Julianna Barrera-Gomez has been a valued member of the Digital Preservation Services team for the past 18 months, providing excellent support for the Digital Repository Service (DRS) and its stakeholders, coordinating Library-wide web archiving activities, and leading an initiative for the Ivy Plus Library Confederation (IPLC)’s web collecting program. She also sits on the Preserve for the Future Standing Committee and participates fully in the Library’s digital archivist community. Now, Julianna is taking on an important new role as our inaugural Digital Accessions Specialist, a new position defined to offer higher levels of support for curators, archivists, and collection managers during the critical phase of content acquisition.
Acquisition is one of the most significant activities in the digital content lifecycle. While proactive management of content is no guarantee of digital preservation success (although we’ve been doing a pretty good job for the past 25 years!), failure to collect and make susceptible for that management will almost certainly result in preservation failure. To remove barriers to the growth – and ultimate long-term viability – of Harvard’s deep and rich digital collections, Julianna’s efforts will focus on development of effective policies and strategies; advocacy and outreach; consultation on best practices and workflows; and direct technical support for digital accessioning projects and activities. One aspect of this, particularly pertinent to the area of born-digital content collection, will be establishing a digital forensics laboratory for in-depth technical evaluation and preservation appraisal of digital media and resources as a preliminary stage for subsequent curatorial assessment and selection.
In ably tackling these responsibilities, Julianna will draw on her extensive past experience in digital stewardship, including her previous positions as University Archivist and Head of Digital Preservation and Stewardship at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In addition to her Master of Science in Information from the University of Michigan, Julianna is also a trained anthropologist with an interest and field experience in Mesoamerican archaeology.
More information about the Digital Accessions Program is available on the Digital Preservation wiki at https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/w9XuF. Julianna will be scheduling an open meeting to introduce the Program to the Library community. Also, she’ll be reaching out to stakeholders to learn more about specific needs and goals. You can contact Julianna and the Digital Preservation team at digipres@hu.onmicrosoft.com.
Welcome Julianna to this new role!
