Jan Holmquist
Jan believes the best library is created by being globally inspired and transforming that inspiration into acting locally in your community. Jan is currently working with library advocacy and startegy at a local level in Denmark and on a European level in the Library Advocacy Lab.
Guldborgsund Public Library and Jan developed the first 23 mobile things program that was later translated into the global online learning program in cooperation with State Library of New South Wales, Australia and prepared the ground for versions in German, Russian, Norwegian and English versions in Singapore & Philippines and Australia / New Zealand. The library as a learning hub in the community is one of Jans core beliefs. The modern library support learning on all levels. Jan has been working with crowd funding projects like Buy India a Library and Help This Week in Libraries in the global online library community.
Liz McGettigan
Liz is a Director of Digital Library and Cultural Experiences and is recognised internationally as a leader in the future library, transformation and digital literacies movements. Before this, she was Head of Libraries and Information Services for the City of Edinburgh where she led the team delivering Edinburgh's first fully-online council service, social media suite and 24/7 interactive portals and apps.
Liz is a former Trustee of the UK Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Past President of Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals CILIP in Scotland and former member of SOCITM, and the Institute of Informatics and Digital Innovation Advisory Board at Edinburgh Napier University.
Marydee Ojala
Marydee Ojala is Editor-in-Chief of Online Searcher and writes its business research column, The Dollar Sign. She has contributed feature articles and news stories to Information Today, Searcher, EContent, Computers in Libraries, Intranets, Cyber Skeptic's Guide to the Internet, Business Information Review, and Information Today's NewsBreaks. A long-time observer of the information industry, she speaks frequently at conferences, such as WebSearch University, Internet Librarian, INFORUM (Prague), Internet Librarian International, and national library meetings outside the U.S. She has adjunct faculty status at the School of Library and Information Science at IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis). Her professional career began at BankAmerica Corporation, San Francisco, directing a worldwide program of research and information services. She established her independent information research business in 1987. Her undergraduate degree is from Brown University and her MLS was earned at the University of Pittsburgh.
Programme Adviser Biographies
Kenn Bicknell
Kenn Bicknell is Digital Resources Librarian for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Library & Archive (USA), overseeing web content, strategic initiatives, innovative collaborations, and social media properties. He was selected as a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2013, and has been a featured speaker at several US and international conferences and events.
Kenn distils developments from across the cultural heritage, technology, business, journalism, and media landscapes, assessing new tools and resources to help libraries, archives and museums strengthen community engagement, think strategically, and embrace innovation in order to remain not just relevant, but vital cornerstones of society.
Sharon Bostick
Sharon Bostick is Dean of Libraries at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. She was formerly Dean of Libraries at the University of Missouri Kansas City, Director of Libraries at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and has held library positions at other universities in the United States. She holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Wayne State University, an AMLS (Library Science) from the University of Michigan, and a BA in English and Counselling from Oakland University. She has also worked as an independent consultant for libraries and higher education. She has written and presented extensively on information-seeking behaviour in university students, on academic and library consortia in the United States and on academic library buildings.
Natasha Chowdory
Natasha Chowdory started as an assistant at Microsoft UK, and completed her (2nd) MSc, in Information and Library Studies while working full-time. Following Microsoft, she went onto an Information Officer role at Oxfam. In this role, she was doing communications, event management and information flow management, which took her to Geneva, Kenya and the Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh.
Most recently, she did a short stint as a Database Officer at Tuffin Ferraby Taylor, a construction consultancy. And is now settling in as an Information Specialist at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust.
Joanne C. Constantino is a registered librarian and licensed professional teacher at Taguig City University, where she is the assistant chief librarian. She supports the assessing and formulating recommendations on the promotion and plans for the library and staff development as a whole.
Joanne has worked with the universities in the Philippines including Bulacan State University and the University of the Philippines Los Baños. She aims to impart her knowledge in library management, information literacy, research, collection development, cataloguing and classification, lifelong learning, and so much more. Currently she is taking her Masters in Library and Information Science degree at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
Jane Cowell
Jane has over 25 years of experience working in Public Libraries across Australia and is a known innovator in the sector. Jane is passionate about public libraries as creative community spaces and their role in connecting communities with technology trends and sees many opportunities for libraries presented by the rapidly changing digital, social and economic environment. In her previous roles she has introduced a Business Incubator space in the State Library of Queensland partnering with local entrepreneurs, developed a Council wide Learning Community collaborating with the local University, TAFE campuses, Community Organisations and the business community and delivered significant research projects to support library advocacy efforts such as The Library Dividend (2012) and was instrumental in the development of a fully funded ($20 million) early literacy programme for every Queensland public library, First Five Forever, now in its 5th year of delivery
George Cronin
George has worked in academic libraries for many years in a range of roles from working in a legal deposit library to helping train polar scientists in effective research skills.
They are currently the Research Support Librarian at the Betty & Gordon Moore Library, part of Cambridge University Libraries. They support STEMM subjects across the University and teach on a variety of topics from the fundamentals of good data management through to how to give presentations that are accessible and engaging.
George is also committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion and is the secretary for Cambridge’s LGBT+ Staff Network.
Adam Farrell
Adam Farrell has enjoyed a varied career in special, academic, and public libraries. He is an active adjunct faculty member at UBC’s iSchool. He enjoys connecting information through technology to find solutions to the information needs of the community. He is an avid animal lover, enjoys the outdoors, and enjoys reading mystery, leadership, and technology-related books.
Terence Huwe
Terence Huwe is Library Director Emeritus of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a presenter at Internet Librarian USA, Internet Librarian International (London) and Computers in Libraries (Washington, DC). Since 2002, he has been a Columnist with Computers in Libraries magazine and frequent contributor to Online and Online Searcher.
Alison McNab
Alison McNab is an academic librarian at the University of Huddersfield, whose main role is to support researchers at all stages of the research cycle. She has regularly pioneered the implementation of new technologies and resources, with a focus on their use to enhance service development and delivery, and for much of her career has specialised in the marketing and exploitation of e-content.
Ka-Ming Pang
Ka-Ming is an Academic Achievement Librarian at the University of Roehampton. She has almost a decade’s experience in the library sector, including in public, membership and HE libraries. She has a keen interest in fostering opportunities for personal and professional development. Ka-Ming has facilitated and co-organised a range of events in the past, including #ukibchat, HASlibcamp, Pi and Mash, libteachmeets and more. She looks for opportunities to bring creativity into her professional work life, and last year hosted a zine making workshop on the experience of BAME library staff in libraries
Cheryl Peltier-Davis
Cheryl Peltier-Davis is Faculty Liaison Librarian (Social Sciences) at the Alma Jordan Library at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. She started her career as Librarian in the 90s and has worked in public and academic libraries in the Caribbean (Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago) and the US. Her continued interest in emerging technologies has led to the publication of two volumes of The Cybrarian's Web, a guide written to assist librarians and other information professionals keep up-to-date with social media tools and mobile apps applicable to libraries. She currently serves as Council member on the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) Executive Council. I(n 2019 she was awarded the Caribbean Information Professional of the year award by ACURIL.
Bethan Ruddock
Bethan Ruddock works for Digital Resources at Jisc, on services using bibliographic data. She is a Chartered member of CILIP and currently enrolled for Fellowship. Bethan’s The New Professional’s Toolkit was published by Facet in 2012.
Ingeborg Rygh Hjorthen
Ingeborg is an information researcher in the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Her work covers investigative journalism, fact checking and training in internet research and information retrieval. She is a trained librarian with media and communication studies from the University of Oslo, and was president of the Norwegian Library Association in 2011-2013.
Aaron Tay
Aaron Tay is Library Analytics Manager at the Singapore Management University. An experienced academic librarian, he believes in the importance of continuous learning to keep up with changes.
His popular blog Musings about Librarianship has covered library trends such as discovery, social media and Open Access for the past 10 years and reflects this philosophy of reading, thinking, doing and reflection. He has been awarded LJ Mover & Shaker, Library Association of Singapore Newcomer of the Year, and professional service awards.
Erna Winters
After finishing library academy, Erna worked in several public libraries across the Netherlands. In her current position as Managing Director for the Public Library Kennemerwaard, Erna’s responsibilities include networking with local and provincial governments, representing the library on national meetings, and making connections between other institutions with which the library can cooperate on projects.
Jo Wood
Jo has been working in (largely, special) libraries since 2003 and now manages a remote library and information service for social workers across England. She qualified in 2006 via the distance learning route at Aberystwyth University, Chartered in 2008 and recently submitted her CILIP FCLIP portfolio. Jo is Chair of the Association of Librarians and Information Professionals in the Social Sciences (ALISS) and is a Chartership mentor. Jo is the founder and producer of the Librarians with Lives podcast and blog. She is a mother of twins, a keen runner and a nail varnish enthusiast.