The Founding Director of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Dr Will Noel, passed away earlier this week. His vision for SIMS and his efforts to make our work possible can't be overstated. He will be dearly missed.

This is why the University of Pennsylvania puts our digitized manuscripts on OPenn, with the images in the public domain and the metadata licensed as CC:BY: We acknowledge that their value lies in their usefulness, and we want them to be used. (Will Noel is the Director of the Schoenberg Institute of Manuscript Studies and the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania)

As part of Oxford's Bibliography in Bits podcast series, Adam Smyth talks to Penn's Will Noel about the potentials of digital technology for the study of manuscripts.

William Noel is being honored as a Champion of Change for the vision he has demonstrated and for his commitment to open science. Noel is the Director of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, and the Director of the Special Collections Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Commons and Digital Humanities in Museums | Will Noel