NDSA:Tyler Walters

Tyler Walters, Virginia Tech

Biography:
Tyler Walters is the Dean of University Libraries, Virginia Tech. Previously Walters was the Associate Dean of the Library and Information Center, Georgia Institute of Technology. He was a 2008-2010 Fellow in the Association of Research Libraries’ Research Libraries Leadership Fellows program. Walters is a founding Board member of the Educopia Institute and Steering Committee member of the MetaArchive Cooperative. He serves on many professional bodies such as the Steering Committee for the International Conference on Open Repositories, the Interim Governing Board for the Unified Digital Formats Registry, the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Digital Curation, and the Advisory Board for the Digital Information Management program, University of Arizona. He teaches graduate LIS courses for Arizona and for San Jose State University. Walters has presented at numerous conferences, has published over twenty-five journal articles, and is a recipient of the Society of American Archivists' Ernst Posner Award for best article in the American Archivist. He is the co-author of the 2011 ARL report, “New Roles for New Times: Digital Curation for Preservation” (http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/nrnt_digital_curation17mar11.pdf). Walters is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Managerial Leadership for the Information Professions, Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

Interest in serving on the Coordinating Committee:
I am honored to be considered for membership on the NSDA Coordinating Committee. The values and perspectives that have gone into the NSDA and into promoting digital preservation are consistent with those I have espoused during my years at Georgia Tech, through the development of the Educopia Institute, and in my new role at Virginia Tech. The slogan of “common challenges, community solutions” says it all. I was very pleased when the working groups began forming and the framework of “collaboration – preservation” took shape. This framework is even expressed graphically through the NDSA web site. These values and perspectives, I believe, are critical to advancing digital preservation capacity in the U.S. and globally. They must guide the members of the NDSA Coordinating Committee as they work to develop the NDSA and advance its mission. I pledge to assist in guiding the NDSA with this context in mind and to put my energies into making it a success.

Communities Represented:
Academic, professional organizations

Length of Term:
3 years (ending December 31, 2013)