Patrick Burden has joined the West Virginia & Regional History Center (WVRHC) as the Digital Collections Archivist.
Patrick’s extensive background in a mixture of information technology (IT) and libraries, archives and museums uniquely positions them for this cross-functional role within WVU Libraries. Patrick will lead programs for managing, preserving and providing access to digitized and born-digital archives to meet the needs of researchers and students.
Previously, Patrick entered their IT career serving as a customer service representative in various technology companies and then a quality assurance engineer role before changing their 15-year career to digital archiving.
In their new direction, Patrick started at the Science History Institute updating various records and collections to modern standards and ensuring their digital accessibility. At the Old York Road Historical Society, Patrick digitized oversized documents from 1650 to 1790, taking care with original documents and cataloguing appropriate metadata. For the Unofficial Convention Archive, Patrick digitized 2,300 items across 35 collections, extracting record information and metadata.
In all these roles, Patrick ran quality assurance checks to ensure presentation, copy and media formats were accessible via all devices by modernizing file formats and syncing as needed. They also were responsible for maintaining long-term storage needs.
Patrick earned their Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from Drexel University and their Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) certification from the Society of American Archivists. Prior to their archival work, Patrick earned an undergraduate degree in information science and technology with a minor in business administration from Penn State University.