vitae

Education

Ph.D. Research Methods & Educational Technology, College of Education & Human Development. George Mason University, 2014

M.A. American History, College of Humanities & Social Sciences. George Mason University, 2009

B.A. History and the History of Science, College of Letters & Science. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006

Professional Appointments/Employment

Chief Research Officer, American Institute of Physics, 2/2024-Present. Serve as the first Chief Research Officer of the American Institute of Physics, charged to implement, and lead AIP’s new operational unit, AIP Research. This new research-driven center of excellence builds on existing AIP capabilities and is designed to execute a research strategy and agenda focused on the interplay of the physical sciences, relevant public policy, and the discipline’s culture, with the goal of empowering positive change in the physical sciences enterprise.

Deliver an innovative strategy that enables and accelerates the evolution of the Institute’s new operational unit, AIP Research. Support collaboration and progress between teams in AIP Research, including AIP’s Statistical Research Center, Niels Bohr Library and Archives, and Center for the History of Physics.
Establish an annual operational and budget plan to execute the strategy. This includes an annual research agenda; financial, human resource, and technology requirements; target strategic partnerships and events that convene stakeholders; and timelines for deliverables. Manage the operations of AIP Research—with a staff of 27 and an annual budget of $4M.
Create a plan to build future capacity at AIP Research through the pursuit of startup and sustained external financial support from private foundations, government, corporations, and any other likely sources for AIP Research. Lead fundraising efforts while leveraging AIP’s grants management capabilities in partnership with the AIP development / AIP Foundation team.
Through participation in the Executive Management Team actively engage in ongoing strategic and operational conversations to offer observations and potential solutions that can enhance the evolving organizational culture, reputation, and strategic transformation of AIP.
Develop a partnership plan to achieve strategic objectives by engaging in active partnerships with other relevant institutions in the physical sciences, other engineering and science fields, relevant cross-sectoral organizations.
Develop stakeholder engagement processes and advisory functions to ensure AIP is focused on taking the longer view and including a broad range of voices and inputs-identifying topics for study, analysis, and research that may be less visible to the community but have high potential for impact in the future.
Convene forums to promote education, engagement, and dialogue about pressing and unanswered questions, challenges, and opportunities, identified through our journalism, research, and ongoing input from AIP Member Societies and other stakeholders.

Director, Digital Services, The Library of Congress, 7/2022-1/2024. Serve as the first executive hired through a competitive process to the position of the Director of Digital Services. Responsible for the oversight, administration, and operation of the Digital Services Directorate of the Library of Congress. Tasked with leading several transformational changes, including the selection and implementation of a new enterprise discovery, collection management, and metadata management system, and keystone elements of the library’s new and ambitious Digital Collections Strategy. Also responsible for the organization’s web archiving, crowdsourcing, collections digitization, business analyses, and workflow development initiatives.

Directed work of 107 staff across four divisions within the digital services directorate: Digital Collections Management & Services division, Collections Digitization Division, Collections Discovery and Metadata Services division, Collections, and the Business Analysis Office.
Managed an overall directorate budget for staff and contracts for over $24 million dollars a year.
Managed the development and implementation of the Library Collections and Services Group’s IT Investment Plan and ongoing IT Modernization work, a portfolio of more than $10 million dollars a year in investments in IT projects.
Developed and implemented major reorganization of Digital Services Directorate that resulted in clear lines of reporting and accountability for key organizational objectives.
Led the development of the Library of Congress Digitization Strategy 2022-2027, an agency wide plan to improve and advance digitization capacity to support both preservation and access objectives.
Responsible for overseeing and directing the acquisition, management and preservation of digital collections and collections digitization.
Responsible for overseeing enterprise-wide systems in support of the Library’s operations and mission to provide access to the collections
Responsible for overseeing and directing business processes improvement consultation services within the Library Collections and Services Group.
Serve as the top technical authority in the Library Collections and Services Group.

Head, Digital Content Management, The Library of Congress, 8/2017 –7-2022. Served as the first head of digital content management at the U.S. Library of Congress. This new unit is charged with managing all general and international collections digital content, codifying and communicating best practices for digital content management for all custodial divisions, providing training to staff throughout the agency, running the Library of Congress Crowdsourcing transcription program, and working with the Office of the Chief Information Officer to develop the agency’s technical capacity to collect, preserve, and deliver digital collections.

Recruited, hired and currently manage 22 staff across four teams in the execution of multiple digital collections programs
Managed an overall budget for staff and contracts of over $5 million dollars a year
Led the development, implementation, and maintenance of the Library of Congress Digital Collections Management Compendium, which establishes agency wide digital content management and preservation policy as an open access resource
Managed coordination of digital workflow activities with specialists across more than 30 divisions throughout the agency
Managed the transition and scaling up of a pilot crowdsourcing initiative into an agency wide public engagement program
Represented the agency nationally and internationally as an expert on digital content management and digital preservation
Served as product owner for digital content management systems for petabytes of digital content containing more than 20 billion files and track and prioritize IT requirements for the agency for these systems
Co-led the development of the Library of Congress Digital Collections Strategy, an agency wide five year plan for end-to-end improvements to acquisitions, processing, preservation, and access for digital collections
Directed research program for digital content management best practices and standards.

Acting Associate Deputy Director for Libraries, Institute of Museum and Library Services, 5/2017 – 8/2017. Directed all the agency’s discretionary library grant programs, including the National Leadership Grants for Libraries program, the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian program, the Native American/Native Hawaiian Library Services program, and special programs and initiatives.

Led a team of eight program staff who collectively manage portfolios representing the full range of library service and library science education in the United States.
Oversaw a portfolio of $30 million in awards annually and $90 million open grants and cooperative agreements at any given time.
Served as a senior staff member for the agency leading internally and externally on library and information policy and programs.

Supervisory Senior Program Officer, National Digital Platform, Office of Library Services, Institute of Museum and Library Services, 7/2016-5/2017. Led a team of four program staff and managed the development of the national digital platform portfolio within the Office of Library Services, providing expertise internally in the Office of Library Services and externally on grant programs and other initiatives relating to ongoing development of digital library infrastructure and services nationwide.

Steered an overall strategy encompassing research, grant making, and policy agendas, as well as communications initiatives, in support of the development of national digital services and resources in libraries.
Envisioned, enacted, and led grant-making priorities related to national digital platform development within both the National Leadership Grant Program for Libraries and the State Library Grant Program.
Provided expertise agency-wide on policy matters such as participation in and support of Open Government and Open Data Initiatives, and on related agency digital technology matters.
Led interagency initiatives and partnerships with agencies including the National Science Foundation, the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Department of Education, the State Department, and the Whitehouse Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Managed, coached, and supported a team of four program officers and specialists to execute national digital platform initiatives responsible for more than $30 million in open grants and cooperative agreements at any given time.

Senior Program Officer, National Digital Platform, Office of Library Services, Institute of Museum and Library Services, 1/2015- 7/2016. Led and managed the development of the national digital platform portfolio within the Office of Library Services, providing expertise internally in the Office of Library Services and externally on grant programs and other initiatives relating to ongoing development of digital library infrastructure and services nationwide.

Steered an overall strategy encompassing research, grant making, and policy agendas, as well as communications initiatives, in support of the development of national digital services and resources in libraries.
Envisioned, enacted and led grant-making priorities related to national digital platform development within both the National Leadership Grant Program for Libraries and the State Library Grant Program.
Established and maintained relationships with leaders in public and private grant making and philanthropy to coordinate national funding strategies.
Provided expertise agency-wide on policy matters such as participation in and support of Open Government and Open Data Initiatives, and on related agency digital technology matters.

Digital Archivist, Office of Strategic Initiatives, The Library of Congress, 10/2010-1/2015. Worked with Library of Congress staff, personnel from other government agencies, and stakeholders from across the nation in identifying requirements, understanding needs for managing content across the digital life cycle, and explaining program policies and procedures of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP).

Served as co-chair for National Digital Stewardship Alliance infrastructure and innovation working groups.
Developed national policy and strategy for digital collection development and preservation.
Managed the development and promotion of Viewshare, an open source software platform for visualizing digital collection data.
Secured private grant funds to support initiatives.
Served as internal consultant on digital strategy and collection development to units within The Library of Congress.
Supervised and direct the work of fellows, interns and contractors.

Special Curator, Science Literacy Initiative , Office of Associate Librarian for Library Services, The Library of Congress, 01/2013-01/2014. Oversaw the development of an online collection and exhibition documenting the history of astronomy and life on other words featuring items from the Carl Sagan papers alongside items from seven Library of Congress special collection divisions.

Developed an overarching digital collection framework.
Composed 18 thematic essays.
Developed and oversaw execution of digitization plan.
Managed work on the project among more than 10 internal divisions involving more than 30 staff.
Led development of set of k-12 teacher resources.
Cleared rights for online digital access to items and develop fair use cases with General Counsel’s office.
Worked closely with the web team to refine workflow and process for this and future online collections.

Community Manager , Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, 1/2006- 10/2010 . Led outreach efforts and served as user advocate in the development of the open source Zotero research management tool.

Responsible for building alliances with scholarly organizations and libraries.
Developed and executed outreach strategy.
Encouraged scholars and librarians to adopt and promote Zotero.
Developed and implemented cost recovery/sustainability initiatives.
Developed and maintained end-user documentation.
Identified opportunities for grant funding and drafted grant proposals.
Supervised and directed work of student employees and interns.

Assistant Orchestra Librarian – Music Department, University of Wisconsin, 09/2003- 10/2006. Managed, organized, and provided access to sheet music for the University of Wisconsin’s two All University String Orchestras.

Certifications and Continuing Education

Certified Scrum Product Owner, Scrum Alliance, 2021

Senior Leadership Development Program Certification, Library of Congress, 2017-2018

Leading High Performing Teams, Brookings Executive Education, 2016

Federal Grants Management Certification, Management Concepts, 2015-2017

Publications

Books

Owens, T. (in press, 2024) After Disruption: A Future for Cultural Memory. University of Michigan Press. Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Owens, T & Wong, A. (2021) Collaboration, Empathy, & Change: Library Leadership in 2020. SocArXiv. Washington, DC.

Owens, T (2018). The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation: An Introduction. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, MD.

Owens, T. (2015). Designing Online Communities: How Designers, Developers, Community Managers, and Software Structure Discourse and Knowledge Production on the Web. Peter Lang. New York, NY.

Owens, T. (2010). Fairfax County: A History in Postcards. Arcadia Press. Charleston, SC.

Journal Articles

Owens, T., Estes, J. (2023). Slide Decks as Government Publications: Exploring Two Decades of PowerPoint Files Archived from US Government Websites. Archival Science, 23 (2).

Holdzkom, E., Lopez, M., Owens, T., Salas, C., & Seroka, L. (2022). Beyond Good Intentions: Developing and Operationalizing Values in the Structure of Digital Library Programs. Library Leadership & Management, 36 (2).

Lee, B., Owens, T. Grappling with the scale of born-digital government publications: Toward pipelines for processing and searching millions of PDFs. International Journal of Digital Humanities. 3 (1).

Owens, T. (2021). A Good Jobs Strategy for Libraries. Library Leadership & Management. 35 (3).

Owens, T., Padilla, T. (2020). Digital sources and digital archives: historical evidence in the digital age. International Journal of Digital Humanities. 2 (1).

Owens, T., Saylor, N., Johnson, J. (2020). Using the Library of Congress’ Web Cultures Web Archive: Archiving Digital Expressive Culture and Building Collections. New Directions in Folklore. 18 (1),

Owens, T., Thomas, G. (2019). The Invention and Dissemination of the Spacer Gif: Implications for the Future of Access and Use of Web Archives. International Journal of Digital Humanities. 1 (1).

Owens, T. (2018). Cultivating Craft in Context: A Case Study of Redesigning A Graduate Course in Digital Preservation. International Journal on Innovations in Online Education. 2 (4).

Gallinger, M., Bailey, J., Cariani, K., Owens, T., Altman, M. (2017). Trends in Digital Preservation Capacity and Practice: Results from the 2nd Bi-annual National Digital Stewardship Alliance Storage Survey. D-Lib. 23 (7)

Owens, T., Sands, A., Reynolds, E., Neal, J., Mayeaux, S. (2017). Libraries Advancing the National Digital Platform. D-Lib. 23 (5)

Owens, T. (2016). Curating in the Open: A Case for Iteratively and Openly Publishing Curatorial Research on the Web. Curator: The Museum Journal. 59 (4), 427–442.

Marx, M., Owens, T. (June, 2015). The National Digital Platform for Libraries and Museums collaborating on tools and services across organizations.American Libraries.

Owens, T. (2015). Lego, Handcraft, and Costumed Zombies: What Zombies do on Flickr. New Directions in Folklore, 13 (1), 17-92.

Sheridan, K., Halverson, E, Litts, B., Brahms, L.,Jacobs-Priebe, L., Owens, T. (2015). Learning in the Making: A Comparative Case Study of Three Makerspaces Harvard Educational Review, 84 (4), 505-531.

Owens, T. (2013) Digital Cultural Heritage and the Crowd. Curator: The Museum Journal, 56 (1).

Altman, M., Bailey, J., Cariani, K., Gallinger, M., Mandelbaum, J., Owens, T. (2013). NDSA Storage Report: Reflections on National Digital Stewardship Alliance Member Approaches to Preservation Storage Technologies. D-Lib. 19 (5).

Gibbs, F., & Owens, T. (2012). Building Better Digital Humanities Tools: Toward Broader Audiences and User-Centered Designs. Digital Humanities Quarterly. 6 (2).

Lauren, A., Bailey, J., & Owens, T. (2012). Viewshare and the Kress Collection: Creating, Sharing, and Rapidly Prototyping Visual Interfaces to Cultural Heritage Collection Data. D-Lib. 18 (12).

Owens, T. (2012). Defining Data for Humanists: Text, Artifact, Information or Evidence? The Journal of Digital Humanities. 1 (1).

Owens, T. & Bailey, J. (October, 2012). Viewshare: Digital Interfaces as Scholarly Activity. Perspectives on History. 50 (7).

Owens, T. J. (2012). Tripadvisor rates Einstein: Using the social web to unpack the public meanings of a cultural heritage site. The International Journal of Web Based Communities. 8 (1).

Owens, T. J. (2011). Modding the history of science: Values and habits of mind in modder discussions of Sid Meier’s Civilization. Simulation & Gaming. 42 (4).

Owens, T. J. (2011). Madame Curie above the fold: Divergent perspectives on Curie’s visit to the United States in the American Pres. Science Communication. 33 (1).

Owens, T. J. (2009). Going to school with Madame Curie and Mr. Einstein: Gender roles in children’s science biographies. Cultural Studies of Science Education. 4.

Book Chapters & Conference Proceedings

Cooper, M., DesRochers, A., Johnston, J., Salas, C., Owens, T. (2019). Extensive Extensions: Exploring File Extensions in Library of Congress Collections. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Digital Preservation. Amsterdam, NL.

Owens, T., Pennock, M., Smyth,T., Steinke, T. (2019). Preserving eBooks: Past, Present and Future – A Series of National Library Perspectives. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Digital Preservation. Amsterdam, NL.

Owens, T. (2019). Archives as a Service: From Archivist as Producer and Provider to Archivist as Facilitator and Enabler. In Archival Values: Essays in Honor of Mark Greene. Society of American Archivists, Washington, DC.

Owens, T., Sands, A., Reynolds, E., Neal, J., Mayeaux, S., Marx, M. (2018). Digital Infrastructures that Embody Library Principles: The IMLS national digital platform as a framework for digital library tools and services. In Applying Library Values to Emerging Technology: Tips and Techniques for Advancing within Your Mission. Association of College and Research Libraries. Chicago, IL.

Owens, T., Wilson, C. (2015). Roles and Responsibilities for Sustaining Open Source Platforms and Tools. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Digital Preservation. Chapel Hill, NC.

Phillips, M., Bailey, J., Goethals, A., & Owens, T. (2013). The NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation: An Explanation and Uses. In Proceedings of the 2013 IS&T Archiving Conference.

Mir, R., & Owens, T. (2013). Modeling Indigenous Peoples: Unpacking Ideology in Sid Meier’s Colonization. In Playing with the Past: Digital Games and the Simulation of History. Bloomsbury Press, NY.

Gibbs, F., & Owens, T. (2013). The Hermeneutics of Data and Historical Writing. In Writing History in the Digital Age. University of Michigan Press. Ann Arbor, MI.

Owens, T. (2013). Mr. Moo’s First RPG: Rules, Discussion and the Instructional Implications of Collective Intelligence on the Open Web. In Rhetoric/Composition/Play: How Electronic Games Mediate Composition Theory and Practice (and Vice Versa). Palgrave Macmillan, NY.

Owens, T. (2012). The Public Course Blog: The Required Reading We Write Ourselves for the Course That Never Ends. In Debates in the Digital Humanities. University Of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, MN.

Owens, T. (2011). Online Book Communities. In The Encyclopedia of Social Networking. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Owens, T. (2008). Zotero: Making Student Research Transparent. Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. Madison WI.

Chmiel, M., & Owens, T. (2006). Anti-evolution Literature and its Hidden Pedagogical Value: Confronting the Creationism Dilemma. In Proceedings of the Eighth International History, Philosophy, and Sociology in Science Teaching Conference. Leeds, UK.

Book Reviews

Owens, T. (2019). Science in the Archives: Pasts, Presents, Futures. American Archivist. 82 (1).

Owens, T. (2017) Review of When We Are No More: How Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future. American Archivist. 80 (1).

Owens, T. & Chmiel, M. (2013). Learning Technology as Infrastructure for Innovation. Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. (4).

Owens, T. (2012). A Review of “Digital Media: Technology and Social Challenges of the Interactive World.” Journal of Archival Organization. 10 (1).

Owens, T. (2011). A Review of “Online Interviewing.” The Information Society. 27 (3).

Teaching, Instruction, & Advising

Faculty Member. California Rare Book School. (2022-Present). Design and teach advanced seminars and workshops on born digital collections.

Lecturer. College of Information Studies, University of Maryland (2014-Present). Design and teach graduate seminars on digital public history, digital art curation, and digital preservation for the Archives and Digital Curation specialization in the Master of Library Science Program.

Public Historian in Residence. Department of History, American University (2011-Present). Design and teach History in the Digital Age, a graduate seminar on current and potential impact of digital media and tools on the theory and practice of history.

Academic Advisor. (2005-2006). University of Wisconsin: Advised incoming University of Wisconsin College of Letters and Science students.

Literacy Coach. (2004-2005). Teach For America: Mentor for the Teach for America after-school program at Shank Elementary in Madison Wisconsin.

Grant Funded Research & Development

Toward a National Strategy for Preserving Online Science. (2012). Funded by the Alfred. P. Sloan Foundation. Role: Co-principle investigator.

One Week, One Tool: A Digital Humanities Barn Raising. (2010). Funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities Program. Role: Community development specialist and grant proposal co-author.

Scholarship in the Age of Abundance: Enhancing Historical Research With Text-Mining and Analysis Tools. (2008-2010). Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Role: Project manager and grant proposal co-author.

Zotero funding. (2006- 2010). Zotero Commons, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2008-2009; Zotero 2.0, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2006-2008; Zotero 1.0, funding from Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2006-2007 Role: Community lead and grant proposal co-author.

Keynote Presentations & Invited Lectures

Owens, T, Schisler, M. (May, 2021). Preservação de repositórios Digitais. Simpósio Internacional de Preservação Digital. São Paulo, Brazil

Owens, T. (April, 2021). Caring for Digital Collections in the Anthropocene. Dr. Elizabeth w. Stone Lecture Series. Catholic University. Washington, D.C.

Owens, T. (January, 2021). Ensuring Enduring Digital Access: Principles and Approaches to Digital Preservation. Opening Keynote, Noterdame Winstitute. South Bend, IN.

Owens, T. (December, 2019). Enduring Digital Access: Establishing, Supporting, and Sustaining Digital Curation Programs. Conferencia Magistral. V Simposio Internacional de la Maestría en Conservación de Acervos Documentales, Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía. Mexico City.

Owens, T. (November, 2019). Make it Last: Principles for Digital Preservation and Conservation. Guest Lecture, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York, NY.

Owens, T. (October, 2019). Ensuring Enduring Digital Access: Principles and Approaches to Digital Preservation. Opening Keynote, Federal Depository Library Conference, Arlington, VA.

Owens, T. (September, 2019) Sustaining Digital Collections: Principles for Enduring and Multimodal Access to Digitized Collections. Keynote Lecture, Lapidus Initiative Digital Collections Fellowship Symposium. Washington, DC.

Owens, T. (July, 2019). Digital Preservation: Understanding the Risks. Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving, and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

Owens, T. (June, 2019). Testing Our Assumptions: The Centrality of Design Thinking and Scholarship for the Future of Library Practice. Opening Keynote, Libraries Research and Innovative Practice Forum, College Park, Maryland.

Owens, T. (May, 2019). Start Today: Digital Stewardship Communities and Collaborations. Invited lectures by the The Association of International Librarians and Information Specialists. Presented at the Zentralbibliothek, Zürich, Switzerland and the United Nations Geneva Office Library in Geneva, Switzerland.

Owens, T. (June, 2018). We Have Interesting Problems: Some Applied Grand Challenges from Digital Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Opening Keynote, Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, Fort Worth, TX.

Owens, T & Choudhury, S. (May 2019). Safeguarding Digital Content for Future Scholars and Researchers: Trevor Owens in Conversation with Sayeed Choudhury. Project Muse Publishers Meeting. Baltimore, MD.

Owens, T. (April, 2018). Start Today: Digital Stewardship Communities and Collaborations. Opening Keynote, Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, Hershey PA.

Owens, T. (April, 2018). Scientists’ Hard Drives, Databases, and Blogs: Preservation Intent and Source Criticism in the Digital History of Science, Technology and Medicine. The United States National Library of Medicine History of Medicine Lecture Series. Bethesda, MD.

Owens, T. (January, 2018). Platform Thinking: Frameworks for a National Digital Platform State of Mind. Closing Keynote, Biodiversity Heritage Library National Digital Stewardship Residency Capstone Meeting, Washington, DC.

Owens, T. (May, 2017). Digital infrastructures that embody library principles: The IMLS national digital platform as a framework for digital library tools and services. Closing Keynote, Digital Initiatives Symposium, San Diego, CA.

Owens, T. (December, 2016). The IMLS national digital platform and your library. Opening Keynote, Maryland Tech Connect, Shady Grove, MD.

Owens, T. (August, 2016). From content to services, use & engagement: Next steps for IMLS’s national digital platform priority. Opening Keynote, Upper Midwest Digital Collections Conference. Davenport, IA.

Owens, T. (May, 2016). Bridging contexts and communities: An update on IMLS’s national digital platform priority. Opening Keynote, Texas Conference on Digital Libraries, Austin, TX.

Owens, T. (October, 2015). People, communities and platforms: Digital cultural heritage and the web. Opening Keynote, National Digital Forum. Wellington, NZ

Owens, T. (2012, November). Do Less More Often: An Approach to Digital Strategy for Cultural Heritage Organizations. Opening Keynote, Connecticut Digital Initiatives Forum, Hartford, CT.

Invited & Refereed Presentations

Owens, T., Mandelbaum, J., Noonan, D., Meyerson, J., Burnhill, P., Bequet, G., Alagna, L. Watchful Eyes on Digital Preservation Action. Coalition for Networked Information Membership Meeting. (December, 2019). Washington, D.C.

Saylor, N., Joshi, R., Owens, T., Tollbert, J. Documenting Online Cultures. American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, (October, 2019). Baltimore MD.

Mandel, C,. Cohen, D., Hagan, S., Owens, T., Weber, C. The Story Disrupted: Memory Institutions and Born Digital Collecting. Digital Library Federation Forum. (October, 2019). Tampa, FL.

Curtis, R., Davis, L., Owens, T. Socializing Preservation: Digital AV Preservation at the Library of Congress. Digital Preservation. (October, 2019). Tampa, FL.

Owens, T. Expanding Digital Content Management Capacity at the Library of Congress. Chief Officers of State Library Agencies Spring Meeting (May, 2018). Washington, DC.

Owens, T., Ferraiolo, N., Wurl, J. Funding Opportunities for Digital Library Initiatives (March, 2017). Computers & Libraries. Washington, DC.

Barber, L., Owens, T., Ferraiolo, N., Tran, E., Wurl, J. Funding Opps for Digital Library Initiatives (December, 2016). Coalition for Networked Information Fall Meeting. Washington, DC.

Barr, C., Owens, T., Ferraiolo, N., Wurl, J. Funding for Digital Library Projects: Opportunities, Issues & Themes (November, 2016). Digital Library Federation Meeting. Milwaukee, WI.

Ball, M., Besser, H., Coulbourne, G., Gallinger, M., Owens, T. What We Are Learning about Training for Digital Preservation? (November, 2016). Digital Preservation 2016. Milwaukee, WI.

Barr, C., Owens, T., Ferraiolo, N., Wurl, J. Funding for Digital Library Projects: Opportunities, Issues & Themes (November, 2016). Digital Preservation 2016. Milwaukee, WI.

Anthony, C., Linke, E., Owens, T., Blackwell, M. Office for Information Technology Policy – Digital Content Working Group – Update and Future Directions (June, 2016). American Library Association Annual Meeting. Orlando, FL.

Owens, T. Bracken, J., Lutman, S. Philanthropy and Libraries. (June, 2016). American Library Association Annual Meeting. Orlando, FL.

Gore, E., Haddock, D., Owens, T., Voss, Jon. Mobile Archives: Preserving Community Memories Emily Gore. (March, 2016) SXSWedu. Austin, TX.

Narva, S., Owens,T., Rudersdorf, A., Shulman, J. (November, 2015). What’s a National Platform Strategy and Where Do Museums Fit? Museum Computer Network. Minneapolis, MN.

Owens, T., Lazorchak, B., Engle, E. & Potter, A. (2014, February). Level Up! Prioritizing Your Organization’s Next (or First) Steps for Digital Preservation. Presented at WebWise 2014. Baltimore, MD.

Altman, M., Grotke, A. & Owens, T. (December, 2013). A National Agenda for Digital Stewardship. Presented at Coalition for Networked Information Winter Meeting. Washington D.C.

Owens, T. (2013, April). Signifying and Significance. Presented at Digital/Pedagogy/Material/Archives conference, at The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture, NY.

Owens, T. (2013, March). It’s All About Meaningful Decisions: Game Design Toward Nuanced Historical Interpretation and Complexity. Presented at The Future of Civil War History: Looking Beyond the 150th, Gettysburg, PA.

Owens, T. (2012, January). Building Interfaces, Understanding Collections. Presented at CurateGear, Chapel Hill, NC.

Anderson, M., Owens, T., & Potter, A. (2011, November). ViewShare.org: A Free and Open Platform for Visualizing Cultural Data. Presented at the Digital Library Federation Fall Forum, Baltimore, MD.

Owens, T. (2011, October). The Interface Layer of Cultural Heritage Collections and Recollection. Presented at 21st-Century Collections and the Urgency of Collaborative Action, Fall Forum of the Association for Research Libraries, Washington D.C.

Owens, T. J. (2010, June). Divergent Design Competence in the RPG Maker Community. Presented at Games + Learning + Society Conference, Madison, WI.

Chmiel, M., & Owens, T. (2010, June). Gaming Across the Curriculum: Finding and Evaluating Educational Games. Presented at the International Society for Technology in Education Conference, Denver, CO.

Owens, T. J. (2010, June). Free and Easy Bibliography: Scaffolding Student Research with Zotero. Presented at the International Society for Technology in Education Conference, Denver, CO.

Owens, T. (2010, May). From Records to Data: Seeing and Sharing Cultural Heritage Collections With Recollection. An invited public lecture at Brooklyn Public Library, New York, NY.

Owens, T. (2010, May). The Time & Place for Space & Time: Interfaces for Distributed Cultural Heritage Collections. Presented as Part of New York Public Library’s Series of Invited Talks on Digital Humanities, New York, NY.

Owens, T. (2010, March). Publish, Share, Collaborate, and Crowdsource Collections: Zotero 2.0 For Public Historians. Presented at the National Council on Public History Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.

Campbell, L., Anderson, M., & Owens, T. (2010, December). National Digital Preservation Program Initiatives for 2011. Presented at the annual meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information, Arlington, VA.

Owens, T. J., Boggs, J., Brennan, S., Graham, W., & Gilbert, J. (2010, April). Digital Tools for Historians. Presented at the Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Washington D.C.

Boggs, J., Cohen, D. J., McClurken, J., Owens, T. J., Schrum, K., & Groom, J. (2010, January). Humanities in the Digital Age. Presented at the 125th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, San Diego, CA.

Owens, T., Lester, D., Boggs, J. (2009, November). Three free, open source, extensible platforms for creating collaborative learning communities. Presented at Educause, Denver, CO.

Schrum, K., Boggs, J., Owens, T., Albers, K., Reeder, J., & Shepherd, A. (2009, October). Teaching and learning in the digital age. Presented at the annual meeting of the History of Education Society, Philadelphia, PA.

Owens, T., Ghajar, L. A., Boggs, J., & Lester, D. (June, 2009). Free digital tools to inspire student learning. Presented at the National Education Computing Conference, Fairfax, VA.

Owens, T., & Lester, D. (2009, June). Three free, open source, extensible platforms for creating collaborative learning communities. Presented at the 5th annual Innovations in eLearning Symposium, Fairfax, VA.

Owens, T. (2009, May). Putting Zotero to work: Free and open source research management for you and your institution. Presented at MCEtech, Ottawa, ON.

Owens, T. (2009, May). Gathering, organizing, annotating, and publishing humanities scholarship with Zotero. Part of Rutgers University’s New Media Boot Camp, Rutgers, NJ.

Owens, T. (2008, November). The face of American science: Exploring the history of the National Academy of Sciences Einstein Memorial. Presented at the 35th Annual Conference on Washington D.C. Historical Studies, Washington D.C.

Owens, T. (2008, June). Zotero: A platform for new modes of research collaboration. Presented at the 4th Annual Innovations in eLearning Symposium, Fairfax, VA.

Owens, T. (2008, May). Zotero in the writing classroom. Presented at Computers and Writing, Athens GA.

Owens, T. (2008, April). Playing history: Let’s build an open collaborative repository of historical games. Presented at the Frontiers in Digital History, Fairfax, VA.

Owens, T. (2008, February). Zotero and you, or bibliography on the semantic web. Presented at Code4lib, Portland, OR.

Owens, T., Kornblith, S., Krishnan, S. (2008, February). Hacking Zotero: How to build translators, citation styles and otherwise extend the Zotero platform. Presented at Code4lib, Portland, OR.

Owens, T. (2007, November). Zotero: new features and what’s to come. Presented at the Digital Library Federation Fall Forum, Philadelphia, PA.

Owens, T. (2007, October). There has to be a better way: Zotero and research 2.0. Presented at Educause, Seattle, WA.

Owens, T. (2007, June). Zotero and research 2.0: Managing your research in your browser. Presented at the New Media Consortium Summer Conference, Indianapolis, IN.

Owens, T. (2007, April). Climbing our family tree: The untimely birth of children’s books about evolution, 1920-1955. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Owens, T. (2007, April). Building A better bibliography with Zotero. Invited presentation to George Washington University’s American Studies department, Washington D.C.

Owens, T. (2007, April). Using Zotero in your daily research. Invited presentation to Brown University’s History and American Civilization departments, Providence, RI.

Owens, T. (2007, April). Built by historians, for historians: Using Zotero for your research. Presented at the American Association for History and Computing Conference, Providence, RI.

Owens, T. (2006, November). Going to school with Curie and Einstein: Gendering the history and nature of science. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society, Vancouver, BC.

Owens, T., & Chmiel, M. (2006, April). Mapping the landscape of gender in science through children’s biographies of Marie Curie and Albert Einstein. Presented at the National Association of Research in Science Teaching Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA.

Graduate Seminars Designed & Taught

Digital History Methods, HIST 677, (3 Credits), Spring 2021, Department of History, American University

Achieving Organizational Excellence, LBSC 635, (3 Credits), Fall 2020, College of Information, University of Maryland.

Digital History Methods, HIST 677, (3 Credits), Spring 2020, Department of History, American University

Policy and Ethics in Digital Curation, ISNT, 631, (3 Credits), Fall 2019, College of Information, University of Maryland.

Digital History Methods, HIST 677, (3 Credits), Spring 2019, Department of History, American University

Digital Preservation, LBSC 708, (3 Credits), Fall 2018, College of Information, University of Maryland

Digital History Methods, HIST 677, (3 Credits), Spring 2018, Department of History, American University

Digital Preservation, LBSC 708, (3 Credits), Fall 2016, College of Information, University of Maryland

Curation and Conservation of Digital Art, INST 745 (3 Credits), Spring 2016, College of Information, University of Maryland

Digital Public History, LBSC 708, (3 Credits), Spring 2015, College of Information, University of Maryland

History in the Digital Age, HIST 377/677, (3 Credits), Summer 2015, Department of History, American University

History in the Digital Age, HIST 377/677, (3 Credits) Spring 2012, Department of History, American University

History in the Digital Age, HIST 377/677, (3 Credits), Spring 2011, Department of History, American University

Organization of Summits, Conferences, & Meetings

National Digital Platform at Three. (October, 2017). Invitational summit to review progress on 30 million dollars of federal funds invested in improvement of digital infrastructure for libraries and discussion of next steps. Summit convener. Washington D.C.

IMLS Focus: National Digtial Platform (April, 2015). Invitation only summit of leaders in libraries, archives and museums to establish the National Digital Platform Framework. Summit convener. Washington D.C.

Digital Preservation (July 2011, 2012 & 2014). Annual meeting of NDIIPP and NDSA partners. Conference Committee Member. Washington D.C.

Designing Storage Architecture’s for Digital Collections. (September 2011, 2012 & 2013). Annual summit of storage vendors and cultural heritage IT leaders. Conference committee member. Washington D.C.

CurateCamp Exhibition. (July 2013). One-day unconference on exhibition of born digital and digitized cultural heritage artifacts. Conference chair. Washington D.C.

Preserving.exe: Toward a National Strategy for Preserving Software. (May 2013), Two-day summit on the collection, organization, and scholarly use of software. Lead summit organizer. Washington D.C.

CurateCamp Processing (July 2012). One-day unconference on applications of computational processing to archival processing. Conference chair. Washington D.C.

Science at Risk: Toward a National Strategy for Preserving Online Science (June 2012). Two-day summit on the collection, organization and scholarly use online science communication. Lead summit organizer. Washington D.C.

Archiving Social Media. (October 2010). One-day unconference on the collection and preservation of social media. Conference organizer. Fairfax, VA.

The Humanities and Technology Camp. (June 2009 & 2010). First unconferences on humanities and technology. Planning committee member. Fairfax, VA.

Awards and Recognition

Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology (2021). Awarded annually by ALA Core to recognize a body of work spanning years, if not the majority of a career, which has made substantive impact on the publication, storage, retrieval or dissemination of information.

Distinguished Alumni, History and Art History. (2019). Award granted annually by George Mason University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences to the to alumni who “exemplify the adaptability of a humanities and social sciences education and they are taking an active role towards confronting essential questions and problems in our society.”

Waldo Gifford Leland Award. (2019) Awarded annually to the author of the most important work of writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice in the last year for The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation.

Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) Outstanding Publication Award (2019) for The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation.

Library Journal Mover & Shaker. (2018) Recognition as a one of the “top changemakers who are transforming what it means to be a librarian.”

Archival Innovator Award. (2014). An award granted annually by the Society for American Archivists to recognize the archivist, repository, or organizations that best exemplifies the “ability to think outside the professional norm.”

Herbert Finch Online Publication Award. (2014) An award granted annually by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference for the most outstanding online exhibition devoted to the promotion and use of archival materials.

C.W. Bright Pixel Prize for Best History and New Media Project. (2009). An award granted annually by George Mason University’s history department.

Humanities Collaborative Research Fellowship. (2009). A fellowship with Duke University’s Humanities, Arts and Science, Advanced Technological Colaboratory.

Ruth Knatz Memorial Prize. (2006). An award granted by the University of Wisconsin Integrated Liberal Studies department to recognize the most promising scholar doing interdisciplinary work in the humanities.

National Science Foundation Travel Grant. (2006). Awarded for travel expenses to present thesis research at the History of Science Society’s Annual Meeting.

Tricia Nordby Hamrin Research Award (2005) Awarded by the Honors department for work on senior thesis entitled “A child’s eye view of life as a scientist: A history of biographies of Marie Curie and Albert Einstein written for children.”

Board Service

Library and Archives Canada. (2021-Present) Services Consultation Committee Member

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. (2021-Present) Board Member.

Digital Library Federation. (2018-Present) Advisory Committee Member.

Anacostia Trails Heritage Area (2018-Present) Board Member.

Digital Culture Heritage D.C. (2012-Present) Founding Board Member.

Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. (2012-2015). Board Member.

American Association for History and Computing. (2009-2012). Executive Board Member.

Journal, Book and Conference Review Service

American Historical Review, Reviewer (2020)

ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories, Reviewer (2020)

Digital Humanities Conference, Reviewer (2020)

Princeton University Press, Reviewer (2019-2020)

International Digital Curation Conference, Reviewer (2018-Present)

International Conference on Digital Preservation, Reviewer (2018-Present)

Science Communication, Reviewer (2010-Present)

International Conference on The Learning Sciences, Reviewer, (2010)

American Educational Research Conference, Reviewer (2006-2007)

Grant Review Service

Staff Kluge Fellowship. (2023) Review Panelist. Library of Congress

Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives Program. (2018-2021) Review Panel Member. Council on Library and Information Resources.

Staff Innovator Fellowship.(2020-2021) Review Panelist. Library of Congress

Library Grants Reviewer, (2014-2015 & 2020), Grant Review Panelist, Institute for Museum and Library Services.

Museums Grants Reviewer. (2014). Grant Review Panelist. Institute for Museum and Library Services.

Digital Studies Fellowships. (2014, 2015, 2016, 2018). Grant Review Panelist. Library of Congress.

Youth Access Grant Program (2013). Grant Review Panelist. Smithsonian Institution.

Preservation and Access Research and Development Grants. (2012). Grant Review Panelist. National Endowment for the Humanities.

Consulting and Advising Service

HathiTrust Strategic Visioning Task Force. (2023-2024) Task Force Member. HathiTrust.

Ribbon Panel Envisioning the Future for the American Institute of Physics’ History, Library, and Archives. (2022-2023) Panelist. American Institute of Physics

DC Humanities Truck. (2019-2020) Digital Strategy Consultant. American University

Born Digital: Pathways Towards Preservation. (2017-2019) Advisory Committee Member. Andrew W. Mellon funded initiative of the Museum of the Moving Image.

Visualizing Public and Private Library Grant Funding. (2016-2017) Advisory Committee Member. Foundation Center

Global Education Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society. (2016) IMLS Liaison for Open Licensing Policy. U.S. Department of State.

Games, Learning, and Society. (2005-2006). Outreach Coordinator.