The Snyder-Granader Assistant University Librarianship for Research Data and Digital Scholarship was created through a generous gift made by Penn Libraries Overseer Andrew Miles Snyder, W'92, and Jill Granader, C'89. The endowment of this position is not only an important investment in talent at the Penn Libraries but also a strong message of support for this vital field and its place at the University. We are truly grateful to Andy and Jill and their families for their dedication and vision in making this gift to ensure the future of the Penn Libraries' leadership in digital scholarship.
Digital scholarship refers to all digital methods and tools that might be used to investigate, analyze, present, and promote research and research data in all its forms. Understanding, evaluating, engaging, and experimenting with these methods and tools plays a crucial role in the modern academy - and the Penn Libraries serves as an essential partner throughout the journey.
Nicky Agate leads the library team supporting faculty and students whose research makes intensive use of digital methods and tools, including research data across the disciplines. She is also charged with the development of the Libraries' future Center for Research Data and Digital Scholarship--a hub for textual and data analysis, data curation, data visualization, geographic information systems, software creation and management, and web platform design. She is a co-PI on the HuMetricsHSS initiative, a Mellon-funded project to rethink research evaluation in the humanities and social sciences on the basis of shared values rather than abstract value. She is the immediate past chair of the Ivy+ Digital Scholarship Group, serves on the steering committee of the Force11 Scholarly Communication Institute, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication.
Nicky came to Penn from Columbia University Libraries, where she served as the Interim Director of Digital Scholarship and as the Assistant Director for Scholarly Communication and Projects. In these roles, she designed innovative supports for open scholarly communication; oversaw library publishing and digital scholarship; and supported a university-wide initiative to enhance research computing skills of graduate students and postdocs. In addition, she managed and expanded a digital scholarship team devoted to raising Columbia's profile in digital scholarship and new forms of scholarly communication. Earlier, Nicky held roles at the Modern Language Association, Humanities Commons, and ProQuest. She has played major roles in grant-funded projects supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Nicky holds a doctorate in French literature from New York University; a Master of Fine Arts in literary translation from the University of Iowa; and a Bachelor’s degree in English and French literatures from the University of Glasgow, and she has completed professional courses in UX design and methods in the digital humanities.