M.A. Matienzo joining the Stanford Libraries
We are pleased to announce that M.A. Matienzo is joining Stanford Libraries as of September 19, 2016 as our Collaboration & Interoperability Architect. Mark will be joining Stanford from DPLA (the Digital Public Library of America) where they currently serve as the Director of Technology. M.A. has previously worked as an archivist, a digital library software developer, and the technical architect for the ArchivesSpace project, at institutions including DPLA, the Yale University Library, and The New York Public Library.
M.A.'s background and skills in IT systems, data modeling, and community building across libraries, archives and museums (LAMs) make them uniquely qualified and well suited for this position. The Collaboration & Interoperability Architect is a key role. It promotes convergence and interoperable approaches to digital information management among LAMs. This ranges from helping arrange joint projects, to fostering and broadening collaborations on successful open source software efforts; from identifying better data models that work across sectors, to advancing interoperability via initiatives like IIIF, the International Image Interoperability Framework.
With funding support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this role was created with the recognition that LAMs are at a critical stage of adapting to the digital world, that they have common needs and opportunities, and through cross-pollinating ideas and efforts early and often, they can converge on common approaches—like IIIF—where the whole is greater than the sum the parts.
Stanford has deliberately pursued collaboration and interoperability as a key strategy for its digital library efforts. Many hands working in concert produces access to more information, richer services, faster innovation and more sustainable systems. As we say in the Hydra Project, “if you want to go far, go together.”
There is no shortage of collaboration opportunities on the horizon. We anticipate that Mark will be engaged in efforts drawing on IIIF, linked data, cross-LAM data models and Web archiving. He will also no doubt have a hand in helping extend and broaden some of the most adaptable open source technologies in this space including Hydra, Fedora and Blacklight in its many forms (including ArcLight, Spotlight and GeoBlacklight).
