I am very fortunate to love what I do, love the people with which I work, and have the experiences I get to have. My work includes wonderful discussions with very intelligent, interesting people that are very often in interesting academic settings.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to visit Oxford University, the oldest university in the English-speaking world. It is a breathtaking place!  However, even more incredible to me was that I was there to talk about repository technology!

I spent the day with Sally Rumsey, the Service Development Manager of the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA), and several librarians from Oxford University, learning about the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA). ORA has a forward thinking design and creative approach to partnerships.  ORA currently has over 2500 holdings from faculty at Oxford in a broad range of disciplines.  While I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the discussions, the best part of the day was the wonderful tour of Bodleian Library by the extremely knowledgeable Wilma Minty, Head of Catalogue Support Services at the Bodleian Library. If you ever get a chance for a tour with Wilma, TAKE IT!  🙂

Note: Tip of the hat to Amy Brand, Program Manager of the Harvard Office of Scholarly Communication, for the wonderful suggestion to stay at Malmaison Hotel. It is a former prison and I highly recommend it!