Digital Library Center - University of Florida Smathers Libraries

People

Erich Kesse, Director

Erich Kesse currently serves as Director of the University of Florida’s Digital Library Center, a position he has held since July 1999. Erich has taught “Digital Library Project Planning” workshops for SOLINET since 2000. He has served a digital library consultant to the University of the Virgin Islands and to the University of Botswana. Prior to July 1999 and from May 1987, Erich served as the Preservation Officer at the University of Florida Libraries. And, he began his career as rare book and manuscripts cataloger for the Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati’s Taft Museum, and the University of Florida, and interned with both Transylvania University (Lexington, Kentucky) and YIVO (the Yiddish Institute in New York City). Erich holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Kentucky and a Certificate of Preservation Administration from Columbia University in the City of New York.

Stephanie Haas, Assistant Director

haas@uflib.ufl.edu, Brief CV

Stephanie Haas, Assistant Director of the DLC, has been involved with environmental/natural resource information throughout her career. Before coming to Florida, she was the first professional librarian at the Denver Museum of Natural History. She has held academic positions at Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO and at the Marston Science Library, University of Florida. In her current position, she helps develop science based digital resources; works on collaborative projects with science units on campus and with local agencies and museums; and writes grants to support the development of digital collections. Her current research interests include exploring the issues of geographic-based access to digital collections; furthering the understanding and support of the Open Access on the UF campus through the UF Institutional Repository; and the development of the Aquatic Commons an international marine/aquatic repository.

Laurie Taylor, Digital Projects Librarian

Laurien@ufl.edu, Brief CV
blog and website

Laurie received her PhD in English, focusing on digital media and visual rhetoric (largely video games and comics). Her articles have appeared in various journals and edited collections, including Game Studies, Media/Culture, Computers and Composition Online, Works & Days, and Videogames and Art. Her current research includes methods to digitally represent and contextualize archival materials.

Joining the Digital Library Center in 2007, Laurie is working to better align, integrate, and promote the Digital Collections with the University of Florida. She works closely with the Libraries' subject specialists, University of Florida faculty, student researchers, and courses at the University of Florida. Example projects include developing exhibits, technologies, collections, and coordinating the DLC internship program and the loading of Digital Collection materials to external sites to promote interest and access (YouTube, Flickr, Blogs@UF Libraries). For more information, see her blog about the Digital Library Center or her website.

Matthew Mariner, Text Processing Unit Head

matmari@uflib.ufl.edu , Brief CV

Matt received his BA in English, focusing on modern literary criticism and film. Matt's film studies background supports his current research in film theory and historic preservation, just as his textual studies background supports his work with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Information Studies at Florida State University, studying information organization and digital libraries. Matt is also working on new research, including a forthcoming publication on Optical Character Recognition and its use in digital libraries.

As the Text Processing Unit Head, Matt coordinates all aspects of the text finalization, verification, and archiving processes. This includes supervising metadata (METS) file validation, digital archiving, text processing for Optical Character Recognition, and coordinating data transfer to additional archives and libraries (International Childrens Digital Library, Internet Archives, Library of Congress) and to the Florida Digital Archive for long-term digital preservation.

Dina Benson, Institutional Repository Coordinator

dbenson@uflib.ufl.edu, Brief CV

Dina received her BA in Philosophy and Classics from the University of Florida and her Masters of Science in Library and Information Studies from Florida State University. Dina oversees all aspects of the Institutional Repository, which is currently in its first development phase. During this first phase Dina coordinates resource collection and development from University of Florida materials to build the Intitutional Repository. Dina also works with the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Committee and library subject specialists to digitize University of Florida materials related to their collections, as with the IFAS materials and the British Parliamentary Debates, among others.

Randall Renner, Digital Imaging Coordinator

ranrenn@uflib.ufl.edu

Randall Renner received his MFA in Creative Photography in 1997, focusing on the intersections of traditional and digital photography. Before coming to the Digital Library Center in 2002, Randall taught college level courses on computer art and montage, mixed media studio classes, black and white photography, training seminars on various computer applications, and worked as a photographer, photographing rare books, artwork, 3-D models, in a studio environment and on location. His experience in photography spans the entire process, from image capturing via digital or analog methods to the printing and display of the captured images.

Randall is an imaging expert for two and three dimensional objects. He supervises the imaging department to ensure quality control of the imaging production in regards to preservation and presentation. More recently, Randall has extended his technical expertise to audio-visual material digitization for preservation. His current projects include digitizing oral histories for the Matheson Museum Digital Collection and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and creating three dimensional renderings of the Harn Museum's archival objects.

Lourdes Santamaria-Wheeler, Digital Production Supervisor

lousant@uflib.ufl.edu, Brief CV

Lourdes Santamaria-Wheeler received her BFA in Creative Photography in 2003. Before joining the Digital Library Center in 2005, Lourdes worked in print production. Her museum knowledge and experience is essential to the construction of the Digital Collection display interface as well as to the many exhibit pages and to museum collaborations. At the Digital Library Center, Lourdes coordinates the imaging of all non-newspaper items including books, photographs & slides. She also assists with on-site training in imaging for partner institutions in the Digital Library of the Caribbean. Lourdes is further developing her training, museum, and library experience in her current studies for her MA in Museum Studies concentrating on Contemporary and Modern Art as well as technology in museums.

Jane received her BA in Library Science from Tamkang University in Taipei, Taiwan and her AS in computer information at Santa Fe Community College. Jane brings a wealth of library experience from all aspects of traditional and digital library operations, and she stays up-to-date in current practices and technologies through continuing education. Before coming to the Digital Library Center, Jane spent three years handling all aspects of library operations at the library of Nuclear Engineering Department at Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan; eight years as a cataloger at Follett Library Resources in Illinois; one year conducting reference service and computer lab assistance at Schaumburg High School in Illinois; and four years as patron services in Florida’s Alachua County Library System. At the Digital Library Center, Jane oversees the Quality Control Unit to ensure the quality, consistency, and completeness of non-newspaper digital products, including textual, visual, and metadata contents. She is also working to enrich the Digital Collection's holdings for Asian studies.

Nelda Schwartz, Bibliographic Control

neldas@uflib.ufl.edu

Mark Sullivan, Digital Library Programmer (Systems)

marsull@uflib.ufl.edu

Tom Bielicke, Digital Library Programmer (Systems)

tombiel@uflib.ufl.edu

Location

The Digital Library Center is located in the George A. Smathers Libraries on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. The Center's offices are located on the second floor of the Smathers Library, in room 200. However, staff from through-out the Libraries and, indeed, across the University collaborate to plan and carry out the Center's programs and projects.

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