Kate Zwaard, Director of Digital Strategy, Library of Congress. Photo by Shawn Miller.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today announced that she has appointed Kate Zwaard as the Library’s director of digital strategy, a position Hayden established to elevate the institution’s digital planning and drive envisioning and collaboration around digital initiatives.
“When I think of the resources of the Library of Congress, married with the capabilities of today’s technology, the possibilities are almost limitless,” Hayden said. “This new role will drive the internal conversations and collaboration that will improve our ability to conduct traditional work efficiently and effectively and lead to whole new ways for users to experience the Library. We are thinking big.”
Zwaard previously was chief of the National Digital Initiatives division, where she established Library Labs and the new innovator-in-residence program, among other projects. She will continue to oversee those programs in her new role. She previously managed the team of software developers and systems engineers supporting the digital repository from 2011 through 2016. Before coming to the Library of Congress, she led the development team responsible for the digital preservation data architecture at the U.S. Government Publishing Office from 2002 through 2011.
“Our staff and collection are a national treasure,” Zwaard said. “I’m excited about the opportunity to collaborate with my colleagues to find ways to amplify their reach to Congress and the American people. We’ll be thinking creatively, using the good work that’s behind us, the staff expertise that we’ve developed and our friends and colleagues in other institutions as building blocks. Together we can achieve the Library’s vision of a user-focused agency that offers accessible, fun and meaningful experiences.”
The position is being created as the Library experiments across various divisions with new ways of applying technology to collections and services, such as using chat bots to assist Law Library patrons, applying the Story Maps platform to image collections and leveraging 3D printing to give students hands-on interaction with Library collections in the classroom.
Three Presentations by Kate Zwaard Collections as Data: 2017 National Book Festival
Opening Remarks – Collections as Data: Impact (2017)
Kate Zwaard: Technology and Community: Why We Need Partners, Collaborators, and Friends (Presentation at Dodging the Memory Hole Conference 2016)
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
