George Oates appointed Research Associate at Smithsonian Libraries

(Photo by Derek Powazek)

George Oates, the project lead for Open Library, a program of the Internet Archive, has been appointed a Research Associate for Smithsonian Institution Libraries.

In her lead role at Open Library, Ms. Oates (let’s just call her George!) is responsible for the overall site design, project management, grant management, and community development.

Previously, she served at the Senior Program Manager for Flickr. While at Flickr, she developed the immensely successful Flickr Commons environment that provided a ground-breaking platform for cultural heritage organizations to crowdsource and community-build around their photographic collections. While at Flickr, George won six Webby Awards for her design and user experience work.

Smithsonian and Smithsonian Libraries’ staff first came to know of George’s work through our involvement in the Flickr Commons (SIL staff played a key role in the success of the initial launch in 2008, see the aricle, “Smithsonian Team Flickr: a library, archives, and museums collaboration in web 2.0 space” for more information on the project). George, a native of Australia, was also one of the invited “digerati” at the 2009 Smithsonian 2.0 meetings as well as the keynote speaker at the Smithsonian Regents’ Dinner.

Research associates work closely with Smithsonian staff for consultation on research projects, data transfers, and similar activities. Grant proposals, professional publications and related activities involving the use of Smithsonian provided data should include staff as co-principal investigators or co-author whenever possible or appropriate.

In her Research Associate position, George will work with SIL data and staff on bibiometric informatics projects.

Though George will remain based in San Francisco (with her two cats, Niner and Sixty), we expect to see her around the Smithsonian campus from time to time. We also look forward to her speaking as part of the Smithsonian Libraries’ lecture series.

You can learn more about her projects at her blog, ABitofGeorge.com.

Welcome to the Smithsonian!

Photo by Derek Powazek