Pages

Dr Jocelyn Cranefield

Senior Lecturer
School of Information Management, University of Wellington

New Knowledge Brokers: The Invisible Influence

In a world where the vast majority of digital content is generated by individuals, what role do brokers play? Jocelyn will consider the role and value of knowledge brokers in today’s information-rich, tool-intensive, world. She will examine how individuals can play pivotal roles in filtering, combining, appropriating and redistributing user-generated information amongst online communities and networks, and across online/offline boundaries. She will show how this information work, when combined with a multi-modal communication environment, can influence and align values and beliefs. What issues do the activities of these brokers, their influence, and the entanglement of ideas and beliefs, raise for information studies researchers and information professionals?  

BIO: 

Jocelyn is Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her research centres on investigating how knowledge brokers in complex, multimodal communication settings use information systems to transfer knowledge and influence others. It aims to understand how these individuals combine and systematise the use of multiple channels (diverse online settings, and face-to-face communication contexts) to spread ideas, promote change, and build and maintain influence. Jocelyn’s work departs from the traditional, platform-centric view of the online community. It positions online activity as being more meaningful when seen as a series of crossings between micro-contexts in a larger, fragmented social world.

Jocelyn has published in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Her awards include Best Paper at Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS) 2011. She is the co-founder of New Zealand Knowledge Management network, and works as an adviser for museums and technology start-ups. Prior to joining the university, Jocelyn held senior management roles in the cultural and education sector. Her background includes roles as television director, museum exhibition developer, and science/math educational publisher. Jocelyn also has a longstanding interest in classical music and is a professional cellist.

Dr. Sandra Hirsh

Director of the School of Library and Information Science
San José State University.

The Global Transformation of Libraries, LIS Education, and LIS Professionals

We are amidst one of the most dynamic and transformational periods of time in the field of library and information science. The impact of technological change is now global and the role of libraries and the professionals that work in them are rapidly and continuously changing. What does this mean for the vitality of libraries in our communities? What does it mean to serve a local community in a global information landscape? And what skills are needed by the library professional to help libraries thrive in this global information market? In this keynote presentation, Dr. Hirsh will summarize the global and technical trends impacting all sectors of the library and information field, highlight the role libraries can serve as the technological and educational hub for their communities, and define the new roles and skills that will be required of LIS professionals to help their organizations thrive in today’s global information market.

BIO: 

Sandra Hirsh is Professor and Director of the School of Library and Information Science at San José State University. Prior to joining the School as Director, she worked in the Silicon Valley for more than a decade at major technology companies: Hewlett Packard and Microsoft. As an industry user experience researcher, leader, and manager, she contributed to R&D research projects and influenced the user experience of web, mobile, and TV consumer products resulting in 5 U.S. patents. She was previously an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, and has taught courses for San José State University and the University of Washington.

Dr. Hirsh's research focuses on information-seeking behavior and understanding the information needs of a broad spectrum of users in the United States and around the world; this work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and has appeared in international conference proceedings. Her leadership roles include serving on LIS committees for the American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIST) and the American Library Association (ALA), as well as locally on Palo Alto's Library Advisory Commission. Her library experience ranges from academic, public, to special libraries.

Buhle Mbambo-Thata

Executive Director of Library Services
University of South Africa (UNISA)

Positioning African Libraries for the Digital Age: Exploration of African Digital Library Initiatives

Africa stands poised for new and exciting growth. Seven of the world’s fastest growing economies are countries in Africa. Africa has a young population, most of them born in the digital age. Libraries that serve youthful populations and growing economies must efficiently respond to the needs of fast paced and digitally savvy populations, as well as demands of growing economies.

The infrastructure for developing efficient digital library services has been facilitated by developments in both wireless and fibre technology. There has been growth in digital library initiatives in both academic and public libraries. Increase in the number of institutional repositories, other open scholarship initiatives and social media ensure relevant African content in digital spaces. The emergence of Africa wide library formations like the Conference of African National Librarians, the Africa Public Library network and the African Library and Information Association (AfLIA) presents an opportunity for coordinated development of library services that respond to the demands of youthful populations in fast growing economies. This paper highlights some of the developments in African libraries as the position themselves to serve their populations in the digital age.

BIO:

Since 2006 Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata  has been Executive Director, Library services, University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa's premier, distance learning university. Unisa is one of the 10 mega universities in the world and enrolls more than 350 000 students. Dr. Buhle Mbambo-Thata holds a Doctor of Philosophy, a Masters in Library Science a Post-Graduate Diploma in Library Studies and a B.Sc (Sociology).   She has served in several leadership posts in university and college libraries, including College Librarian at the Hillside Teachers College in Zimbabwe, Senior Librarian at the University of Botswana, University Librarian at the University of Zimbabwe and Executive Director of the Library of Unisa.

Peter Morville

President
Semantic Studios

Inspiration Architecture: The Future of Libraries

To understand the future of the library, we must look beyond its walls, to the tools and contexts – both physical and digital – where learning takes place. In school, where the disruptive innovations of open access and online courses are changing the architecture of education, the “embedded librarian” and the “single search box” aren’t just nice ideas: they’re mission-critical. And, in society, where citizens don’t know how to search, who to trust, or what to believe, our failure to advance information literacy threatens the very fabric of civilization. In this keynote, Peter Morville connects the dots from ebooks to ecosystems, framing the library as both cultural keystone and courageous act of inspiration architecture. This is a story that’s colorful – both kaleidoscopic and contrarian – with an argument that just may change the way you think.

BIO:

Peter Morville is a writer, speaker, and consultant. He is best known for helping to create the discipline of information architecture. His bestselling books include Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Ambient Findability, and Search Patterns. He advises such clients as AT&T, Cisco, Harvard, the Library of Congress, Microsoft, the National Cancer Institute, Vodafone, and the Weather Channel. His work on information architecture and user experience strategy has been covered by Business Week, The Economist, Fortune, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal. Peter lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife, two daughters, and a dog named Knowsy. He blogs at findability.org.

Neil Pakenham-Walsh

Coordinator
Healthcare Information For All By 2015
Co-Director
Global Healthcare Information Network

Healthcare Information For All (www.hifa2015.org )

People are dying for lack of healthcare knowledge. Every day, citizens and health workers make uninformed healthcare decisions and take the wrong actions, leading directly to avoidable death and suffering. This is especially true in low-income countries. This presentation will provide:

1. An overview of global health information poverty, its causes and its consequences.

2. An introduction to HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global movement for change with more than 10,000 professional members (librarians, publishers, health professionals, policymakers, researchers...) from 170 countries worldwide.

3. Discussion on ways forward to strengthen the global healthcare knowledge system, and how librarians and information professionals are best positioned to lead the way.

4. An invitation to join HIFA and help us create a world where every person worldwide has access to the information they need to protect their own health and the health of others.

BIO:

Neil Pakenham-Walsh is the coordinator of the HIFA2015 campaign and co-director of the Global Healthcare Information Network. He is also currently chair of the Dgroups Foundation (www.dgroups.info ), a partnership of 18 international development organisations promoting dialogue for international health and development. He started his career as a hospital doctor in the UK, and has clinical experience as an isolated health worker in rural Ecuador and Peru. For the last 20 years he has been committed to the global challenge of improving the availability and use of relevant, reliable healthcare information for health workers and citizens in low- and middle-income countries. He is particularly interested in the potential of inclusive, interdisciplinary communication platforms to help address global health and international development challenges. He has worked with the World Health Organization, the Wellcome Trust, Medicine Digest and INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications). He is based near Oxford, UK.

Lee Rainie

Director
Pew Reasearch Center's Internet & American Life Project

Libraries and Communities

Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Research Center's Internet Project, will share the project's latest research about the role that libraries play in their communities. He will also talk about how people's deepening use of technology is affecting how they use libraries and think about what libraries should become.

BIO:

Lee Rainie is the Director of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, a non-profit, non–partisan "fact tank" that studies the social impact of the internet.

The Project has issued more than 350 reports based on its surveys that examine people's online activities and the internet's role in their lives.

Lee is a co-author of the new book Networked: The New Social Operating System, a book about the social impact of technology that was written with Barry Wellman.

He also is a co-author of Up for Grabs, Hopes and Fears, Ubiquity, Mobility, Security, and Challenges and Opportunities – a series of books about the future of the internet.

Prior to launching the Pew Internet Project, Lee was managing editor of U.S. News & World Report. He is a graduate of Harvard University and has a master's degree in political science from Long Island University.

Michael Stephens

Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University

Learning Everywhere: Transformative Power of Hyperlinked Libraries

Mobile and Web technologies are changing the way we live and learn. Libraries can play a key role in this future. Imagine the emerging hyperlinked library as a creation space, community space, anything space. Imagine this library available everywhere via mobile devices and tablets. Imagine opportunities for user learning supported and facilitated by librarians. How will library services change with MOOCs and mobile classrooms in the palm of one's hand? What skills will staff require? What does this future look like going forward as we encourage learning everywhere as a means for transformative change for ourselves and our users.

BIO:

Dr. Michael Stephens is an Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. His research focuses on use of emerging technologies in libraries and technology learning programs. He currently writes the monthly column “Office Hours” in Library Journal exploring issues, ideas and emerging trends in library and information science education. Stephens has spoken about emerging technologies, innovation, and libraries to audiences in over 26 states and in nine countries. He is fascinated by library buildings and virtual spaces that center around users, participation, creating content, and encouraging the heart.

Barbara Stripling

President
ALA
Assistant Professor of Practice
Syracuse University

Libraries Change Lives:  Declaring Our Right to Libraries

Barbara Stripling’s 2013-2014 ALA presidential initiative, Libraries Change Lives, is framed around a Declaration for the Right to Libraries, outlining the fundamental ways that libraries of all types impact thecommunities they serve.  Librarians are using this declaration to host signing ceremonies and initiate powerful conversations with their community members about their aspirations and needs.  Learn about the opportunities and challenges inherent in the Declaration’s ten tenets. Join the national movement to empower our community members to stand up for their libraries and share their stories about how the library has changed their life.

BIO: 

Barbara Stripling is the 2013-2014 President of the American Library Association. In January 2012, she became Assistant Professor of Practice at Syracuse University, where she is teaching library science classes and preparing our next generation of librarians. In May 2011, she earned her doctorate degree from the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University. Barbara came to Syracuse after having served as Director of School Library Services for the 1700 public schools in New York City for seven years.

She began her career as a classroom teacher and school librarian in Colorado, North Carolina, and Arkansas. After 20 years in the classroom and library, Barbara became Library Power Director in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she developed the local Library Power initiative of library revitalization/reform. She returned to Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1998 to become Director of Instructional Services for the school district. In 2002, she moved to New York City to develop and direct the library program at an educational foundation, New Visions for Public Schools, until she took the position at the New York City Department of Education in January 2005.

Barbara has written or edited numerous books and articles on inquiry, assessment, instructional design, 21st century skills, empathy, and primary sources. Her Stripling Model of Inquiry has been adopted widely as a framework for teaching and learning.

Roy Tennant

Senior Program Officer
OCLC Research

A View of Libraries on the Brink

Libraries have weathered tremendous changes over the last several decades. Not that long ago typewriters ruled the day, whereas now virtually everyone has the equivalent of a mainframe computer in their pocket. And we're just getting started. In this look both backwards and forwards, Tennant will place where we currently stand in a broader context of where we have come from and where we are likely to be going.

BIO:

Roy Tennant is a Senior Program Officer for OCLC Research, where he manages projects relating to technology, infrastructure, and standards. Previous employers include the California Digital Library and the University of California, Berkeley.

Roy is the creator and owner of the Web4Lib and XML4Lib electronic discussions, and the creator and editor of Current Cites, a current awareness newsletter published every month since 1990.

His books include ""Technology in Libraries: Essays in Honor of Anne Grodzins Lipow"" (2008), ""Managing the Digital Library"" (2004), ""XML in Libraries"" (2002), ""Practical HTML: A Self-Paced Tutorial"" (1996), and ""Crossing the Internet Threshold: An Instructional Handbook"" (1993). Roy wrote a monthly column on digital libraries for Library Journal for a decade, where he still blogs, and has written numerous articles in other professional journals. In 2003, he received the American Library Association's LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Excellence in Communication for Continuing Education.

Roy is also a commercial whitewater river guide, treehouse builder, (the fourth in his backyard in the Sonoma Valley), husband, and the father of grown twin daughters now in college."

Gene Tan

Director
National Library of Singapore

Moving Singaporeans: The Singapore Memory Project by the National Library of Singapore

Gene will share with us the impetus behind the Singapore Memory project – a whole-of-nation initiative to collect, create, preserve and make accessible memories of people, places, events and institutions in Singapore. The project builds on the strong basis of collection by institutions over the years of published content and springboards from there into collecting personal memories of Singaporeans and anyone who has experienced Singapore. The National Library Board of Singapore in leading the project is taking an emotive and evocative approach to building up this national collection while at the same time taking the same care in organising the collection of memories as much as libraries have been organising content through time.

BIO:

Director National Library of Singapore Gene is a librarian by training and was also the President of the Library Association of Singapore spearheading the representation of librarians' and libraries' interests in Singapore. In his career as a librarian, he has done innovative projects to reinvent the nature of librarianship. These include the original library@orchard and being involved in the development of the National Library Building. He was the winner of The Enterprise Challenge (TEC) Champion award for developing and promoting innovation in Singapore's public service. As Director of the National Library, Gene directs the Singapore Memory Project, a whole of nation project that was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at his National Day Rally in 2011. It aims to develop a national bank of content on Singapore through collecting, preserving, organising and promoting the use of anything that has ever been said or thought about Singapore. And through ArtsCultureSG - another national project, Gene is also developing a national portal to have arts and culture proliferate throughout the whole of Singapore through every level of society.

Susan Hildreth

Director
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

R. David Lankes

Director
Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS)

Laura Malita

Social Informatics LecturerUniversity from Timisoara, Romania

Joe Murphy

Librarian, trend watcher / trend setter

David Weinberger

Author

Jianzhong Wu

Director
Shanghai Library