As Metadata Analyst/Librarian in Digital Collections Services, Julie Hardesty establishes standards and requirements for discoverability, access, and sharing of digital collections held and managed by the IU Libraries, and works to ensure that these collections are preserved and will remain usable into the future. Her areas of expertise include metadata migration and digital repository management. Her research interests include Linked Data, equity and representation for marginalized communities within library collections, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility issues within libraries and academic institutions for students, faculty, and staff.
Julie has been heavily involved in the open source Samvera Community, working to shape and improve the repository management software application called Hyrax. Her involvement there has also informed her work on IU's implementation of Hyrax called Digital Collections.
She is currently experimenting with using Linked Data controlled vocabularies from marginalized communities as a different browsing interface (an alternative front door) to library catalogs via Library of Congress Subject Heading connections. She currently has a proof-of-concept lightweight JavaScript application called the Information Retrieval Aid in progress at https://github.com/jlhardes/metadataBias.
Julie's recent publications and presentations include:
- Hardesty, Juliet L. and Allison Nolan (2021). “Mitigating Bias in Metadata: A Use Case Using Homosaurus Linked Data.” Information Technology and Libraries 40:3. https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v40i3.13053
- Hardesty, Juliet L. (2022). “Collaborative editing for organizational change: Rewriting the IU Libraries Diversity Strategic Plan together.” Wednesday Noon Digital Scholarship Series, Indiana University, Bloomington. https://hdl.handle.net/2022/28623
- Hardesty, Juliet L. (2023). "Your Support Makes a Difference: How it works to contribute to open source in Samvera." Samvera Virtual Connect, online. https://youtu.be/Up3GYwMw2eg
Since 2013 Julie has taught a Z603 workshop in IU's Department of Information and Library Science on the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) XML standard. She is reworking this course with the idea of giving students hands-on experience creating metadata for digital collections using the various digital repository tools in use at IU. EAD is still part of this but it is incorporated alongside describing digitized items associated with an archival or special collection.
Additionally, Julie has been co-chairing the Bloomington Faculty Council's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the past year (2022-2023) and will co-chair this committee again for 2023-2024. She recently also served as co-chair (2020-2021) and then chair (2021-2022) for the IU Libraries' Diversity Committee and undertook an effort to collaboratively rewrite the Libraries Diversity Strategic Plan. She also recently served as Hyrax Product Owner for two years in the Samvera Community (October 2020-October 2022).
Julie is interested in making collections that are unique to IU discoverable and accessible. She is even more interested in amplifying collections from those who have experienced marginalization within our community, the university, and the state. Her research and service work have shown her that an anti-racist, anti-discriminatory, equity-centered approach to collection development and description is essential to the reparative work that must occur if we are to ever live up to our responsibility as a public university.
A longtime Hoosier, Julie worked for IU for a number of years prior to taking on her current position, serving as User Interface Design Specialist for the Libraries’ Digital Library Program from 2007-2012 and as Systems Analyst/Programmer for Library Information Technology and University Information Technology Services from 2002-2007. She received all of her degrees from IU Bloomington: Master of Information Science, M.A. in Art History, and B.A. in Art History.