Effie Kapsalis

Effie Kapsalis (April 21, 1971 – December 11, 2022) was an American open access advocate known for work related to digital programs and initiatives, including those advanced at the Smithsonian Institution.

Effie Kapsalis
Kapsalis looking toward the camera with a slight smile holding an outstanding service award.
Kapsalis (2013)
Born(1971-04-21)April 21, 1971
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedDecember 11, 2022(2022-12-11) (aged 51)
Maryland, U.S.
NationalityAmerican

Early life

Kapsalis was born April 21, 1971, in Chicago, Illinois.[1] She graduated from Indiana University Bloomington with a major in French language and literature. She went on to earn a master's degree from the University of the Arts (Philadelphia) in industrial design and pervasive technology.[1]

Career

As senior digital program officer at the Smithsonian, Kapsalis headed the team responsible for making 2.8 million high-resolution two- and three-dimensional images from the institute's collections openly available online in 2020.[2][3][4] She worked to make the Smithsonian's archival collections more accessible online and authored a blog series titled Wonderful Women Wednesday.[5] Kapsalis' work was featured on Open Minds...from Creative Commons in 2021.[6]

In 2013 Kapsalis and Sara Snyder were the recipients of the inaugural Distinguished Service Award by the Wikimedia District of Columbia for their work within the Smithsonian Institution encouraging people to learn how to edit Wikipedia.[7]

In 2016, Kapsalis was part of a South by Southwest (SXSW) panel, 'Give It Away to Get Rich: Open Cultural Heritage',[8] in which she presented her 2016 report 'The Impact of Open Access on Galleries, Libraries, Museums, & Archives'.[9] 'The Impact of Open Access' has been cited by over 40 peer-reviewed publications since then.

After a longtime battle with depression, Kapsalis died by suicide at her home in Maryland, on December 11, 2022, at the age of 51.[1]

Publications
  • Kapsalis, Effie (2 January 2019). "Wikidata: Recruiting the Crowd to Power Access to Digital Archives". Journal of Radio & Audio Media. 26 (1): 134–142. doi:10.1080/19376529.2019.1559520. ISSN 1937-6529. S2CID 204370555.
  • Kapsalis, Effie (1 June 2016). "Making History with Crowdsourcing". Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals. 12 (2): 187–197. doi:10.1177/155019061601200211. S2CID 86499060.
  • Kapsalis, Effie (27 April 2016). "The Impact of Open Access on Galleries, Libraries, Museums, & Archives" (PDF). Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  • Kapsalis, Effie, et al. (17 September 2009). "Smithsonian Team Flickr: a library, archives, and museums collaboration in web 2.0 space" (PDF). Archive Science. 8 (4):267–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-009-9089-y. Open access deposit. Retrieved 8 January 2023.

References
  1. "Read Effie Frances Kapsalis's Obituary & Leave Condolences". everloved.com. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  2. "Smithsonian releases 2.8 millionimages into public domain". yale-smithsonian.yale.edu. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  3. Wu, Katherine J. (25 February 202). "Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images Into Public Domain". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  4. Micu, Alexandru (26 February 2020). "The Smithsonian announced an awesome Open Access library of their collections". ZME Science. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  5. "Effie Kapsalis". Smithsonian Institution Archives. 18 March 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  6. Heath, Victoria (24 February 2021). "Open Minds: Celebrating Smithsonian Open Access With Effie Kapsalis". Creative Commons. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  7. "Awards - Wikimedia District of Columbia". wikimediadc.org. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  8. Kapsalis, Effie; Kimball, Shana; Oberoi, Shyam. "Give It Away to Get Rich: Open Cultural Heritage". 2016 Schedule. SXSW. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  9. Effie Kapsalis (27 April 2016). The Impact of Open Access on Galleries, Libraries, Museums, & Archives (PDF) (Report). Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
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