Getaneh Alemu, Wider Community Engagement Officer Elect
Getaneh Alemu completed his PhD from the University of Portsmouth (2014), where he developed a theory of metadata enriching and filtering using a grounded theory method. He also holds an MA in Digital Library Learning (Oslo University College, 2009), an MA in Knowledge and Information Management (Ghent University, 2005) and a BA in Library and Information Science (Addis Ababa University, 2001).
Since November 2014, he has been working for Southampton Solent University as head of the Cataloguing & Metadata team. His primary role focuses on creating and harnessing metadata for print and digital resources, ensuring metadata is up-to-date, accurate, usable and standardised.
Getaneh is the author of Metadata Standards and Models (Elsevier, 2024), The Future of Enriched, Linked, Open and Filtered Metadata (Facet, 2022) and a co-author of An Emergent Theory of Digital Library Metadata: Enrich then Filter (Chandos, 2015) He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles on metadata, digital libraries, open access, Linked Data and Web 2.0 technologies. Links to these are available on ORCID and Google Scholar.
Presentations at several international conferences and his studies enabled him to travel widely including to the US, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Estonia, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, Finland, Mexico, Tanzania and Ethiopia. The slides of some of these presentations are available on Slideshare. He collaborated with Dr Anna Maria Tammaro of Parma University on a MOOC course on digital library theory and practice. Getaneh has worked and studied in higher education for more than 15 years including 6 years as a lecturer and Head University Librarian at Mekelle University, Ethiopia and as a research assistant for an EU-funded digital preservation project and part-time tutor both at Portsmouth University.
He served on IFLA’s Linked Data Technical Review Group (LIDATEC, now METATEC) and is on the editorial boards of Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, and Digital Library Perspectives.
Getaneh also teaches a part-time, online course on metadata standards and taxonomies at the Centre for Archive and Information Studies (CAIS), University of Dundee, Scotland.
Getaneh is currently serving on the RSC as WCEO Elect (1 September - 31 December 2025). On 1 January 2026 he will succeed Charlene Chou as Wider Community Engagement Officer.