Professional Experience

University of Pennsylvania Libraries, 2016-present

Director for Digital Scholarship

Plan for and create infrastructure to support a program of digital scholarship across the University
Lead a Digital Scholarship department of eight librarians in a newly formd Digital Scholarship unit responsible For:
- Digital Humanities
- Data Curation & Management
- Scholarly Communications & Publishing
- Mapping & Geospatial Data
- Judaica DH Projects
- Public & Community Data Curation

Haverford College Libraries, 2008-2016

Coordinator for Digital Scholarship & Services, 2011-2016

Leadership Roles

Developed a sustainable, fully staffed and successful program to support digital scholarship, including staffing, planning, workflow and technical aspects.
Created and led Digital Scholarship Fellows program (year-long fellowship program for sophomores interested in gaining skills and approaches in Digital Scholarship)
Participated in strategic planning for the library as part of the library management team, and contributed to planning for a major renovation of Haverford’s main library, including a new Digital Scholarship Commons
Designed and manage student internships for making new and creative uses of materials from the Quaker and Special Collections in the Libraries
Participated in a team that established strategic priorities, workflows and practices for digitization across Haverford Libraries
Served as first point of contact regarding all data management plans for inclusion in grant applications

Coordinator for Research, Instruction, and Outreach, 2008-2011

Managed a team of 7 staff who provided all reference, instruction and circulation services across three libraries to support scholarship, teaching and learning
Served as liaison to the Sociology, and (briefly) English departments, including collection development, instruction and research assistance
Coordinated long and short-term building plans across three library buildings

Select Haverford & Tri-College Project & Committee Work

Convene and organize the Tri-College Libraries Digital Scholarship Team (9 library and IT staff from Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges)
Tri-College Library Technology Advisory Group; Created and implement a five year strategic plan for technology across the Tri-College Libraries, providing oversight and leadership for various library technology committees
Discovery Layer Team (Disco); Led a team of librarians from across the Trico in evaluating, selecting and implementing a new Discovery Layer for the Tri-College Libraries
sTrike Force; participated in supporting ongoing improvements to discovery layer and prioritizing bug fixes and enhancements.

University of Pennsylvania Van Pelt Library, Philadelphia PA 2002-2008

Research & Instructional Services Librarian

Provided reference assistance at the reference desk, IM/chat, in one-on-one meetings, and in trainings and tours
Served as public services liaison for Urban Studies, Criminology, and Women’s Studies Programs
- Built and maintained strong working relationships with faculty and students
- Led user instruction for courses
- Created online guides to assist users
Acted as a pre-major advisor for undergraduates in the College of Arts & Sciences
- Helped freshmen and sophomores in the College navigate the academic requirements and adjustments necessary to succeed at Penn
Served as Social Sciences Data Services Librarian (2004-2008)
- Assisted patrons in finding, selecting, and using appropriate data sources throughout the research process
- Led workshops on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Census data for graduate and undergraduate students across the University
- Created guides for the use of GIS and data sources on the library’s website

Select Penn Project & Committee Work

Chair, PennTags Team: In collaboration with colleagues, led a team of librarians from across the University in designing the functionality, documentation, marketing, and other development of PennTags, a social bookmarking tool for use in academic environments. Led efforts to succesfully incorporate the tool into teaching and learning at Penn
Library Online Search Tool (LOST) Committee Member: Participated with a team of librarians in creating a new search tool for the library. Trained library staff in the use of metadata tools to expose library content to the new search tool
Chair, Research Basics Team: Led a team of librarians in creating a website to help undergraduates learn the basics of library research

Additional Library Experience

Simmons College, Boston MA

GSLIS Library Assistant for Mt. Holyoke, 2001-2002

Provided reference services, instruction, and research assistance to students, faculty, andresearchers in the field of Library and Information Science in Boston and at the newly established Mount Holyoke campus using electronic and in person delivery systems

Interlibrary Loan Assistant, 2000-2001

Processed borrowing and lending requests ; created and designed new ILL website and forms; Increased functionality of Clio software program to improve ILL workflow

Projects and Professional Service

Monument Lab 2014 - present

Working with Paul Farber, Ken Lum, and others, serve as Research Director for Monument Lab, and for the 2015 and 2017 exhibitions, funded by Pew Center for Arts & Culture, William Penn Foundation and others. Developed and implemented public engagement and research system for citywide exhibition. www.monumentlab.com.

Data Refuge 2016 - present

Together with Professor Bethany Wiggin, Margaret Janz, Patricia Kim and graduate students in the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, I co-founded Data Refuge, an international effort to safeguard federal environmental and climate data.

Collections as Data 2015 - present

In collaboration with PI Thomas Padilla and other colleagues led a successful IMLS National Forum Grant entitled “Collections as Data – Always Already Computational” to explore practices – Co-PI Mellon Collections as Data – Part 2 Whole

Professional Development and Leadership

Professional Memberships: ALA, ACRL

Professional Service

Co-Chair, Planning committee: DLF-Liberal Arts College Pre-conference 2015
Planning Committee: Oberlin 17 Digital Library Conference. 2013, 2014
MISO Team: Served on a team of 5 people who conduct and analyze a survey of Library and Computing Services across higher educational institutions. 2009 – 2010

Experience working in: HTML, CSS, Javascript, XML (especially TEI), XSLT, Python, PHP, Unix, Apache, Nginx, goserver, Postgresql, Mysql, Jekyll, Drupal, WordPress, Omeka

Formal training or certification in: Project Management, TEI, XSLT, and Digital Preservation

Laurie Allen