The Smithsonian Institute Libraries has offered one of its four Professional Development internship slots to Syracuse University School of Information Studies graduate student Joshua Kitlas, G’12.
Kitlas competed with a pool of applicants from all over the country for one of the funded internships in Scientific Publishing and Workflow. He was selected because of his aptitude with technology and involvement with and understanding developments in the eScience community.
Kitlas will be working with digital content and metadata, including relational database management work and bulk download, editing, reformatting and upload of data from a variety of sources. Several components of the Smithsonian Research Online program will likely be migrating to different platforms over the next coming year, and the Smithsonian Institute believes Kitlas has the necessary skillset to test and evaluate methods for making a smooth transition.
Kitlas is currently pursuing a MS in Library and Information Science and a MS in Information Management at the iSchool and has interned with Johns Hopkins University where he worked with the Head of Entrepreneurial Library Program to develop a sustainability model for the Data Conservancy.
Prior to coming to the iSchool, Kitlas graduated from the American University in 1996 and then worked primarily with rapid-growth technology startups throughout the dot-com era and for a boutique management-consulting firm in New York City. He held a leadership position at the firm and tasked with the development of the firm’s West African base of operations. He lived and worked in Nigeria for two years fulfilling this effort.
You can check out his personal blog at http://kitlas.com.