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Cynthia Hudson-Vitale Appointed Visiting Program Officer for SHARE

Cynthia Hudson-Vitale, image courtesy of Washington University in St. Louis Libraries

ARL has named Cynthia Hudson-Vitale as a visiting program officer to provide outreach and engagement support for the SHARE initiative; she will serve from September 2015 to March 2017. Hudson-Vitale is digital data librarian in Research Data and GIS Services at Washington University in St. Louis Libraries.

SHARE is a joint effort of ARL, the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and the Center for Open Science (COS) to maximize research impact by making a comprehensive inventory of research widely accessible, discoverable, and reusable. To fulfill its mission SHARE is building a free, open data set about research and scholarly activities across their life cycle.

In her role as a VPO for SHARE, Hudson-Vitale will engage with the SHARE working and task groups and the larger stakeholder community to grow the SHARE initiative and increase the adoption of SHARE services. She will establish and cultivate relationships with organizations that will develop into strategic partnerships for SHARE. Additionally, Hudson-Vitale will be a key participant in helping to shape SHARE strategic plans.

As digital data librarian at Washington University in St. Louis, Hudson-Vitale leads research data services and curation efforts for the libraries. Since coming into this role in 2012, she has worked on dozens of faculty projects to facilitate data sharing and interoperability while meeting faculty research data needs throughout the research life cycle. She has also worked across schools throughout the university to improve research reproducibility, addressing both technical and cultural barriers. Hudson-Vitale has been actively involved in the SHARE Working Group as well as the Research Data Alliance (RDA), an international organization that builds the social and technical infrastructure that enables the open sharing of data.

“Cynthia Hudson-Vitale’s achievements show her talent for building connections within the research data community, which will be vital to the success of SHARE,” said SHARE director Tyler Walters. “Much of SHARE’s strength lies in its collaborative approach—we are looking to Cynthia to deepen and expand that aspect of SHARE.”

Jeffrey Trzeciak, university librarian at Washington University in St. Louis, said, “Today’s libraries and librarians are as service-minded as ever, and technology is allowing us to expand the reach of our service. Our collaboration with the SHARE initiative is a case in point. Cynthia is a fine representative for the Washington University Libraries, bringing her great energy, insight, and intelligence to bear.”

“Serving as a VPO for the SHARE initiative is gratifying and invigorating,” said Hudson-Vitale. “In our initial meetings, I’ve already experienced the excitement and synergy that comes from working with passionate and forward-looking colleagues. I so appreciate this opportunity for personal growth and for contributing to a valuable project.”

The ARL VPO program provides opportunities for outstanding staff members at ARL member libraries to contribute to special projects and programs, either in whole or in part, in order to advance the agenda of the Association. Visit the ARL website for more information about ARL’s Visiting Program Officer program.


About ARL

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.

About SHARE

SHARE is a higher education initiative whose mission is to maximize research impact by making a comprehensive inventory of research widely accessible, discoverable, and reusable. To fulfill this mission SHARE is building a free, open data set about research and scholarly activities across their life cycle. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Association of American Universities (AAU), and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) jointly launched the SHARE initiative in 2013. The Center for Open Science (COS) has been SHARE’s technical partner since June 2014. SHARE’s founders strongly believe that ensuring broad and continuing access to research is central to the mission of higher education. SHARE is funded, in part, by grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). SHARE is on the web at http://www.share-research.org/.

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