Latest News: Zwaard Named Chief of National Digital Initiatives
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Kate Zwaard Named Chief of National Digital Initiatives
New Position will Lead Innovation and Promotion of Digital Resources
Kate Zwaard, since 2011 the product manager for digital repository development in the Library of Congress, has been named the Library’s chief of National Digital Initiatives, effective Aug. 22.
"We look forward to Kate's dynamic leadership as she promotes the Library's digital presence across the country and world as the head of National Digital Initiatives," said Colleen Shogan, deputy director of the Library’s National and International Outreach division, where the new office will be situated. "It's a big job, but we are confident she's up to the task."
Zwaard said the office will seek to establish new partnerships with libraries and other cultural agencies to explore innovative uses of the Library’s extensive digital collections, such as facilitating research using large-scale data collections, and welcome new audiences.
"America’s creative and intellectual achievements are our national treasure," Zwaard said. "Even when they are not in the Library’s collections, we have a responsibility, as the nation’s library, to participate in their care.
"We will be hosting an event in September, ‘Collections as Data,’" she said. "It’s about sharing best practices and learning from others in the community about how we can support the emerging fields of digital humanities and digital scholarship."
Currently, most online users of the Library’s resources explore the materials one item at a time, she noted, but some research calls for "mining" large collections. National Digital Initiatives will work closely with fellows and researchers in the Library’s Kluge Center for Scholars to enable digital-resource research, she said, and explore other options for such use.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States—and extensive materials from around the world—both on site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov, and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
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PR 16-141 08/19/12 ISSN 0731-3527
