Meet the Team

The Archives Hub team is based at Mimas, University of Manchester. If you’re ever in Blackwells on Oxford Road, then you are very close to our offices. Feel free to visit us!

Joy Palmer
Senior Manager, Library and Archive Services

Joy is responsible for the strategic direction of the Archives Hub, and negotiating the funding and stakeholder environment. She works with her team to ensure the service is continuously improving and adapts for the future, scrutinising how the service fits into the broader digital information environment. Part of her work involves developing proposals, initiating new projects, and collaborating with stakeholders across the sector – from local cultural heritage institutions to national bodies such as The National Archives, the British Library, and JISC.

Joy has a diverse range of experience, with fifteen years experience teaching and research at the University level. She lived in the USA for this time, and it was at Michigan State University that she got involved in Digital Humanities project development and management.

This combined experience gives her unique insights into the needs of researchers and educators, as well as the complexities of delivering online services. She is committed to the development of technology to help such users carry out their work in as effective and rewarding a manner as possible.

Jane Stevenson
Archives Hub Manager

Jane is responsible for the day-to-day running and management of the Archives Hub, and ensures that all our operations go smoothly. She oversees the technical development of the service, and works closely with Joy to translate ideas into practical goals. She regularly delivers training courses for archivists and Hub contributors who wish to learn more about electronic archival description as well as broader technical issues such as interoperability and 2.0 technologies.

A trained archivist, Jane is recognised internationally as an expert in technical interoperability standards for archival descriptions and particularly EAD. She is a member of the Archives and Records Association' Data Standards Group and active in the UK Archives Discovery Network. In addition, she tutors postgraduates in Archives and Information Studies at the University of Dundee.

Jane regularly writes articles for the broader information professional community. Her article on our recent user study ‘What Happens if I Click On This?’ has received international recognition and is regularly cited. Jane is also the key contributor to our blog, which discusses issues of interest to the profession.

Lisa Jeskins
Communications and User Support

Lisa coordinates the publicity, outreach and training activities for the Archives Hub. Lisa has been an information professional for over eight years, and is a chartered librarian with a wide range of experience working in libraries. She started to combine this experience with working with archivists, and the archive sector, when she joined Mimas in 2007. Lisa now coordinates all promotional activity for services such as the Archives Hub and Copac, as well as providing user support.

Lisa’s particular area of expertise (and passion) is Information Literacy, and she has delivered a range of online and face-to-face training modules for information professionals and end-users. Most recently she ran a session for undergraduates in MMU’s Department of Information and Communications entitled “It’s all about me! Exploring personalisation.” Lisa also sits on the LILAC (Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference) Committee and has responsibility for Conference Sponsorship.

Lisa can often be found on the Mimas stand at conferences, and is always happy to say 'hi!'.

Bethan Ruddock
Content Development

Bethan is involved in content development activity for both the Archives Hub and Copac. She is currently working with Jane on a year-long project to help expand the coverage of the Archives Hub through the refinement of our automated data import routines. Bethan also undertakes a range of outreach and promotional activities, collaborating with Lisa on a number of publications. She also contributes to the Archives Hub blog.

A newly minted librarian, Bethan joined Mimas in 2008 when she started working with Copac to incorporate specialist libraries. Through her current work for the Hub, she is rapidly developing expertise in EAD, and working with Jane Stevenson to conduct training for archivists.

Bethan is actively involved in the SLA (Special Libraries Association), and in 2010 has been selected by the SLA committee as a Rising Star of the association, an award that recognises newer members of the association who have made significant contributions.

Steve Tattersall
Programming & Systems Support

Steve ensures that all our hardware and software stays in good working order. He spends most of his days squinting at code, and as we’ve recently moved to a new system, his time has been taken up with troubleshooting and debugging. He regularly collaborates with our technical cohorts at the University of Liverpool, who have developed the Archives Hub software for us – Steve has been responsible for implementing that software.

Steve also provides specialist support to our contributors, particularly those who host their data locally as an Archives Hub Spoke.

Steve has a range of programming and systems administration skills – he is versed in PERL, and can work Linux and UNIX environments. He also provides the team with general system support.

 

Joy Palmer, Senior Manager

Jane Stevenson, Operations Manager

Lisa Jeskins, Communications and User Support

Bethan Ruddock, Content Development

Steve Tattersall, Programming & Systems Support