Current Projects
Professional Appointment:
Creating high-quality electronic bibliographic, holdings, and item records for the Library’s collection of early printed books according to DCRM(B) and other relevant standards.
Professional Projects:
Mobilis Books puts rare & antiquarian books into hands, hearts, and collections. International books for interesting people. Proud member of the PBFA since January 2023.
Academic Projects:
Book Project:
I am currently working on transforming my doctoral dissertation into a monograph manuscript for publication. My dissertation examined the production and reception of the Paris Apocalypse, a mid-thirteenth century illustrated Book of Revelation, with text and a unique gloss both in Anglo-Norman French. My research discovered heretofore unknown provenance information, including evidence of the original and intended owner(s) of the book!
Professionalization:
Language Acquisition/Improvement & Paleography:
In June, 2022, I will be taking a short course sponsored by the Celtic Studies Association of North America on Early Modern Irish Paleography.
In order to expand my ability to record reader marks in the post-medieval holdings of Pembroke College, I will be taking Nigel Ramsay's London International Paleography School course on Early Modern English palaeography 1500-1700: reading, analysing and editing texts and records.
Since many of our works in the Pembroke collection are in Greek, I will be taking a two-week intensive in Ancient Greek through King's College London and the University College London.
Past Projects:
Further education:
I have completed a post-bac degree in Geography through the University of Florida Online. Having completed the theoretical coursework in my undergrad in 2007-2011, I will be returning to complete the techniques portion, including Aerial Photography Analysis, ArcGIS, and Quantitative Analysis.
Developing the Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts Department for a Private Dealer
From December, 2021 to February, 2023, I was in charge of aquisitions and cataloguing of medieval manuscripts to develop a new department. I also strategized client-facing resources for outreach, one-on-one client meetings in the U.S. and U.K., representing the firm at international book fairs, data management, and personal training in paleography & codicology.
Co-Mananging the Carolingian Canon Law Project:
Working under the direction of Professor Abigail Firey, I am assisting the Carolingian Canon Law Project. My duties include transcribing selected texts, peer-reviewing transcriptions submissions, formatting transcriptions into accurate XML markups to reflect a diplomatic digital version of the manuscript, and working on a lemmatization of a Latin wordlist to facilitate easier research.
In January 2020, I completed cataloguing the medieval Latin holdings at the University of Kentucky's Margret I. King Special Collections Library. I used OPenn's metadata organization as a template to ensure interoperability and have included critical avenues of research for each item to benefit the University of Kentucky's scholarly community. This catalogue metadata will be made available as the library is able.
Middle Welsh:
Again, resuscitating a Celtic language I studied in 2013 with Professor Rob Fulk at Indiana University, I have joined this 45-student online course. We are working through the forthcoming introduction to Middle Welsh by Professor Smith at the University of Arkansas.
Volunteering at the Portico Library
The Portico Library opened in 1806 and houses a collection which reflects the collecting and reading habits of Mancunians from the 19th, 20th, and into the 21st centuries. I have been working under Tim Higson, former conservator at the John Rylands Library, to restore and clean the books, shelf-by-shelf, so they can continue to be used by patrons.
Breton:
Having studied Breton language and literature with Professor William Calin at the University of Florida, I am delighted to be able to revive my study of Breton with weekly Zoom classes through Skol an Emsav. This class will provide an A2-B1 level of spoken Breton.
Through the Idaho Commission for Libraries' Alternative Basic Library Training, I am working towards a complete set of certificates in Collection Development, Technical Services, and Public Services.
These courses constitute about 22 contact hours and include: Collection Development Basics, Collection Development Policy, Building a Collection, Collection Maintenance; Intro to Technical Services and Catalogue Records, Intro to Subject Headings, Intro to Dewey Classification, Intro to MARC Cataloguing; and, The Reference Interview, Evaluating Reference Sources, Basic Reference Sources, and Ethics and Public Service.