Interviewer: So just to start off, would you mind introducing yourself with your name, where you work, and any other information that you would like to share?
Daniel: Sure, my name is Daniel Gelaw Alemneh and currently work at the University of North Texas as the Digital Curation Coordinator.
Interviewer: What is your current job description? So you can talk about what your duties are, what a typical day looks like, or what your biggest goals are.
Daniel: Yeah, so, yeah, I think the best way to describe my job description is based on the name, like what's
digital curation in tech, really? And my current position
just didn't come out like that, it kind of evolved. But I started as a librarian, some 20 years ago, and just my position evolved.
And currently, for the lack of better terms, we call it digital curation
but it includes all kinds of activities related to managing digital resource lifecycle, in a sense, from the very early
state of selection, identification, then digitization, if it is not born digital,
maintaining access, kind of describing, resource description kind of activities.
But it is similar with analog, really. It's only because the contents are now digital, it adds another layer into the activities.
So, but preservation is the main aspect of digital curation activities.
Preservation, you know--The definition of preservation is slightly different from the traditional notion of preserving, regardless of access.
The simplest definition we use for digital preservation is ensuring long-term access. It's about access, really, uninterrupted access, regardless of the type of materials.
So the type of equipments required.
So ensuring access to the user. So that that has all activities revolve around, "How do you make the resource available as long as they are necessary?"
So yeah, that's the centerpiece of our work.
Interviewer: What type of digital work do you do? Do you work with specific collections, and is there anything related to Texas that you think is super interesting?
Sure. First of all, we have academic libraries. So as an academic library,
the primary objective, or goal, for all of our activities is to serve our community, which is the faculty, and students, and researchers. At the same time, the University of North Texas is a public institution,
and we have also responsibility to serve the public in some way.
So actually, the very first digital product we took was Portal to Texas History,
We call it, passionately, "PTH". That involves various stakeholders, players.
And we have right now with more than 200 collaborators.
The one who holds the unique items. So we we provide the infrastructure, the technology,
the guideline system but the resource owners actually came from multitudes,
from private collectors, to small museums, or archives and libraries, and other ways.
So that itself provides us opportunity to collaborate on a wide range of people, and also, helps us to deal with a wide range of resources:
video, audio, letters, books, all kinds of things.
And I don't know if you know, like for Texas--actually, middle school, I think grade seven--they require, for studies, the history of Texas as a lesson,
and we actually provide lesson plan for school lessons,
or teachers, and primary users, too. So we deal with all kinds of resource type, from audio, video,
and, you know, from one single-page letter to, you know,
thousands pages of documents, and anything in between. In terms of users, we serve all communities about Texas.
So this is one--You know, if you search Google "Texas", it's one of the top search results would be PTF. It's very [INAUDIBLE] resources.
So that give us the opportunity to translate our collection type, our resource type. It's a kind of opportunity to serve many communities.
I should also mention, like, that's the main thing: that even if that's the first project, our digital
collection now has so many kind of resources, from local generated content,
[INAUDIBLE] which is faculty works, usually, and also students'
theses' and dissertation. ETD is one of the unique contents that we share globally.
Of course, we are very known with our ETD, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Not only that we are one of the first to require a digital submission of digital formats,
which in 1999, only a couple of universities in the US or in the world has started required, at that time.
And also, we went back and digitized all our theses and dissertation prior to 1999, all the way back to 1974: the first thesis we have,
retrospectively. So we are one of the few institutions who fully digitized all our theses,
and it's widely used globally, like access to by, you know, millions of users from 200 countries.
So we are sharing our student research, and also faculty. The digital repository also has other contents. That unique content we share as well.
But there are many--It is very known for its music collection.
So we share those music collection globally. Government domains: we are one of the repositories for that. We have many projects
with, even, state of Texas, like the Texas Register. We have actual, archival Texas Register every week.
There are many, many statewide and national in terms of--
And the newspaper is another collection. Actually, we receive, continuously, grants to digitize newspapers for the [INAUDIBLE].
Not just Texas. You know, we go to Oklamhoma, Mississippi, other nearby states [INAUDIBLE].
So all of those are part of our digital project related activities and collections, all the way.
Interviewer: So what is your personal, educational, and career background, and what brought you to digital libraries?
Daniel: OK. I may not be the typical digital librarian in terms of experience, background because, you know, digital library requires multitude of skillset.
You know, like in our environment here, we have, like, all kinds of skill, and background, and experience, and preparedness.
But we work together. I think collaboration is a key factor here.
Everybody bring something to the table. In fact,
it's almost impossible to complete one project by one, unique department. We bring together a multitude of skillsets from different departments.
So my personal experience, my first degree, undergrad was Information Science in [INAUDIBLE] university in Ethiopia.
And then I went for my master's degree to England, University of Sheffield, one of the top Information School in Europe.
And I think that was really great. They had a solid background.
Then I came to the US in 1999 for postmaster's programing: digital imaging, one of the first programs at the time.
Then, within a year, I continued my Ph.D. so my Ph.D. is in Information Science. And for my dissertation, I worked on metadata area.
I think the title was kind of, "Identifying and Assessing Preservation Metadata".
I picked PREMIS as a sample, and see the adoption of PREMIS in helping preservation metadata.
So that kind of puts me into the digital library world.
And while I was a student, I was working as [INAUDIBLE] for UNT libraries, which started Portal to Texas History projects.
So I kind of fit together my work, and my study, and kind of get a natural marriage there.
So when I finish, I automatically continue working as a faculty member here at the university.
But because I have Ph.D., that also allow me to do research while I'm working as a practitioner here.
I also continue doing my personal research in digital library area.
So I don't know if you know, but in academia, librarians have faculty position.
What that means is--Of course, some universities have tenure.
That faculty means you have three kind of responsibility.
One of the primary assignments, which the main job you are hired to do.
Second one is research. You know, what kind of research activity you can bring in.
The third one is service, which professional service, serving in committees, and as volunteers, and that kind of stuff.
So, you know, we are fortunate to focus on those three area.
So that allows me to bring all my interests together. I also teach in library
school here. I get to work with some doctoral students in the digital library research area,
a committee member for dissertation. All of those kind of helped me to kind of develop my skill and interest into one place.
But as I say, the work requires collaboration.
Like, in our digital library division, we have varieties of skillset, bring from different angles. It coulkd be grant writing, could be programing,
could be systems, could be metadata, and cataloging. [INAUDIBLE] this environment.
So, yeah, I think that everybody's journey might be different but still, they have something to offer for the overall work of digital libraries in general.
Interviewer: Would you mind talking a little bit about the type of research you do?
Daniel: Sure. As I said, the fact that we are in academic environment allow us to involve with research.
In fact, I'm fortunate to be able to take my sabbatical leave last year and I got a Fulbright scholarship offer,
which is a rare opportunity, very prestigious. And I'm very grateful. That allow you to go for almost a year, and fully focused on the research area.
So I pick open access as a research agenda for me, and I promote the open access and benefits of open access, particularly in developing country.
And since I was originally from Ethiopia, I had that network already.
And in Africa, is kind of lagged behind in the digital divide.
So I think open access is a great opportunity, not only to be able to access what's out there, but also to share what's available out there, too.
So even if there are not a huge research, even the minimum research helps.
Some of them are very unique and really impactful. I mentioned in some tropical area, diseases, for example, very unique and really important research.
So sharing whatever local research is also helpful.
So I think I have succeeded in that. But unfortunately, the pandemic interrupted the whole process.
And again, I am fortunate I was able to get another opportunity to continue.
I will continue my Fulbright this year in South Africa, Pretoria.
So the goal is to start an open access or digital library conference for Africa, because that's, you know--
As you know, different regions have their own conferences. For example, Asia. There is specifically Asian digital library conference. For Europe,
there's specifically European digital library conference. Now, the name changed to TP.
And for the US, or North America, it's international, JCDL: Joint Conference on Digital Libraries.
But for Africa, there is nothing. Well, there are specific issues that need to be dealt in the context of Africa.
So my plan is--And my colleagues there are excited to work on that.
So hopefully, very soon we will see a digital library conference on Africa.
So that's the plan I have right now. And actually, I'm currently writing a book on open access, kind of digital open access, a global perspective.
But the conference will be focused on Africa and developing countries. Interviewer: What do you love about digital libraries, and what keeps you motivated to work in this field?
Daniel: Yeah, well, you know, digital library, by definition, the contents are in digital format.
So the fact is that in digital format, it can be shared easily.
So accessibility is a key term here.
And the fact that I started as metadata librarian allows me to see the backend. You know, how do we make things accessible?
It's not only that technological migration or the preservation aspect, but the user side.
Like, how our users use, or request, or interact, or access those documents or items.
So that part really fascinates me. You know, I teach indexing, abstracting, the presentation.
How do we present based on the user's information seeking behavior as well?
So kind of looking at both sides: from the backend--technical aspects--to the front end, the user aspect--how do they search, how do they request or access?
So bringing those two dots really allow to see both sides.
So that's interesting to me. Interviewer: How do you define digital libraries and digital librarianship?
Yeah, I think to make it simpler, digital library is the library of digital contents.
So the digital content is kind of the multimedia.
It's not just limited to one type. It's got text, and
audio, video, WAV format, just all kinds of things together.
The only common things there is digital. So the fact that in digital, you bring the technology aspect into play.
So the infrastructure is key. So those are really--I mean, the traditional definition could be internet library,
you know, it could--you can make it--But the key aspect is electronic. It's in digital form. So that
gives both challenge and opportunity, challenging in terms of access.
Yeah. How do you make them accessible? Like, in terms of preservation, or in terms of visually impaired users, or in terms of
various aspects? It's a challenge, and at the same time, it's opportunity. When you talk open access,
I mentioned earlier our ETD that's accessed by people from 200 plus country using different devices, from handheld to--
So all those are really opportunities. So, yeah. Challening opportunities in [INAUDIBLE] but unlimited to open up.
Interviewer: How do you think the field of digital libraries will change in the next five years?
Daniel: Yeah, the fact is that it's dependent on the technology lies there. It makes it vulnerable, and evolving, it's changing.
So if we review the curriculum of education, of information science,
you can easily see how things have changed. If you see the organizational chart of libraries currently,
you will find new names that was never been there before, like Scholarly Communication Librarian. In the last 10 years, all kinds of new names
out there. But the basics, the foundational skillsets are the same. The transferable skills, really.
Organization is organization. Whether it's in print form or electronic form,
the resources needs to be organized in a way that's accessible to the user.
So because of the dependance on technology, then the change is continuous. It's continuously evolving, continuously changing, new standards,
new development, new ways of viewing things, expecting things. Even users' information seeking behavior is changing.
How do you serve people who want, you know, just the most recent reference library, for example?
There's no way we know it, but the service is still there in a more effective way.
So it's kind of continuously changing, continuously evolving.
And that's what makes it exciting and interesting.
Interviewer: What do you think that library programs should be teaching students about digital libraries,
and do you have any advice for students who are interested in a career in digital libraries?
Daniel: Well, you know, by looking at our group, you know, how they get there and their skill, it's different. So everybody can play its parts.
But the one common factor is
upgrading our skills all the time. Because things change really fast, even sometimes in academia, they are not keeping up with the change.
You know, it's funny. Normally, the academic environment, you assume the research done in [INAUDIBLE], for example, is far ahead of the practice.
Technology really reverses that.
It's amazing. Sometimes the Google research push libraries to do things faster than even the academia, before the curriculum is in place.
We are doing something higher than, in a very different--Kind of really go back in and change.
"We should teach this course because it's relevant, already working."
So I think that kind of openness and network. Like I think conferences, staying active in the community is very important.
Staying active in a specific area. You know, there are very many groups using social media or professional societies.
There are continuous skill upgrades. So I think staying abreast with the change is extremely important.
But whatever skillsets they have previously can easily fit into into the digital environment.
And I think continuous learning is very more important if you are working in digital library because of the fact that things are changing so fast.
Interviewer: Is there anything that we didn't cover that you would like to share about either your experience or digital libraries in general?
Daniel: Collaboration is a key, key term here because of the all the skills required,
all the network required, and not in one place at all, so that collaborative environment is extremely important.
I think Texas Digital Library is one one good example in bringing statewide professionals into learning,
and help each other, and guide each other, support each other, and share experience with each other.
And the resource! Having that kind of resource intensive, really, having infrastructure, you know, shared infrastructure is extremely important.
So I think the collaborative aspect in many ways is extremely important in university to university, collaborator to collaborator, individual to individual.
So I think we are grateful to TDL in our context, for allowing us to work together, and to share resources, be it human or infrastructure.
So the collaborative aspect is the key, key, key aspect here on an institutional level or an individual level.