Thomas M. (Tom) Dousa is the Metadata Analyst Librarian at the University of Chicago Library, where he has worked since October 2014. Born in Prague and raised in Minnesota, he holds a BA in Classical Languages and Literatures and an MA in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures (specialization: Egyptology) from the University of Chicago; an MLS from Indiana University Bloomington; and a PhD in Information Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he specialized in the history and theory of knowledge organization (i.e., cataloging, indexing, and classification). In his day job, Tom is responsible for original cataloging of monographic materials – primarily those written in Western Slavic, non-Cyrillic South Slavic and non-Slavic Eastern European languages – and for developing metadata application profiles for the University of Chicago Library’s digital collections. Outside work hours, he likes to read, study languages, listen to music (preferably Baroque), and go for walks. He is a member of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Hyde Park, Chicago, where he serves as an usher and a minister of care, and participates in the local Knights of Columbus chapter.
Tom has been an active member of the Catholic Library Association since 2013 and, over the last eight years, has been involved in a number of activities within the organization. He Is chair of the Cataloging and Classification Roundtable and, in this function, serves as the CLA liaison to the American Library Association’s Committee on Cataloging Description and Access (CC:DA). In tandem with this, he compiles and edits the quarterly Oliver Leonard Kapsner, O.S.B. Cataloging Bulletin. Tom also sits on the editorial board of the Catholic Library World, for which he writes a regular column about little-known figures in the history of Catholic print culture and reviews books. He is grateful to the CLA for providing him with these opportunities for service in areas that dovetail nicely with his own strengths and interests.