Stephen Abrams has joined Preservation Services as Head of Digital Preservation. Reporting to the Head of Preservation Services, the Head of Digital Preservation develops, leads, and administers programs and services that meet and anticipate the digital preservation needs of Harvard’s library community. Stephen joins us from the University of California Curation Center at the California Digital Library. As associate director, he had responsibility for strategic planning, innovation, and oversight of the Center's systems, services, and initiatives.

Stephen was project director and editor for the ISO 19005 PDF/A standard, originator and project manager for the JHOVE and JHOVE2 format characterization systems, architect for CDL's Merritt preservation repository, and advocate for its underlying micro-services design pattern. His combination of deep technical expertise, strong customer focus, and creative problem-solving will be an asset to Harvard Library as we build a robust preservation program. His current research interests are in cost modeling for sustainable digital library services, new modes of post-custodial curation, and metrics for evaluating digital preservation success.

Prior to joining CDL in 2008, Stephen was digital library program manager at the Harvard University Library. He holds a BA in mathematics from Boston University, an ALM in the history of art and architecture from Harvard, and is pursuing a PhD in information science from Queensland University of Technology.