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Octavia Fellin Public Library welcomes new Deputy Director Tammi Moe

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Octavia Fellin Public Library brings cultural documentation expert to enrich and diversify the services and collections of Gallup’s public library. Newly appointed Deputy Director, Tammi Moe, brings more than 17 years of diverse experience in museums, archives, and libraries.

Keywords to describe her work are innovative, creative, and community focused. Moe holds a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Denver with a concentrated focus on archives. Her technical training expands well beyond the theoretical walls of university course work with ongoing participation in the practical applications of digital humanities at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, the University of Udine, Venice Italy, the International Virtual Heritage School in Falmouth England, and the University of the Arts London, England.

Moe’s passion for documenting cultural heritage developed early in her career while working for the Denver Art Museum. “I was interested in developing interchangeable systems of documentation for both tangible and intangible heritage. Cultural heritage is the product of human experience and fundamental to our understanding of belief systems, social views, practices, and community endeavors. The nuances must be carefully documented and preserved,” she said.

Her earliest contributions to libraries evolved from her work as a research analyst at the Colorado State Library. Moe worked on the foundational study to assess the impact of digitization on actual visits to libraries, archives, and museums for the Colorado Digitization Project in 2001.

The CDP study found a positive correlation to gate counts at cultural institutions engaged in sharing collections online. She also headed up Colorado’s first study to determine the impact of public libraries on the “Digital Divide” in 2002. Findings used in supreme court case No. 02-361, in support of arguments made by the amici curiae organizations working to bridge the digital divide and ensure full participation in today’s digital democracy by all U.S. citizens.

Moe’s experience extends beyond the borders of the United States to the shores of the Arabian Gulf.

She was Assistant Director of Libraries and Head of Digital Collections and Archives at Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar in 2004.

In 2010, Moe was awarded $1.5 million in research funding for the Qatar Unified Imaging Project. QUIP was recognized as a national priority and was supported by the Qatar National Research Fund. In this role, she designed the methods and parameters to catalog Qatar’s previously undocumented primary sources increasing access through digital surrogates and descriptive ontology.

During her tenure in Qatar, Moe worked on the development of one of the largest visually-based research collections on Islamic art and architecture in the world, the first open source archival management system available in Arabic, the first international study on Qatar’s primary source materials and archival collections, and the implementation of international standards in metadata and digitization in Qatar.

She was recognized for her pioneering spirit as a “Qatar Foundation Achiever” in 2011. Her work in Qatar is a true manifestation of believing in and following a personal vision. Combining her passion for preserving culture through documentation and collaborative processes to develop information pathways within any community.

Moe comes to Gallup from the Pueblo County Library in Colorado.