MLIS 2010 {Beta Phi Mu Member}
Digital Preservation Specialist
LOCKSS at Stanford University
Redwood City, CA USA

What I am doing now.

I work at LOCKSS which stands for “Lots of copies keep stuff safe.” We help academic libraries to preserve academic journals for post-cancelation and long-term access. Learn more at www.lockss.org

In my role as Digital Preservation Specialist, I serve as a technical lead for software test of the LOCKSS software against web content. I architect and write scripts to manage quality control and process planning.

What are the most valuable tools I use in my job?

The iSchool coursework that I selected matches the Digital Services specialization, which is focused on organizing and providing access to digital materials. This specialization combines technology skills such as programming and digitization, with knowledge of digital libraries, collections, repositories, and metadata schemas, to provide access to digital collections and services. A successful practitioner also brings strong teaching, analysis, research, and communication skills to the table.

My work requires a strong technical background. Classes where I designed databases and built websites gave me invaluable experience. While I don’t have these specific tasks in my work, the hours that I spent debugging problems with my website have taught me how to research and resolve technical issues.

Also important to my work is understanding the organization of information, especially the concepts of cataloging, metadata, and metadata structures. This knowledge allows me to find information and organize our uniquely structured database of journals.

In addition, group projects in classes have taught me the challenges and importance of teamwork and technical communication. And knowledge of data representation and manipulation allow me to extract data and generate reports for our group to work more effectively.

Contact Permission

It is OK to contact this alumni.

Send email to: Mary-Ellen Petrich