Katherine Blalack Digital Repositories Librarian

Kate Blalack is a librarian, and a nationally certified archivist and digital archives specialist. She joined the Hesburgh Libraries as the Digital Repositories Librarian in July 2023. She brought with her 20 years of experience in various roles of librarianship, including academic, public, archival, and museum settings. Kate currently serves as a teacher and mentor and is passionate about creative innovation and human connections. Her research is primarily focused on social connections through technology, in the areas of international human relations, artificial intelligence, and neurodiversity.

With a service-first approach, Kate serves as a collaborative team leader and is responsible for advancing the Hesburgh Libraries’ overall strategy for the management, discovery, and integration of digital collections and assets through HL digital collections platforms, including the institutional repositories and the digital exhibit systems. She serves as a cooperative link between various library units and has primary authority to guide the development of a successful, interoperable ecosystem of tools that support and showcase our collections; to leverage repository services to enable and support a robust and sustainable scholarly communications ecosystem; and to advance multiple and equitable modes of access to the Libraries’ repository-based collections. She also leads stakeholder communications and workflow development and provides guidance in the digital advancement of the Hesburgh Libraries.

Kate has served on professional committees in state, national, and international organizations, including the Society of Southwest Archivists, the Society of American Archivists, and the International Council of Archives.