Employment

Cultural Heritage Consultant and Researcher, New York, New York
2007–present

Consultant to cultural heritage organizations focusing on publishing; intellectual property policy and open content initiatives; collections documentation and cataloguing; information management and visualization; advanced search strategies; and multilingual content development and management. Project Lead and Co-Principal Investigator for collaborative, multi-institutional research and development projects, including Steve: The Museum Social Tagging Project and Searching Cultural Collections: A Research Project.

Project Audience
2011-present
Program Director

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Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
2009-present
Lecturer

Course: Cataloguing Museum Collections: History, Trends, and Issues in the Master of Arts, Museum Studies program

Università Della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Italy
2005–present
Instructor

Course: Cataloguing Cultural Heritage Collections in the Master of Science, Technology-assisted Cultural Heritage Studies program

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
1989–94, 1998–2007
General Manager for Collections Information Planning, Office of the Director
Marketing Manager and Senior Editor; Production Manager, Editorial Department

As General Manager for Collections Information Planning (2002–07), responsible for shaping and documenting museum policy and developing long-term strategies for intellectual property policy, publishing, asset management and archiving, digital imaging and licensing, cataloguing, and standards. Proposed, planned, and implemented new and ongoing content-related projects, digital strategy, and intellectual property policy, focusing on integrating and synthesizing content created and archived throughout the museum. Led project-planning activities, including needs assessment, requirements and specification authoring, development and oversight of schedules and budgets, and selection and supervision of vendors and project teams. Supported the museum’s executive staff with research; meeting briefings and white papers; and grant writing and reporting.

As Editorial Department Marketing Manager (1998–2002), managed all distribution, co-edition, and foreign edition negotiations and relationships for an annual list of approximately 30 publications, with $2 million in sales. As Senior Editor (1998–2002), oversaw scholarly publications, including the MMA Journal. Developed a print series for the publication of symposium papers and created formats for the museum’s first electronic exhibition and collection catalogues. Served as senior editorial advisor to the museum’s Education Department, for the 1999 re-launch of www.metmuseum.org, and for the development of the museum’s Timeline of Art History.

Notable Projects at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Met Images.
Initiated, proposed, and planned the museum’s three-year, $5 million project to implement an institution-wide digital asset management system including creation of project requirements and selection of vendors, development of online licensing tools, improving existing workflows to support image capture and cataloguing, and building relationships with third-party image licensors. Served as project leader for a cross-departmental team of more than 30 staff responsible for tool implementation and training, business practices, legal and financial management, imaging, and cataloguing.

Scholars’ License.
Developed a plan to offer high-resolution images of the museum’s collections free of charge for scholarly publishing (reducing administrative costs and serving art historians and educators seeking to use or publish academic content). Established license terms and conditions, negotiated with distributors of images, including ARTstor, which launched the initiative in 2006 as “Images for Academic Publishing.”

Social Tagging (Steve.Museum).
Planned a project to investigate methods for acquiring keyword or subject terminology for images of works in the collection in order to support improved access by the staff and public. Sponsored the 2005 “Cataloguing by Crowd” meeting of museum professionals that resulted in the formation of the Steve.Museum collaboration to build open source social tagging tools and analyze the collected terms. Co-authored the successful IMLS National Leadership Grant proposal funding a two-year collaborative research project.

Conservation Documentation.
Planned and supervised a one-year Mellon Foundation-funded project to conduct a detailed inventory of the museum’s conservation documentation and to recommend a course of action for managing and preserving it.

Educational and Training Initiatives.
Worked with the College Art Association to develop a copyright workshop for museum professional staff that reviews current trends in copyright law as well as museum policies and procedures for preparing materials for publication. Developed a workshop and research project on “The Qualities of Enduring Publications” aimed at engendering discussion with professional staff about creating books of enduring quality.

Intellectual Property Policy.
Formed and chaired the museum’s first IP Policy Committee. Developed and documented policies for digital rights expression, licensing of museum content for scholarly and commercial uses, and attribution. Authored best practices and due diligence guidelines for authors and researchers.

Labels.
Managed a project to automate authoring, editing, design, production, and archiving of wall labels for exhibitions and installations and to integrate authoring and archiving with the museum’s collections management system.

Publication Distribution.
Led a two-year review of the museum’s book distribution and co-publishing activities, resulting in the selection of Yale University Press as the new worldwide distributor for the Met’s scholarly and exhibition catalogues. Supervised contract negotiation and transition from existing distributor, as well as development of inventory management strategies, marketing activities, and financial reporting.

Asia Society, New York, New York, 1996–98
Publications Manager

Managed planning, development, editing, production, and distribution of all Asia Society books and journals, exhibition graphics, ephemera, and educational materials. Served as the Society’s principal contact with authors, curators, and suppliers (including editors, photographers, designers, printers, and publishers). Developed and edited all art-related content for www.asiasociety.org.

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York, 1994–96
Senior Production Manager

Handled project and production management of Knopf’s heavily-illustrated books. Developed a new publishing database that tracked specifications, calculated p&ls, managed schedules, and generated reports for Knopf Publishing Group’s editorial, production, design, and accounting staff. Oversaw database testing, implementation, revision, and training.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1986–88
Editorial and Production Assistant, Publications Department

Other Professional Activities

IMLS-funded National Leadership Grant projects: Advisory Board member for Exploring Tools for Meaningful Concept Displays (2010); Presenting Balboa Park (2010-13)

Museum Computer Network Annual Conference: Program Committee (2010)

Art:21 (Art in the 21st Century) National Education Advisory Council: Public Programs and Technology Committees (2009-present).

Searching Cultural Collections: A Research Project: Co-Principal Investigator (2009-present)

Steve: The Museum Social Tagging Project (Steve.Museum); Founder and Project Lead; Co-Principal Investigator, Steve in Action grant (New Media Consortium, 2008–11); Research Consultant and Museums Working Group Chair, T3: Text, Tags, Trust (University of Maryland, 2008–11); Project Director/Research Consultant, Researching Social Tagging and Folksonomy in Art Museums grant (The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2006–08)

AAM Media & Technology Committee MUSE Awards juror (2009-10)

MuseTech Central, the Museum Computer Network Project Registry: Project Manager (2007);
MCN Project Registry Committee (2007-present)

International Cultural Heritage Informatics Meeting (ICHIM): International Program Committee (2001, 2007)

U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant program: panelist
(2007-2009)

New Media Consortium: Resident Scholar (2007-present); Advisory Board, Horizon Report,
Museum Edition (2010)

College Art Association: Publications Committee (2004–07)

Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO); Founding Member; Board of Directors (2002–05); AMICO-ARTstor Transition Committee (Chairman); Editorial Committee (Chairman, 1999–2002), Users and Uses Committee

Museums and the Web: Program Committee (2000-02); Best of the Web competition juror
(2001, 2002)

Professional Memberships

Association of Art Editors

American Association of Museums/International Council of Museums (AAM/ICOM)

College Art Association

International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (CIDOC)

Museum Computer Network

Visual Resources Association

Past Member/Institutional Representative: Consortium for the Interchange of Museum
Information (CIMI); National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH)

Education

Bryn Mawr College, A.B., English Literature, 1980–1984

Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1968–1980