Anne Veerkamp

  

I have a B.S. in Psychology from Texas State, and worked as a student in ITS there. In addition to my hobby of book binding, I am the webmaster for Seton NW's volunteer site, which I used Drupal to create.

My job description is quite broad and ranges from assisting patrons (scholars, researchers) with finding research materials in Special Collections area, to working with students helping them with their various projects, and even hands on conservation work to help maintain the many objects in our diverse collection. But probably my most important job is provide technical assistance in this area in order to introduce/facilitate/maintain computer technology. For instance: -I am currently working on a project to help transcribe some civil war documents using a “crowdsourcing” strategy that utilizes an open source program (the writer of this software being someone who attended THATCamp). -I maintain a large database of the material in Special Collections, and am currently looking at other databases (some open source) to migrate to. I have also created my own database (using Access) for daily use. -I have recently introduced our department to social media to improve the way we communicate with students and other patrons of the library. -I maintain our web pages, create html pages, digitize collections, update Wikipedia, attempt to retrieve files from ancient technology (3.5 floppy disks) and other miscellaneous techie tasks.

The ultimate goal is to improve access to our collections and enhance our ability to communicate with our patrons and from what I have heard, THATCAmp is a wonderful opportunity to talk with other professionals and also to share thoughts and ideas.