Digital Scholar

Sean Takats Joins Digital Scholar as co-CEO

2025-11-04T00:00:00Z

Vienna, VA — Digital Scholar, a leading nonprofit organization which builds critical open-source infrastructure for the digital humanities, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sean Takats as its co-Chief Executive Officer (CEO), with a special focus on research and development. Dr. Takats brings with him a spirit of innovation and an extensive background in designing and developing essential open source software for research and scholarship.

As CEO, Takats will play a key role in enriching both Digital Scholar's trusted software initiatives and its new ventures. He will be responsible for integrating emerging technologies into Digital Scholar’s operations, directing Zotero and Tropy, and leading an effort to foster strong relationships with the academic and research communities to identify new needs and opportunities.

Takats comes to Digital Scholar with decades of experience as an historian and as the director of a range of end-user digital tools for research. Most recently, Takats spent six years as Full Professor and FNR PEARL Chair at the University of Luxembourg. In that position, Takats led the Digital History Advanced Research Projects Accelerator at the Luxembourg Center for Contemporary and Digital History, supported by EUR 6 million in funding from the Luxembourg National Research Fund and the University of Luxembourg.

Prior to joining the University of Luxembourg, Takats spent more than a dozen years at George Mason University’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media directing research initiatives and leading the Zotero, Tropy, and PressForward projects. During that time, his research was supported by a range of private and public funding agencies including the Mellon Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Takats holds a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree in economics and history from Yale. He is the author of The Expert Cook in Enlightenment France (2011), published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

“I’m delighted to have Sean joining Digital Scholar as co-CEO,” said fellow co-CEO Sharon Leon. “He is an unparalleled leader in the field of computational digital history, and has tremendous leadership experience. I have had the good fortune to work closely with Sean in guiding Digital Scholar’s rapid growth over the last decade. His steady hand has ensured the stability of our software products and pushed development into new and exciting areas, especially in his crucial leadership of the research management software teams–all while also maintaining a distinguished record of scholarship at first, the Rosenzweig Center, and more recently at the University of Luxembourg. The board and I eagerly await the new avenues of development that will arise from having the benefit of his full concentration, particularly in exploring the possibilities made available through emerging technologies.”

“I'm thrilled to step into this role full-time,” said Takats. “Since its founding Digital Scholar has worked to serve scholars’ needs, and over the last fifteen years we’ve proven that the most successful tools are ones built from a deep understanding of those scholars' actual workflows. As co-CEO, I'm excited to continue that mission of strengthening scholarly practice while maintaining our commitment to open, accessible infrastructure. And as new computational approaches continue to emerge, I'm eager to explore them carefully and collaboratively to understand where they can truly enhance scholarship while staying grounded in our core values.”

As a co-founder of the company in 2009,Takats’s assumption of a full-time leadership role at Digital Scholar stands as the culmination of his contributions to the organization, including serving for more than a decade as President of its Board of Directors.

About Digital Scholar:

Committed to the responsible stewardship of critical open-source infrastructure for the digital humanities, Digital Scholar was founded in 2009 to develop and operate the business models for Omeka and Zotero. Having secured their long-term sustainability and independence, Digital Scholar has since helped launch and sustain a growing family of software projects, including Tropy, PressForward, and Sourcery.

Investing in Community: the Return of DHNow

2025-09-10T00:00:00Z

As promised during the summer of 2024, Digital Humanities Now has finally returned after a long hiatus. Once a key anchor in the digital humanities community, DHNow, with underwriting from Digital Scholar, hopes once again to provide a gathering place for engagement about contemporary digital scholarship and up-to-date news about the field. Now housed in the Centers for Digital Scholarship at the Northeastern University Library, DHNow has been in a soft-launch mode since the beginning of the summer. As we round the corner into the Fall, the editorial workflows will ramp up to regularly surface important digital humanities scholarship and news.

Digital Scholar has supported the effort to revive the project because we firmly believe that building and sustaining a vibrant digital humanities community is aligned with our core mission. Though the majority of our attention and resources are targeted at the creation and sustenance of open source software and open access materials for digital scholarship and cultural heritage, those tools and resources are used by a community of practice that is very dear to us. As a result, we are deeply invested in building that community through opportunities for dialogue and engagement.

When it first launched in 2009, DHNow offered a way for researchers and practitioners to find some signal in the noise of the social media landscape. Now that that landscape has fractured, the project has reemerged to offer a reliable point of cohesion and to encourage all of us to renew our commitment collegially sharing our work and our insights about digital humanities research and practice with one another.

Join the Community

Since this effort is at heart a community-building one, there are many ways to get involved. The first and most obvious way that those with interest in the digital humanities can join us is to read the syndicated context. DHNow has two methods of distribution: an RSS feed (https://digitalhumanitiesnow.org/feed/) and a weekly newsletter. Please subscribe to one or both of these modes of distribution!

The second way to join and support the community is to commit to writing about your work and the issues that you think that are important to the field. Make sure that DHNow knows where to find you, by submitting your feed for review by the editors. Then, dedicate some time every couple of weeks to step back and reflect in writing.

Finally, for those who want to be directly involved in the editorial process, DHNow has two opportunities: the Guest Editor program and Editors-at-Large program. The Guest Editor and Editor-at-Large roles are critical to helping DHNow reflect community interests, ideas, and opportunities. Through a semester-long commitment, Guest Editors will be directly selecting an Editors’ Choice post each week. Editors-at-Large have the opportunity to review feed content and nominate noteworthy content at their own pace, as well as using the ‘Nominate This’ bookmarklet to nominate content that they find on the web, outside of the feed sources.

Sourcery Relaunches with Peer-to-Peer Model

2025-09-03T00:00:00Z

Today, Sourcery launches its peer-to-peer service, allowing researchers who need archival materials—now in Boston or New York City, but soon in other locations—to link up with a researcher in the area who is available to digitize and return a copy of the required materials. The application is an intervention in access that reflects current realities with respect to research and travel budgets, and environmental conditions.

Developed by the team at the University of Connecticut's Greenhouse Studios, in conjunction with Digital Scholar and with funding from the Mellon Foundation, the application is an effort to expand access to traditional archival materials. Researchers request materials for a flat rate, Sourcerers scan and return the materials, earning the bulk of the fee for their time and effort. All of this happens without expensive long distance travel. Archival institutions will soon be able to participate in this workflow by joining Sourcery and choosing to service requests, or at least retain a copy of the scans if they would like them. Right now, the app is launching in Boston and New York, but in the coming year, its reach will expand to additional cities.

The Sourcery Team's development of the application and its approach build on nearly a decade of research, experimentation, and conversation with researchers, archivists, and information professionals. In supporting the work of the Sourcery team, Digital Scholar has emphasized its commitment to taking an innovative approach to the research process, rather than continuing business as usual. Adapting to contemporary circumstances and emerging technologies in a way that allows researchers to continue to pursue their inquiry and analysis in the most fulsome way possible.

So, the next time you find yourself working on a section of a manuscript and you need to review a document from an archive in New York or Boston that you don't already have in your Tropy project, log into Sourcery and make your request. You can continue at your desk, and a Sourcerer can make some money alongside doing their own research.

Sheila Brennan Joins Digital Scholar as Director of Institutional Relations

2025-08-14T00:00:00Z

Falls Church, VA — Digital Scholar, a leading nonprofit organization which builds and maintains critical open-source infrastructure for the digital humanities, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sheila A. Brennan as Director of Institutional Relations. With her extensive experience in humanities scholarship and strategic leadership, Dr. Brennan brings a wealth of experience and insight to the organization.

As DIR, Dr. Brennan will play a critical role in advancing Digital Scholar's mission to support and promote innovative digital scholarship initiatives by being the organization’s ambassador to stakeholders in higher education, libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations. She will be responsible for raising awareness about all of Digital Scholar’s offerings and for cultivating a network of collaborators in the effort to identify and support key free and open-source software (FOSS) projects in the humanities to ensure their sustainability.

Dr. Brennan brings two decades of experience in the field of digital humanities and digital scholarship. Dr. Brennan comes to DS from her role as Assistant Director of the Office of Data and Evaluation for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Previously, Dr. Brennan spent seven years as a Senior Program Officer in the Office of Digital Humanities where she ran grant programs supporting digital research and infrastructure. She also established joint funding opportunities with federal and international partners, and developed new resources to make the work of the NEH more legible to diverse constituents and stakeholders.

Prior to joining the NEH, Dr. Brennan held a number of leadership roles during her more than a dozen years at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. During that time she spearheaded over $13 million worth of grants and contracts for more than 20 digital humanities projects serving public historians, libraries, archives, museums, and members of the interested public globally. Key projects include the Doing DH Institutes, the award-winning Histories of the National Mall, the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, Omeka, the Papers of the War Department Digital Edition & Scripto Crowdsourcing Transcription Tool, and the September 11th Digital Archive.

"Sheila brings to us her deep understanding of the digital humanities landscape," said Sean Takats, President of Digital Scholar. "Her proven track record in fostering collaboration between academic institutions and cultural heritage organizations makes her the ideal person to build bridges between Digital Scholar and its user communities. We're delighted Sheila's joining us, and we're looking forward to working with her to strengthen our connections with universities, libraries, archives, and museums worldwide."

“I am thrilled to be joining the team at Digital Scholar, a model organization that leads the field in implementing best practices and sustainable pathways for open source software," said Dr. Brennan. "In many ways, DH runs on DS. I look forward to sharing DS’s innovative and practical projects with wider networks. Personally, I look forward to collaborating once again with former colleagues who are talented, creative, and share a commitment to open-source infrastructure.”

About Digital Scholar:

Seeking: Administrative Assistant

2025-04-20T00:00:00Z

Digital Scholar is in search of an energetic and efficient administrative assistant to support the work of the organization’s leadership team. The individual in this position would undertake the following responsibilities in the course of this position:

Calendar management for leadership team
Meeting planning and support
Travel arrangements
Records management
Copy editing
Developing and maintaining database of key contacts
Processing mail and assisting with bulk mailing preparation
Procurement of office supplies and equipment
Minor accounting tasks and customer support
Other duties as assigned

The ideal candidate for this position will have:

Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage competing priorities
Intermediate to advanced Google Workspace, calendaring, HR liaison, travel, corporate correspondence
Intermediate to advanced office suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or equivalents) skills
A track record as a proven clear thinker, who is level-headed and solution-oriented
A history of successful collaboration with multiple project teams
A background and/or interest in the digital humanities, scholarly communications, or cultural heritage

Hours, location, and compensation

This is a 40 hour a week position, with overlap hours between 10am and 4pm, Eastern. The candidate will need to be onsite at the Digital Scholar offices in Falls Church, VA at least two days a week. Compensation will range between $25-30 an hour, based on the candidate’s experience. The position also includes a competitive and comprehensive benefits package that includes healthcare and retirement.

This position reports to the Chief Operating Officer.

About Digital Scholar

Committed to the responsible stewardship of critical open-source infrastructure for the digital humanities, we founded Digital Scholars in 2009 to develop and operate the business models for Omeka and Zotero. Having secured their long-term sustainability and independence, we have since helped launch and sustain a growing family of software projects, including Tropy, PressForward, and Sourcery. We are a global, distributed team with an anchor in Falls Church, Virginia.

We’re committed to providing an equal employment opportunity and a work environment free from any discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, or pregnancy status.

Application Information

Please send a resume and cover letter stating why you are interested in the position to jobs@digitalscholar.org with the subject line “Executive Administrative Assistant.” Applications without a letter will not be reviewed.

Review of applications will begin on May 10, 2025.

2024 Annual Report

2025-02-28T00:00:00Z

Today we are sharing our 2024 Annual Report. We were pleased to celebrate our 15th anniversary this year, and to continue our fruitful collaborations with many of you. In this report you will find a summary of the year’s highlights and the important developments that have occurred with each of our open source software projects.

As we look forward to the rest of 2025, we have exciting things planned for the projects, and we hope to hear from you about the ways that we can all work together to support and sustain open source software and open access resources in digital scholarship.

Download the report.

DHNow to Return after Hiatus

2024-08-04T00:00:00Z

We are pleased to announce that after a hiatus, DHNow is returning in Fall 2024, under the editorial direction of Dan Cohen.

Get ready to join us in this venture by:

Firing up your blogs, newsletters, and other channels for publication and expression (micro and major)
Adding a feed to your static sites and newsletters
Sharing your home on the web with us: https://lnkd.in/eJFxaYxz

Digital Scholar sponsors DH2024

2024-07-10T00:00:00Z

We are very much looking forward to DH2024 in Arlington, VA next month.

We hope you'll join us there (either in person or virtually). Come meet some of the developers who make your favorite open source DH software, like Zotero, Omeka, Tropy, Sourcery, and PressForward. And, we'll have a special announcement for the OG DHers!

Leon joins Digital Scholar as Chief Operating Officer

2023-06-01T00:00:00Z

Vienna, VA — Digital Scholar, a leading nonprofit organization which builds and maintains critical open-source infrastructure for the digital humanities, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sharon M. Leon as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO). With her extensive experience in humanities scholarship and strategic leadership, Dr. Leon brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the organization.

As COO, Dr. Leon will play a critical role in advancing Digital Scholar's mission to support and promote innovative digital scholarship initiatives. She will be responsible for managing core Digital Scholar operations, directing Omeka’s web publishing initiative (https://omeka.org), and launching a new effort to identify and support key free and Open-source software (FOSS) projects in the humanities to ensure their sustainability.

Dr. Leon brings two decades of experience in the field of digital humanities and digital scholarship. Most recently she was Associate Professor of History and Digital Humanities at Michigan State University she was a member of the Consortium for Critical Diversity in a Digital Age Research group and where she launched the On These Grounds project, an initiative to design, develop, test, and disseminate a linked open data ontology to describe the lived experiences of enslaved people who labored for colleges and universities. From 2013 to 2023 she also served as Vice President at Digital Scholar, where she oversaw the corporation’s transformation from lightweight external business support to full-fledged employer and service provider.

Before joining Michigan State, Dr. Leon spent thirteen years at George Mason University’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) as Director of Public Projects, where she led teams producing award-winning projects including Omeka, Histories of the National Mall, the Bracero History Archive, and Historical Thinking Matters. Dr. Leon holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities and an A.B. in American Studies from Georgetown University. She is author of An Image of God: the Catholic Struggle with Eugenics, published by University of Chicago Press.

“I am thrilled that Sharon is joining Digital Scholar as its new COO," said Sean Takats, President of Digital Scholar. “She brings an unmatched record of first-rate research and digital humanities leadership experience. I’ve had the good fortune to work closely with Sharon twice: first as colleagues at RRCHNM, and later as officers of Digital Scholar. Sharon’s imagination and drive have utterly transformed Digital Scholar over the last ten years, with fifteen-fold growth in revenue, expansion into entirely new areas of digital humanities software development, and direct hiring of our first full-time benefited employees. Sharon was able to oversee all of this working just a few hours per week alongside her work at Michigan State. The board and I can’t wait to see what she can do with her full attention.”

"I am excited to join Digital Scholar as COO," said Dr. Leon. "The future of digital scholarship demands that we find viable ways to develop and sustain critical open source infrastructure which makes it possible for the broadest range of scholars and cultural heritage institutions to effectively access, organize, and contextualize digital materials. For fifteen years, Digital Scholar has been quietly succeeding at these efforts, and I look forward to facilitating the ongoing work of our incredible project teams, and also to sharing our approach with digital scholarly infrastructure projects that might not yet have found their own paths to sustainability."

The appointment of Sharon M. Leon as COO marks a significant milestone for Digital Scholar as it strengthens its leadership team and expands its capacity to serve the humanities community. With her visionary leadership and deep understanding of cultural heritage, Dr. Leon will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the organization and driving its mission forward.