Anna Wałek is a graduate of the Institute of Information and Library Science at the University of Wroclaw, where she obtained a Ph.D. in the field of Library and Information Science in 2013 (with the thesis: Libraries and the idea of Open Access to scientific resources). She is also a recipient of the Polish Librarians Association Award for the best national LIS master thesis in 2008 (Digital Libraries on the dLibra platform in Poland).

Since 2007 until 2016 she worked at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. Her most important achievement was to create and organize a new university-wide unit, responsible for the collection and sharing of scientific and technical information, intellectual property management, technology transfer and cooperation between science and economy – the Center for Scientific and Technical Information (established in January 2014). She was also the first director of the Center for two years, Library Director, the originator of the concept of the repository of research results and Open Access policy creator. During her time in Wroclaw she was also i.a. the President of the Lower-Silesian Digital Library Consortium, Coordinator of the Polish Chemical Abstracts Consortium and Project Manager for the Knowledge Repository.

Since January 2017 she is a Director of Gdańsk University of Technology Library. She is also Open Access expert in GUT Open Repository Project (https://mostwiedzy.pl/) and Representative of the Rector for Open Science.

Apart from her involvement in library work she was also a Lecturer in the Institute of Information and Library Science at the University of Wrocław (2008-2015), conducting seminars, lectures and computer labs in the following areas: management and marketing, Open Access, electronical resources and databases, digital libraries.

She is an author of over 20 scientific publications especially about digital libraries and Open Access, and a member of several international bodies and organizations (IATUL Board of Directors, CESAER Task Force Open Science, Research Data Alliance, LIBER, Conference of Directors of Polish Academic Libraries). She was also a member of a group of experts preparing the organization of the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in 2017 in Wrocław.

Charles Eckman is Dean and University Librarian at the University of Miami. He previously served as University Librarian and Dean of Library Services at Simon Fraser University (2010-2013), Associate University Librarian and Director of Collections at the University of California, Berkeley (2006-2010), and Principal Government Documents Librarian and Head of the Social Sciences Resource Group at Stanford University (1997-2006).

Dr. Eckman has served on the boards of directors for the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries, Canadian Association of Research Libraries, and Canadian Research Knowledge Network; he also served on the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer. Dr. Eckman’s research interests include information policy, open access, digital scholarship, history of scholarly communication and cultural organization administration. He has managed and consulted on a variety of digital library initiatives. He is currently serving as principal investigator – with his colleague Dr. Jill Deupi at the Lowe Art Museum – on an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded project promoting campus-based academic library and museum collaboration, faculty engagement and conservation of special collections, archives and works of art on paper.

Dr. Eckman holds a master’s degree in library and information studies from UC Berkeley, a PhD and master’s degrees in politics from Princeton University, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Indiana University.
 

Since 2013 Gerda Winkler is head of the three branches of the University Library of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, a quadrilingual university, at the interface of different cultures in South Tyrol, a predominantly German-speaking Italian region with a Ladin-speaking minority, promoting international projects and cooperations. She is also director of bu,press, the Bozen-Bolzano University Press. Her work focus lies particularly on international cooperations as well as on the interconnection of local scientific libraries, but also cooperations with public and specialized libraries. She has published various articles dealing with her key research area, the design of library and learning spaces, specifically with a cooperation project which led to the establishment of EduSpace Lernwerkstatt at one of the University Library’s branches at the faculty of education and the construction of a new library, as a result of the collaboration between the University Library and the public library of Bruneck-Brunico.

Further research interests include Strategic Planning, Open Access, Change Management and Scholarly Communication.
From 2015 to 2021 she was member of the Austrian scientific board of the inter-university Library and Information Studies study program.

Kate was appointed University Librarian for the University of Bath in 2012, where she serves as a member of the University’s key committees which shape and lead the University’s strategy. Originally a Theology graduate from the University of Manchester and with a MA in Library & Information Studies, she has worked in libraries since the 1980s, contributing to a range of sectors within the profession including public libraries, private members’ libraries and the advertising industry. 

Prior to moving to Bath, initially to take up the post of Academic Services Librarian, she worked at the Manchester Metropolitan University as the Deputy Librarian for their Business Library.  Kate is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP) and the Royal Society of Arts. She is a regular speaker and contributor at international conferences, with a particular interest in innovative use of technology to enhance processes and users’ experience.

Kate has a close relationship with CILIP and was elected as their President for 2022. Her Presidential theme of Workplace Development reflects her longstanding commitment to this in her career and in her voluntary activities.  She was an Assessor for CILIP’s Professional Registration for 20 years and Chair of their Professional Registration (PR) and Accreditation Board until 2020.  Leading the comprehensive review of PR and skills for CILIP to ensure its best fit for member and employer needs, she now leads CILIP’s newly established Sector Development Committee. She has held many senior leadership positions, including: Chair of Governors for a 1st School, Justice of the Peace, Lecturer in Information & Library Management, Executive Board Member of the Society of College, National and University Libraries and of regional library groupings.

Michelle is the University Librarian at Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato, the University of Waikato in Aotearoa, NZ. She previously worked in the UK for 15 years including as the Deputy and then Director of Library and Archives at the University of York.
Michelle is a member of the Open Access Australasia Executive Committee, a member of CAUL’s Indigenous Knowledge Advisory Group and co-leads the Open Scholarship strand of the CONZUL (Council of NZ University Libraries) strategy. She is a founding member of the Committee on Data in Research (CoDiR) in Aotearoa, NZ and co-leading a project mapping the research data landscape in Aotearoa, NZ.
Michelle was the co-founder of the Relationship Management in HE Libraries in the UK. She was previously the Co-convenor of RLUK's Associate Directors Network and a founding member of the RLUK Digital Shift Working Group. She was heavily involved in Sconul work and programmes during her time in the UK including on the workforce development group and the trends and futures strategy group.

Kara Jones has over 25 years of experience in academic libraries in Australia, England and the United Arab Emirates. She joined the American University of Sharjah (UAE) as University Librarian in 2019.  

Kara's current experience with strategy, leadership and executive membership includes AMICALCoordinating Committee membership and she is currently co-convenor of the AMICAL Open Scholarship Interest Group. She is an Advisory Board member for various publishers, representing the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. She is a Chartered member of CILIP in the UK and regularly presents on topics such as LibQual survey actions, research impact tools (ie. 11 Research Impact Things) and scholarly communications models.

Dr. Xinwan Li was appointed University Librarian for Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in 2020. SJTU is a research-intensive university. He leads a team of nearly 200 staff in five libraries on three campuses to deliver a range of research and teaching support, access, and facilities services. He has led several successful initiatives including library building renovation projects and the design of new services, such as 5G application on book-finding & seat-finding, academic resource map for resource correlation and aggregation, efficient management of institutionary academic achievements, Nobel Prize winner analysis, global academic human resource database, open conference initiative etc.

He is the secretary general of the academic committee of Creative Forums for Library Management and Service (CFLMS), which was founded by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Library in 2008 and has been held for 15 consecutive sessions. The Forum aims to promote the management and service innovation of university libraries, facilitate the exchange of management and service concepts, methods, and experience among university libraries. It has become an influential academic exchange brand nationally. The forums involved more than 1,600 participants from 220 universities for the past three years. He will lead the CFLMS forward international community with the strategy of ONE-BELT ONE-ROAD initiative further.

He currently serves as the secretary general of Academic Library & Information Committee of Shanghai. He is also the head of Yangtze River Delta University Library Alliance Office, which leads Yangtze River Delta University Library Alliance of 252 member libraries. He serves as deputy director of Shanghai Society of Library Science (SSLA), and vice president of Shanghai Library Association (SLA).

Dr. Li is also the chair of IEEE COMSOC shanghai chapter, he has published over 200 papers in optical fiber communications and sensors since 1993. He was the associate dean for research of Joint-institute between Shanghai Jiao Tong University and University of Michigan (UM-SJTU Joint Institute) from 2013 to 2018. He was the dean of school of Physics and Electrical Engineering of Ningxia University from 2011-2013. He is the professor of State key lab on the advance optical fiber communications of SJTU from 2005 till now at the school of electronic information and electrical engineering of SJTU.

Ujala Satgoor has held several professional and national leadership positions, and earned an excellent reputation for proposal writing, grants & project management (combined value of $6.7m) and library leadership development in South Africa. These projects include the South African Library Leadership Project; Centre for Information Career Development Project (CiCD) and the Next Generation Public Librarians (NGPL) project located at the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA), the Centre for African Library Leadership (CALL) Project at the University of Pretoria and the pilot Mzansi Libraries Online project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and located at the National Library of South Africa.

Her current LIS areas of interest are engaging in library dialogues, libraries on the national development agenda, library leadership development, continuing professional development, library strategy development, advocacy & lobbying. She has presented workshops and been invited to speak on these topics nationally and internationally. She believes in showing by example and developing new role models that invigorate a very dynamic profession. She was awarded the first LIASA Executive Librarian Award in 2018.

Furthermore Ujala Satgoor is Chair of Committee for Higher Education Libraries in South Africa (CHELSA) as well as Deputy Chair of South Africa Libraries and Information Consortium (SANLiC).

Dr. J K Vijayakumar (Vijay) is currently the Director of Library Services and Professor at American University of Antigua in Antigua (West Indies), previously he was the founding team member and Associate Library Director at AUA. He also served as founding team member of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia in various positions including University Library Director and Strategic Information Advisor in the Provost Office. He started his career as Scientific Officer at University Grants Commission’s Information and Library Network Center in India. Dr. Vijay served on the prestigious Board of Directors at the International Association of University Libraries (2019-2021), various standing committees of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and publisher advisory boards of several STM publishers. He visited more than 30 countries for professional engagements and actively supported several international library programs and projects. He holds an MSc in information studies from Robert Gordon University, doctorate in information science from Bundelkhand University, master’s in library science from Annamalai University, and bachelor’s in science from Kerala University. He is the recipient of IFLA-OCLC fellowship in the USA, Salzburg global fellowship in Austria, IFLA-ALP travel grant to Argentina and Goethe BII visiting study grant in Germany.