Alex Kyrios

Alex Kyrios is the University of Idaho's (UI) first-ever Metadata and Catalog Librarian, splitting his time between traditional library cataloging and a variety of metadata projects, from digital collections to data management for interdisciplinary datasets, such as a repository for climate data in the Northwest.

"I've been hired at the assistant professor rank (tenure track)," said Kyrios. "I'll also provide metadata consulting for UI researchers. My favorite project so far involves working with Special Collections, designing a metadata template and keyword bank for a collection of management correspondence from the 1892 Coeur d'Alene (ID) miners' strike, involving the famed Pinkerton detective agency. I've also dived into classification work for UI theses, and I'm really enjoying learning about all sorts of disciplines in doing so."

This is not the first time Kyrios has blazed a trail. Prior to this position, he served as the (first-ever) Dewey Decimal Classification Intern for OCLC at the Library of Congress.

Asked how SILS had helped him in his positions, Kyrios says, "I find myself constantly drawing on SILS coursework, and I'm especially grateful to my cataloging instructors (Kristina Spurgin, Erin Stalberg and Jacquie Samples) for familiarizing me with the tools I now use on an everyday basis and introducing me to the intricacies of classification. And I really see information differently for having taken Jane Greenberg's metadata and knowledge organization courses. Less than two months into the job, I really know what I'm doing, and that's really thanks to SILS."