy. In her leadership role at USF, she coordinates the MLIS program and advances library science education.

Dr. Taylor's scholarship focuses on youth information behavior, information intermediaries, information literacy, information policy as it affects youth information access, library science education, and the politics of information. She has co-authored five books, including the forthcoming Foundations of Information Law; Foundations of Information Literacy (2021); Foundations of Information Policy (2019); Digital Literacy and Digital Inclusion: Information Policy and the Public Library; and Libraries, Human Rights and Social Justice: Enabling Access and Promoting Inclusion. She edited two books: Libraries and the Global Retreat of Democracy (2021) and Perspectives on Libraries as Institutions of Human Rights and Social Justice. Her peer-reviewed articles have appeared in School Library Research, Journal of Information Science, Computers & Education, Journal of Documentation, Journal of Hospital Librarianship, and others. As Editor of The Library Quarterly since 2018, she contributes to the field's scholarly discourse. In 2025, Dr. Taylor received the Beta Phi Mu Award from the American Library Association recognizing her scholastic focus on advocacy, information policy, and ethics in preparing librarians. Earlier honors include the 2015 ALISE/LMC Paper Award, 2014 Beta Phi Mu/LRRT Research Paper Award, and 2017 ALA and Google Libraries Ready to Code Phase II Teaching Fellowship. She co-chairs the ALISE Youth Services Special Interest Group and serves as the School of Information's representative on the Florida Library Association Board of Directors.