Libraries Scholars

This article by David M. Ratzan first appeared in ISAW Newsletter 24, Spring 2019.

I am very pleased to announce that we have successfully recruited our second Assistant Research Scholar for Digital Initiatives, Jasmine Smith, who at the time of writing may in fact be standing on a stage in Ann Arbor receiving her Masters from the University of Michigan’s School of Information. Jasmine’s primary experience is with archaeological databases and we are very excited to have her come to the ISAW Library as we begin to think more seriously about institutional projects involving archaeological data.

As another bit of welcome staffing news, the ISAW Library was selected by the Center for Libraries and Information Resources (CLIR) and the Dean of the NYU Libraries as a host for the prestigious CLIR Fellowship program. This is a two-year fellowship for a recent PhD interested in exploring a career in an academic research library. We are honored to announce that Christian Casey will be joining the ISAW Library as our inaugural CLIR Fellow. Christian graduated this past May from Brown University with a doctorate in Egyptology and (as if that were not enough) an MA in Applied Mathematics. His main scholarly interest has been the phonology of ancient Egyptian language, and much of his research has involved using computers to model linguistic change over time.

The ISAW Library aims to work at the evolving intersection of collections, research, teaching, information science and scholarly communication in ancient studies. This innovative work requires a different kind of team, one of scholars and librarians contributing their complementary skills, perspectives, and experience to complex projects. We are thrilled that Jasmine and Christian will be joining the ISAW Library team and look forward to working with them over the next two years.