Jen Simms (preferred name; formerly Jen(nifer) Laherty) is the Head of the Sciences Library, a branch library in the Chemistry Building which services all sciences disciplines. She serves as liaison to faculty and students and manages the Libraries' collections in these areas: the Biology, Chemistry, Earth & Atmospheric, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Kinesiology, and Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry departments; two IU School of Medicine programs at the IUB Campus: Education Track in Anatomy PhD Program and Cell Molecular & Cancer Biology; and several other units, such as the Indiana Geological and Water Survey and the School of Public Health's Center for Underwater Science. She has technical skills in open access, data management, citation management, and specialized research databases.
Her research interests include preservation and access to scientific data and the resulting publications generated by researchers at IUB, and developing and maintaining format-agnostic collections to support science research and teaching. Her two significant repository projects while at IU have been Openfolklore.org and Imago, a preservation system for IU's Herbarium data. Some publications about these projects may be found via her Google Scholar profile. In addition, Jen has taught a cohort of early career undergraduates sponsored by IU's Center of Excellence for Women & Technology for the better part of the last decade, most recently under the INFO-I 399 course code. Find more information about this empowering program.
Jennifer received her M.L.S. in 1995, and her B.A. in Comparative Literature in 1994, both from IU Bloomington. Prior to taking on her current role, she served from 2007-2014 as Digital Publishing Librarian. Before joining IU Libraries she served as Head of Collection Development and Acquisitions, Sciences Librarian, and Government Information Librarian at California State University, East Bay.