Today's episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Herbert Van de Sompel, Researcher Fellow at Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) and Guest Professor at Ghent University.

Although Herbert has spent the last 25 to 30 years working in libraries, he doesn't describe himself as a librarian but as what he calls an "infrastructure plumber." With a background in mathematics and information science, he has done years of infrastructure work within the library to allow technology to be used to improve research communication. Starting with Ghent University Library, where he did his thesis, and which he says was behind in automation compared to other European libraries, he began with automation of administrative processes, but he says that he didn't then fully understand what automation in an academic library would be fully about. Herbert got to work with a vision- he didn't feel that library automation was catalog automation. It was about providing access to all kinds of other sources. In this conversation, we'll hear how Herbert worked to modernize library services at Ghent, propelling them from way behind to way ahead in automation and his contributions to developing SFX and the OpenURL framework.

Social Media:

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mupshall/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/herbertvandesompel/

Keywords: #OpenAccess #ResearchInfrastructure #AcademicTools #LibraryAutomation #OpenSource #OpenScience #metadata #OpenResearch #DigitalLibrary #DigitalTransformation #LibraryTechnology #Innovation #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts