@ Work
with an IUPUI metadata librarian
Not only is Kristi Palmer a metadata librarian at the IUPUI Library, she was named this semester by Library Journal as a 2009 "Mover and Shaker" in the Tech Evangelist category: http://www.libraryjournal.com/MS2009Inductee/2140335994.html.
Palmer is metadata libriarian for IUPUI's digital repository, called IDeA initially and now the IUPUIScholarWorks. She is also manager of its electronic theses and dissertations collection, providing 1,000 downloads per day worth of access.
The Library Journal, in an article about Palmer, said that she "loves touching original historic objects and documents. But she also believes that free, open, easy digital access to them reveals otherwise impossible research avenues to otherwise unreachable audiences."
Palmer also acts as liaison to the IUPUI Department of History, helping faculty find digital collections of primary documents for their research.
She makes history accessible for students by making it real to them. In "Imaging Our Foremothers," Palmer showed students that digital images and art were research resources. In "Indiana in Maps: Now and Then," she asked students to compare current Indianapolis maps with century-old Sanborne maps. She said students intent on figuring out what once existed where the Colts now play hardly notice they're picking up research skills.
David Lewis, dean of the IUPUI Library, said that the librarians are still figuring out digital scholarship, but Palmer has made things happen: "Quietly, without fanfare, problems get solved, projects get accomplished and people notice."
(Editor's note: Go to this HP archival site to read about IUPUIScholarWorks (formerly IDeA) and IUScholarWorks, launched in Bloomington in 2007: http://www.indiana.edu/~ocmhptst/2007/04-20/story.php?id=1306.
