The One Liner
..is up in the header. And in my Twitter and Linked In bios. You don't really need (or want) me to repeat it, do you?
The Fun Version
Originally from Massachusetts, Rachel still occasionally has difficulty reconciling her relocation to "the South," aka Washington, DC. She spent four blissful years at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, earning a BA in English and Illustration in 2004. Three years later, she went back to school for an MLS, largely due to a deep-seated need to regain access to the journal databases. After accidentally learning all about archives and digital preservation, Rachel decided that she wasn't quite ready to leave the University of Maryland, and is sticking around for a PhD. She has also lucked into the two greatest jobs in the world: researching digital forensics and videogame preservation with the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, and helping out the National Archives' Electronic Records Archives Center for Advanced Systems and Technology (NCAST) in any way they see fit.
In her spare time, Rachel trains in parkour and would like to play videogames and boardgames, create art, drink delicious microbrews, and read science fiction and fantasy novels. Also, sleep.
If you know Rachel in other than a professional capacity, you probably know her as Sheepy and wonder why she is talking in the third person. For those of you who are curious, Sheepy is a long-standing nickname, and is derived from the meaning of the name Rachel, TrapperKeepers, a haircut, and llamas.
The Less Fun Version
Rachel Donahue is a doctoral student at the University of Maryland's iSchool, researching the preservation of complex, interactive digital objects. She received a BA in English and Illustration from Juniata College in 2004, and an MLS with a specialization in archival science from University of Maryland in 2009. Rachel is a Research Assistant at the Maryland Institute for Technology, currently supporting the NDIIPP funded Preserving Virtual Worlds and the Mellon Foundation funded Computer Forensics and Born-Digital Content in Cultural Heritage Collections projects . Additionally, she supports the preservation, implementation and communications activities of the National Archives and Records Administration's Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies. Rachel's first taste of the internet was accessing Usenet through a VT100 terminal and TIN, quickly followed by MUDs and IRC, and a solid addiction to social networking sites. She started playing video games with Sesame Street and a keyboard overlay for the Commodore 64 and hasn't stopped since.
