Library staff Michael Howser was recently awarded the New England Chapter of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association’s (NEURISA) Special Achievement Award at their Annual Conference in September.

The award is given to an individual who has made a significant contribution that greatly enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization through the use of geospatial or other information technologies.

Michael is the Team Leader for Digital Scholarship and Data Curation and also serves as the Digital Repository Coordinator.  According to NEURISA, he received the award for his work to transform “CT’s Map and Geographic Information Center (MAGIC) over the past five years.  He has had a role in creating a seamless statewide 1934 aerial data set of CT.  He helped to establish the CT State Data Center, a collaboration of academic and state organizations that serve as a liaison to the US Census.  He has helped to digitized a wealth of historical information through a massive scanning and metadata project of over 200,000 documents.  The comprehensive collection of digital GIS datasets available through MAGIC has exploded in the past five years, yet still remains easy to navigate and simple to use.”

Congratulations Michael!