Five UMD iSchool Masters Fellows began work at the National Agricultural Library in September. Working across two divisions within the library, they have begun a series of interesting projects reflecting the library’s range of activities.
The two masters student fellows working in the Knowledge Services Division at NAL are contributing to the primary projects ongoing in this division. Both fellows’ work addresses metadata challenges inherent in making agricultural research data useful for scientific reuse as well as more widely accessible by the general public. Their work is initially focused on data management and geospatial metadata on the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network and the Ag Data Commons, a central repository currently in beta development at NAL.
Three other fellows are working in the Special Collections/Information Products Division of the library. One fellow is working with the staff of the Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC) to develop an online portal which brings together research and policy information on issues relating to animal welfare. Two additional fellows are working in the Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC). The main projects for these fellows involve a web migration and information architecture overhaul of the FNIC website and the creation of digital exhibits using NAL Digital Collections material, beginning with an exhibit on food safety.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be featuring posts from each of our fellows. Stay tuned for more information about their work and experiences at the National Agricultural Library!