Introducing Ourselves

[Emily Barney]

Hello!

One of my colleagues forwarded an email with Eric's invitation for the regional meetup and a link to the group.

I've scanned through the previous messages and didn't see something like this so I figured I'd start it out since I'm interested in seeing what the range of interests and backgrounds is within this group.

Like Christine McClure, I work for IIT - though I'm at the Downtown Campus and work in the Chicago-Kent Law Library. 

Our website is tied into the law school's CMS, so we aren't involved in any Drupal work at this time. I work more with WordPress, offering managed hosting and training support for our faculty, department blogs, and student organizations. I'm also a lead member of the law school's social media team and offer tech training for students and staff, usually on common tools like Google Apps (we use Google Apps for Education) and Microsoft office, but it varies according to need. 

I'm also very active with the Chicago Association of Law Libraries and helped them move their newsletter to WordPress in the last year. Beyond the library world, I've also been an organizer for WordCamp Chicago, the local WordPress conference, since 2012. 

How about you? 

[sarah thorngate]

Hi, all,

Nice to meet you, Emily, and thanks for starting this thread.

I'm at North Park University, where I work with the library and archives on digital initatives, UX, e-learning, reference, instruction...I wear a lot of hats. Lately that's had me migrating our website from the campus's CMS to our own (Drupal), building a digital exhibit to illustrate the growth of our campus, and doing e-learning tech training with our faculty. Right this second, I'm taking a quick email-and-coffee break from trying to make LibGuides look less dorky. 

Looking forward to hearing from the rest of you,

Sarah

[Eric Lease Morgan]

Yes, thank you Emily for getting this started.

My name is Eric Morgan. I work at the University of Notre Dame, and I spend much of my time counting words. Seriously, that is what I do because counting words is at the very core of text mining. See, for example, some investigations from the HathiTrust, EEBO, and JSTOR. [1, 2, 3] I’ve been writing software since 1976. Professionally speaking, I’m a librarian first and a computer user second. My professional goal is to discover new ways to use computers to provide better library service and enhanced collections. In my spare time I fold defective floppy discs into intricate origami flora and fauna.

[1] HathiTrust - http://dh.crc.nd.edu/sandbox/htrc-workset-browser/thoreau/about.html
[2] EEBO - http://dh.crc.nd.edu/sandbox/eebo-tcp/sermons/about.html
[3] JSTOR - http://dh.crc.nd.edu/sandbox/jstor-workset-browser/emerson/about.html

—
Eric Morgan
University of Notre Dame

574/631-8604

[Eliza Bettinger]

Hi!

Like Eric, I'm not in Chicago proper -- I'm a new-ish GIS and spatial data librarian at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I attended Code4Lib in Portland last winter, and loved it, so now I'm looking for a little more of that Code4Lib spirit a little closer to home. Sometimes I feel a little on the margins of the core of the Code4Lib community, since I'm not at all a systems librarian, nor much of a coder, though I am slowly working on the latter. However, I do work in a library and support tech users; I am largely responsible for my department's website (American Geographical Society Library), which I am overhauling; I oversee creation of discovery systems; I'm on my library's DH Lab steering committee; and I'm excited about ways to make electronic resources more democratic and accessible.

So, while I probably won't make it to weeknight drinks meet-ups, I'm very interested in other opportunities, like the day-long Code4lib meeting discussed in another thread.

Excited to meet you all!
eliza

[Heather Rayl]

Hey, all!

I too, am not actually in Chicago, but in Terre Haute. Chicago is a pretty easy jaunt for me, though, so I could do a day long meet up thing, but would not be up to evening beers, etc.

I'm the Emerging Technology Librarian at Indiana State University. I mostly do front end development stuff, but have dabbled in server admin. Prior to academia, I was the web guru/server admin/tech librarian at the County of Los Angeles Public Library.

[abe...@uic.edu]

Hi Group,

I'm a Web Application Developer at UIC.  I have a background in the humanities, with degrees in painting, art history, and library science.  I'm happiest applying digital solutions to analog problems, and getting my grubby hands on real stuff.

My major focus is with interfaces and UX, although I work on the full web stack.  I'm also into building object catalogs.  My current project is building the portal for the Chicago Collections Consortium, which launches this fall.  We're using Django over an XTF backend; I'm working in Python and JQuery most days.

Thanks everybody for becoming a part of this board!

-Allan

[Gemma Petrie]

Hi Everyone!

I'm a design researcher at Mozilla where I'm using my UIUC MLIS to help build a better Web. I'm based in Chicago and I help run two local organizations the Chicago UX Book Club and chiDUXX, a mentoring and networking group for women in design and technology. I do some front-end development, but most of my time is spent on UX design, prototyping, usability testing, and contextual fieldwork. 

I still consider myself to be part of the library community, but I'm finding fewer intersections with my day-to-day work as time goes on. Joining a list of tech-focused librarians seemed like a good way to reconnect!

Gemma

[Jesse A Lambertson]

Hello, I am Jesse Lambertson

Just moved back to Chicago, am currently at U Chicago Library - in the Law library.

I mostly do metadata things - but am always tinkering around the edges of programming, file manipulation of all sorts and using an array of tools necessary to accomplish my tasks.

So, hello, it was good to meet everyone at the 2018 Fall meetup - big thanks to NU Libraries and Adam those folks who organized for us.

Cheers

On Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 11:00:15 AM UTC-5, Emily Barney wrote: