[Web4lib] Karen Coombs joins OCLC Developer Network Team

[Roy Tennant]

Karen Coombs, well-known librarian and Web developer, has accepted a
position with OCLC as the product manager for the OCLC Developer Network.
[1]

Currently a part-time Web Application Specialist for LISHost and library Web
technology consultant, Ms. Coombs previously served for four years as Head
of Web Services for the University of Houston Libraries in Houston, Texas.
Her primary responsibilities in this newly-created role at OCLC are twofold:
to help library and consumer developers make best use of OCLC¹s suite of Web
Services, and to continue and expand OCLC¹s commitment to libraries¹ own
development of services that use WorldCat data.

"We are thrilled that Karen is joining the team," said Don Hamparian,
Director of OCLC's Developer Central portfolio and co-founder of the
Developer Network. "She brings energy, enthusiasm and firsthand knowledge of
working with all the available APIs and Web Services from OCLC."

Fellow co-founder of the Developer Network Roy Tennant adds, "Her expertise
will expand the breadth and depth of Developer Network activities, and help
further our efforts to expose OCLC data to make it easy to use in other
systems through mashups and applications."

Ms. Coombs is a librarian and self-confessed geek coder with an interest in
mash-ups, Web services, library Web sites and interfaces. She has an MLS and
an MS in Information Management from Syracuse University, and has presented
at many national and international conferences including ALA Annual,
Internet Librarian, Access and ELAG. In addition, she has written numerous
articles for Computers in Libraries, Library Journal, Library Hi Tech, and
Journal of Academic Librarianship. She and Jason Griffey co-authored the
book Library Blogging, and she is currently at work on another book about
open source Web applications for libraries due out later this year.

Named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2009, Ms. Coombs is past-chair
of the LITA Special Interest Group for Blogs, Wikis and interactive media, a
former member of the LITA Top Technology Trends panel, and prolific author
of her own weblog, Library Web Chic.

She will maintain her blog presence at Library Web Chic, in addition to
joining the OCLC Developer Network blog. Karen is ready to begin official
activities with the OCLC Developer Network on 19 January 2010.

Roy Tennant
OCLC Research

[1] http://www.oclc.org/news/announcements/2010/announcement421.htm