Alisha Baginski, assistant professor, joined the University Libraries as the digital stewardship librarian on May 20 to create a “cohesive digital stewardship program for the UNL Libraries.” She is reading numerous policies and protocols from other libraries in the Big Ten and Association of Research Libraries to assemble the best protocols to guide Nebraska. In this position, Baginski needs to think more broadly about policies and standards that will have an impact on the work of several library units.
“A digital stewardship program has the mindset to carry digital objects through their life cycle and preserve them for the future. It’s more collaborative and more detailed than preservation alone,” explained Baginski.
The digital projects produced by the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities (CDRH) and the Libraries’ images and multimedia collections are just a few of the digital objects that will benefit from the work Baginski is doing.
Baginski is currently working with others in the Libraries to migrate collections stored in Rosetta to a new program called LIBSAFE Go. She is also excited to represent the Libraries in the digital preservation group of the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
“We are really excited to have Alisha with us at the University Libraries,” said Andy Jewell, chair of the Digital Strategies department and codirector of CDRH. “She will provide us with important expertise and leadership as we build our digital stewardship program. We have been creating distinctive digital content for decades, and Alisha will help us manage and sustain this content far into the future.”
Baginski previously held positions with History Nebraska as the digitization projects coordinator (2022–24) and interim director of Digital Curation (2023–24). Other previous employment includes positions at the Nebraska Library Commission and Omaha Public Library. She received her Bachelor of Arts in history from Creighton University in Omaha, where Baginski grew up. She earned her Master of Arts in museum studies from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis in 2020 and then returned to Nebraska.
While attending Creighton, Baginski had interned at the Durham Museum in Omaha to work on digitization and metadata projects, setting off a spark of interest and focus for her master’s degree and career.
Baginski can be reached at abaginski2@unl.edu