Librarian Luminaries: MacKenzie Smith - Charleston Hub

"I spent most of my career on different aspects of Open Access – books and articles, software, all kinds of data and other content (3D models, images, technical standards, digital identifies, and more). 

DSpace was a huge effort. It was adopted by many different types of organizations and created a strong community (still thriving, nearly 25 years later). That project helped demonstrate the value and viability of Open Source software for libraries and proved that libraries were capable of creating and sustaining their own infrastructure.

The University of California’s Open Access program was another huge effort, showing the community that it’s possible to change the faculty’s publishing behavior and institutional expectations. 

The digital world is threatening everything we take for granted about access to knowledge. In the end, just having helped slow the privatization and commercialization of digital infrastructure and content is what I’m most proud of."