# Zackry Langford - Digital Archives & Cultural Heritage Technology

> I build and maintain digital archives for libraries and historical societies: Omeka S platforms with custom frontends, AI-assisted transcription of handwritten materials, and cataloging systems that institutional staff run themselves.

I build and maintain digital archives for libraries and historical societies: Omeka S platforms with custom frontends, AI-assisted transcription of handwritten materials, and cataloging systems that non-technical institutional staff use themselves. Senior Technology Assistant at Marshall District Library, where I run the archive platform at archive.yourmdl.org. AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner.

**Focus:** digital archives, cultural heritage technology, Omeka S, headless Omeka S, Omeka Classic to Omeka S migration, digital archive development, handwritten text recognition, AI-assisted transcription, Typesense archive search, library technology, AWS, Next.js

**Tech Stack:** Digital Archives, Omeka S, Handwritten Text Recognition, Typesense, Next.js, Django, AWS, Serverless, Lambda, API Gateway, S3, CloudFront, EC2, EventBridge, DynamoDB, CloudFormation, Docker, MySQL, PostgreSQL

**Contact:** Use the contact form or email directly.

## About

- [About Me](https://www.zackrylangford.com/about): Background, the archive platform at archive.yourmdl.org, custom Omeka S modules, certifications, and tech stack

## Custom Omeka S Modules

Four custom PHP modules in production on the Marshall District Library archive:

- **TranscriptionManager**: transcription workflow for handwritten material — Claude Vision via Lambda, archivist review UI, name annotation, publishing to an Omeka S media resource
- **TypesenseSync**: keeps the Typesense search index in step with Omeka S item create, update, and delete events
- **CacheInvalidation**: batched purging of the Next.js frontend cache when archive content changes
- **Custom authentication module**: brings the Omeka S admin sign-in into visual parity with the public frontend

## Portfolio

- [Sports Archive: One Statistics Engine for Team and Individual Sports](https://www.zackrylangford.com/portfolio/sports-archive): A sports-history archive on Next.js and a Django REST API, with one flexible statistics engine modeling both team box scores and individual race times.
- [Yarn+Chai Members Platform — Serverless Membership Site on Next.js + AWS](https://www.zackrylangford.com/portfolio/yarn-chai-members-platform): A serverless membership platform for a crochet pattern business: Next.js on Vercel, an AWS backend, Stripe billing, one backend serving web, admin, and mobile.
- [Teaching AI to Read Cursive: The MDL Transcription Pipeline](https://www.zackrylangford.com/portfolio/mdl-transcription-pipeline): Two of the four custom Omeka S modules behind the MDL archive, using Claude Vision to transcribe 1800s cursive handwriting and make it searchable.
- [Omeka Classic to Omeka S Migration with Decoupled Next.js Frontend](https://www.zackrylangford.com/portfolio/omeka-classic-migration): A complete digital archive modernization: migrating from Omeka Classic to Omeka S with a decoupled Next.js frontend, Typesense search, and AWS infrastructure for performance and scalability.
- [ExoplanetHub – NASA Exoplanet Archive (TAP API) Data Sync on AWS](https://www.zackrylangford.com/portfolio/exoplanethub-serverless-sync): A modern web app for exploring confirmed exoplanets, powered by a serverless AWS backend that syncs automatically with NASA's Exoplanet Archive.
- [MDL Serverless Event Registration System (Plugin + AWS)](https://www.zackrylangford.com/portfolio/mdl-serverless-event-registration): A serverless backend and custom WordPress plugin that manages program registrations, notifications, and printable rosters for Marshall District Library.
- [Marshall District Library WordPress Architecture on AWS](https://www.zackrylangford.com/portfolio/mdl-wordpress-architecture-aws): A production-ready WordPress deployment for Marshall District Library, leveraging AWS services for high availability, performance, and reliability.

## Blog

- [The Case for Face-to-Face in the AI Era](https://www.zackrylangford.com/blog/the-case-for-face-to-face-in-the-ai-era): Some of the biggest records of the '60s weren't played by the bands on the cover. AI is the newest swing of that pendulum, and the scarce asset is still you.
- [Making Your Website AI-Friendly](https://www.zackrylangford.com/blog/making-your-website-AI-friendly): A step-by-step guide to preparing your website for AI agents. Learn how to create an 'agent landing zone' that helps AI assistants understand and interact with your site—without changing how it looks to humans.
- [Building an AI Agent Front Door: Implementing llms.txt, robots.txt, and Sitemaps](https://www.zackrylangford.com/blog/building-ai-agent-front-door): AI agents are crawling the web differently than humans. Here's how I'm preparing my site with llms.txt and other standards to be discoverable and useful to AI systems.
- [Why I Built My Site Around AI: Preparing for an Agent-First Web](https://www.zackrylangford.com/blog/why-ai-for-my-site): The web is shifting from human-to-human interaction to agent-mediated communication. I'm building my site to be ready for that future, starting now.
- [Designing for Simplicity in a Complex Cloud](https://www.zackrylangford.com/blog/designing-for-simplicity): Modern cloud architecture tempts us to build sprawling systems, but often the real art lies in knowing when not to.
- [Architecting in the Age of Agents: Why Design Thinking Still Matters](https://www.zackrylangford.com/blog/architecting-in-the-age-of-agents): AI can now build, deploy, and even market entire systems—but deciding what to build, why it matters, and how to make it sustainable still belongs to human architects.
- [Introducing Myself: Designing for the Cloud](https://www.zackrylangford.com/blog/introducing-myself): An introduction to who I am, what I care about, and why I'm focused on designing clear, scalable systems in the cloud.

## Contact

- [Contact Form](https://www.zackrylangford.com/contact): Send me a message
- [Book a Meeting](https://www.zackrylangford.com/book): Schedule time via Cal.com integration
- Email: z@zackrylangford.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zackry-langford/
- GitHub: https://github.com/zackrylangford