Davida Scharf is an information scientist with a B.A. from Barnard College in Art and Architectural History, an MLS from Columbia University, and a PhD from the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information in the area of educational assessment and information literacy.
Before the wide availability of the Internet, she worked on the first team of librarians and programmers to computerize access to the collections of the Columbia University Libraries. At NYNEX Corporation she worked in strategic planning, and established the corporate research group providing business, financial, and technical information to support executive decision-making and R&D. As Director at the United Engineering Trustees, she ran a non-profit research and document delivery business serving the public and professionals in all the engineering disciplines. There she also headed the Engineering Societies Library, a large public engineering library and archive established by Andrew Carnegie in 1904. Later she started her own consulting firm, NKR Associates and was among the first members of the Association of Independent Information Professionals. She was Director of Reference and Instruction at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Van Houten Library until 2021.
Currently: She provides consulting and training in information literacy instruction, information management, as well as business research to a variety of clients in business, non-profits, and academia. She teaches professional writing, and researched and evidence-based writing in the New York metro area.
Research interests: Critical thinking, information literacy instruction and assessment, program evaluation, online communications, knowledge management, and digital libraries. Founder: Researchroadmaps.org