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Digital Library Innovator and now Science Fiction Author

Martin Halbert

Dr. Martin Halbert is a pioneering leader in digital preservation and research services with three decades of experience including serving as Dean of Libraries at two major research universities, principal investigator on the seminal National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database projects, and former science advisor for Public Access of the U.S. National Science Foundation. His experiences as an information scientist and librarian have informed his perspectives as an expert in preserving access to public records and scientific research outputs.

Drawing on this background in leading and fostering public access to critically important cultural and historical information, Dr. Halbert has now written the first two books of the Sojourner Saga, a new series of upmarket science fiction novels that explore the ultimate price of information control and the fragility of civilization in a vast galactic setting of human, alien, and cybernetic societies. These novels, Helmsman (Book One), and Pilgrim (Book Two) will both be published in March, 2026 by Eposian Publishing, an innovative new press focusing on new approaches to narrative.

Selected Accomplishments

The central conflicts of the Sojourner Saga are drawn from Dr. Halbert's three decades of professional exploration of the highest level issues in information governance. The following selected accomplishments illustrate the types of real-world policy failures, ethical battles, and institutional neglect that inspired his novels distant future setting and its themes concerning the battle for control over information and freedom.

Creating Digital Research Portals on the History of Slavery

As co-principal investigator for the original 2005-2010 project that created the renowned Transatlantic Slave Trade Database portal, Dr. Halbert had direct experience in working with historians to create digital information services and resources that shine a light on the darkest human behaviors of the past. The database and portal are the primary information resource for scholars undertaking research concerning the history of slave trafficking between the new world and the old. In the Sojourner Saga, slavery in the future is more oppressive than ever with the aid of cybernetic control systems implanted in human minds.

Digital Preservation Pioneer

As the leader of one of the six foundational projects comprising the U.S. National Digital Information Preservation Program (NDIIPP) from 2004-2009, Dr. Halbert was a pioneer of digital preservation strategies at the national level. Digital information loss is a pervasive problem in preserving cultural and historical information for humankind in the future. The central protagonists of the Sojourner Saga are members of an interstellar monastic order called Sojourners who are dedicated to preserving and sharing information for devastated human societies called the Bereft.

Champion for Public Access to Information

Dr. Halbert has long championed the right of the public to retain control and access to publicly funded information. He served at the U.S. National Science Foundation as Science Advisor for Public Access from 2020-2024, leading the creation of research funding opportunities such as the FAIROS RCN program and public access awareness building presentations. Dr. Halbert created the long-running UNT Annual Open Access Symposia series, and hosted it from its inception in 2010 until 2017, fostering national-level conversations on both practical barriers and innovative solutions to advance Open Access. The core conflict of the first two books in the Sojourner Saga concern the resistance by a small group of protagonists versus galactic tyrants who hoard knowledge.

Recruiting and Educating Librarians for the Digital Age

Dr. Halbert has served as an educator in the field of library and information science (LIS) at two research universities, and has recruited and trained a generation of librarians and digital curators. He successfully created many academic programs in this area through a long series of projects funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Service (IMLS) such as the 2007 Recruiting and Educating Librarians for the Digital Age project and the 2011 DataRes Research on Emerging Research Data Management Needs project. The Sojourner interstellar monastic order are modeled on the next generation of librarians and digital curators now seeking to preserve access to digital information for our posterity.

The Sojourner Saga

First 3 Books in the Sojourner Saga

The central question of the Sojourner Saga is: Can a naive but principled young information monk and his ragtag group of friends successfully oppose galactic tyranny by bringing freedom to bereft civilizations through access to knowledge?

Dr. Martin Halbert, a senior information scientist, applies decades of expertise in digital preservation and access to the creation of the Sojourner Saga, a new series of epic science fiction novels. The first book, Helmsman, introduces the Sojourners—a monastic Order dedicated to saving collapsed "Bereft" civilizations by providing them with free access to critical knowledge. Set against the backdrop of a grand, colonized galaxy and inspired by China's most famous classical saga Journey to the West, the story follows naive acolyte Greymalkin Thomas. He faces ruthless human and alien tyrants who seek to control the secrets of the enigmatic Eta Carinae.