- Name, job title, and location? Megan Martinsen. Until June 1, I was the Digital Scholarship Librarian, but now I’m taking on an exciting new role as the Head of the Digital Scholarship Services Unit. I’m based in Lauinger Library.
- How is your job changing with the new position? In my new role I coordinate the planning, implementation, maintenance, and expansion of the Library’s digital scholarship services and projects. I oversee digital repository services, multimedia and emerging technologies, and the Maker Hub. I get to take a wider view of the Library's digital scholarship services and work with some amazing colleagues to help the GU Community leverage digital tools and methods for their research, teaching, and learning.
- What are your goals for the new Digital Scholarship Services Unit? What should Georgetown students, staff, and faculty reach out to you and your unit for? My main goals for the unit are to better serve the digital scholarship needs of Georgetown students, faculty and staff, and to make working with the Library on digital projects easier and more straightforward. The DSS Unit brings together a team of library staff who were previously in several different Library units and departments, and now we’re all together in one team! You should reach out to us for help on a host of digital topics, such as:
- Data Services (like data visualization or data management)
- Digital project planning and implementation Digital research tools and methods (like GIS or text mining)
- Digital media production (like podcasting or video production)
- Digital publishing and exhibits
- Digital repository services (like digitization and digital preservation)
- Maker Hub
- Emerging technologies (like virtual reality or augmented reality)
- Where are you from? Salem, Oregon. I loved growing up in the Pacific Northwest!
- Do you have any hobbies? Lots! I like to knit and embroider. I also love baking and hiking. And I’m a big reader—I basically never go anywhere without a book or my Kindle.
- What are you reading/watching/listening to? I’m currently reading Book Lovers by Emily Henry, watching The Golden Palace (it’s a one-season spin off of The Golden Girls where they run a hotel), and listening to the soundtrack of the musical Six.
- What's your favorite thing about Georgetown? This is hard. I got my undergrad degree here at Georgetown so I have a lot of fondness for this place and I love so many things about it. But I think the people here are probably my favorite thing. The students and faculty are so smart and so passionate about their work/studies, so it’s a really great environment.
- If you could be present for any event of the past, present, or future, what would it be and why? I would love to have been there to see one of Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe. I grew up going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where I got to see so many really interesting productions and adaptations, so I think it would be really fascinating to see an original production. But then I want to come back immediately once it’s over. I have no interest in staying in the Elizabethan era. I love modern medicine and computers!
- What's your strategy for staying cool in the summer? I’m a morning person, so my strategy is usually to leave the house early and be back home in the AC before it gets too hot.
- If you didn’t work in your current field, what would you be doing? I think I might have gone in a completely different direction and become a cosmetic chemist. I really like makeup and skincare, and I think being involved in developing new products would be really interesting.