Professional Documents
Culture Documents
David Bliss CV
David Bliss CV
Summary
My professional goal is to ensure long-term preservation of cultural heritage materials to facilitate their
continued use by researchers and creators themselves. My work is informed in equal parts by
contextual knowledge, ethical considerations, digital preservation standards, and the importance of
scaleable, efficient workflows.
Skills
Digital preservation – Scanning & Digital Imaging – Digital asset management – Workflow design –
Spanish-language instruction & technical support – Taxonomy & description – Web archiving –
Data manipulation and reuse – Project management – Spanish-language research & reference – Public
outreach
Education
University of Texas at Austin School of Information
Master of Science in Information Studies, May 2017
Archival Enterprise
Digital Preservation
• Web archiving
o Managed Archive-It subscriptions for the Human Rights Documentation
Initiative (HRDI) and LLILAS Benson web archives
o Ran quarterly web crawls of human rights-related websites to provide secure
backups of sensitive information for advocates and researchers alike
o Restructured LLILAS Benson Archive-It subscription, formerly used only for
the Latin American Government Documents Archive, to accommodate special
collections donor websites and legacy Benson webpages
o Reviewed crawl reports to resolve capture errors, ensure complete website
captures, and resolve crawler traps
o Advised on data budget needs for the project, reducing annual spending by
thousands of dollars each year
o Collections available online: https://archive-it.org/collections/1475 &
https://archive-it.org/organizations/61
Publications
Alpert-Abrams, Hannah, David A. Bliss, and Itza Carbajal. "Post-Custodial Archiving for the
Collective Good: Examining Neoliberalism in US-Latin American Archival
Partnerships." Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies 2 (March 03, 2019).
https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/view/87.
Butler, Matthew, and David A. Bliss. "Digital Resources: The Hijuelas Collection." Oxford
Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, September 2018.
doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.618.
Conference Presentations
2019 Society of American Archivists annual meeting – “Means of Production and Selection:
Capitalist Frameworks in Archival Contexts” Presentation and panel discussion
64th Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials conference (SALALM),
2019 – “Fostering a Latin American Post Custodial Paradigm: Reports from the Field”
Presentation and panel discussion
2019 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries – “The Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional
Digital Preservation Project at UT Libraries” Poster presentation
2019 UT Digital Preservation Symposium – “Massive Data Disaggregation for Efficient
Digital Preservation: The AHPN digital collection” Lightning talk
Haverford College Archives and Historical Memory in Guatemala Symposium, April 12
2019 – “Digitizing Human Rights Archives in Latin America” Presentation and panel
discussion
2018 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries – “Post-Custodial Praxis at LLILAS Benson:
Lessons in Digitization, Access, and Community Partnerships” Presentation and panel
discussion
2018 UT Digital Preservation Symposium – “Preserving the Archivo Histórico de la Policía
Nacional: Scaling preservation for massive datasets” Lightning talk
2017 Society of American Archivists annual meeting – “Documenting the Women’s March
on Austin, January 21st, 2017: Assembling a professional-quality archival documentation
effort on short notice” Poster presentation
2017 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries – “Designing and implementing a digitization
workflow for post-custodial initiatives at the Benson Latin American Collection, UT Austin”
Poster presentation
2016 UT Digital Preservation Symposium – “Using Glifos to Preserve and Present
Audiovisual material” Lightning talk