2024 Samvera Board Election - Candidate Statements

Kate Lynch

Lead Library Software Engineer for Research Data and Scholarship Services, Princeton University

As Lead Library Software Engineer for Research Data and Scholarship Services in Library IT at Princeton, I have the privilege of collaborating with dynamic, talented software developers in support of the lifecycle of research data and open scholarship, from ingestion to publication to discovery to preservation.  Through my involvement in the Samvera community, I have been able to learn from colleagues about the commonality of some of our most challenging needs for supporting researchers and scholars with academic software.

I first heard of Samvera as software at Open Repositories in 2013, while working at an institution where we were looking for a new software framework to adopt in order to start building a repository and preservation strategy.  At that conference, I sat in on an introduction to Samvera and was so pleasantly surprised to learn not just about the software but more importantly about the already-vibrant community of people around it.  It presented as a welcoming and warm environment that encouraged participation right away, and I was eager to get involved.  As I’ve continued to participate in Samvera work, the strength and pull of the community itself has only increased for me.  I consider it an honor to regularly work alongside so many dedicated individuals on software, workflow, and process development.

I have contributed to several efforts in the Samvera community that have made a positive impact, including previously serving on the Samvera Roadmap Council and chairing the Samvera Branch Renaming Working Group where we removed harmful naming language from over 100 Samvera repositories.  This is an example of the sort of impact that we can have as a group to make positive change.  If elected, I will bring my strength in collaborative learning, project and event coordination, and software development practice to continue to strengthen and grow the Samvera community of people.

Alicia Morris

Assistant Director, Tisch Library, Resource Management and Repository Services, Tufts University

I enthusiastically put my name forward to serve a second term as a member of the Samvera Board. I was
first elected to the Board in 2020 and serve as the current Treasurer. I am also a member of the Samvera
Outreach & Engagement Working Group.

Tufts has been a Partner since 2014. In my current role as Assistant Director for Resource Management
and Repository Services at Tisch Library I have been focused on building the collaborative network
necessary to establish a digital library presence for Tisch Library. I have partnered with colleagues
across Tufts Libraries and Archives, and Tufts Technology Services to build a common infrastructure and
establish metadata best practices for managing digital content.

I believe I bring to the Samvera Board a collaborative spirit, and experience working with librarians,
archivists, technologists, and other stakeholders to support the development, maintenance, and growth
of digital libraries. I would like the opportunity to continue my work on the Board and contributing to
the success of the Samvera Community.

As the Community moves forward, the role of the Board in providing support and continuity for the
Community will be more important than ever. I am eager for the opportunity to continue to lend my
knowledge and experience to help provide that support in the years ahead.

tamsin woo

Associate Director for Digital Library Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara

in over a decade as a participant in the Samvera community, i have had turns contributing to most aspects of our collaboration. as a technical contributor, i’ve worked on our low level library dependencies and served several years as the Hyrax tech lead. i was active in the formation of the working group/interest group framework, participated in the early iterations of the Metadata WG and established the Hyrax Maintenance WG as an ongoing support structure for Hyrax.

in my current role at UC Santa Barbara Library, i serve as the technical architect for our digital library infrastructure, engineering manager for our small development team, and a key part of the Surfliner collaboration. in each of these capacities, i am a relentless advocate for the strategic value of partnership with Samvera.

i hope to bring to the board a strong technical perspective and a clear understanding of the challenges we face leveraging our community processes into contributions and, ultimately, sustainable products.