Eric Larson
Co-Founder at Freelance
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolEric Larson is a librarian-turned-founder with 14 years of experience building user-centered web applications and digital library systems, and co-founder of Sidecar Publications where he launched Gimlet — a SaaS desk-tracking and knowledge-base tool used by over 750 GLAM and non-profit clients worldwide. He blends product design, front-end polish, and hands-on development (notably Ruby on Rails and Solr/Lucene experience) with responsibilities across finance, customer service, and marketing. A former web architect at the University of Minnesota Libraries, he led their first responsive redesign, accessibility and usability programs, and created design systems to streamline complex institutional workflows. As a consultant he has helped major academic institutions implement GeoBlacklight and cross-repository discovery solutions, revealing a rare combination of library domain expertise and practical engineering. Based in Minneapolis, he pairs entrepreneurial grit with a librarian’s focus on discoverability and service, often surfacing unexpected contextual integrations (Wikipedia, subject guides, liaison data) to improve research workflows.
14 years of coding experience
5 years of employment as a software developer
MA, Library and Information Science, MA, Library and Information Science at University of Wisconsin-MadisonBA, English, BA, English at University of Iowa
ruby
Github Skills (115)
wfs10
ruby10
osgeo10
solr10
rotate10
shapefile10
lucene10
open-science10
discovery10
blacklight10
pan10
openseadragon10
geotiff10
viewer10
geoserver10
Programming languages (10)
Github contributions (5)
geobtaa/geomg
Jan 2020 - Jan 2023
BTAA administrative UI for GeoBlacklight. Built on Kithe.
Contributions:740 commits, 27 PRs, 545 pushes in 3 years
administrativegeoblacklight
bplmaps/blacklight-allmaps
Mar 2024 - Feb 2025
Source code of Allmaps plugins for Blacklight/GeoBlacklight software.
Contributions:3 releases, 26 PRs, 104 pushes in 11 months
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