World Shakespeare Bibliography

The World Shakespeare Bibliography is a major scholarly resource containing over 138,000 records related to Shakespeare research and global theatrical productions. When I joined the project, the Drupal platform was already in place; my role was to step in as development lead and elevate the site’s functionality, stability, and performance.

Strengthening the Platform

I was responsible for enhancing several core areas of the site, including new features, refined workflows, and improvements to how data was presented across large bibliographic collections. The work involved extending existing architecture, introducing new sections, and ensuring the platform could continue to scale with its constantly expanding dataset.

Security & Performance Improvements

One of the primary goals was to harden security and significantly improve loading times. I optimized how the site handled high-volume record queries, refined caching strategies, and tightened various access and security measures to support a publication with a global academic audience.

Leadership on an Existing Codebase

Since this was not an original build, a key part of my role was quickly understanding a large, inherited system and guiding development in a way that complemented its existing structure. This included coordinating improvements, identifying technical debt, and ensuring new enhancements aligned with long-term maintainability.

Overall, this project highlights my ability to lead development on established Drupal platforms, improve performance and security, and deliver enhancements without disrupting a large, active user base.