About | Elements of the DPLA | Secretariat | Staff | Steering Committee | Board
Executive Director
Dan Cohen
Cohen is the Founding Executive Director of the DPLA, where he works to further the DPLA’s mission to make the cultural and scientific heritage of humanity available, free of charge, to all. Prior to his tenure, Cohen was the Director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. At the Center, Cohen oversaw projects ranging from new publishing ventures (PressForward) to online collections (September 11 Digital Archive) to software for scholarship (the popular Zotero research tool). His books include Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web (with Roy Rosenzweig) and Equations from God: Pure Mathematics and Victorian Faith. Cohen was an inaugural recipient of the American Council of Learned Societies’ Digital Innovation Fellowship. In 2011 he received the Frederick G. Kilgour Award from the American Library Association for his work in digital humanities, and in 2012 he was named one of the top “tech innovators” in academia by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Director for Content
Emily Gore
Gore is the Director for Content of the Digital Public Library of America. In this role, Emily oversees the Digital Hubs Pilot Project and coordinates content workflows for DPLA. Gore came to the DPLA after working for 12 years in digital library and technology development in academic and state libraries. Most recently, Gore served as the Associate Dean for Digital Scholarship and Technology at Florida State University Libraries. Emily’s work has largely focused on building digital collection collaborations among cultural heritage institutions. Gore managed the former statewide digital library in North Carolina, NC ECHO, and co-directed the South Carolina Digital Library. Gore also served as Principal Investigator for the IMLS-funded Open Parks Grid project at Clemson University, a collaboration among the libraries, campus IT, Parks and Recreation professionals and the National Park Service. She has a Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama, a BA in English/Technical Writing from Clemson University and is a 2011 graduate of the Frye Leadership Institute.
Assistant Director for Content
Amy Rudersdorf
Rudersdorf is responsible for digitization partnerships and related workflows, metadata normalization and shareability, and community engagement to promote the DPLA as a community resource. Rudersdorf formerly served as the director of the Digital Information Management Program at the State Library of North Carolina. Rudersdorf is a Library of Congress National Digital Stewardship Alliance coordinating committee member and an active voice in the digital preservation community. Rudersdorf teaches library graduate school courses on digital libraries and preservation (San Jose State University) and metadata (North Carolina Central University). Prior to moving to state government, Rudersdorf worked with digital collections in special collections at North Carolina State University, coordinated a digital production group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and worked with public libraries throughout Wisconsin to aid in the development and coordination of Library and Service Technology Act (LSTA) funded digitization grants.