Happy to Announce that I'm Joining Index Data

Index Data posted an announcement on their blog about how I will be joining them next month. Confirmed! I'll be working on the open source library service platform that was announced by EBSCO last month, and more specifically in a role as an organizer and advocate for people participating in the project. It feels like my career has been building to this role. And it also means getting re-engaged in the OLE project; I was part of the design effort in 2008-2009 and then drifted away as professional responsibilities took me in other directions. In the executive overview of the OLE design report, we said:

...the project planners produced an OLE design framework that embeds libraries directly in the key processes of scholarship generation, knowledge management, teaching and learning by utilizing existing enterprise systems where appropriate and by delivering new services built on connections between the library’s business systems and other technology systems.

That vision is as important to libraries today as it was then -- even as the state of technology has advanced to make this vision harder (in some ways) and easier (in others) to achieve.

I will miss my colleagues and work at Cherry Hill. Cary, Jungleen, Justin and everyone else are great to work with, which is really important with a virtual organization. The client work has also been interesting and challenging with the opportunity to learn more about Drupal and relearn how to do operations in a cloud computing environment.

This job change also means that I'll be moving away from the Islandora and CollectionSpace open source communities. I've learned a lot from these groups that I'll be taking forward into my next adventure. (Anyone interested in creating a virtual gathering point for library open source project community managers?) I have a soft spot in by heart for these projects, and I'll be watching them as they grow.