Candidates: 2020 Steering Group Elections

Annual Election for three, three-year terms 2020-2023

Esmé Cowles

Assistant Director for Information Technology, Princeton University Library

At Princeton, I lead the development teams responsible for our Samvera repository and discovery applications, as well as the broader range Library websites, our Voyager ILS, and hosted services. I began working as a repository developer in 2004, and have been working with Samvera since 2012 — first as a developer, and then as a manager starting in 2018. I've contributed to Library open source development in a variety of ways, including authoring ontologies and RDF schema, leading workshops, and being a Fedora committer and specification editor.

As long as I've been involved with the Samvera community, I have been impressed by how open and welcoming the community is. I would like to join Samvera Steering to continue and build on this aspect of the community. One of my particular areas of interest is supporting adopters who use Samvera as a toolkit to build their own applications. Solution bundles and hosted services have expanded the possibilities of who can adopt Samvera, but I think there is a key role for custom applications to explore different persistence options, integrations, and programming languages. This kind of experimentation and renewal is essential to the long-term sustainability of Samvera. It is my hope that continuing to embrace and value different approaches, different kinds of contributions, and different ways of using Samvera will help keep both our code and our community vibrant and sustainable.

Jeremy Friesen

Manager, Digital Library Technologies and Research & Development Technology Engineer

University of Notre Dame's Hesburgh Libraries

I am a manager of software developers at the University of Notre Dame's Hesburgh Libraries.  Most recently, I have helped lead the coalition-building and technical efforts of collaborating across two campus organizations.  I will soon transition roles to a research & development technology engineer in a new team at the Hesburgh Libraries.

At Notre Dame, we have a long-running Samvera solution (CurateND). Currently, Notre Dame is assessing the functional needs that our faculty have for our Institutional Repository.  In Samvera, I have worked in and on the software development cycle; Contributing code, documentation, reviews, design discussions, facilitating working groups, process improvements, tech calls, and more.  I've also participated in and facilitated Samvera Partner meetings.  I have observed the community at work at many levels, and appreciate its values of openness and inclusion.

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

Head 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

I enthusiastically put my name forward to serve as a member of the Samvera Steering Group.  I am the Assistant Director of Resource Management and Repository Services at Tisch Library, Tufts University. We have been a Partner (first Hydra, then Samvera) since 2014.  I am also a member of the Samvera Marketing Working Group.

  I have worked at Tufts since 2008, and in that time have devoted much of my time and energy to 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 would bring to the Steering Group a collaborative spirit and experience working with librarians, archivists, technologists and other stakeholders to support the development, maintenance and growth of digital libraries.

  The pandemic has brought great uncertainty to our lives and our work.  As the Community moves forward, the role of the Steering Group in providing support and continuity for the Community will be more important than ever.  It would be a privilege to be able to lend my knowledge and experience to help provide that support in the years ahead.

  I am honored to run for a seat on the Steering Committee and look forward to working with the Community on shared commitments and challenges.

Special election for one seat to July 2021

Despite there being only one candidate for this seat, Partners will need to vote to ratify the appointment.

Kevin Kochanski

Client Liaison Officer, Notch8

As Client Liaison at Notch8 since 2018, I serve as lead for business development, client success, and community engagement.  Much of that work is within the Samvera community, where I chair the Hyku Interest Group and maintain hyku.samvera.org in addition to contributing updates to other Samvera outposts online.  

Notch8 is a Samvera Partner that’s been involved in the community for over four years. Maintaining a presence on Steering is important to us. I regularly engage in conversations with current and prospective Samvera users who are either exploring repository options or continuing work on an existing project. I will bring their needs and perspective to Steering conversations. Additionally, as part of the fundamental conversations around the directions of Samvera, I will be able to report back to my own team information that will help us better serve the community.  

Personally, I draw on a resume that includes libraries (NYU) and publishing (Elsevier, Oxford University Press). Contributing to the Samvera Community is a priority for me; interacting with and advocating for the needs of organizations and individuals in the academics and humanities sectors; belonging to such an open and progressive community.  The ability to contribute in any way to the success of Samvera is gratifying to me, and I would be excited at an opportunity to join Steering and find new ways to contribute.