GSW CEO, Phoebe McMellon, reflects on her new volunteer role as Vice President of the Geoscience Information Society (GSIS) in this post first published in the GSIS Winter 2026 newsletter.
As we roll into 2026 and I think about the year ahead, I feel excited, energized and a little daunted by stepping into the Vice President role; I am excited to connect with this community that has been so central to my professional life. I am energized about the work ahead, and a little daunted by the big shoes I have to fill. Like many of you, my path to GSIS and an interest in geoscience information began in a library.
As a first-year student at Earlham College, I was grateful to be a student in the digital age when I could leverage the world’s geoscience information via GeoRef CDs. GeoRef sparked my deep appreciation of the value of indexing, organizing and curating information, of the benefits and importance of technology and technological innovation in making scientific information and resources accessible and accelerating research and discovery. It was a spark that never went out, though my path to fully embracing as a professional was not straight and more of a long and winding road.
My early campus jobs split my time between the bookstore and the Lilly Library. Later, as a CW Post in Brookville, New York, I continued library work and became friends with graduate students from the Palmer School of Library and Information Science. Those friendships were transformative. Through conversations with these future information managers and librarians, I gained an even greater appreciation for the incredible diversity of information professionals-the different specializations, the varied stakeholders served, and the distinct expertise required to meet the needs of everyone from undergraduates to researchers, to senior administrators and executives.
Today, my passion for geoscience information comes from three interconnected places. First, as a geoscientist, I understand how critical it is to catalog and organize resources in ways that serve researchers and students. The right information at the right time can be the difference between a breakthrough and a dead end or endless weekend nights in library or hanging with friends at a party. Second, as a citizen who loves science, I believe deeply that science literacy is essential for building healthy, thriving, sustainable, and resilient communities-whether local, regional, or global. When people have access to quality geoscience information, they’re better equipped to make informed decisions about everything from natural hazards to climate adaptation to resource management.
Third, I’m incredibly fortunate to serve as CEO of GeoScienceWorld (GSW), a nonprofit collaborative whose mission aligns closely with that of GSIS. Since its founding in 2004 by seven leading geoscience societies, GSW has worked to aggregate and disseminate research to advance our understanding of the geosciences, strengthening the sustainability of our society partners and helping them remain independent. We’ve returned more than $75 million to our partners in the form of royalties providing access to over 55 journals and 2,400 books, and 4.6 million GeoRef records-that same database that captivated me as a student all those years ago-to over 2.6 million researchers, students, professionals, curious citizen scientists and the public each year.
What excites me most about GSIS is how it brings together the entire ecosystem of geoscience information: librarians, publishers, data managers, students, and researchers, working toward the same goal-ensuring that geoscience knowledge is accessible, discoverable, and impactful. The challenges ahead are significant, and there are far too many to name, but I am confident that by we can meet them and overcome them together.