I am the Web Systems Manager for the University of Michigan Libraries. Library Web Systems creates and maintains the web applications that make the library's web site tick. It's an exciting position and one I'm thrilled to be undertaking. I also maintain a blog, RSS4Lib: Innovative Ways Libraries Use RSS, where I discuss various ways libraries can (or should) take advantage of RSS as an effective data exchange tool. I've recently posted these articles:
From March 2004 through March 2007, I was a librarian at the Edwin Ginn Library at The Fletcher School (Tufts University's graduate school for international relations). Half of my position was is mix of traditional and "library 2.0" work -- reference, database development, web site design and programming, and so forth. One of my projects is the Fletcher Faculty Publications database and RSS Feeds. The remainder of my time was spent managing IT services for The Fletcher School's faculty, staff, and students.
From 1997-2004, I was an Information Specialist for the Ford Motor Company research library. I oversaw the library's web site and information architecture projects. We developed information services including customized e-mail alert services, automatic text classification, and intelligent agents. Please see the Publications and Presentations section, below, for details on some of these projects.
From 1995-1997, before working for Ford, I worked for the now-defunct Open Media Research Institute (OMRI) in Prague, Czech Republic. OMRI was a non-profit research and publishing organization that studied the then-new democracies and emerging states of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and that was funded by the Open Society Institute. Although OMRI no longer exists, the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has preserved portions of the OMRI web site.
Presented at Computers in Libraries 2009. Abstract: MTagger, a social bookmarking tool, launched in the winter of 2008. MTagger allows users to tag a webpage on the library site or anywhere, and catalog records, or digital images. The tool was intended to enhance findability across collections and to expose ?hidden? collections. After launch, the service did not meet our expectations for use, so we embarked on usability testing. This talk covers the questions we asked, why we asked them, and how we're responding.
Presented at Access 2008. Abstract: The University of Michigan libraries launched MTagger, a home-grown social bookmark tool, in spring 2008. It allows users to tag individual library web pages, catalog records, digital library images, or any other web page. Through the "collections" feature -- metadata assigning each tagged item to one of the library's physical or online collections -- users can broaden or narrow their search for tags. We built the tool to enhance findability across our collections and to expose "hidden" collections to users who might not know they even existed. In this talk, learn about why we built this tool, how it works, how it's being used, and where we're going with it. Listen to the talk while looking at the slides.
Presented at Computers in Libraries 2008 with my colleague Mike Creech. Abstract: Learn how to foster user-friendly digital information flows by eliminating silos, highlighting context and improving findability to create a unified web presence. Hear how the University of Michigan Libraries' (MLibrary) are reinventing the libraries' web sites to emphasize information over the path users previously took to access it. By elevating information over its location, users are not forced to know which library is the "right" starting place. The talk includes tips for your library web redesign process and user-centric design process.
RSS Basics and Beyond: Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of Syndicated Content (PowerPoint, 4.5MB)
A talk at The Ohio State University's Library 2.0 Seminar on June 13, 2007. Abstract: An introduction to RSS, feed aggregators, and easy ways libraries can take advantage of RSS to improve communication with their patrons, communities, and staffs. (Download the PowerPoint [4.5 MB] or watch now [streaming video].)
I gave this talk at the Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries' Cool Tools and New Technologies conference on October 27, 2006. The talk abstract: The Ginn Library has created several databases to track and promote scholarly research by our faculty and students. A faculty publications database provides RSS feeds by author- and user-supplied keywords along with a current awareness feed that includes everything published. A second database highlights student master's theses. Feeds are used internally to populate web pages and externally to promote the school. Learn how we created these two databases. (PowerPoint, 1 MB)
RSS4Lib
RSS Bumper Sticker
Remote Grinnellian