We’re excited to announce that Chris Erdmann has been hired as the Library Carpentry Community and Development Director starting May 4, 2018.
Chris has been working in the libraries for more than 21 years to integrate data management and workflows in database and library systems and has been working with research and library communities through training, consulting and tool development to build programs and empower people to work effectively with data. Chris received his MLIS at the University of Washington iSchool while working at the University’s Technology Transfer Office where he helped automate workflows and develop the unit’s web presence and analytics. He spent roughly ten years working alongside astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics advancing library data mining and linking services, e.g. ESO Telescope Bibliography.
Also during this time, he led an experimental training series called Data Scientist Training for Librarians geared towards teaching librarians data savvy skills to help transform their library services to meet the needs of their research communities,and he recently joined the Library Carpentry governance group. He’s a co-author with Matt Burton, Liz Lyon, and Bonnie Tijerina on the recent report Shifting to Data Savvy: The Future of Data Science In Libraries, where Library Carpentry and The Carpentries are highlighted as a necessary next step for libraries to advance their research services.
Chris will be working with the Library Carpentry community and The Carpentries to start mapping out the infrastructure for growing the community, formalizing lesson development processes, expanding its pool of instructors, and inspiring more instructor trainers to meet the demand for Library Carpentry workshops around the globe and reach new regions and communities.
While this new position is hosted by the University of California Curation Center (UC3), the digital curation program of the California Digital Library (CDL), it is intended to support the work of the Library Carpentry governance committee on streamlining operations within The Carpentries. The position is funded by IMLS and focused on determining standard curriculum, growing instructor training for librarians and planning for community events like the upcoming Mozilla Sprint on Library Carpentry materials.
We are excited to have Chris on board! Feel free to reach to via Twitter (@libcce), GitHub or LinkedIn.
For more information on Library Carpentry: https://librarycarpentry.github.io & @libcarpentry
