Librarianship
About
I am currently the Head of Metadata Analysis & Operations and an associate professor with tenure at James Madison University Libraries.
I lead a team responsible for special formats cataloging, metadata for special and digital collections, e-resource batch loading, and metadata analysis and remediation. I also design workflows, tools, and processes for efficiently creating, manipulating, transforming, and analyzing metadata at scale.
Previously, I held the positions of Metadata Analyst Librarian and Music & Media Metadata Specialist at JMU. I have a BA from The College of William and Mary and an MLS from Indiana University Bloomington.
Publications
French, R. B., & Fagan, J. C. (2019). The visibility of authority records, researcher identifiers, academic social networking profiles, and related faculty publications in search engine results. Journal of Web Librarianship, 13(2), 156-197.
French, R. B. (2017). Direct database access to OCLC Connexion’s local save file. Code4Lib Journal, 38.
Presentations
French, R. B. (2023, November 13). Batch cataloging at JMU: A framework and four projects. Presentation given at the VIVA Metadata Interest Group Meeting.
French, R. B., & Fagan, J. C. (2022, October 13). Being present, supporting presence: Ideas for online teaching and facilitation. Presentation for the ACRL Contemplative Pedagogy Interest Group.
French, R. B. (2022, April 28). Developing your personal leadership philosophy. Presentation at the Conference on Academic Library Management.
French, R. B. (2021, March 3). Planning batch cataloging projects. Webinar presented for ALA Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures.
French, R. B. (2021, February 11). Metadata analysis for pre-migration cleanup. Presentation at the Amigos online conference Moving On: Migrating Library Content and Data.
French, R. B. (2020, May 6). To discovery and beyond: Using workflow automation as an opportunity for collaboration and education. Poster presentation for The Exchange: An ALCTS/LITA/LLAMA Collaboration virtual conference.
French, R. B. (2020, February 25). Secrets of the save file: Using Connexion and Microsoft Access for efficient batch cataloging projects. Presentation at the Music OCLC Users Group Meeting, Norfolk, VA.
French, R. B. (2020, February 13). Small steps make giant leaps: An incremental approach to technical services workflow automation. Presentation at the Amigos online conference Work Smarter, Not Harder: Innovating Technical Services Workflows.
French, R. B., & Keach, J. (2019, October 25). Empowering your staff to solve problems: Evidence-based training for strategic thinking. Presentation at the Virginia Library Association Annual Conference, Norfolk, VA.
French, R. B. (2019, October 24). Spaceport: A finding aid launchpad. Lightning talk presented at the VIVA Users’ Group Meeting, Virginia Library Association Annual Conference, Norfolk, VA.
Cole, T., & French, R. B. (2019, August 15). Taking control of archdesc: Implementing Spaceport for Special Collections finding aids. Poster presented at Libraries Showcase, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
French, R. B. (2018, August 3). Creating DOIs with DataCite for ingestion into bepress Digital Commons. Lightning talk presented at the Code4Lib DC/Maryland/Virginia Meetup, College Park, MD.
Holloway, S. W., & French, R. B. (2018, February 6). VIVA linked data pilot project. Poster presented at LET Showcase, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
French, R., Lyttle, A., & Goodman, F. (2018, February 6). ABCDs of E: Managing metadata for e-books and streaming media. Poster presented at LET Showcase, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
French, R., Keach, J., Price, E., Thomas, S., & Trocchia, M. (2017, October 12). You are welcome here: The genesis and evaluation of a new employee orientation program within the library. Poster presented at the Virginia Library Association Annual Conference, Norfolk, VA.
Holloway, S. W., & French, R. B. (2017, June 24). Winds of change: James Madison University Libraries’ participation in the VIVA/Zepheira/Atlas linked data pilot. Presentation at ACRL Technical Services Interest Group, ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
Code
comics2marc. Python script that converts a spreadsheet of metadata about Black comic books into MARC records
Spaceport. Python application with GUI that exports EADs from ArchivesSpace and transforms them into MARCXML for JMU Library Catalog, HTML for Libraries website, and modified EAD for Virginia Heritage
JMU DOI minter. Python application with GUI that mints DOIs from bepress Digital Commons metadata using DataCite API and prepares metadata for reingest into Digital Commons
JMU ETD scripts. XSLT scripts for creating RDA bibliographic and authority records from ETD metadata harvested from JMU Scholarly Commons via OAI-PMH
Journal holdings count. Python script that retrieves a list and count of all academic libraries in Virginia that hold given journal titles
OTL licenses. Python script that retrieves license information from Open Textbook Library landing pages and formats it for insertion into MARC records