The Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS) at GSLIS recently welcomed Timothy Cole (MS '89) to the Center staff as coordinator for library applications. In this newly-created role, Cole will coordinate projects focusing on academic library applications of informatics research.
Cole’s projects will emphasize metadata schema design and application, linked data-based services, scholarly collection definition and description, and applicability to digital humanities scholarship. Currently, Cole is serving as principal investigator on a new project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, “Exploring the Benefits for Users of Linked Open Data for Digitized Special Collections.” This collaborative project between CIRSS and the University Library seeks to transform the metadata of three digitized special collections into linked open data. Through this process they will re-envision user-facing services and enhance usefulness of digital special collections by integrating them with general collections and other web-accessible sources.
In addition to his new position at CIRSS, Cole is the mathematics librarian and a professor at the University Library, and has been a GSLIS-affiliated faculty member since 2009. His research interests include metadata, annotation of digital content, digital collections and content interoperability, and digital library system design and implementation. Cole holds a master’s degree from GSLIS and a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Illinois.