Thank you, Jake!

Jacob Thompson, our student assistant for the past three years, graduated from Iowa State University last week. Today is his last day on the job. In this blog post, he reflects on his three years with Digital Scholarship and Initiatives, where he’s had opportunities to work with the Digital Press and the Digital Repository.

My name is Jacob Thompson. I just graduated from Iowa State with a degree in finance, and I’ve been working with the Digital Repository for three years now. In that time I’ve digitized and committed to memory some snippets, snapshots, and oddities of our history at Iowa State University. From Dean Helen LeBaron-Hilton’s spat with Nikita Khrushchev to President Wendy Wintersteen’s earliest entomological reports, it has been my privilege to take part in the transformation of our library’s special collections to meet the pace of the digital age.

As we hurtle through the 21st Century, the data surrounding us evolves rapidly. The duty of librarians as keepers and custodians of information evolves with it. As I write, the Digital Repository’s Real-time Readership module ticks along my screen. Someone in Tehran is reading an article from Iowa State’s Ethos Magazine, and our unique role in this brave new world strikes me full force. Leaving my position in Digital Scholarship and Initiatives is painful. I work with wonderful people that I will undoubtedly miss, and our efforts are wedged into a historic point of inflection. Of course, wherever I am, I will have the Digital Repository. Thank you for three excellent years.