THOMAS ANDREW PETERS
1000 SW 23rd Street
Blue Springs, Missouri 64015
Phone:
(816) 228-6406
Email: tpeters@tapinformation.com
EDUCATION
M.A. English, University of
Missouri--Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, May 1992.
M.A. Library & Information Science,
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, May 1987.
B.A. (with Honors) in English and
Philosophy, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, May 1980.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
CEO, TAP Information
Services, June 2003 to the present.
TAP Information Services (www.tapinformation.com) provides a
wide variety of services--including grant seeking and project development,
management, and evaluation--supporting libraries, library consortia and
associations, government agencies, publishers, information technology companies,
and other information-intensive organizations.
Major current projects include:
OPAL:
Online Programming for All Libraries—And All Library Users (www.opal-online.org), a collaborative
service involving dozens of library organizations on three continents providing
online public programs for library users worldwide.
Unabridged (http://www.unabridged.info/), a collaborative
web-based downloadable digital audio book program for blind and visually
impaired readers. Participating states include Colorado,
Delaware, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Oregon, as well as the National Library
Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, a Division of the Library of
Congress.
Preliminary planning process for an Illinois
Academic Library Shared Storage Facility, funded through a grant from the
Illinois Cooperative Collection Management Program (ICCMP) (http://www.niulib.niu.edu/ccm/).
Project Coordinator for the
trials of the Playaway and Bookshare.org digital
audio book services.
Writing a book, to be published by Libraries
Unlimited, about how libraries and library-related organizations can use web
conferencing software to design and deliver online programs for students,
faculty, staff, LIS professionals, and the general public.
Writing an edition of Library Technology Reports on digital
audio book systems and services for libraries.
Regular columnist for Computers in Libraries, Smart Libraries Newsletter, and the ALA TechSource Blog.
Director, Center for
Library Initiatives, Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) (http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/), January 2000 to
June 2003.
The CIC is the academic
consortium of twelve major Midwest research universities (approximately 35,000
faculty and 500,000 students).
The CIC Center for Library
Initiatives works with the research libraries, university presses, and other
information services units at CIC member universities.
The Director of the CIC CLI
fosters and facilitates the collaborative activities of over two dozen groups.
As the Director, I worked
closely with the Library Directors at CIC member universities to establish and
advance the strategic directions.
Major programs included:
Collaborative OAI-compliant
metadata harvesting initiative.
Collaborative e-publishing
venture involving the libraries and presses.
The Virtual Electronic Library (VEL), including a
virtual union catalog, patron-initiated ILL, and an eight-state document
delivery service.
Consortial licensing activities have generated over $17 million in
collective cost avoidance since 1995.
As of early 2003, an ongoing consortial
preservation microfilming program had received over $8 million in federal
funding.
Dean of University
Libraries, Western Illinois University (http://www.wiu.edu/),
July 1998 to December 1999.
Managed a
central library and five branch libraries.
Managed an
annual budget of approximately $3.9 million.
Coordinated a
library faculty and staff of approximately 65.
Approx. 17 library faculty and
staff members reported directly to me.
Served on the
WIU Deans’ Council.
Served on the
administrative team involved in renewing the collective bargaining agreement
with the faculty.
Associate Director for
Collections and Technical Services, University Libraries, Northern Illinois
University (http://www.niu.edu/), August 1994
to June 1998.
Managed six units: Science/Engineering/Business, Social Science
& Humanities, Acquisitions, Cataloging, Rare Books & Special
Collections, and the Donn V. Hart Southeast Asia
Collection,
Coordinated a
library faculty and staff of approximately 60.
Managed a
library materials budget of approximately $2.7 million.
Coordinated
two large serials cancellation projects.
Collection Development
Coordinator, Memorial Library, Mankato State University (now Minnesota State
University at Mankato) (http://www.mnsu.edu/),
September 1991 to July 1994.
Managed a
materials budget of approximately $1 million.
Participated
in a major library expansion and renovation project.
Served on the
university institutional research oversight committee.
Served on the
university committee preparing for MSU’s
accreditation site visit.
Humanities Reference Librarian and
Coordinator of Bibliographic Instruction, Miller Nichols Library, University of
Missouri--Kansas City (http://www.umkc.edu/),
June 1987 to August 1991.
Coordinated
the Bibliographic Instruction program.
Provided references services.
Served as the
collection development librarian for English, Philosophy, Foreign Languages,
Theatre, and other humanities disciplines.
Served as an
adjunct instructor in the UMKC College of Education.
Conducted
mediated database searching.
RECENT GRANT-RELATED
ACTIVITIES
FY 05: Southern Illinois University at
Edwardsville received a grant from the Illinois Cooperative Collection
Development Program to undertake a preliminary planning study for a shared
storage facility for printed books and bound journals. SIUE sub-contracted the work to TAP
Information Services.
FY 05: In
March 2004 the American Library Association (ALA) announced that the
Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, OverDrive, and TAP
Information Services were awarded the Sirsi Leader in
Library Technology Grant, sponsored by the Sirsi
Corporation. The goal of the Mid-Illinois Digital Talking Book Project (www.midtb.org) is to create a rich collection
of multi-format e-books that have been optimized for use by print-impaired
library patrons, including the blind, visually impaired, physically challenged,
and dyslexic. The project runs from July 2004 to June 2005. Lori Bell is the project director, and Tom
Peters is serving as the project coordinator.
FY 04: The
Greater Midwest Region (GMR) of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine
(NN/LM) awarded a Consumer Health Award for Project HEALTHY (Hearing
Electronically About Living the Healthy Years) (www.projecthealthy.org). From April
1, 2004 through September 30, 2005 the Mid-Illinois
Talking Book Center, the University of Illinois at Chicago Library of the Health
Sciences--Peoria, and TAP Information Services are producing a series of
online programs for the elderly on consumer health topics. Tom Peters is serving as the project
coordinator.
FY 03: Tom Peters served as the project evaluator
for the “E-Audio Pilot Project” conducted by the Alliance Library System, the
Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service, and the Mid-Illinois
Talking Book Center. The purpose of the pilot
project was to explore reader
demand for, reader acceptance of, and the
organizational and service challenges of developing a program that provides
digital talking books (DTBs), also known as audible
e-books, for blind, visually impaired, and physically challenged users. Sharon Ruda was the
project director. The final report is available online at http://www.mitbc.org/eaudiofinal.doc.
FY 02:
Tom Peters served as the project
evaluator for the “PDA’s in the Palms of Their Hands” project, funded by a
$51,000 LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) grant from the Illinois
State Library. Carol Galganski
was the project director. The short version of the final report is available
online at http://library.osfsaintfrancis.org/shortfinal.doc.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
[forthcoming] Peters, Thomas A. Library Programs Online.
Westport, CT: Libraries
Unlimited, due out in 2006.
Gibbons, Susan; Peters,
Thomas A., and Bryan, Robin. E-Book
Functionality: What Libraries and Their
Patrons Want and Expect from Electronic Book Technologies. LITA
Guide #10. Chicago, IL: Library and Information Technology
Association, a division of the American Library Association, 2003.
Peters, Thomas A. Computerized
Monitoring and Online Privacy.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999.
Peters, Thomas A. The Online Catalog: A Critical
Examination of Public Use. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1991.
COLUMNS AND
BLOGS
[forthcoming] Co-author, with Lori Bell,
of “AccessibleIT” a monthly column in Computers in Libraries, January 2006 to
the present.
Regular contributing
author to the ALA TechSource Blog
(http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/),
September 2005 to the present.
Regular contributing author to a monthly
publication of the American Library Association, Smart Libraries Newsletter, on topics and developments related to
information technology and libraries, June 2004 to the present.
CONTRIBUTED CHAPTERS
Peters, Thomas A. “A Year of Growing Pains
for the Electronic Publishing Movement.” In The Bowker,
Annual: Library and Book Trade Almanac, edited by Dave Bogart, 201-217. New Providence, NJ: R. R. Bowker,
2001.
Peters, Thomas A. “Outcome Measures for the
Emerging Virtual Library.” In Creating the Agile Library for a
Changing Environment:
A Management Guide for Librarians, edited by Lorraine J. Haricombe and T. J. Lusher,
61-79. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
INVITED ARTICLES
[forthcoming] Lindbloom, Mary-Carol; Yackle, Anna; Burhans, Skip; Peters, Tom; and Bell, Lori. “Virtual
Reference: A Reference Question is a
Reference Question…Or, Is Virtual Reference a New Reality? New Career Opportunities
for Librarians.” The
Reference Librarian (2005).
Peters,
Thomas A. “Collaborative
Print Retention Model Projects.” Against
the Grain 15 (2) (April 2003): 18, 20, 22.
Bell, Lori; McCoy, Virginia; and Peters, Tom. “E-Books Go to College” Library Journal (May
1, 2002): 44-46.
Peters,
Thomas A. “What’s the Use? The Value of E-Resource Usage
Statistics.” New Library World 103 (1172/1173) (2002): 39-47.
Peters,
Thomas A. “Overlap and Competition Among Consortia for
E-Resource Agreements.” The Charleston Advisor 2 (3) (January 2001).
Peters, Thomas A. “Some Issues for
Collection Developers and Content Managers.” Collection Management 25
(1/2) (2000): 137-153.
Peters, Thomas A. “Remotely Familiar: Using Computerized Monitoring to Study Remote
Use.” Library Trends 47/1 (Summer 1998):
7-20.
Peters, Thomas A. "Using Transaction
Log Analysis for Library Management Information." Library
Administration and Management 10/1 (Winter 1996): 20-25.
REFEREED ARTICLES
Peters, Thomas A.,
Josephine Dorsch, Lori Bell, and Peg Burnette. “PDAs
and Health Sciences Libraries.” Library
Hi Tech 21 (4) (2003): 400-411.
Peters, Thomas A. “Gutterdaemmerung
(Twilight of the Gutter Margins): E-Books
and Libraries.” Library Hi Tech 19 (1) (2001): 50-62.
Echavarria, Tami, W. Bede Mitchell, Karen Liston Newsome, Thomas A. Peters, and Deleyne
Wentz. "Encouraging Research Through
Electronic Mentoring: A Case
Study." College and Research Libraries 56 (July 1995): 352-361.
Peters, Thomas A., and
Martin Kurth. "Controlled
and Uncontrolled Vocabulary Subject Searching in an Academic Library Online
Catalog." Information Technology and Libraries 10 (September
1991): 201-211.
Peters, Thomas A. "When Smart People
Fail: An Analysis of the Transaction Log of an Online Public Access
Catalog." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 15 (November 1989):
267-273.
OTHER RECENT ARTICLES
Bell, Lori;
and Peters, Tom. 2005.
“Digital Library Services for All.” American
Libraries 36 (8) (September): 46-49.
Peters, Thomas
A., Bell, Lori, Sussman, Diana Brawley, and Ruda, Sharon. 2005. “An Overview
of Digital Audiobooks for Libraries.” Computers
in Libraries (July/August 2005): 6-8, 61-64.
Bell, Lori; and
Peters, Thomas A. “Online Programming Can Be a Library Oasis on
the Internet.” Computers in Libraries 24 (10) (November/December 2004):
18-24. .
Peters, Tom;
Bell, Lori; Ruda, Sharon; and Sussman,
Diana Brawley. 2004. “InfoEyes: A Virtual
Reference Service for the Visually Impaired.”
Library Hi Tech News 21 (6):
5-11.
Peters, Thomas A. “Auditory Options.” netConnect: A Supplement to Library
Journal (Spring 2004): 8-9.
Bell, Lori; Ruda, Sharon; and Peters, Tom. “The Librarians’
Quest: Transforming the Printed Word So That All May Read.” Computers in Libraries 23 (10) (2003): 14-19.
“CONSORTIA SPEAKING” COLUMN ARTICLES for
the JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIANSHIP
Peters, Thomas A. “Graduated Consortial
Memberships and Rogue Facilitators.” Journal of Academic Librarianship 29/4
(2003): 254-256.
Peters, Thomas A. “Consortia and Their
Discontents.” Journal of Academic Librarianship 29/2 (2003):
111-114.
Peters, Thomas A. “Digital Repositories: Individual, Discipline-based, Institutional, Consortial, or National?” Journal of Academic
Librarianship 28/6 (2002): 414-417.
Peters, Thomas A. “E-Reference: How Consortia Add Value.” Journal of
Academic Librarianship 28/4 (2002): 248-250.
Peters, Thomas A. “What’s the Big Deal?” Journal
of Academic Librarianship 27/4 (2001):
302-304.
Peters, Thomas A. “Agile Innovation Clubs.”
Journal of Academic Librarianship 27/2 (2001): 149-151.
EDITORIAL WORK
Editorial Board member,
Beta Phi Mu Monograph Series, published by Greenwood
Press, 2003 through 2007.
Column editor, Journal of Academic
Librarianship, on topics related to library consortia, 2001 to 2003.
Guest editor, theme
issue of Library Hi Tech on e-books, 2001.
Guest editor, theme issue of Library
Trends on assessing digital library services, 2000.
SELECTED
PRESENTATIONS
RECENT PRESENTATIONS AT NATIONAL CONFERENCES
Peters, Thomas A. OPAL:
Online Programming for All Libraries to Reach out to
Senior Citizens and Others Through Cyberspace.
A presentation made at the Annual Conference of the American Library
Association, Chicago, Illinois, June 27, 2005.
Peters, Tom, Lori Bell,
and Lori Thornton. InfoEyes: Addressing VR Accessibility and Voice Over IP Functionality.
A presentation made at the Annual Virtual Reference Desk (VRD)
Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, November 8, 2004.
Peters, Thomas A., and
Lori Bell. Using Voice-over-IP (VoIP)
to improve and expand web-based library services. A presentation made at the LITA National
Forum, St. Louis, Missouri, October 8, 2004.
Potash, Steve, Cynthia
Orr, Andrew Pace, Theresa Horner, and Tom Peters (moderator). E-Book Update. A
panel discussion held on June 26, 2004 at the Annual Conference of the American
Library Association, Orlando, Florida.
Bell, Lori, and Tom
Peters. InfoEyes: An Online
Information Community for the Visually Impaired. A presentation made at the Annual Conference
of the American Library Association, Orlando, Florida, June
26, 2004.
Bell, Lori, Diana
Brawley Sussman, and Thomas A. Peters. Recent E-Book Projects for Print-Impaired Users. A presentation made at Our Digital World Redux: The Biennial
National Conference of Librarians Serving Blind and Physically Handicapped
Individuals, Rapid City, South Dakota, May 4, 2004.
RECENT STATE AND REGIONAL PRESENTATIONS
Peters, Thomas A. “Audiobooks
and Libraries.” A talk at the
Second Annual Audio Ebook Expo: One Book, Many Formats: The Magic of Multimedia, East Peoria,
Illinois, September 28, 2005.
Peters, Thomas A. “Collaboration and Consortia: The Potential and the Pitfalls.” A keynote address given at the Annual
Conference of OPAL, the consortium of Ohio Private Academic Libraries, Columbus,
Ohio, August 5, 2005.
Peters, Thomas A. “Consortial and
Collaborative eBook Programs: The Best of All Possible Worlds.” A talk made at the “eBooks
in Illinois Academic Libraries” Conference, Champaign, Illinois, March 7, 2005.
Peters, Thomas A. “The Two Cultures of
Digital Audio Books.” A talk
given at the Audio E-Book Expo: Exploring Digital Books and Content, sponsored
by the Alliance Library System and the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, East
Peoria, Illinois, October 29, 2004.
Elzy, Cheryl, Paula Kaufman,
Tom Peters, and Jean Wilkins. “Sharing the Load: Has the
Time Come for Shared and Last Copy Storage Centers for Illinois?” A panel discussion held at “Redefining
Ourselves: Academic Librarianship at the Crossroads,” the 2004 Annual
Conference of the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries, April
1, 2004, Oak Brook, Illinois. Tom
Peters’ presentation slides are available online at www.tapinformation.com/IACRL.htm.
Peters, Thomas A. “The Magic of
Collaboration.” A talk given at the "Abracadabra! You're a Virtual
Reference Librarian" workshop co-sponsored by the Alliance Library System
and the North Suburban Library System and held on the campus of Illinois
Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, on May 23, 2003.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
NATIONAL
American Library Association (ALA), 1987 to the present.
ALA Committee on Research and Statistics, June
2001 to June 2002.
Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), 1988
to 2003.
ACRL Research Committee, July 1990 to June
1993.
Association for Library Collections and Technical Services
(ALCTS), 1992 to 1999.
Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), 1989-1999, 2001
to 2003.
LITA Top Tech Trends Committee, January
2001 to June 2003.
LITA Research Committee, July 1993 to June
1996.
LITA Research Task Force, July 1992 to
June 1993.
Reference and User Services Division (RUSA), 1988-1991;
1995 to 1999.
RUSA MOPSS Catalog Use Committee, July
1996 to June 1999.
RUSA MOPSS Evaluation of Reference and
Adult Services Committee, July 1995 to June 1999.
American Society for Information Science
(ASIS), 1995 to 2001.
STATE AND REGIONAL
Illinois Library Association (ILA), 1996
to 2003.
ILA Nominating Committee, July 2000 to
June 2001.
1999 ILA Annual Conference Planning
Committee, September 1998 to October 1999.
Illinois Association of College and
Research Libraries (IACRL), 1996 to 2003.
SERVICE TO
LIBRARY CONSORTIA
CIC (Committee on Institutional
Cooperation)
Director, Center for Library Initiatives
January 2000 to June 2003.
ILCSO (Illinois Library Computer Systems
Organization)
ILCSO Policy Council (elected), September
1998 to December 1999.
Vice Chair (elected), September 1998 through August 1999.
ILCSO Electronic Resources Committee, July
1997 to December 1999.
Chair (appointed), July 1997 to December 1999.
ILCSO Report Planning
Task Force, May 1996 to July 1998.
Chair (appointed), January 1997 to July 1998.
ICCMP (Illinois Cooperative Collection
Management Program)
Coordinator of a
preliminary planning effort for an Illinois Academic Library Shared Storage
Facility, September 2004 to the present.
Cooperative Collection
Management Coordinating Committee (CCMCC), February 1995 to December 1999.
Chair (elected), September 1996 to August 1997.
ALS (Alliance Library System [Illinois])
Chair (appointed), Illinois Alive
Executive Council, 1999 to December 1999.