CV – Evan Thornberry

Evan Thornberry

I am a knowledgeable geospatial librarian and curator with demonstrated success in academic and cultural heritage institutions. While I have over 13 years of experience, I still learn something new every day by embracing new ideas, keeping up with emerging technologies, and seeking feedback.

Professional Experience

Head and Curator, David Rumsey Map Center

Stanford University Library

Stanford, California

2023 – present

Oversee the stewardship of a significant historical map collection and manage a team of professional colleagues.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Librarian

University of British Columbia Library

Vancouver, British Columbia

2017 – 2023

Worked to advance teaching, learning, and research with geospatial information and technology campus-wide. Coordinated efforts to improve existing resources for maps, atlases, and geodata collections, as well as library services to better equip a large base of GIS users. Regularly participates in grant-funded projects and community-oriented events. Supervised the work of several students working within the map collection, provided consultation services, and delivered workshops.

Reference and Geospatial Librarian

Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library

Boston, Massachusetts

2015 – 2017

Led all technical projects including delivering workshops, managing grant projects, digital curation, etc. Oversaw reference and collection maintenance activities within a large collection of 200,000 historical maps and 5,000 atlases. Managed reading room appointments, space, and general use of collection by researchers. Facilitated map and atlas conservation work with several external conservators. Contributed in various roles to the production of 15 physical map exhibitions for public display.

Cartographic Reference Librarian

Norman B Leventhal Map Center

Boston, Massachusetts

2012 – 2015

Oversaw reference and collection maintenance activities within a large collection of 200,000 historical maps and 5,000 atlases. Managed reading room appointments, space, and general use of collection by researchers. Facilitated map and atlas conservation work with several external conservators. Contributed in various roles to the production of 15 physical map exhibitions for public display.

Map Library Manager

Huxley College Map Library, Western Washington University

Bellingham, Washington

2008 – 2010

Oversaw a collection of approximately 250,000 maps, 1200 atlases, and 32,000 aerial photographs in a busy academic setting. Managed the work of several student employees and volunteers. Carried out large format printing and scanning services. Maintained a small GIS computer lab and suite of software.

Aerial Photograph Scanning Technician

Huxley College Map Library, Western Washington University

Bellingham, Washington

2007 – 2008

Worked to scan several sets of historical aerial photographs of Whatcom County, Washington using flatbed scanners. Applied tombstone-level metadata and general file management best practices.

Education

University of Washington, iSchool

Master of Library and Information Science

Seattle, Washington

2008 – 2012

Western Washington University, Huxley College of the Environment

Bachelor of Art, Geography and Social Science

Bellingham, Washington

2003 – 2006

Grants

An interactive online textbook for fostering open pedagogy in geomatics

Co-Principal Investigator

UBC Open Educational Research (OER) Fund, $24,999 (CAD)

April 2021 - September 2022

Developing reusable technology workshops to enhance digital literacy (Project Renewal)

Co-Applicant

UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund, $14,912 (CAD)

March 2021 - October 2021

Developing reusable technology workshops to enhance digital literacy

Co-Applicant

UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund, $15,136 (CAD)

March 2020 - October 2020

Federated Geospatial Data Discovery for Canada

Co-Principal Investigator

Canarie, Inc., $345,711 (CAD)

January 2018 - March 2020

Central Web Portal to Maps of the American Revolution

Project Director

National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities Collections and Reference Sources, $300,000 (USD)

December 2015 - March 2017

Interactive Digital Map Tools for Teachers

Core Project Team

Institute for Museum and Library Services, Museums for America, $150,000 (USD)

December 2015 - March 2017

Articles

Thornberry, E., White, P. (2020). GitHub and Jekyll for Publishing GIS Workshop Content Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives Bulletin. No. 166, 25-30. DOI: 10.15353/acmla.n166.3463

Thornberry, E. (2019). [Review of the book British Columbia: A New Historical Atlas, by Derek Hayes] Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives Bulletin. No. 163, 2-3. DOI: 10.15353/acmla.n163.1603

Thornberry, E. (2017). Map and Geospatial Research and Reference Services at a Large Public Library: An Overview of the Leventhal Map Center, Journal of Map & Geography Libraries, 13:3, 320-329, DOI: 10.1080/15420353.2017.1408258

Thornberry, E., LeBlanc, M., Grim, R.E. (2015). The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library: The First Ten Years of Public Outreach and Educational Programming Using Historic Maps. Cartographic Perspectives, 80, 35-38. DOI: 10.14714/CP80.1311

Thornberry, E. (2014). Mapping Your Family’s Past: A Map Librarian’s Perspective of Using Atlases for Research in Genealogy. The Irish Ancestral Research Association Newsletter, 31:3, 55-58.

Selected Presentations

Globes – an App for the Apple Vision Pro

North American Cartographic Information Society Conference – Tacoma, Washington

2024

OpenIndexMaps: The Next Generation of Collaborative Digital Index Maps

North American Cartographic Information Society Conference – Minneapolis, Minnesota

2022

Mapping maps in map collections: The development and implementation of a shared print archive for Western Canadian topographic maps

Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives CARTO Conference - Virtual

2021

Developing a Computationally Minimalist Exhibit – ‘Slippages’: An Interdisciplinary Project in the Arts and Humanities

Uniersity of British Columbia Digital Humanities Conference - Virtual

2020

Panel: Collaborative development and publishing of open instructional content with GitHub

Access Conference - Virtual

2020

Adventures in Web Mapping and Opportunities for Library Instruction

Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives CARTO Conference – Hamilton, Ontario

2019

Geodisy: Geospatial Discovery for Canadian Research Data

Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives CARTO Conference – Hamilton, Ontario

2019

Increasing Access to Maps of the American Revolutionary War Era Through Digital Tools and Institutional Collaboration

International Conference on the History of Cartography – Belo Horizonte, Brazil

2017

Creating Interactive Spatial Indexes with GeoJson.io, GitHub, and Leaflet.js

28th International Cartographic Conference – Washington, DC

2017

Back to the Future: Digital Tools for Old Maps

Massachusetts History Conference – Worcester, Massachusetts

2017

The New Digital Collections of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center: Discovering Old Maps through Engagement

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Fest – Chicago, Illinois

2017

Ten Years of Digital Stewardship at the Leventhal Map Center

Setting a Research and Development Agenda for Moving Historical Geodata to the Web meeting, NYPL – New York, New York

2014

Invited Workshops

From Paper to Points, Lines, Polygons; Transforming Historic Maps into Data

Love Data Week 2025 @ Stanford University

2025

GitHub Grab Bag for Geo Librarians

Geo4Lib Virtual Community Event

2022

Introduction to Humanitarian Open Street Mapping

Youth Mappers, UBC Chapter

2021

Teaching Workshops in a Virtual World Using GitHub Workflows

Western Association of Map Libraries Pre-Conference Workshop

2020

Build your own web map with Leaflet.js

Vancouver Public Library Community Programming

2019

Up and running with Leaflet.js

Pacific Northwest Data Curator’s Annual Meeting

2018

Quick Intro to QGIS and DMTI Data

ACCOLEDS 2018

2018

Map it! Digital Maps & GIS for Learning

EdTechTeacher Innovation Summit

2016

Selected Exhibition

‘slippages’. An Interdisciplinary Project in the Arts and Humanities

Co-Creator

Digital

October 2020 (launched)

City of Neighborhoods: The Changing Face of Boston

Co-Curator

Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library

March 2014 – August 2014

Service

Healthy Regions & Policies Lab at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Geography & GIScience

Techincal Advisory Board Member, Robert Woods Johnson Fund Project to Support Social Determinants of Health Data Discoverbility and Empower Community of Practice

January 2023 - September 2024

International Cartographic Association

Canadian National Exhibit Co-Coordinator, International Cartographic Conference

January 2023 - September 2023

Western Association of Map Libraries

Past President

July 2022 - June 2023

President

July 2021 - June 2022

President Elect

July 2020 - June 2021

Maptime Vancouver

Local Organizer

November 2019 - October 2023

Boston Map Society

Vice President

January 2017 - July 2017

Skills and Knowledge

Library

Working with maps and atlas conservators
Handling rare maps, atlases, and cultural heritage material
Reading room operation and security
Public event planning and organization
Successful grant writing
Physical and digital exhibition design and technology
Map collection maintenance and stewardship
Acquisitions and budget management
Cultivating donor relationships
Approaches to academic research with cartographic resources

Technical

General GIS industry core competencies
Trends in digital cartography
Technical project management using Git and GitHub
Web mapping frameworks and best practices
Minimal computing and static site building
Computer lab and spatial software management
Data visualization and computational software
Modern digital map collections trends such as IIIF, auto-georeferencing, and auto-feature extraction

Hobbies: Hiking, biking, eating, tinkering

References: Available on request