The Evergreen Outreach Committee is pleased to announce that March’s Contributor of the Month is Remington Steed, who works for Hekman Library at Calvin College as an Electronic Resources Specialist.

Remington is an active member of the Evergreen community across several areas — he has contributed both code and documentation, and is one of the members of the Documentation Interest Group (DIG) granted git access to the official documentation repository.  He first attended the Evergreen Conference in 2011, but “I started lurking” around community spaces like the email lists and IRC as early as 2010.

Remington has focused quite a bit on the documentation workflow.  “[I am] trying to make it easier for anyone to find a docs need, contribute their writing (or screenshots or typo fixes), and see the end product,” he says. “For example, I’ve worked to improve the Documentation Needs wiki page, especially the EASY Tasks section.”

Remington’s interest in documentation stems from his experience working as a library programmer in an academic environment. “While I enjoy the technical challenges of software development, I’m also intrigued by the user’s expectations and perceptions of the software.  So I often talk with our users and try to understand their needs. Sometimes this results in us improving the software, but other times the simplest solution is better documentation.”

In addition to his significant work to improve documentation & docs workflow, Remington has also contributed code patches to Evergreen as well as OpenSRF.  His contributions for both code and docs total 155 authored commits to Evergreen, 33 commits of others’ work, and 2 commits to OpenSRF. He’s also quite active in Launchpad, with 71 bugs filed and 190 bugs commented upon.

“I am grateful for the many Evergreeners who have welcomed and encouraged me along the way,” Remington tells us.  And to our newer community members, he says, “Don’t be afraid! Evergreeners are great people, always glad to assist newcomers.”

“Introduce yourself on the email list or IRC.  Ask a question, even if you feel dumb. Submit a bug report on Launchpad, even if a duplicate report may exist already.  And of course, joining the Docs Interest Group (DIG) or another group helps you meet people and get involved. Your input is welcome and makes Evergreen better for everyone!”

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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.