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I had not considered running for a position on Samvera Steering until a colleague reached out to me and encouraged me to run. After reflection, I am eager and excited to further my contributions to Samvera. I will bring three key things: A current contributing software developers perspective; a passion for a community that understands inclusion and diversity requires ongoing action; and an ability to build coalitions through listening and growing shared visions.
Brian McBride
Awaiting information by June 14thHead of Digital Infrastructure Development, University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library
As Head of Digital Infrastructure Development at the University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library, I am responsible for managing a team of software engineers and developing strategic project plans to ensure highly scalable, sustainable, and open digital library systems and library applications for the University of Utah.
My involvement in the Samvera Community began in 2014 at the first Samvera Connect (previously known as Hydra Connect) at UCSD. I learned so much about the Samvera technology stack at my first conference, but most importantly I left Connect with new friends and a sense of community. The following year we began working on developing our Research Data Repository (Hive) using Sufia. In 2017, the University of Utah and Boston Public Library were awarded an IMLS grant to develop Newspaper specific functionality to Hyrax based applications via the NewspaperWorks gem.
One of my favorite yearly activities is working with my fellow community members to put together the annual Samvera Connect conference. I have worked with the Samvera community over the past four years in multiple capacities including chairing/co-chairing the program committee and hosting Connect 2018.
A close friend and colleague of mine approached me last year and mentioned that he thought I should run for the upcoming Samvera steering elections. Up until that point, I had not given much thought about running for Steering. However, after careful consideration I feel that this would be a wonderful opportunity to expand my involvement with Samvera . As a member of the Steering committee I will bring energy and enthusiasm in helping build and broaden the Samvera community. As we navigate these challenging times we need to ensure that Samvera continues to strive for openness and inclusivity in our community while also ensuring we invest in our technology to allow organizations of all sizes and resources to adopt Samvera solutions so they too can open their collections to the world.
Alicia Morris
Assistant Director of Resource Management and Repository Services at Tisch Library, Tufts University
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