Speakers
About the speakers…
Our Keynote Speaker
Al Cross became director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in August 2004 after more than 26 years as a reporter at The Courier-Journal, the last 15½ as the Louisville newspaper's chief political writer. His coverage ranged from presidential to local elections and included all facets of state government. After serving as interim director, in 2005 he was named permanent director and an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky, where the Institute is based. His faculty appointment is in the Extension Title Series, reflecting what he has long said is his short job description, "extension agent for rural journalists."His awards include a share of the Pulitzer Prize won by The Courier-Journal staff in 1989 for coverage of the nation's deadliest bus crash. He was co-recipient of an honorable mention for environmental reporting in the Southern Journalism Awards for a 1987 series on strip mining. He has received awards for reporting and column writing from the Louisville Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He lectured at The Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia in 2001 and a New York workshop on campaign finance sponsored by Brigham Young University in 2000, and helped teach a non-credit course on politics at Bellarmine University in Louisville in 1992. He was named an Outstanding Kentucky Journalist by the Louisville SPJ Chapter in 2005.
Crystal Heis is a Senior Image Management Specialist in Digital Programs at the University of Kentucky Libraries. Having over ten years experience working in photography, Crystal came to Digital Programs in late 2007. She holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from UK in Art Studio (photography emphasis.) Prior to joining the university, Crystal worked in various photographic areas, primarily commercial and portrait studio work, both film and digital. Her knowledge gained here has assisted her within digital programs in the creation and quality control of digital images, working with imaging software, in addition to the selection and maintenance of imaging equipment.
Derek Jenkins has over 31 years in the IT industry and the last 18 have been working with Document Imaging and Microfilm Scanning. In 1990 he started IImage Retrieval, Inc. Derek’s knowledge, leadership and management style have led IIRI to become a highly regarded member of the digitizing community. His business model of “full consultative sales” with “true full service” helped get SunRise off the ground by selling over 60% of its product world wide for several years. He started NextScan with this same philosophy and helped lead nextScan to the #1 scanner spot in the market in its first two years of its existence. Derek’s skills are now firmly leading i2S & IIRI into the book scanning world. His goal there is that to become the center of influence in this market as well. His recent sales and installs to some of the most influential scanners in the US as well as world wide locations in Egypt, Qatar, and Great Britain are just a start.
Kathryn Lybarger is the Project Manager for the Daily Racing Form digitization project at the University of Kentucky Libraries. She holds a B.S. in computer science, an M.S. in math, a master's degree in library science and is near completion on a Ph.D. in math with a focus on numerical linear algebra and image processing. She has experience supporting the Digital Programs lab's servers and internal network, interprets technical standards, troubleshoots software, write scripts and programs, and helps to calm and encourage her colleagues whenever trouble arises. Kathryn's interests in libraries include digital preservation, creation of ebooks, computer-assisted image indexing, and the automation of all manner of tedious, time-consuming tasks for her librarian colleagues.
Mary Molinaro is the Director of Preservation and Digital Programs at the University of Kentucky Libraries and serves as the Principal Investigator for UK’s participation in the National Newspaper Digitization Program (NDNP). Prior to this position she was the Director of the William T. Young Library at the University of Kentucky (since 1997) and served as Acting Dean of Libraries from 2003-2004. From 1992-1997 she served as the Associate Director for Electronic Resources, a position that coordinated the student computing labs and electronic library resources at UK. Ms. Molinaro’s master’s degree in library science and undergraduate art degree are both from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Ms. Molinaro has done extensive library consulting for academic libraries in Ecuador and in Vietnam. In 2002 she was named a Senior Specialist by the Fulbright Commission and completed a Fulbright assignment in Tunisia.
Margie Plarr is Senior Image Management Specialist for Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL) Projects in Digital Programs at the University of Kentucky Libraries. After receiving a MLS from UK’s School of Library and Information Science in 2000, she assisted Eric Weig with the development of the Kentuckiana Digital Library (KDL). Her past work at UK has involved all facets of digital quality control; the creation, organization, and maintenance of digital photograph collections; encoding EAD finding aids; structural metadata encoding for digitized print works, as well as work with a variety of other imaging projects covering a broad range of subjects and materials. Her current work with UK’s National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) project involves microfilm-to-digital imaging, the creation of page-level metadata, and various aspects of quality control. She also continues to instruct MA and PhD candidates in the creation of their electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD) for online submission and access. Before coming to work at Digital Programs, she earned a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Kentucky in 1986. Active in horse racing since 1971, Margie is a licensed owner/trainer in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and has worked with Thoroughbreds in the United States and Ireland.
Becky Ryder is the Head of Preservation Services at the University of Kentucky Libraries including its preservation microfilming operations. Ms. Ryder currently participates in UK’s National Newspaper Digitization Program (NDNP),a program funded by NEH and facilitated by the Library of Congress to create keyword searchable digital images of Kentucky newspapers from microfilm.From 1992 to 2004, Ms. Ryder managed the SOLINET Cooperative Preservation Microfilming Projects at UK. She also co-managed Beyond the Shelf: Serving Historic Kentuckiana Through Virtual Access, a 2-year IMLS-funded project to created keyword searchable digital versions of rare Kentuckiana using a film-to-digital methodology. She has served on the UMI Advisory Board for ProQuest, and she is currently a member of SOLINET’s Preservation Advisory Council and the Kentucky State Historical Records Advisory Board. Ms. Ryder is an adjunct professor for the University’s School of Library and Information Science and teaches a course on preservation management.
Michael Slone is the system administrator and programmer in Preservation and Digital Programs at the University of Kentucky Libraries. After completing his BA in mathematics and philosophy at Morehead State University, Michael became increasingly consumed by mathematics at the University of Kentucky, earning an MA and subsequent Ph.D. with a focus in combinatorics. As a markup editor for the Kentucky Encyclopedia Web Edition, and a sometimes Wikipedia editor, he has contributed to increasing the online accessibility of information. Michael has also recently begun volunteering as a distributed proofreader for Project Gutenberg, helping to digitize and make accessible public domain documents and other works. Never one to rely on others for formal wear, Michael owns his own bowtie, and is currently his office's foremost authority on water fowl.
Errol Somay currently serves as Director of the Virginia Newspaper Project and Program Coordinator for Virginia’s contribution to the National Digital Newspaper Program at the Library of Virginia. As director of the VNP since 1994, Mr. Somay has shepherded the Project through its cataloging and fieldwork phases, which has produced over 6,500 bibliographic records for U.S. imprint newspapers, and is currently managing the preservation microfilming component of the Newspaper Project, which has reformatted over 600,000 pages to archival quality microfilm.
With the NDNP, Mr. Somay is responsible for the general oversight of the NEH funded Project, from grant writing and staffing, to creating work flow and quality assurance methodologies. Prior to his tenure at the Library of Virginia, Mr. Somay was Head of Preservation Reformatting at the New York Public Library. Mr. Somay earned his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s of library science from Columbia University. Most recently, Mr. Somay served on the State Library’s RFP panel to contract a vendor or vendors to digitize the Library and Commonwealth’s massive collection of Chancery Records. This turned out to be the largest single production contract ever offered and awarded by the State Library.
Kopana Terry is the Project Manager for the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) at the University of Kentucky Libraries. She holds a BA in Art Studio with a specialty in Photography and a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science; both from the University of Kentucky. In 2001, she brought her expertise as a freelance artist to UK’s Preservation Reformatting Center, moving to Digital Programs in 2002 where she managed a wide variety of image conversion projects. She worked intimately on Beyond the Shelf: Serving Historic Kentuckiana Through Virtual Access, a 2-year IMLS-funded project using a microfilm-to-digital methodology, and provided research and analysis for the earliest Daily Racing Form and NDNP grants. Drawing on her previous career as a professional musician and audio engineer (with a Certificate of Audio Engineering from the Recording Workshop), Kopana has been integral to the ongoing digitization collaboration with UK’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History. She is the senior producer for Tonic: Arts and Music Magazine on Lexington NPR affiliate, WUKY 91.3, where she also manages the show's web presence and funding efforts. She's a contributing writer to Arts Across Kentucky magazine and Midwest Archives Council’s Mixed Media section. In her spare time, she grows lavender, sleeps, or plays with her diabetic one eye cat, Jack, and elderly arthritic dog, Sadie.
Eric Weig is Head of Digital Programs for the University of Kentucky Libraries. Over the past seven years, he has developed and managed the Kentuckiana Digital Library (kdl.kyvl.org), a state-wide digital library documenting Kentucky's history. Currently, Mr. Weig also maintains a technological management role for two National Endowment for the Humanities grants involving digitization of library materials. As a librarian, Mr. Weig's interests include metadata, online digital library delivery systems, and digital preservation. A native of Iowa, Mr. Weig holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa where he majored in English, English Education, and Music Performance. He received his Library and Information Science degree from the University of Iowa in 1997.
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