ERIT Staff

ERIT Switchboard (any ERIT staff member): 336.334.4238
Select a staff member's name to contact that person via e-mail.

Tim Bucknall, Assistant Director for ITER and Head of ERIT: Tim is a visionary in his field (and he didn't write that himself), having given birth to both Journal Finder and the Carolina Consortium, a regional database cooperative. Tim's a renaissance man, being a woodwright, art buff, and avid soccer player in addition to a librarian. A native of Austin, Tim finished his undergraduate education at the University of Texas in Austin before receiving from UNC Chapel Hill Master's degrees in Art History and Library and Information Science. Away from work, Tim is the proud father of three children and enjoys building furniture and playing soccer.
Vanessa Apple, Web Applications Specialist: Vanessa works on converting classic ASP back-end administrative interfaces to ASP.NET and writing new ASP.NET code for digital projects. Her relationship with computers started with upgrading her P-75 Gateway computer to play mp3s. She holds a degree in Computer and Information Science from UMUC. When not cooking up SQL statements or writing/debugging code, she reads, watches movies, plays tennis, sews, and spends time with her dog, Autumn (aka Pookie).
Beth Bernhardt, Electronic Journals/Document Delivery Librarian and Head of ILL: Beth is responsible for providing electronic journal access to all faculty, staff, and students at the University as well as supervises Interlibrary Loan and the Library's document delivery services. She is the Program Chair for the Charleston Conference and an adjunct instructor for Solinet teaching workshops in North Carolina on NCLive basics and Train the Trainer. An alumna of UNC Chapel Hill, Beth received her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina. Beth enjoys visiting the mountains and the beach and every pub in between.
Brown Biggers, Assistant Server Administrator: Brown serves as Assistant Server Administrator for the University Libraries. Brown is Franklin's Primary Field Operative and the Lieutenant of Library Server Team Delta Zero, and as such helps to maintain connectivity to the library's servers. Taking from his former careers as a graphic designer, a juggler and a math teacher, he enjoys providing varied and sometimes unexpected approaches to a given job. Like Danny, he is an avid Mac user (but please don't tell Franklin). In his spare time he wishes for a day when he has enough Legos to begin sculpting. Brown holds a BS in Computer Information Systems from Guilford College and an AAS in Advertising and Graphic design from Randolph Community College.
Robert Bixby, Digital Imaging Technician: Rob supervises scanning, image manipulation, and audio conversion for Digital Projects. He got into computers when PCs were a novelty, but has had careers in social work and editing since returning to full-time techy stuff as a member of ERIT. Rob holds a master's in social work from Western Michigan Unversity and a MFA in creative writing from UNCG.
Terry Brandsma, Information Technology Librarian: In addition to being a Webmaster, teacher, and hardware/software/network support specialist, Terry is the system administrator for the Library's integrated online library system. He is currently basking in the glow of a successful migration from one such application to another. His recent work includes the development and expansion of several digitization projects including electronic reserves, streaming media, interlibrary loan, encoded archival description, and electronic theses and dissertations. Terry holds a Master of Science in Library Science from the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at Long Island University and a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering from the United States Coast Guard Academy. A father of two sons, Terry is also active in his church.
Keith Buckner, Computer Support Technician: Keith works with Beth Bernhardt to help maintain our home-grown product, Journal Finder, an article-level electronic journal finding database. We currently support this product for multiple other universities as well as UNCG. Keith is also responsible for helping our Systems Manager, John Overly, produce overdue, recall, and other notices, lists, reports, and statisics using our online library system. He maintains the UNCG campus A-Z Index. Keith is an avid musician and has already begun his second career in several promising bands. This belies his background as an artist; he has Bachelor's and Master's degrees in fine arts from UNCG and is an avid painter.
Richard Cox, Digital Technology Consultant: Richard is the Library Webmaster, and participates in Internet and relational database development, graphic design, and Web design and development, as well as outreach to and training for various schools and departments across the UNCG campus. He also assists in network administration duties as needed as a member of the Server Team. He currently chairs the Library's Web development group, and is head of the Web development and campus Web outreach teams, as well as being the team lead for the campus Web3 Project Team and sitting on the campus Web Oversight Committee and Assistive Technology Advisory Board. Like several of his ERIT colleagues, Richard attended UNCG, from where he holds degrees in English and Art. In his spare time, Richard enjoys DIY home-improvement projects, collecting Japanese monster film memorabilia, and dancing like a white boy.
Cheryl Cross, Technology Support Analyst: Cheryl is part of the Support Team.
David Gwynn, Digital Projects Manager: Formerly an intern on the Civil Rights Greensboro project, David now helps manage several ongoing projects for the Digital Projects unit. In addition to twelve years of web design and digitization experience, David will earn an MLS from UNCG in December 2009. In his spare time, David manages sites such as Groceteria.com, dedicated to supermarket history, and enjoys visiting his second home in Pittsburgh (although he is not a Steelers fan).
Beth Filar Williams, Distance Education Librarian: Beth works with Distance Education resources.
Cat McDowell, Digital Projects ~~Coordinator~~ Enthusiast: A bit archivist, a bit librarian, and a bit geek, "Little Cat" McDowell coordinates all sorts of digital projects through every stage of their life cycle, from the planning and funding stages through the digitization and preservation of analog artifacts to project launch and maintenance. Cat earned her Bachelor's degree at Duke and holds a Master of Public History degree from NCSU. Cat is active in civic organizations and likes to drink beer.
Franklin McKee, Information Technology Operations Manager: Franklin serves as IT Operations for the University Libraries. His work in this area includes administration and maintenance of over a dozen servers and more than 200 workstations, as well as supervising the Library's Server Team and User Support Team. A geek to the core, Franklin has a degree in math, as well as a Biology BS from UNCG.
Danny Nañez, Web Applications Developer: When not earning his nickname, “El Stalion” works closely with Richard, Jessica and Vanessa in supporting improving, and adding to the Library's ever-growing list of web applications. In addition to being a whiz with both computers, he also works with Macs. A native of Texas, Danny finished his undergraduate education at the University of Texas in Austin. Married to a librarian, Danny enjoys cooking meat, being a father and sleep.
Chad Therrien, Web Usability and Library Assessment Analyst: Chad has two main roles with the Library. His primary role is performing various types of usability analyses on the Library web pages with the intent of improving how UNCG University Library patrons access Library resources. The types of studies he conducts include card sorts, focus groups, log file analyses and traditional usability tests. Chad also works with other library assessments like LibQual+™. The other part of Chad's role is coordinating Library usage and access statistics and providing this data to inquiring parties. Chad has a Computer Information Systems degree and a Bachelor of Computer Science degree, both from Thompson Rivers University and holds the CompTIA 'A+' certification. Chad is an avid cyclist who enjoys road biking and mountain biking in the Greensboro area. Chad also closely follows the Formula One World Championship.
Jessica Thomason, Database Administrator: Jessica develops and maintains custom-built relational database applications for internal and public consumption as well as Web-based front ends for both public and administrative interaction. Jessica holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and Operations Management and a Master of Science in Information Technology and Management from UNC Greensboro. In her spare time she enjoys reading, shopping and spending time with family and friends.