Category: People in the News

Carolyn Walters Named Interim Dean of Indiana University Libraries

Carolyn Walters has been named Interim Dean of the Indiana University Libraries. Previously, she served as Executive Associate Dean of the Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

In her role as associate dean of the University Libraries, Walters was responsible for public services, technical services, collection development and scholarly communication initiatives, and University Archives. She has led the planning for the proposed Research Commons in the Herman B Wells Library and the proposed renovation of the Business/SPEA Information Commons.

In her 22 years with the IU Bloomington Libraries, Walters has also served as head of the Journalism Library, acting director of Collection Development, head of the Undergraduate Library, head of Information Commons/Undergraduate Library Services and director of public services. In 2002, she became the first librarian to receive the Michael Gordon Faculty Award presented by IU's Division of Student Affairs.

Walters was a fellow in the Academic Leadership Program of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (2006) and was selected to participate in the Frye Leadership Institute (2005), sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources, EDUCAUSE and Emory University. She was a member of the inaugural group of IU's LEaD Program, a year-long leadership development program. In her positions at IU, Walters has distinguished herself in areas including undergraduate services, space planning, and scholarly communications.

The dean of University Libraries provides administrative leadership for a system of libraries on IU eight campuses. On the Bloomington campus, the dean provides strategic planning and policy direction in the areas of collection development, public and technical services, facilities planning and personnel policies.

Peter Nürnberg Named as Chief Technology Officer of the Texas Digital Library

Peter Nürnberg has been named as the Chief Technology Officer of the Texas Digital Library.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Peter comes to the TDL with extensive experience in both academic research and industry environments. Since 2001 he has helmed his own software consulting company (Xtructure), managing teams on a wide variety of development efforts, including projects for NASA and TeleAtlas. He also previously served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Software and Media Technology at Aalborg University in Esbjerg, Denmark, pursuing research in areas such as hypermedia, Web technologies, knowledge and information management, and digital libraries.

Peter Suber Receives Joint Fellowship at Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication and the Harvard Law School Library

Congratulations to Peter Suber, who has received a Berkman Center for Internet & Society joint fellowship at the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication and the Harvard Law School Library. He will "be focusing on Open Access documentation efforts, as well as outreach around Open Access, across Harvard and beyond."

In his advocacy efforts for the open access movement, Suber has been a tireless speaker and a prolific author, noted for his exceptionally lucid, insightful, and well-reasoned commentary.

Here's an excerpt from Stevan Harnad's "Peter Suber Appointed Berkman Fellow at Harvard" post:

A brilliant choice, and eminently well-deserved. Peter—whose historic contributions to the growth of OA have been spectacularly successful—will continue his invaluable OA work, but this Fellowship will also make it possible for him to begin writing the books on OA and related matters that are welling up in him, and that the world scholarly and scientific research community (as well as the historians of knowledge) are eagerly waiting to read, digest and learn from for years to come.

DigitalKoans

Profile of Todd Carpenter, Managing Director of NISO

The Society for Scholarly Publishing has published a profile of Todd Carpenter, who is the Managing Director of the National Information Standards Organization.

Here's an excerpt:

[SSP] Where do you see scholarly communications heading, and what new directions interest you most?

[Carpenter] I see the following as critical areas that are in most desperate need of attention in our community: discovery, license and ownership questions, and preservation. On the questions of discovery, thanks to Google, we seem to have forgotten all of the advances in organization that libraries have developed over decades in finding information and have turned to rely solely on keyword searching. This works well enough 80% of the time. The problem is that people have become satisfied with the 80% results that Google returns in fractions of a second, not understanding that there may be something critical in that remaining 20%. Incorporating into search classification structures, ontologies, and improved semantics—all common under different guises in the print world—is a critical component to ensuring that ALL relevant content is visible to users. . . .

The directions that interest me most include ebooks and display technology, identification of items, people and content, and copyright. The next transformation of our industry will likely be in how people access digital content—moving away from the desktop to something that more resembles the experience of using a book. Much of this will depend on developments with display technology, digital ink, and battery power. How people interact with content is going to come down to better solutions for identification of people and content. Control of access to content will be driven by advances in identity management. This likely won't come out of the publishing world (more likely banking or government), but will have incredible ramifications on how scholarship and all content is distributed. Finally, sharing and reuse of content is not likely to be contained by the current rules for copyright. Restructuring those rules to acknowledge and allow what most people want to do with content will be a key question worth watching if copyright is to continue to have any respect by end-users of content.

DigitalKoans

Interview with Kristin Antelman, Associate Director for the Digital Library at NCSU Libraries

In "A Conversation with Kristin Antelman," Brett Bonfield has interviews Kristin Antelman, Associate Director for the Digital Library at the North Carolina State University Libraries about the Taiga Forum (a group for Assistant/Associate University Librarians and Assistant/Associate Directors), its controversial 2009 Provocative Statements, and other topics.

Here's an excerpt:

[Bonfield] Is there anything we could do to that would keep us from being at the mercy of Google and the major publishers? . . . .

[Antelman] Scholarly publishers, operating in an increasingly consolidated market, will continue to raise prices beyond inflation and restrict libraries through complex big deal licenses. They do have us at their mercy. Open access may be the eventual solution (and I think it is) but, in the interim, the detrimental impacts of their dominance (smaller market for monographs, for instance) will continue to be significant. One thing libraries can do—and many have done—is never again enter into big deals, where flexibility is traded for cost savings. Another thing libraries can do is to be less fixated on collecting for posterity. Scholarly work is increasingly preserved beyond our walls: a significant percentage of the best articles are already openly available on the web (and this segment is growing), while another significant percentage is made openly available by publishers after an embargo period. Libraries, collectively, will have to be less dogmatic about licensing (and replicating) complete and official versions of the STM (scientific/technical/medical) literature. At risk are two dimensions of our mission that have historically (and justifiably) defined us as research libraries: developing collections of significant breadth to meet the needs of all our constituents and maintaining the capacity to invest in new services.

University of Maryland Libraries Dean Position Finalists: Alford, Howard, and Steele

The finalists for the Dean of Libraries position at the University of Maryland Libraries are Larry Alford, Dean of University Libraries at Temple University, John Howard, Associate University Librarian at Arizona State University, and Patricia Steele, Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries at Indiana University Bloomington.

Read more about it at "Dean of Libraries' Search Narrowed."

Harvard University Library’s Dale Flecker to Retire

The Harvard University Library's Office for Information Systems has announced that Dale Flecker, Associate Director for Planning and Systems, will retire on June 30.

Here's an excerpt:

Flecker served the Library for nearly 31 years as an expert in information technology and libraries. He came to Harvard as a systems librarian in 1978, directed the Office for Systems Planning and Research from 1979 to 1985, and became an Associate Director of HUL in 1985.

Dale did more than anyone to guide the Library into the digital age. He understood the possibilities and the problems of e-journals, e-books, and e-catalogues as soon as they appeared on the horizon. At the turn of the century, there were no models for creating a library digital infrastructure that would store and preserve digital objects. Thanks to Dale, Harvard took the lead in this crucial area with its Digital Repository Service, and it pioneered in other aspects of online teaching and research through the Library Digital Initiative. Dale's advice determined library policy at many critical junctures. We will badly miss him.

Randy J. Olsen Wins Inaugural Howard Goldstein Award to Advance Scholarly Communication

Randy J. Olsen, University Librarian for the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University, has won the first BioOne/SPARC Howard Goldstein Award to Advance Scholarly Communication.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Randy J. Olsen has held leadership positions in the Utah Library Association, the American Library Association, Research Libraries Group, Greater Western Libraries Association, Mountain Plains Library Association, and Utah Academic Library Council. He currently chairs the Library and Scholarly Communications Advisory Council at Brigham Young University and currently serves as a member of the Steering committee for SPARC. . . .

A pragmatist, Olsen initiated a series of concrete steps that have since provided sustainable models for a growing number of important campus publications. These solutions have likewise served as a direction for others to follow. It was Olsen's idea, for example, to hire Jeff Billiston as the Scholarly Communications Librarian to identify and provide publication services and programs. In 2006, Olsen encouraged Billiston to develop an institutional repository that now hosts the legacy issues for 12 publications, with several more to come. In 2007, Olsen became aware of several campus journals in danger of extinction as print-only publications. Careful review of each journal's situation resulted in a variety of solutions that range from a library-sponsored investment in the development of Open Journal Systems software for peer-review and content management, to customized varieties of Open Access publication.

It was Olsen's suggestion that four faculty members attend the Association of Research Library's Institute on Scholarly Communication in 2007. Knowledge about publishing options gained at this event enabled one of BioOne's newest journals, the Western North American Naturalist, to identify a solution to its critical need to modernize. Now in its second year in the BioOne.2 collection, WNAN has increased its distribution and begun to earn important revenue to help sustain its program.

Challenged once again by Olsen, WNAN's publisher the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum at BYU concluded that because their companion, Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist, is not their main revenue-producing publication, the best way to enhance its distribution was to add it to BioOne's Open Access collection. The two publications are now seamlessly available to users and their editorial staff is better able to manage both products. According to WNAM's grateful editor Mark Belk, Olsen has thus helped his publications meet their mission to communicate science broadly. Olsen's efforts to engage University leaders in this conversation have helped Belk strengthen his argument for the support necessary to ensure production for the good of the entire research community.

Abby Smith Named Director of Virginia’s Scholarly Communication Institute

Abby Smith has been named the Director of the University of Virginia Library’s Scholarly Communication Institute

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Karin Wittenborg, University Librarian, and Diane Parr Walker, Deputy University Librarian at the University of Virginia Library and Co-Principal Investigators of the Scholarly Communication Institute (SCI), announced today that Richard E. Lucier will step down as director of SCI, and that Abby Smith, currently senior advisor to SCI, will become Director, effective April 10, 2009. Bethany Nowviskie, currently SCI program associate, will become Associate Director.

Richard Lucier founded the Institute in 2003, together with Deanna Marcum, and under his leadership, SCI has worked to advance scholarly communication through annual summer Institutes and working with and advising Institute participants throughout the year. Lucier has actively advised SCI participants in the development of EthicShare, the Architecture Visual Resources Network (recently launched as SAHARA), and the Online Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. . . .

Abby Smith is a historian and consulting analyst with special interest in the creation, preservation, and use of the cultural record in a variety of media; the impact of digital information technologies on cultural heritage institutions; and the evolving role of information as a public good. Formerly director of programs at the Council on Library and Information Resources, she has been with the Institute since its inception, and served as senior advisor since 2006: "I look forward to leading the Scholarly Communication Institute at this promising juncture in the evolution of the humanities, when scholars are embracing new technologies in imaginative ways to advance research and share it more broadly. Richard has set a clear course for SCI, focused on collaborative actions that serve scholarship broadly and change not just the work we do, but, just as importantly, the way that we work."

In addition to her role as associate director of SCI, Bethany Nowviskie is Director of Digital Research & Scholarship at the University of Virginia Library. She holds a doctoral degree in English from the University of Virginia and has taught courses in literature, bibliography, and new media aesthetics and design. Nowviskie has been active in the digital humanities since 1995.

Karen A. Coombs Named Mover & Shaker by Library Journal

Congratulations to Karen Coombs, Head of Libraries Web Services Department at the University of Houston Libraries, on being named in Library Journal's Movers & Shakers 2009: The People Shaping the Future of Libraries.

An open source software and Web 2.0 expert, Coombs is the coauthor of Library Blogging, the author of over 15 articles, and a very active speaker and workshop presenter.

Coombs is also well-known for her work on innovative Web-based projects such as Five Weeks to a Social Library and the Your BIGWIG Social Software Showcase 2008 as well as for her participation in the LITA Top Tech Trends expert panel.

Coombs holds an M.S. in Information Management from Syracuse University, an MLS from Syracuse University, and a B.A. in Anthropology and Music from Beloit College. Prior to working at Houston, she served as the Electronic Services Librarian and the Information Technology and Instruction Librarian at SUNY Coltland's Memorial Library. She was the LITA BIGWIG (Blogs, Interactive Groupware Wikis Interest Group) chair in 2007-2008.

Her Weblog is Library Web Chic.

Former Congressman Thomas H. Allen Named President and CEO of the Association of American Publishers

Thomas H. Allen, former Democratic six-term House of Representatives member from Maine, has been named President and CEO of the Association of American Publishers.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

"In this age of rapidly changing technology, we must not lose sight of the abiding importance of the written word to our culture, society and our democratic institutions," Mr. Allen said. "AAP advocates on issues of paramount importance ranging from free speech and education to the protection of intellectual property rights and international freedom to publish. I am excited about tackling the challenges of this new position and its responsibilities to the publishing industry and the reading public."

David W. Lewis Named Assistant Vice President for Digital Scholarly Communications at Indiana

David W. Lewis, Dean of the University Library at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has been named Assistant Vice President for Digital Scholarly Communications in the Indiana University Office of the Vice President for Information Technology. Lewis will serve for two years in this capacity while retaining his duties as Dean of IUPUI's University Library.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

In his new role, Lewis will provide university-wide leadership for Recommendation 12, "Recapturing the Scholarly Record," which is described as a grand challenge in Empowering People, IU’s strategic IT plan.

Recommendation 12 envisions a set of actions for IU to "pursue a position of leadership in the development (with partners) of new, sustainable models for scholarly publication, dissemination, and curation that enable scholars—and their collective communities—to re-assert control over rights to the scholarly record and its institutional preservation."

The plan, developed with the involvement of more than 140 members of the university community in response to a charge from President McRobbie, was endorsed by the IU Trustees in December 2008.

In announcing the appointment, IU Vice President for IT Brad Wheeler said, "The complexities and challenges for economically sustaining scholarly communications are great, and this is a timely opportunity for IU to assess a full range of options for the future. David's appointment assures the focused effort we need to help coalesce many ideas into actionable plans."

As assistant vice president, Lewis will engage in extensive dialogue with IU's faculty and research scholars, librarians, faculty council committees, the IU Press, UITS, and other research universities.

"Libraries are at the center of the many complex issues regarding scholarly publication and dissemination," said Patricia Steele, Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries. "We've worked diligently help find solutions. Having David in a leadership role leverages his knowledge of these issues and the critical understanding he brings as a librarian."

Lewis joined Indiana University in 1993 as the head of public services at IUPUI University Library and has served as dean since 2000. He has a bachelor's degree in history from Carleton College, a master's of library science degree from Columbia University, and certificates of advanced study in librarianship from the University of Chicago and Columbia University.

Ray English Named Winner of 2009 Hugh C. Atkinson Award

Ray English, Director of libraries at Oberlin College, has received the 2009 winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Named in honor of one of the pioneers of library automation, the Atkinson Award recognizes an academic librarian who has made significant contributions in the area of library automation or management and has made notable improvements in library services or research.

"Ray English has provided transformative leadership within his own institution, his state and region, in ACRL and as a national leader in scholarly communications through SPARC," said Sarah Michalak, Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award committee chair and university librarian/associate provost for University Libraries at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "The award has been given to a college librarian only once before in its 21 year history."

English was a primary founder of the ACRL scholarly communication program, serving as chair of the task force that led to the program and also as chair of the Scholarly Communication Committee from its inception until 2006. He is a long-time member and current chair of the SPARC steering committee, of which Oberlin College is a founding member. English has also lectured and written extensively on scholarly communication issues and open access. Since 1988, he has served on more than 15 ALA and ACRL committees and is a former member of the ACRL Board of Directors (1996-98).

Under English’s leadership, Oberlin became the first private, liberal arts college library to join OhioLINK. In addition, he participated in a cooperative effort with four other Ohio private colleges in establishing a new consortium, the Five Colleges of Ohio, which received a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for library resource sharing. He also coordinated a $475,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to incorporate information literacy into the liberal arts curriculum of the Ohio Five schools. English additionally served as co-project director of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership grant to create a library diversity intern program at Oberlin College from 2000-02 and since 2003 has directed four separate multi-institution grants from the Mellon Foundation totaling more than $2 million that are designed to attract undergraduates from diverse backgrounds into the library profession and encourage leadership development. The Oberlin College Library received the 2002 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in the college category.

English received his A.B. with honors in German from Davidson College in 1969. He earned his masters in German literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971, where he also received his M.S.L.S. in 1977 and earned his PhD in German literature in 1978.

The Hugh C. Atkinson Award is jointly sponsored by four divisions of the American Library Association: ACRL, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), the Library Leadership and Management Association (LAMA) and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA). The award is funded from an endowment established to honor Hugh C. Atkinson.

Kate Wittenberg Named Project Director, Client and Partnership Development at Ithaka

Kate Wittenberg, formerly Director of the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia (EPIC), has been named Project Director, Client and Partnership Development at Ithaka.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

In her new role, Wittenberg will focus on building partnerships among scholars, academic centers, publishers, libraries, technology providers, societies, and foundations with an interest in promoting the development of digital scholarship and learning. From proposal creation to market research, business development, and product planning, she will draw on her years of work with scholars and experience building online academic resources to help digital publishing stakeholders identify, build, and sustain innovative initiatives. . . .

Wittenberg spent most of her career at Columbia, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of Columbia University Press until 1999, and went on to found and direct EPIC (the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia) for the university. EPIC was a pioneering initiative in digital publishing, and a model publishing partnership for libraries, presses, and academic IT departments. Some of the ventures produced by EPIC include CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online), Gutenberg-E (a reinvention of the monograph as an electronic work), and Jazz Studies Online. Wittenberg brings to Ithaka more than two decades of experience working with faculty, a deep understanding of libraries, first hand experience of digital projects centered within academic institutions, and a wide knowledge of the digital landscape and disciplinary trends. She has worked closely with a number of foundations, and has built a strong reputation in the community through her work at Columbia, her many speaking and consulting engagements around digital publishing, and her numerous publications.

Anne Jarvis Named University Librarian at Cambridge

Anne Jarvis, currently Deputy Librarian at Cambridge University Library, has been named Cambridge's University Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Anne, aged 46, said: "Cambridge is already one of the world's great research libraries. I look forward both to building on this success and to an exciting future in which the University Library will play a leading role in providing innovative services in a rapidly changing information landscape."

Anne has been Deputy Librarian at Cambridge University Library since 2000. Her main professional interests include emerging information technologies, succession planning, change management and digital preservation.

As Deputy Librarian her role has been to ensure that future information trends are identified, future service needs are anticipated and the highest quality service standards are delivered. Key to this, she believes, is nurturing and developing a highly motivated, knowledgeable and skilled staff.

A graduate in history of Trinity College Dublin, Anne's library career began in special libraries and included posts at FÁS, the Training and Employment Authority in Dublin, Ireland, and Coopers and Lybrand in London, England.

Her career in academic libraries began at Dublin City University, (DCU) in Ireland. She then moved to Trinity College Dublin where she took up the post of Sub-Librarian, Collection Management, before returning to the UK to take up her current post at Cambridge. During this period she also served for two years as Vice-President at Wolfson College, where she has been a Fellow since 2000.

William Kilbride Named Executive Director of the Digital Preservation Coalition

William Kilbride has been named Executive Director of the Digital Preservation Coalition.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

William has many years of experience in the digital preservation community. He is currently Research Manager for Glasgow Museums, where he has been involved in digital preservation and access aspects of Glasgow's museum collections, and in supporting the curation of digital images, sound recordings and digital art within the city's museums.

Previously he was Assistant Director of the Archaeology Data Service where he was involved in many digital preservation activities. He has contributed to workshops, guides and advice papers relating to digital preservation.

In the past William has worked with the DPC on the steering committee for the UK Needs Assessment, was a tutor on the Digital Preservation Training Programme and was a judge for the 2007 Digital Preservation Award.

Larry Carver Named Digital Preservation Pioneer

The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program at the Library of Congress has named Larry Carver, retired Director of Library Technologies and Digital Initiatives at University of California at Santa Barbara, as a digital preservation pioneer.

Here's an excerpt from the UCSB press release:

"We at the UCSB Library are thrilled that Larry Carver has received this important and well-deserved recognition," said Brenda Johnson, university librarian. "His tireless and innovative work in the development of the Map and Imagery Lab and the Alexandria Digital Library has brought international attention to our library and has benefited thousands of scholars, students, and members of the public from around the world. We offer him our heartiest congratulations on being named a Library of Congress ‘Pioneer of Digital Preservation.'" . . .

Carver began his career at the library where he helped build an impressive collection of maps, aerial photography, and satellite imagery that led to the development of the Map and Imagery Laboratory (MIL) in 1979. As the MIL collections grew, Carver felt that geospatial data presented a unique challenge to the library. He believed that coordinate-based collections should be managed differently than book-based collections. But not everyone agreed with him.

"It became apparent that handling traditional geospatial content in a typical library context was just not satisfactory and another means to control that data was important," he said. "It wasn't as easy as it sounds. I was in a very conservative environment, and they were not easily convinced that this was something a library should do."

Carver and others spent years developing an exhaustive set of requirements for building a geospatial information management system. The system had a number of innovative ideas. "We included traditional methods of handling metadata but also wanted to search by location on the Earth's surface," Carver said. "The idea was that if you point to a place on the Earth you could ask the question, 'What information do you have about that space?,' as opposed to a traditional way of having to know ahead of time who wrote about it."

An opportunity to develop that system arrived in 1994 when UCSB received funding from the National Science Foundation for Carver and his team to build the Alexandria Digital Library. "We produced the first operational digital library that was based on our research," Carver said. "Our concentration was to be able to develop a system that could search millions of records with latitude and longitude coordinates and present those results via the Internet."

The basic concepts behind the Alexandria Digital Library have been widely adopted by Google Earth, Wikipedia, and others. Carver couldn't be more delighted.

"I think it's wonderful," Carver said. "We weren't trying to be the only game in town. We were just trying to raise consciousness way back in the early 1980s that this was a viable way of handling geospatial material. This approach lets people interact with data in a realistic way without having a great deal of knowledge about an individual object. It was a new way of dealing with massive amounts of information in an environment that made finding and accessing information much easier."

Read more about it at "Digital Preservation Pioneer: Larry Carver."

Laine Farley Named as Executive Director of the California Digital Library

Laine Farley has been named as the Executive Director of the California Digital Library. Farley has served as the Interim Executive Director since July 2006.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

"What we needed was not just a great leader for the CDL, but also a strategy for building the next generation of digital libraries," said Daniel Greenstein, UC vice provost for academic information and strategic services. "It was equally clear that the best way forward in envisioning this new world would be to draw upon the creativity, leadership and talent already within UC and the CDL, and to ramp up our planning efforts. Laine's vision and leadership, which she has demonstrated during challenging times, will take the CDL in new and exciting directions."

As part of ongoing planning with the University of California libraries, Farley will work closely with the university librarians on the 10 campuses and others throughout the UC system to ensure that systemwide library services continue to evolve to better support libraries and scholars.

Previously, Farley's roles at the CDL have included positions as director of digital library services and deputy university librarian. In addition, she was the user services coordinator and the coordinator of bibliographic policy and services at the UC Division of Library Automation. She has also been a reference librarian and coordinator of bibliographic instruction at UC Riverside, and head of the humanities department at the Steen Library at Stephen F. Austin State University. Farley holds a B.A. in liberal arts (Plan II) and an M.L.S. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Catherine Mitchell Named as Director, eScholarship Publishing Group at CDL

Catherine Mitchell, Acting Director of the eScholarship Publishing Group at the California Digital Library, has been named as the permanent occupant of that post. In this capacity, Mitchell is responsible for the eScholarship Repository, eScholarship Editions, the Mark Twain Project Online, and other ventures.

In her statement about the appointment, Laine Farley, CDL Interim Executive Director, said:

Catherine has held the position on an interim basis since November 2007. During that time, she has led the group to develop a new services-oriented vision and to launch an ambitious redesign of the eScholarship interface. She was also the project manager for the Mark Twain project which successfully launched last November. Catherine’s dedication, deep understanding of scholarly communication, publishing issues, and professionalism are admired by all of us who work with her.

Bellinger Named Director of the Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure at Yale

Meg Bellinger, Associate University Librarian for Integrated Access and Technical Services at the Yale University Library, has been named Director of the Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure at Yale, a new position in the Provost's office that is responsible for university-wide digitization.

Read more about it at "Bellinger to Direct Digitizing Office."

Joan A. Smith Appointed Chief Technology Strategist at Emory

Joan A. Smith has been appointed the Chief Technology Strategist in the office of the Vice Provost and Director of Libraries at Emory University (Richard E. Luce holds that position).

Smith holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Old Dominion University. Her 2008 dissertation was on "Integrating Preservation Functions into the Web Server." She also holds an M.A. in Computer Education from Hampton University, a B.A. in Natural Science from the University of the State of New York, and a Ph.B. (Bachelor of Philosophy) from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Smith has held a variety of technical positions since 1988 at Owenworks, Blue-I Technology, Northrop Grumman, the Inter-National Research Institute, and the Electronic Institute of Technology.