Laura Dawson

Current

• Digital Consultant at McGraw-Hill Companies
• Consultant at LJNDawson.com

Past

• Director, Product Development, MuzeBooks at Muze, Inc.
• Director, Content at Sirsi
• Director, Content Development at Barnes & Noble

• Product Manager at Muze
• intern at Simon & schuster

see less...

2 more...

Education

• Mount Holyoke College

Recommended

7 people have recommended Laura

Connections

227 connections

Industry

Online Media

Websites

• My Website

Laura Dawson’s Summary

Laura Dawson is a 20-year veteran of the book industry. From 1987-1988 she was an editorial assistant at Doubleday; she then served stints as an author's assistant and children's bookseller in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 1990, she was an assistant manager at Barnes & Noble's medical shop at the flagship store on 5th Avenue, and in 1995 she transitioned from selling books in a brick-and-mortar environment to managing the books database at Muze, Inc.

In 1998 she left Muze for Barnes & Noble, and was one of the original members of the website team there, directing the database from which the B&N.com website runs. She was a founding member of the ONIX Committee (and continues to serve on the BISAC Metadata Committee which further develops the ONIX standards). In 2001, Dawson moved to Sirsi Corporation, where she developed content for library interfaces. In 2003, she became an independent consultant, with a brief hiatus as Director of Product Management at Muze; her website is http://www.ljndawson.com.

Laura Dawson’s Specialties:

Content development
Book industry standards and taxonomy
ESL training for professionals
MS Project
Product management
Marketing/evangelization
Digital media delivery
Library services

Laura Dawson’s Experience

• Digital Consultant

  McGraw-Hill Companies

  (Online Media industry)

  2007 — Present (1 year)

• Consultant

  LJNDawson.com

  (Privately Held; Myself Only; Publishing industry)

  December 2006 — Present (1 year 6 months)

  Consultant to publishers, libraries, distributors on digital supply chain, downloadable content. Project management, white papers, market research, best practices recommendations.

• Director, Product Development, MuzeBooks

  Muze, Inc.

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Online Media industry)

  April 2006 — November 2006 (8 months)

  Developing books-related media information products for booksellers, libraries and other multimedia markets.

• Director, Content

  Sirsi

  (Online Media industry)

  2001 — 2003 (2 years)

• Director, Content Development

  Barnes & Noble

  (Public Company; Online Media industry)

  1998 — 2001 (3 years)

• Product Manager

  Muze

  (Online Media industry)

  1995 — 1998 (3 years)

• intern

  Simon & schuster

  (Online Media industry)

  1986 — 1986 (less than a year)

Laura Dawson’s Education

• Mount Holyoke College

  A. B., English - writing, September 1983 — June 1987

  Activities and Societies:

  Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude

Additional Information

Laura Dawson’s Websites:

• My Website

Laura Dawson’s Interests:

Skiing, cooking, writing, rollerblading, fresh-water fishing

Laura Dawson’s Groups:

Book Industry Study Group, BISAC, NYU Center for Publishing

Laura Dawson’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• consulting offers
• new ventures
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch