Tennessee Tech Archives and Special Collections would like to congratulate Jenny Huffman, Digital Collections and Metadata Supervisor, on her new faculty position at the University of Colorado Denver as their new Digital Initiatives Librarian. We are sad to see Jenny leave, but we are tremendously proud of her accomplishments and excited for the impact she will make in her new role.
Jenny’s journey with Tennessee Tech began in Fall 2017, when she joined the History Department as an undergraduate student. She quickly became an integral part of the campus community, devoting herself to the History Club in numerous officer roles and later President Emeritus—a title honoring her fundraising leadership, membership growth, and creative programming. A Brown Bag lecture by Megan Atkinson of the University Archives changed her career pursuits, inspiring her to begin a nine‑month internship processing the papers of composer Robert E. Jager. That experience sparked a deep passion for archival work.
After graduating in December 2019, Jenny continued her studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, earning her Master of Science in Information Sciences in May 2022 with a focus on Archives and Records Management and digital collections. A month later, she returned to Tennessee Tech—this time as an Archives Assistant—bringing her archival training, technical skill, and creativity back to the place where her journey began. She immediately began transforming the Archives’ digital landscape. During her time at Tech, she expanded digitization initiatives, established updated workflows, and developed illustrated guides and standardized procedures to support staff and student interns. One of her proudest accomplishments was helping grow the digitization program to a fully functional Digitization Lab. The new space and Jenny’s initiatives further supported the archives’ long‑term preservation and access program for archival materials.
Jenny’s work consistently emphasized accessibility, ethical description, and community engagement. As a Principal Investigator for the West End History Project, she collaborated with Dr. Krystal Akehinmi, Megan Atkinson, and the West End Connection to document and preserve the history of Cookeville’s historically Black community. Her leadership included digitizing materials, transcribing oral histories, coordinating a community‑wide Digitization Day, and guiding a team of Tennessee Tech interns, all of which contributed to the collection of resources that tell the stories of a Cookeville community.
Jenny played a critical role in preparing digitized newspapers, newsletters, photographs, and other historical documents for online access—positioning Tennessee Tech as a prominent contributor to the Digital Library of Tennessee (DLTN) and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). She is especially proud of completing two large vendor digitization projects that made over 25,000 Photo Services photographs and over 10,000 issues of The Herald‑Citizen newspapers publicly available online, expanding community access and the Archives’ digital holdings.
As Digital Collections and Metadata Supervisor, Jenny oversaw the Digitization Services Department, guided digital preservation strategies, shaped metadata standards, mentored student workers, and fostered a collaborative, supportive work environment. She also led the reorganization and enhancement of the digital collection’s website, scheduled for public launch later this year—an update that will introduce a modern interface and improved usability for researchers and the broader community.
From a Tennessee Tech student to an archival professional and now a new faculty member at the University of Colorado Denver, Jenny’s journey reflects a strong commitment and an enduring belief in the power of archives to preserve and share the history of the university and the Upper Cumberland region. Join Tennessee Tech and the Archives in celebrating Jenny’s achievements and wishing her great success on this exciting new chapter. She will be missed, but her impact will continue to shape the Tennessee Tech University Archives and Special Collections for years to come.
