Roy Tennant
Senior Program Officer

Roy Tennant worked at OCLC Research from 2007 to August 2018. While here he worked on projects related to improving the technological and bibliographical infrastructure of cultural heritage institutions. Specific areas in which he was active are linked data, open access content, and metadata quality control.
Prior to joining OCLC in May 2007, Roy worked for the University of California for over 20 years, first at UC Berkeley, then the California Digital Library. His experience included managing the process for UC Berkeley libraries to automate circulation, establishing the first Digital Library SunSITE, and launching the eScholarship Repository and eScholarship Editions for the California Digital Library.
Roy is the owner of the Web4Lib and XML4Lib electronic discussions, and the creator and editor of Current Cites, a current awareness newsletter published every month for nearly 25 years.
Roy has written five books on technology in libraries, wrote a column for Library Journal for ten years, and has numerous articles in other professional journals and magazines.
Awards
- 2005 Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence, Outstanding Paper, Library Management and Library Studies
- 2003 LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Outstanding Communication for Continuing Education in Library and Information Science
- 1992 Network Citizen Award, Apple Library, Apple Computer, Inc.
WorldCat Identities Page
http://orlabs.oclc.org/identities/lccn-no92-24789
Publications

Reimagine Descriptive Workflows: A Community-informed Agenda for Reparative and Inclusive Descriptive Practice
5 April 2022
Rachel L. Frick, Merrilee Proffitt
This community agenda contextualizes the challenges facing the library and information field in inclusive and reparative metadata work and offers a framework of guidance can help frame institutions’ local priorities and areas for change.

Evaluation of environmental conditions as a decontamination approach for SARS-CoV-2 when applied to common library, archive and museum-related materials
30 January 2022
William R. Richter, Michelle M. Sunderman, Tom O. Mera, Kim A. O'Brien, Kendra Morgan, Sharon Streams
This article, published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, shares the findings of the Reopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums (REALM) project’s COVID-19 research simulating virus on common library, archive, and museum materials.
How real is real enough? Participant feedback on a behavioral simulation used for information-seeking behavior research
12 January 2022
This paper assesses the realism of a behavioral simulation used to study the evaluation behavior of 175 students from fourth grade through graduate school. We assess realism through the examination of targeted participant feedback about what would have made the simulated environment and tasks more realistic to these participants. Based on this feedback, we reflect on decisions made in designing the simulation and offer recommendations for future studies interested in incorporating behavioral simulation in their research design.
Gli effetti della pandemia stanno accelerando lo sviluppo delle collezioni?
12 November 2021
Lorcan Dempsey
In this article, we consider collections in relation to three different points of view and we briefly present three further methodologies of transversal development of collections: optimization, pluralization, and reading computation of large-scale data
Interview: Collection Directions and Pandemic Effects
12 November 2021
Lorcan Dempsey
In this interview, Lorcan Dempsey discusses his recent work and views on collection directions and how the worldwide pandemic has changed and accelerated trends.