The table below provides the list of candidates for the DuraSpace Board-Member-at-Large election. Included is a personal statement provided by the candidates. Each institution has one vote that will be executed by the Community Liaison, after building consensus with their colleagues and management at their institution. Voting closes April 22. Results will be posted before the end of April. 

NameOrganizationTitle/RolePersonal Statement (can include an indication of individual's involvement/experience with the DuraSpace opens source projects or services at their institution/s and/or with the broader preservation and archiving community and/or some detail about what he/she believes should be the current priorities and/or long term strategies for DuraSpace).

Allan Bell

University of British Columbia

Allan Bell
Associate University Librarian
Digital Programs and Services

I truly appreciate being nominated to serve as at-large member of the DuraSpace Board of Directors.  

During my tenure at UBC Library, I established and continue to spearhead the Scholarly Communication and Copyright Office, opened a state of the art digitization centre, established our digital preservation program with Artefactual Systems for locally produced and born digital material and is currently working on the development of the partnership with UBC IT to provide IT Services to the Library. 

cIRcle, UBC’s DSpace digital repository, has been ranked as the top repository in Canada for three consecutive years and has risen in the categories of top institutional and top world repository in the Webometrics repository rankings.  Since arriving at UBC in 2010, I have actively participated in the governance and development of diverse open source platforms and have contributed to numerous planning initiatives including the DSpace 2013 Vision and Roadmap Meeting.   

My commitment to the support and development of open source software is demonstrated by many of the programs and services initiated at UBC and I would be honoured to be a member of the Board of Directors 

The University of British Columbia has been a gold level sponsor of Duraspace since 2010.  

Robert Cartolano 

 

Columbia University Libraries/Information ServicesAVP for Digital Programs and Technology Services

"I am strongly committed to supporting national and local efforts to build sustainable approaches to digital preservation and access.  Over the past three years I have participated in community efforts to help bring Fedora forward as a leading digital repository platform, and served as Chair of the Fedora Steering Group in 2013-2014.  I fully support DuraSpace's initiatives to better serve the needs of community source projects while developing new and innovative services.  I believe that my participation on the DuraSpace Board can help the organization continue to move forward, and I hope that I will be given this opportunity to better serve our community.  Thank you."

Dan CoughlinPennsylvania State UniversityDigital Library Technologies, Information Technology Services

"As the Director of Software Development, I have a dedicated team working entirely on repository services built on top of Hydra, using Fedora as our preservation layer. We have financially supported the development of Fedora 4 for two years, and over the past year we have been leaders within the Hydra community to implement Fedora 4 in our repository services. One of our focus points has been providing the broader Hydra community a baseline repository (Sufia) on the Hydra framework that originates from our local IR (ScholarSphere) Hydra implementation. I am enthusiastic about the direction DuraSpace has taken to provide hosted solutions, such as ArchivestDirect, and integrate repository solutions like DuraCloud with the DPN national preservation initiative. I believe the combination of integrating existing services and providing cloud-based hosted solutions is critical to the adoption rate of DuraSpace services, and I am interested to explore how Hydra may play a role in this as well."

Salwa Ismail


Georgetown University LibraryHead, Library Information Technology (LIT)

"Innovative, Advocate, Inquisitive, are the three words I would use to describe my approach to my profession as an academic librarian. I truly believe that libraries have moved beyond their role of facilitators of information to creators and curators of information. As universities evolve to become the universities of the future, so do libraries and the services and tools we provide. I subscribe to the school of thought that we need to be innovative and creative but within the realm of sustainability and DuraSpace’s mission of providing open sourced innovative technologies with community support addresses just that. My library has been members of DuraSpace for a few years now and we’re very robust users of DSpace, my team contributed to some of the base code for DSpace 4 and 5.  It allows for free sharing and transparent exchange of ideas and resources among peers.  One of the current priorities that I feel DuraSpace should be focusing on is leveraging the existing services, plans and designs from preservation networks such as DPN, APtrust and with the new DuraSpace preservation plans with archivesDirect. I’m an advocate that we need community supported technologies to create services to help ensure that current and future generations have access to our collective digital heritage, and DuraSpace’s mission of just that speaks to the core of this."

David W. Lewis

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

Dean of the IUPUI University Library
IU Assistant Vice President for Digital Scholarly Communication

"My library is a long time user of DSpace and one of our programmers is a DSpace committer.  I have been a member of the DSpace Steering Committee and am currently the committee’s chair.  I think DuraSpace will face several challenges in the next several years.  First, while there are some European members, DuraSpace needs to expand its reach beyond North America, both in terms of memberships/funding and engagement with projects.  This will be important in the near term for the DSpace, but the other projects will likely follow DSpace in this regard.  Second, Fedora and DSpace are at some level competitive.  DuraSpace needs to balance the two projects or develop a strategy that provides each a place.  If Hydra becomes a DuraSpace project this may become more complex.  Finally, while DuraSpace has made the transition to a membership-supported organization it is not clear that all of the projects have the support they need for long-term viability."

Stuart LewisEdinburgh University LibraryDeputy Director

"Stuart Lewis is the Deputy Director of Edinburgh University Library in the UK. In this role he oversees the Research and Learning activities of the Library, including Open Access, Research Data Management, Software Development, and the Scottish Digital Library Consortium which provides DSpace hosting and development services to Scottish Universities. Stuart has been deeply involved with DSpace for the past ten years, becoming a DSpace Committer in 2007, and is a member of the current steering group. Over the coming years it is important that the DuraSpace projects remain at the forefront of their areas, a process that will be facilitated by a strong board with an international outlook, good partnerships with registered service providers, and an interest in actively growing the membership of the organisation."

 

Tim McGeary

 

 

Duke University LibrariesAssociate University Librarian for Information Technology Services

"I am honored to be nominated as a candidate for Board-Member-at-Large for the DuraSpace Foundation.  Over my nearly 15 year career in higher education, I have found the DuraSpace Foundation, its services, and its administrative support of open source projects to be at the highest level of quality. It has been a privilege to partner with DuraSpace staff and members at each of the three institutions where I have worked.  The collaborative spirit and commitment to sustainable and open solutions at DuraSpace is precisely the right type of focus and leadership, as well as the foundation for my leadership as Associate University Librarian at Duke University.  I would be honored to work with the DuraSpace Foundation Board of Directors and new CEO Debra Hanken Kurtz to set strategic directions and priorities necessary to continue and enhance our commitment to excellence, openness, and sustainability."  

Holly Mercer

University of Tennessee

Associate Dean for Research and Scholarly Communication and Director, Newfound Press

"The University of Tennessee is a relatively new user of DuraSpace software and services. Since 2012, we have implemented Fedora and DSpace, and are subscribers to the DuraCloud service. However, my relationship with DSpace predates DuraSpace, as I helped implement and support DSpace at two other institutions. Tennessee is currently a member at the gold level.

DuraSpace has fostered growth in the open repository and digital preservation communities, allowing a diverse range of institutions to participate in the open source community. As a librarian, I take very seriously my role as a steward of digital scholarly and cultural heritage resources. Colleagues view me as an effective advocate for the libraries at the University of Tennessee. I have administrative responsibility for many areas, including library technology, scholarly communication, digital media and digital scholarship, and research and grants. I work closely with many campus units, including our General Counsel, Office of Research and Engagement, Office of Information Technology, and Office of the Provost. I would welcome the opportunity to serve as at-large member of the DuraSpace Board of Directors."

Tom MurphyUniversity of Michigan - ICPSRDirector - Computer & Network Services

"I have been in the IT world over 30 years in various capacities. From a Data Processing Clerk, to Programmer, Designer, Architect (all disciplines), to a CIO/CTO. I have also covered the commercial side of Software Development and Implementation with Oracle, Informix, Ingres, Borland and PGP. I have been an IT Services business owner with a successfully executed exit strategy.

I have been fortunate enough to have been on all sides of the IT world from design, development, technical sales and services, technology consumer and entrepreneur. I currently serve my community with Public Service Board Positions. I also am heavily engaged with Fedora from a Leadership Governance group and am currently exploring a way to implement Fedora 4.x at ICPSR as a base repository tool. I am a very strong proponent of OAIS standard and have been able to ensure ICPSR adheres to the practices and principles where it fits our data science discipline.

I represent the NSF funded SEAD (Sustainable Environment Action Data) as an Architecture Council Member and am actively engaged in managing sprints for the 2.0 release of the product. I am also focused on enhancing the SEAD publishing interface to be more aligned with the Fedora 4 repository. 

I have a strong desire to serve on the Duraspace Board and believe my breadth of experiences and the various responsibilities I have had allows me to work with an already talented group of professionals on this board currently and to bring my IT services business acumen and drive to assist where possible.

Thank you for the consideration and best regards!"

Nick RuestYork UniversityDigital Assets Librarian

"I am the Digital Assets Librarian at York University. I oversee the development of data curation, asset management and preservation initiatives, along with creating and implementing systems that support the capture, description, delivery, and preservation of digital objects having significant content of enduring values. I'm also active in the Islandora community, serving as the Release Manager, Project Director for the Islandora/Fedora 4 integration project, member of the Islandora Foundation's Roadmap Committee, and contribute code to the project. I also work with the Fedora and Hydra communities where collective work overlaps and is of benefit to all three communities.

I have dedicated my career to making digital preservation a priority by helping to create a better understanding of the digital environment. Using methods that promote best practices in digital preservation, open access and open source software, my goal is to preserve material that would otherwise be largely inaccessible to researchers, and to create opportunities for these researchers to access, experience, and interact with digital objects in order to support and advance disciplinary scholarship. Additionally, I contribute to the ongoing construction, development, and improvement of digital library systems created by the library community. I undertake this work because I believe that as our national documentary heritage becomes increasingly threatened by political and institutional forces and by a shortage of skills, knowledge, and funding, the library community must continue to forcefully take up the challenge of digital stewardship, and build systems and mechanisms to ensure that valuable historic and cultural materials are preserved and made universally accessible.

My involvement with all aspects of an active open source communities like Islandora, Hydra, and Fedora have increased my interest in the governance models for open source projects, and how organizations like DuraSpace can contribute to the development of a successful open source ecosystem.


York University Libraries is a DuraSpace member, and user of DSpace and Fedora."
Brian SchottlaenderUniversity of California San DiegoUniversity Librarian

Brian Schottlaender is the University Librarian at UCSD. He is a leader in the digital library community and his experience and expertise will prove invaluable to DuraSpace and its community as we work with SHARE, DPN, and others in the ecosystem to provide open access, curation, and preservation of cultural heritage and research outputs of all types.

Brian has served on similar committees to guide and facilitate work in digital libraries and archives, in California and nationally. He has served on the California Digital Library (CDL) Review Steering Committee and as the Senior Associate to the University Librarian of the CDL, with responsibilities for development and deployment of primary digital content with an emphasis on the Online Archive of California. At UCSD he has served on a number of committees tasked with technology infrastructure planning including the Cyberinfrastructure Planning and Operations Committee, the Research Cyberinfrastructure Oversight Committee, and the Integrated Digital Infrastructure Management Team. Nationally, he serves on the Boards of HathiTrust, DPN, and ARL.

In addition to his extensive experience planning and guiding digital infrastructure development, Brian has administered and served as a principal investigator on several large grants from the Mellon Foundation, NSF, the Library of Congress, NARA, the Luce Foundation, IMLS, and the California State Library. 

He is a leader among his peers in ARL. His experience both planning and funding work in support of digital libraries and archives and his reputation as a collaborator make him the ideal candidate for this position.   

Here Brian expresses in his own words, his interest in the member at large position on the board:

"The UC San Diego Library has been involved with DuraSpace projects for many years now.  We started with Chronopolis as a DuraCloud option, progressing to actively contributing technical leadership and software development to Fedora, and more recently supporting the move of Hydra to DuraSpace for legal support.  We have also contributed financially since 2011/12, increasing our membership steadily to the Gold Member level. 

Above all, UCSD values the DuraSpace commitment to solutions that are driven by our community. The various options and service offerings you’ve helped develop and make available are impressive. Now that they are maturing, it is probably time to give priority to developing a clear strategy (or strategies) for aligning/integrating those offerings more seamlessly—and not just, or even primarily, technically.”  

Zheng (John) Wang

University of Notre DameAssociate University Librarian, Digital Access, Resources and Information Technology
Hesburgh Libraries

"John is an experienced senior manager/administrator, who leads large university organizations through vision, planning, and development of digital library initiatives, repositories, research data services, scholarly communications, and IT. He is an exceptionally strong strategic and creative thinker, team builder, collaborator, and decision maker. He is broadly engaging in national and global partnerships and collaborations such as Project Hydra, Academic Preservation Trust, as well as Digital Preservation Network. He will focus on developing strategies to support DuraSpace’s current members, expansion of the community, and sustainable software solutions."

Michael WinklerUniversity of Pennsylvania LibrariesDirector for Digital Partnerships

"Michael Winkler is the Director for Digital Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. In this role, Winkler provides leadership and oversight for strategic efforts by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries related to the community source efforts for the Kuali OLE Library Services Platform, the Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) that supports management of licensed and subscribed electronic content, and for DuraSpace VIVO as part of Penn's Researcher Services that enhance researcher profiles, business intelligence, and research data management. In all of these projects, Winkler has provided strategic leadership and management, and he has brought a deep, technical understanding to collaborative solution design. Winkler is an experienced advocate for collaboration and the role that technology can play in enhancing the value libraries have to the education and research process."