Dorothy Judith Berry

I currently serve as the Digital Curator for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. I graduated from the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology with an MA and the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University, with an MLS. In 2020-2021, I was honored with Library Journal’s “Movers and Shakers” award, and the Society of American Archivists’ Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader award.

My work has focused on utilizing digital opportunities to enrich understandings of African American history, with a particular interest in archival discovery. Whether creating new modes of interpretation in the museum context or developing detailed metadata schemas in an archives context, I work to push available tools to bring accuracy and excitement to Black history online.

Cultural heritage materials open the door to history in visceral and unfettered ways. I am committed to a career of expanding access to those materials through creative and innovative ways focusing on digital and physical methodologies that unite stakeholder communities with their often displaced heritages.