Category Archives: DLP Staff Interview

DLP Staff Interview: Noah Skogerboe, Media Collections and Preservation Librarian

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Next in our series of interviews with Digital Library Program staff. Today, Noah Skogerboe, Media Collections and Preservation Librarian, answers questions about his work.

What does the Media Collections and Preservation Librarian do?
Part of my job is to be a member of the team operating the Jones Media Center, helping to circulate our media collections and audiovisual equipment and assist patrons with their media projects. It is also my responsibility to handle media preservation and conversion projects for patrons and also across library units, so if you have media collections that need preservation attention or enhanced access, you may find yourself working with me.

How did you get here? That is, what was your path to being the Media Collections and Preservation Librarian at the Dartmouth College Library?
Long before figuring out that I wanted to be a librarian, I was playing in bands and dabbling with recording, often choosing outmoded analog formats for projects. I moved back and forth between studies in history and technical training in audio engineering, working as a live mix engineer (sound person) in a theater. I decided that pursing audio visual archiving via library school would be a good way to bring my proclivities together. I did some work for Minnesota Public Radio digitizing analog tape reels and worked for years for the Minnesota Historical Society on mass digitization projects and preservation and access projects mostly involving newspaper collections. I feel very fortunate to have landed here working with the kinds of collections and projects that I love best.

What’s a notable (interesting, challenging, unusual) project that you’ve worked on recently (here or at a previous position)? Or, what are you looking forward to working on in your position at Dartmouth?
I recently took in some analog magnetic tape reels of field recordings made circa 1970 in Sierra Leone of rural folk musicians. The recordings come from an area subsequently devastated by civil war so it is a real treat to be able to hear them and work to preserve them and perhaps help to make them accessible for future research. Included are some recordings of children singing that are particularly beautiful.

What do you wish that more people knew about digital libraries?
How to access them! The tremendous benefit of our digital collections is their accessibility: that they can be searched and discovered remotely. We ought to strive to expose our digital collections!

Who are you when you’re not being the Media Collections and Preservation Librarian?
I’m probably exploring the Upper Valley countryside with my family (more like dragging them along) or maybe tinkering on a music project. I have many hobbies but little expertise.

What new tools are coming in the world of digital libraries? How are we preparing for changes in the field? (question from Kevin)
One thing I’m excited about is speech-to-text technology that can provide the full text searching benefits that we have come to rely upon for print formats (via optical character recognition) for audio formats such as oral histories. I think we need to continue our efforts to digitize and expose our hidden collections especially as researchers turn to new methods of mining and extracting data.

What question would you like another member of the Digital Library Program staff to answer?
What do you see as most valuable metadata strategy or philosophy for enhancing access to our digital collections?

DLP Staff Interview: Kevin Warstadt, Lathem Digital Library Fellow

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Next in our series of interviews with Digital Library Program staff. Today, Kevin Warstadt, Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow, answers questions about his work.

What does the Edward Connery Lathem ’51 Digital Library Fellow do?
The Digital Fellowship is in many ways a learning position, and as such involves interacting with several different facets of the Digital Library Program. Since I started, I’ve produced digital objects through photo capture and scanning, curated faculty publications through Symplectic Elements, edited and marked up text for the Journal of e-Media Studies, and written blog posts on digital collections. I also represent the Digital Program on the Library Marketing and Communications Committee. The position has given me the opportunity to see many different aspects of library work and to cooperate with the great people that we have here at the library.

How did you get here? That is, what was your path to becoming the Digital Library Fellow here at Dartmouth?
I graduated from Georgia Tech in 2013 with a degree in Science, Technology, and Culture. In that program, I did a lot of work in film and history, and dabbled some in museum studies. I started up in Dartmouth’s MALS program in spring 2014 and simultaneously started working part-time doing capture for the Photo Files project. I continued working here during my time as a student studying writing, history, and literature. When applications for the position opened up earlier this year, I applied and was accepted.

What’s a notable (interesting, challenging, unusual) project that you’ve worked on recently?
I did some work using OpenRefine right after I started in July, reconciling geodata with place names. OpenRefine is a useful tool for sorting through and editing data en masse. It allows a user to sort data with facets and instantly find and change entries that diverge from a standard or desired format. There was some difficulty in learning the ropes of the reconciliation process as my coding knowledge is fairly limited. However, after some finagling and Lynda.com videos, I was able to get it running. This process should allow us to link artifacts or documents to a specific geospatial point, which could open up a number of paths for interesting projects in the future.

What do you wish that more people knew about digital libraries?
My primary concern is that people know what exists within our collections. I’d also like to see increased use of those collections. I’ve grown particularly fond of the Photo Files over the last couple of years and it makes me sad that there are people and places in those images waiting to be remembered.

As for the process itself, I suppose it would be good for library patrons to know the amount of labor that goes into digitization. This would help with the digitization request process and might also aid us in getting more funds/resources so that we can expand our digital selection.

Who are you when you’re not being the Digital Library Fellow?
I’m one of the great indoorsman of our age. I’ve explored all over the great lands that stretch between my desk and my kitchen. When I’m not schlepping down to the Coop for groceries or hanging out on that cool new bridge in White River Junction, I’m usually writing short stories or screenplays.

On campus, I’m a member of the Dartmouth Writer’s Society and am currently the art editor for the MALS Journal (now called Clamantis). I attend Dartmouth Film Society meetings when time allows, and I’ve written film notes for them over the last couple of years.

I’m also in the market for an affordable used car if anybody has any leads.

Are there Dartmouth collections that are currently restricted that you’d like to see available in an open institutional repository like the Dartmouth Academic Commons? (question from Jen)
Ultimately, I’d like to see everything available online. Rauner Special Collections Library has so many fascinating pieces that are out of reach for people who can’t make it to the physical space. Unfortunately, we don’t have the staff to digitize everything that we find interesting. For example, during my research on one of our pieces for a blog post, I ended up looking into an old newspaper, but struggled to find any copies online. As it turned out we had some physical copies in Rauner. Being on campus, I’m able to access those pieces, but others might not be able to. It would be nice to get those things up online so that everyone has access.

What question would you like another member of the Digital Library Program staff to answer?
What new tools are coming in the world of digital librarianship? How are we preparing for changes in the field?

DLP Staff Interview: Jen Green, Digital Scholarship Librarian

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Next in our series of interviews with Digital Library Program staff. Today, Jen Green, Digital Scholarship Librarian, answers questions about her work.

What does a Digital Scholarship Librarian do?
I work with faculty, students, and staff to provide them with current information and resources that can help them disseminate the results of their research, scholarship, teaching, and learning. This means that I work closely with Information Technology Services colleagues to plan, design, and develop Dartmouth’s emerging online scholarly repository, the Dartmouth Academic Commons and other information systems that will integrate with it. This will be a place where Dartmouth scholars can share their work openly with the world. In addition to this, I work across campus departments to build awareness about other tools, resources, and services that support publication generally and open access publishing more specifically. In an effort to help people understand the scholarly communication/publishing landscape, I coordinate education and outreach opportunities about author rights, copyright, managing scholarly identity and broader impact of research, and innovations in scholarly publishing. My work relies on highly collaborative relationships with many colleagues in the Library, Information Technology Services, the Council on Libraries, as well as Administrative offices within a variety of departments at Dartmouth.

How did you get here? That is, what was your path to becoming the Digital Scholarship Librarian here at Dartmouth?
My path to becoming a Digital Scholarship Librarian is long and winding, but I think that’s probably true for many librarians. I have always had an interest and passion for helping people work through challenges and problems, answer questions, and discover new pathways, so I spent the first three years of my undergraduate degree pursuing Psychology. When helping people in this capacity didn’t seem like the right fit for me, I refocused my attention on my own challenges, questions, and ideas by taking coursework in Art and Art History (another passion of mine). Through this, I became extremely interested in how people interact with and respond to works of art, which led me to apply for a museum internship. I ended up working in museum registration where I was asked to organize the museum’s large collection of digital and analog images representing their permanent collection. Working closely with the museum’s images, I gained a personal respect and understanding for the importance of information management and the critical role it plays in helping people find and enjoy all types of scholarly and cultural content.  This is what led me to pursue work in other libraries, digital image collections, and ultimately a Master’s degree in Library and information Science. After I graduated, I continued to work in art libraries, managing digital image collections for teaching.  Eventually, this role expanded to managing digital collections and projects more broadly for teaching and research at an academic institution. Shifting my perspective from managing image collections to managing image, publication, and audio collections raised my awareness of copyright, fair and responsible access to scholarly content, and the important role that open access can play in making content available to a wide audience regardless of institutional affiliation or economic status. Access to content is a key component to advancing research and technology around the world. As my interest and passion grew for how to support open sharing of scholarly, authoritative content while navigating issues of copyright and ownership, I began looking for Librarian positions that focused on this. Fortunately, scholarly communication is a growing area within the field of librarianship, and even more fortunate was that there was an opportunity for me to apply for one such position at Dartmouth College.  I am very proud to be doing this work here at Dartmouth, and the conversations I’ve had about scholarly publishing and open access with students, faculty, and staff have been extremely engaging and exciting to pursue.

What’s a notable (interesting, challenging, unusual) project that you’ve worked on recently?
Part of my job involves managing the Dartmouth Open Access publishing fund, which provides Dartmouth scholars funds to pay for fees that open access journals charge authors to publish their work.  These fees can be extremely high, and in some cases authors will decide not to publish in open access journals because it is personally unaffordable. Dartmouth College is a member of the Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity (COPE), which means that we’ve designated a budget to help authors pay for these fees if they request them and if the journal to which they’d like to publish qualifies as an open access journal. Processing and approving these requests has been interesting work because it allows me to see what new and exciting research is happening at Dartmouth. It’s also been interesting to see in the past year that some traditionally subscription-based journals are now flipping to open access models. I think this is a growing trend, and it will be interesting to observe how the fee/funding structures change as more journals are open and more authors are publishing in that way.

What do you wish that more people knew about scholarly communication (in relation to the Digital Library Program or not)?
I would like people to know that we are here to help them understand the complicated issues surrounding publishing, copyright, open access, and how to manage your research identity online. We have resources (funding and information) that can help scholars of all types make decisions about where to publish and how to negotiate their rights with their publisher. I don’t think people always realize that they can call us for consultation on these issues and that we are happy to meet them in their office or in ours to answer their questions about scholarly communication, copyright and publishing. I’d also love people to know about our Scholarly Communication Lab blog and follow us there. It’s a great place to start if you have questions related to scholarly communication or just want to know what’s new within Dartmouth’s Scholarly Communication Program.

Who are you when you’re not being the Digital Scholarship Librarian?
Currently, I am President of the Visual Resources Association, a multidisciplinary organization dedicated to furthering research and education in the field of image management within the educational, cultural heritage, and commercial environments. Like myself, many members of this Association are finding that the scope of their work is drifting from managing image collections exclusively to managing many forms of media and scholarship quite broadly. I stepped into this leadership role to share my perspective on how to manage and embrace that shift as visual collection managers and apply our vast knowledge of image organization and access to a wider range of materials.

Outside of my work, I am a cook, an enthusiast of film/music/art, a hiker, a traveler, a cyclist, a painter, and a writer. My husband and I love to explore new places with our two children, and we’ve found that academia has led us to wonderful and interesting places around the world and has tapped nicely into our sense of adventure.

Is there a Library collection or a period of Dartmouth history you’d like to see digitized and made available to the world? (question from Anthony)
I would love to see greater access to digital images of the Hood Museum’s permanent collections. The Hood Museum provides wonderful access to objects within their collection, and I think this access greatly enriches many different teaching and learning opportunities. The kind of access that students have to the physical objects is exceptional, and I think online access to the increased portions of the museum’s collections would enrich museum visits and teaching opportunities.

What question would you like another member of the Digital Library Program staff to answer?
Are there Dartmouth collections that are currently restricted that you’d like to see available in an open institutional repository like the Dartmouth Academic Commons?

DLP Staff Interview: Anthony Helm, Head of Digital Media and Library Technologies

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Next in our series of interviews with Digital Library Program staff. Today, Anthony Helm, Head of Digital Media and Library Technologies, answers questions about his work.

What does the Head of Digital Media and Library Technologies do?
I manage two departments within the Library, the Jones Media Center and the Digital Library Technologies Group. While both have a technology focus, they are almost like yin and yang. The JMC is a patron-focused service location where creative output is consumed and produced. The DLTG is responsible for managing the Library’s information technology infrastructure, including our integrated library system (Innovative Interfaces’s Sierra product) and the myriad applications that deliver our content online. (We do, also, use some services provided by campus ITS, including their virtual machine hardware to host our servers and OmniUpdate for many static web pages).

How did you get here? That is, what was your path to becoming the Head of Digital Media and Library Technologies here at Dartmouth?
I used to describe it as a dervish of a dance, constantly changing partners between teaching positions and technology positions until I gradually learned how to find them both in a single place. My educational background is in television and radio production (undergrad) and Japanese language, literature, and culture (master’s). I’ve been an English teacher, a BBS operator, a visiting Japanese instructor, an escaped Buddhist novitiate, a computer lab manager, a small campus IT director, and an academic technologist. In 2008, I eventually arrived at Dartmouth to head the Arts & Humanities Resource Center, before landing in my present position three years after that.

What’s a notable (interesting, challenging, unusual) project that you’ve worked on recently?
In the JMC, last year we completed a major renovation of the Center, which was the culmination of years of planning, and it has turned out incredibly well. We are, however, still learning and exploring what we can do in the new space and discovering new opportunities for faculty and students to be creative. We may even try to produce a small multimedia play in our “Innovation Studio” space.

On the DLTG side, we are actively working to build an academic repository of scholarly content as well as to enhance the capabilities of our library digital collections repository infrastructure. I’m very excited about both of these. That said, there seems to be no end to what we learn about other people’s workflows.

What do you wish that more people knew about digital media and library technologies (in relation to the Digital Library Program or not)?
In the Jones Media Center, we provide access to the creative output of thousands, if not millions, of people in the form of an audio and video collection of over 30,000 DVD, videos, videogames, CDs, CD-ROMs, as well as board and card games. We also enable people to become creators of their own multimedia-based essays and stories, by loaning a wide array of video cameras, still cameras, audio recorders, microphones, lights, projectors, and much more.

At the same time, we are fighting an uphill battle to make sure that all of this content will remain accessible for future generations. That’s where the work of DLTG and our entire Digital Library Program team comes into play. There is a neverending amount of work to be done. Though budgets in higher ed are constrained, this is a vital growth area, and it is endlessly fascinating to be a part of it.

Who are you when you’re not being the Head of Digital Media and Library Technologies?
I am an a capella singer, an actor and director of community theater, and a (casual these days) video gamer.

What has been a notable challenge with a DLP project? (question from Lizzie)
With a book, when it is published, that’s pretty much it. It is self-contained and can sit on a shelf for years. A contemporary DLP project is not as simple as scanning the pages of a book and putting up a PDF or JPEG images online. A really good DLP project feels more like a film by comparison. There is so much that so many people have to plan and develop and do to deliver the final output. But more than that, the final output must be continually monitored and evaluated to ensure that it continues to be accessible. An operating system update or a browser update can change everything. A good amount of the effort put into creating a DLP project is spent designing a system that can be accessed and adapted by future developers and librarians. That’s one reason we tend to favor open standards and open source development tools.

What question would you like another member of the Digital Library Program staff to answer?
Is there a Library collection or a period of Dartmouth history you’d like to see digitized and available to the world?

DLP Staff Interview: Lizzie Curran, Assistant Conservator

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Next in our series of interviews with Digital Library Program staff. Today, Lizzie Curran, Assistant Conservator, answers questions about her work. Follow Lizzie and her colleagues at the Dartmouth College Library’s Preservation Lab on Instagram.

What does an Assistant Conservator do?
As the assistant conservator, I repair both the special collections in Rauner Library as well as the general circulating collection, fixing what needs to be fixed and beyond! Which is to say: I put covers back on, stick split spines back together, and flatten or mend where needed. I also build custom boxes and other enclosures for objects that come in to the lab. I am also the liaison to the Digital Library Program, so we can keep communication open between departments as objects come in to be digitized and need conservation.

How did you get here? That is, what was your path to becoming an Assistant Conservator here at Dartmouth?
I attended the North Bennet Street School in Boston and studied bookbinding there, full time for two years. During that time, I had an internship at Dartmouth (!) and a fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle working with their special collections. I was most recently a conservation technician at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA, where I was doing something similar to what I’m doing here at Dartmouth, but in a private library setting. I moved back east in April, and the rest is history.

What’s a notable (interesting, challenging, unusual) project that you’ve worked on recently?
Lately I’ve been mending maps of cities and towns in New Hampshire to be digitized in the Evans Map Room. They span the entire twentieth century, so it’s interesting to see the evolution of the materials they’re printed on and purposes of the maps. For example, the earlier in the century the map is, the more information on land plots and land owners is given—later on, there are tourist destinations and historical landmarks noted instead. The things that haven’t changed in the last hundred years are also interesting; Route 4A in Enfield has been exactly where it is…for a long time.

What do you wish that more people knew about preservation and conservation (in relation to digital libraries or not)?
I wish people knew you should never “fix” a book yourself and put tape on it! Really though, I think what preservation addresses is how we think about accessing our information in the future. Though the future may lie in the digital world, print will certainly be around and we’re handling the print objects of the future right now. It’s not modern-day tape that drives me nuts, it’s tape from 1950. I’m just trying to help out Preservation Services in 2050, who will undoubtedly be chipping off tape from 2016 unless we alert the public now!

Who are you when you’re not being an Assistant Conservator?
I’m always keeping my hands busy somehow—I love baking, sewing, knitting, drawing, and making things in general. I like birdwatching while meandering around my neck of the woods in Vermont. Currently I’m in the throes of being a new homeowner and all the challenges that brings, ie: how to use a wood stove.

What’s the most unusual item that you’ve come across in your work so far with the DLP? (question from Bill)
The most unusual item I’ve seen here so far is a large project we’re doing with some albums from the Marcus Jewelry Company, which was based out of New York City around the turn of the last century. The little painted jewelry designs pasted in to the albums told us a lot about life and aesthetics in 1910, and the artistry of the tiny paintings was amazing. There were even little mockups of glitzy belt buckles with a velvet ribbon tacked in to the book. Some had moveable overlays to show you how a pin could transform to a necklace… really neat stuff like that.

What question would you like another member of the Digital Library Program staff to answer?
What has been a notable challenge with a DLP project?

DLP Staff Interview: Bill Ghezzi, Digital Production and Metadata Librarian

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Next in our series of interviews with Digital Library Program staff. Today, William (Bill) Ghezzi, Digital Production & Metadata Librarian, answers questions about his work.

What does a Digital Production & Metadata Librarian do?
As Digital Production Manager I work closely with the Digital Library Program and staff in the Digital Production Unit to plan and execute scanning and photographic projects for the Library. A large part of the digital production aspect of my work is project management. I convene the DLP Production Group where we design workflows, troubleshoot problems, share information, and generally shepherd projects through the DLP process. As Metadata Librarian, I work in Cataloging & Metadata Services to design and implement workflows for the creation of metadata for print and digital content. Our primary task in Metadata Services is to create a metadata database of record for all of our digital collections and publications.

How did you get here? That is, what was your path to becoming a Digital Production & Metadata Librarian here at Dartmouth?
I am in my twentieth year in the Library. I began as a Librarian in the Catalog Department. I worked with Cataloging staff on original cataloging of books, music scores, sound recordings, serials, and electronic resources. My work entirely focused on the Dartmouth College Library Catalog. Over the years, as we began to license more electronic resources, the focus of my work became more closely connected with digital resources and electronic resource management. In 2012, my position changed to half time as Metadata Librarian and half time as Digital Production Manager.

What’s a notable (interesting, challenging, unusual) project that you’ve worked on recently?
I would have to say the Stone Family Papers was one of the more interesting recent projects, mainly because it demonstrates the collaborative nature of the Digital Program. The Digital Production Unit worked closely with the Library Conservator to prepare and photograph the manuscripts. The DLP Production Group worked with the Digital Library Technologies Group and Cataloging & Metadata Services to develop a new local image viewing software to deliver the images online. We like to describe the work of the Digital Program as distributed across departments, and the Stone Family Papers project exemplifies that collaborative process.

What do you wish that most people knew about digital production?
The Digital Production Unit is in a secured area in the Library. This is to protect some of the valuable materials that we work with. I wish more people were able to just walk into the department and see what we are up to. Certainly, I welcome anyone who would like to learn more about what we do to come and visit. Just email me and I can set something up.

Who are you when you’re not being a Digital Production & Metadata Librarian?
For almost fifty years now, I have been performing and teaching the classical guitar. There is more about that at my website.

Are there innovative or transformative digital projects that other institutions have done that make you think “why don’t we try something like that here at Dartmouth?” (question from Mina)
There is a small interest group in the Library investigating linked open data. We spent some time looking at Linked Jazz, a site that considers jazz history through the many connections and relationships between jazz musicians. It’s a great site to learn about jazz, jazz musicians, and linked data at the same time.

What question would you like another member of the Digital Library Program staff to answer?
What’s the most unusual item that you’ve come across in your work with the DLP?

DLP Staff Interview: Mina Rakhra, Cataloging and Metadata Librarian

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Next in our series of interviews with Digital Library Program staff. Today, Mina Rakhra, Cataloging and Metadata Librarian, answers questions about her work.

What does a Cataloging and Metadata Librarian do?
A Cataloging and Metadata Librarian’s primary responsibility is to create and manage descriptive metadata for the Library collection in order to facilitate discovery of and access to those scholarly materials.  In addition to creating metadata, I’m also involved in the selection, creation, and implementation of appropriate metadata standards for the Library’s digital projects.

How did you get here? That is, what was your path to becoming a Cataloging and Metadata Librarian Dartmouth?
I’ve worked for the Library since 2000, starting in Acquisitions Services and then moving to Cataloging & Metadata Services in 2001.  At that time, I was also pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science at UIUC. Shortly before I graduated, I was fortunate enough to be offered a professional position in the Cataloging & Metadata Services department and I’ve been here ever since.

What’s a notable (interesting, challenging, unusual) project that you’ve worked on recently?
The most interesting and challenging project that I’ve worked on recently has to be the Occom Circle project.  This was a multi-year project to create a scholarly digital edition of the works of Samson Occom.  This was the first (and largest) digital project that I’ve worked on — it was an amazing experience to work collaboratively with such a large project group and to be so closely involved in the transcription, markup, and online delivery of over 500 handwritten eighteenth-century manuscripts.

What do you wish that most people knew about metadata?
Creating good metadata is a skill that anyone can learn — you don’t have to be a cataloger or a metadata librarian!

Who are you when you’re not being a Cataloging and Metadata Librarian?
When I’m not being a Cataloging & Metadata Librarian, I’m at home enjoying the peace and quiet of a small Vermont village.

What’s your favorite DLP project and why? (question from Jenny)
What I’ve really enjoyed about the text markup projects is the opportunity to read and interact with primary materials.  Both the Occom and the John McCoy Family papers projects involved handwritten letters from earlier centuries and it was fascinating to read them — there were times when a phrase would catch my eye and I would forget about the markup (temporarily!) and be completely immersed in the letter and the world that it described.

What question would you like another member of the Digital Library Program staff to answer?
Are there innovative or transformative digital projects that other institutions have done that make you think “why don’t we try something like that here at Dartmouth?”

DLP Staff Interview: Jenny Mullins, Digital Preservation Librarian

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With this post, we inaugurate a series of interviews with Digital Library Program staff. Today, Jenny Mullins, Digital Preservation Librarian, answers questions about her work.

What does a Digital Preservation Librarian do?

Fundamentally, a Digital Preservation Librarian ensures that digital materials created or acquired by the Library remain usable over time. And by “usable” I mean they must be accessible, understandable, and authentic. Our access to digital materials is mediated through software and hardware, which are constantly evolving and/or becoming obsolete. As Digital Preservation Librarian, I try to mitigate the risk posed by evolving technologies by instituting policies and workflows to actively manage files over time. I advocate for the use of open, well-supported file formats, monitor the viability of file formats in our collections, and check the fixity of files to protect against bit rot. I also work with metadata (and Metadata Librarians) quite a bit. If we have a file, but we can’t find it, identify it, or contextualize it, it’s not going to be very usable.

In addition to establishing best practices within the Library, I’ve also been trying to reach out to creators of digital content — which at this point is pretty much everyone — and help them understand how to best manage digital assets. Digital preservation starts at the beginning of a file’s life cycle, and requires ongoing active management. The more that researchers understand about how to care for their digital materials, the better, especially if these materials have a chance of ending up in library or archival collections.

How did you get here? That is, what was your path to becoming the Digital Preservation Librarian here at Dartmouth?

It was a long and winding path. I started my library career hoping to be a book conservator. I worked in conservation labs as a technician, and focused my MLIS in Preservation Management. My life took some twists and turns, and I randomly happened into (literally as a result of a conversation with a stranger on a bus) a three-month internship at the Bay Area Video Coalition helping to build a digital repository for dance video. I knew nothing about video, and almost nothing about digital preservation, but was able to apply the preservation fundamentals I had learned in school and through working with book and paper collections. As I started working with these new-to-me formats, I kept asking myself questions like “How is this video file different from a book? How is it the same? What does this say about the kinds of questions we should ask or decisions we should make?” Slowly, through lots of research, practice and the help of colleagues like Lauren Sorensen and Dave Rice, I developed a pretty good understanding of digital preservation fundamentals. I remember being at a Digital Preservation Interest Group meeting at ALA about a year after I started that internship (which turned into a full-time job) and realizing, “I finally understand what everyone is talking about!” I felt like I’d climbed up a pretty steep hill and could finally see the surrounding landscape. A month later, I submitted my application for the Digital Preservation Librarian position here at Dartmouth.

What’s a notable (interesting, challenging, favorite) project that you’ve worked on recently?

I’m working on developing a mini-workshop with Caitlin Birch on designing Oral History projects with long-term preservation and archiving in mind. I’ve been really trying to get into doing more outreach, but it’s not one of my natural strengths. Working with Caitlin has been a great learning experience — she’s great at engaging an audience and explaining complicated ideas in a way that’s easy to digest.

What do you wish that more people knew about digital preservation?

In the context of the Library, I’d like people to understand that preservation of digital materials is deeply collaborative — success relies on the expertise of many individuals from multiple departments. My role is often to get the right people in the room talking to one another.

Who are you when you’re not being the Digital Preservation Librarian?

For the next few months, I’m Interim Head of the Preservation Department, so I get to think more broadly about the preservation needs of the Library. After 5pm and on weekends, I head back to my house in the woods in small-town Vermont.

What question would you like another member of the Digital Library Program staff to answer?

“What’s your favorite DLP project and why?”