The Evergreen Outreach Committee is pleased to announce that November’s Contributor of the Month is Kate Coleman of Jefferson County Library, which is a part of the Missouri Evergreen Consortium. Kate is a Technical Services Specialist with Jefferson County and just started her tenure as chair of Missouri Evergreen’s Cataloging Committee.

Kate has been a cataloger for 17 years, and when her county joined the Missouri Evergreen Consortium a few years ago she got involved in conversations with other catalogers in the consortium. “Working with catalogers all over the state is very fun,” Kate says, “and helping libraries of all sizes with their cataloging issues is rewarding.” 

This experience working with catalogers from all sizes of libraries has also reinforced to her the need for the community to be broadminded about its users. “I’ve seen how important it is for the Evergreen community at large to be cognizant of the different levels of knowledge.”

Kate’s Evergreen community involvement started with her attendance at the Evergreen Conference in 2018, when it was held in St. Charles, Missouri. In her own words, “I have been hooked ever since! It’s a great community to be involved in with people who are always willing to help. I have learned so much from Evergreeners across the country.” 

Since then, Kate has joined the Cataloging Working Group, and is now a member of CWG’s Organizing Committee; has presented “Scrubaloging – Formatting and fixing MARC records” as part of the 2019 Evergreen Conference; and has become involved with Bug Squashing Week and bug reporting in Launchpad. A pretty impressive stretch for her first 18 months of community work!

“Whatever you do in your library and/or whatever you’re interested in, I bet there is an Evergreen committee or interest group pertaining to it!” Kate tells us. She recommends Bug Squashing Week or the Documentation Interest Group (DIG) as great entry points into the broader Evergreen community. “[DIG] always needs eyes to read and fingers to type … if you’re new, it’s a great way to learn as you’re reading the documentation, while also helping the community!”

Kate leaves us with some final thoughts about the openness of our community. “I really appreciate how welcoming the Evergreen community is to new people, and always willing to help not only with ideas and issues, but to teach with an open mind.”

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Do you know someone in the community who deserves a bit of extra recognition? Please use this form to submit your nominations. We ask for your email in case we have any questions, but all nominations will be kept confidential.

Any questions can be directed to Andrea Buntz Neiman via abneiman@equinoxinitiative.org or abneiman in IRC.

The Evergreen Outreach Committee is pleased to announce that October’s Contributor of the Month is Anna Goben of the Indiana State Library (ISL). Anna serves as the Evergreen Indiana Program Director and Associate Database Analyst at ISL, and has been involved with Evergreen Indiana since its earliest days in 2007. Anna oversees daily operations of the Evergreen Indiana consortium. 

“Because I work with staff fighting through workflow and policy issues daily, I am especially focused on monitoring and helping to fund development which will enhance the daily experience of Evergreen for patrons and staff,” Anna tells us. She has coordinated with other Evergreen consortia to collectively fund development and also brings her workflow knowledge to Launchpad, where she has filed 33 bugs.

Anna has been involved with the international Evergreen community since 2013. She credits attending the Evergreen Conference with “fir[ing] me up to get involved in the wider community,” and encourages new members to attend community events. “I would suggest that any meeting that involves members of multiple Evergreen communities will get you excited,” she says, “As you learn that they have the same enthusiasms, frustrations, and experiences that you deal with regularly.”

Anna and ISL have served as hosts of the community Hack-a-way in 2016, 2017, and 2019. Those community members who have attended the Hack-a-way can attest to the stellar hosting capabilities Anna brings to this event, which includes a homemade first-night welcome dinner for attendees.

Anna has been heavily involved with two large transitions affecting the Evergreen community in recent years – as current President of the Evergreen Project Board, she is part of the ongoing process to establish Evergreen as its own 501(c)(3) organization. This started in 2017 with the initial transition from the Software Freedom Conservancy to MOBIUS as the project’s “home”, and Anna and the current Board are working hard to permanently establish Evergreen as its own organization.

Additionally, Anna coordinated the creation of the Evergreen Community Development Initiative (ECDI) under the aegis of ISL. ECDI has assumed all development contracts from the former MassLNC. As MassLNC did, ECDI will serve as a clearinghouse for Evergreen community development funds and will continue managing cooperative development projects for the benefit of the community at large. 

This cooperative spirit is something Anna embodies. “I’m always so excited to be part of a community that makes the changes they want to see rather than just feeling like they’re stuck with what they have.”

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Do you know someone in the community who deserves a bit of extra recognition? Please use this form to submit your nominations. We ask for your email in case we have any questions, but all nominations will be kept confidential.

Any questions can be directed to Andrea Buntz Neiman via abneiman@equinoxinitiative.org or abneiman in IRC.