Speakers

Keynote: Euan Semple

Independent Adviser

Euan Semple is an independent advisor on social computing for business. He is a well known writer, thinker and public speaker on the subject. In recognition of his many accomplishments, he was voted Information Professional Of The Year (2005) by Information World Review.

In addition to 21 years culminating in a senior position in the BBC, Euan has had five years of unparalleled experience learning how to make the most of this wired-up world of work and how businesses can prepare themselves for the challenges and the opportunities it represents. He is highly connected to the most influential movers and shakers of this new environment and his workshops, which have often been described as inspirational, have already been experienced by many diverse audiences worldwide.

Roy Clare, CBE

Chief Executive, The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA)

Previously Director of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (2000-2007), he was credited with increasing the tempo of the museum, building new audiences and creating wider partnerships (including instigating the ‘Sea Britain 2005’ programme to commemorate the bicentennial of Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar). He shaped the £16m project to modernise services and facilities at the Royal Observatory and oversaw a succession of successful exhibitions and programmes in the National Maritime Museum, Caird Library, NMM archives and the Queens House.

Formerly a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy he commanded the Aircraft Carrier Invincible and the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. For ten years he was the trustee of the historic vessel Bronington and he created the Britannia Museum of Officer training in Dartmouth. As a junior officer he sailed in the naval team participating in the first Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.

A Companion of Chartered Management Institute, Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation, Roy Clare lectures on ways to develop leadership capacities in the cultural sector, participating in a range of seminars including those on behalf of the Clore Leadership Foundation. He was awarded the CBE for services to museums in June 2007.

John Dolan, OBE

Head of Library Policy, MLA

John Dolan is the Head of Library Policy at the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). He leads on developing future policy and longer term strategy for libraries. The MLA is the lead strategic agency for Museums, Libraries and Archives. It is part of the wider MLA Partnership, working with the nine regional agencies to improve people’s lives by building knowledge, supporting learning, inspiring creativity and celebrating identity. The MLA Partnership acts collectively for the benefit of the sector and the public, leading the transformation of Museums, Libraries and Archives for the future.

Tony Hey

Corporate Vice President, Technical Computing, Microsoft

As Corporate Vice President for Technical Computing, Tony Hey coordinates efforts across the Microsoft Corporation to collaborate with the global scientific community. He is a leading researcher in the field of parallel computing, and his experience in applying computing technologies to scientific research helps Microsoft work with researchers worldwide in various fields of science and engineering.

Before joining Microsoft, Tony Hey worked as Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at The University of Southampton, where he helped build the department into one of the top five computer science research institutions in England.

Tim Coates

Author and Bookseller

A former bookseller, Tim Coates has become a well-known advocate for improvements in public-library service, and was previously managing director of Sherratt & Hughes then of Waterstone's bookshops and of WHSmith in Europe. Since 1999 Tim has pursued library improvement at the local and countrywide level. He is the author of "Who's in Charge? Responsibility for the Public Library Service," a report which is used now in many countries to assess public-library services. He is a consultant who provides guidance to local councils and to departments of government. Now living in London, Tim is also a writer, and publishes his own series of historic papers.

Frances Hendrix

Independent Library Consultant

Frances has spent more than 40 years working in every type of library, having spent a considerable amount of her time working in and for public libraries, including holding the position of Director of Laser and CEO of The Laser Foundation. In her career she has been involved in many of the major developments around ICT and the Internet, in particular EARL (Electronic Access to Libraries), a forerunner to the People's Network, and the development of V3fm a truly universal Inter lending resource discovery system. However she has also been a university librarian, an FE college librarian, a librarian and information officer in the commercial sector and worked in other capacities in the commercial world. Frances is currently Marketing Director of a small IT company and a busy magistrate where she is a chairman and chairman of the Training Committee for Lancashire magistrate courts. Well known in the profession, she is often controversial and outspoken, but committed to improving the future of public libraries.

Peter Godwin

Academic Liaison Librarian, University of Bedfordshire

Peter Godwin is currently working as an Academic Librarian at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, UK. His main focus is on Information Literacy in academic libraries and in particular the impact of Web 2.0 on Information Literacy in all information sectors. He is currently editing a book on this topic. He draws on many years' experience in academic library management and has presented at Conferences in the UK, the EU and USA.

David Orrell

Software Systems Architect, Eduserv

David is a Software Systems Architect for Eduserv, and a specialist in security, middleware and federated identity systems. He has spoken regularly on these subjects and has worked on the TERENA Task Force on European Middleware Coordination and Collaboration. Coming from a Physics background, David joined Eduserv in 2001, and has worked on a number of identity services projects in Eduserv. He has been a major advocate for the use of Open Standards and instrumental in many of the developments behind the Athens and, more recently OpenAthens services.

Hilary Baxter

Head of Business, JANET(UK)

Hilary has worked for 20 years in the IT industry, both in the private and public sector.

Hilary started her working life in the City, writing traded options systems for City brokers, then moved onto a ten year career with Unisys, ending up as Head of e-Business in 1999. She then moved onto become Business Director for Silverline Technologies, one of the top five Indian IT Companies, at the height of the Indian contract programming boom. In the last five years she has moved into education, with a one year contract as Marketing Director at Buckingham University and then joined JANET(UK) as their Head of Business in late 2003.

Her role, and that of her team, within JANET(UK) is to widen awareness of JANET, and to identify and procure new services for the community.

Nicole Harris

Senior Services Transition Manager, JISC

As Senior Services Transition Manager at JISC, Nicole is responsible for the implementation and roll-out of federated access management within the UK educational community. Nicole has worked for JISC for five years, and has managed a series of programmes of work in the fields of e-research, e-infrastructure, e-learning and open source developments. Nicole is the author and co-ordinator of the JISC access and identity management strategy.

Nicole works closely with international partners such as Internet2 and TERENA on developments in access and identity management, and is a regular speaker on these topics at international conferences.

David Lightfoot

Acting Head of Cultural Services, Lancashire County Council

David has been the Head of Lancashire's County Library and Information Service since 1998 and has recently been appointed Acting Head of Cultural Service for Lancashire. David started his career in Cumbria in 1968 and worked in a range of posts covering children's and adult service before joining Lancashire in 1985 as an Assistant County Librarian. David served on the Society of Chief Librarians National Executive Committee and was Deputy Chair of the North West Museums Libraries and Archives Council until 2006.

David has lead teams to review Public Library Standards for the Advisory Council on Libraries and the review of Prison Library Services for Offender Learning Skills Unit, DfES. Continuing his commitment to Libraries, David is currently Director of Libraries North West, Chairs the North West Society of Chief Librarians and was recently appointed to the revised Advisory Council for Libraries. David has presented papers on public library standards and performance at UK and European conferences.

Ken Chad

Director, Ken Chad Consulting

Ken has worked in a variety of library roles including branch librarian, children's and schools' librarian and manager of a large bibliographical services unit. He gained his MA from the Information Science Department at City University in London, with a thesis on the problems of large scale library automation. He has 20 years experience in the library software business and has worked for several library system vendors including CLSI, Geac, EOSi and successfully established Innovative Interfaces and then Endeavor in Europe. He has worked with a wide range of libraries in the UK and throughout the world and has extensive experience in library IT procurement projects. Before setting up his consultancy business Ken was Executive Director at Talis, where he set up and chaired the Talis Advisory Board which comprised of major leaders in the sector. He has worked in an associate role with Tribal consulting on library IT. In 2005, Ken co-authored one of the pioneering Library 2.0 papers with Paul Miller 'Do Libraries Matter? The Rise of Library 2.0 ' -and has delivered presentations and papers to many library conferences.

Dave Errington

CEO, Talis

Dave joined Talis in June 2003 from SurfKitchen Inc, a Venture Capital backed wireless mobile software startup based in Zurich and London. As Chief Technology Officer he worked with the founders and management team to refine their technology and business strategy to position the company for growth with early adopting customers, strategic partners and investors. Previously, he worked for The Sage Group plc (one of the world's leading business software providers) as CTO and before that as Research and Development Director for Sage (UK) Ltd. After joining Talis in June 2003, Dave took responsibility for the company's products, services and infrastructure before taking the role of CEO in September 2004. He leads the senior management team and as part of the executive team, is responsible for defining and communicating the company's business and technology strategy.

Paul Miller

Technology Evangelist, Talis

Paul joined Talis in September 2005 from the Common Information Environment (CIE), where as Director he was instrumental in scoping policy and attracting new members such as the BBC, National Library of Scotland and English Heritage to this group of UK public sector organisations. Previously, Paul was at UKOLN where he was active in a range of cross-domain standardisation and advocacy activities, and prior to this he was Collections Manager at the Archaeology Data Service. At Talis, Paul is exploring new models of collaboration and identifying further areas in which our technology or knowledge would be of value. Paul has a Doctorate in Archaeology from the University of York.

Keynote: Les Watson

Freelance Educational Adviser

Les Watson is a Freelance Educational Adviser. He was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Information Services) at Glasgow Caledonian University from 1999 to September 2006. During this time he was responsible for Library, C&IT Services, student services, e-learning, the Caledonian Degree and work-based learning, all of which were integrated into a University wide Learning Service. At Glasgow Caledonian University Les led the development of the Learning Cafe, and the award winning Saltire Centre. Les was also was the lead consultant for JISC infoNET and their web-based infoKit entitled Planning & Designing Technology-Rich Learning Spaces.

Keynote: Marshall Breeding

Director for Innovative Technologies and Research, Vanderbilt University Librariesin Nashville, Tennesse

Marshall Breeding serves as the Director for Innovative Technologies and Research for the Vanderbilt University Libraries in Nashville, TN. He is part of the senior management team of the Library, focusing issues related to the strategic use of technology in the library. He designs and develops digital library resources for the library. Marshall oversees the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, a large-scale archive of digital video content.

In addition to his responsibilities at Vanderbilt, Marshall frequently speaks and writes on topics of network technologies and library automation. He is the creator and editor of the Library Technology Guides web site and the lib-web-cats online directory of libraries on the Web. His monthly column 'Systems Librarian' appears in Computers in Libraries; he is a Contributing Editor for Smart Libraries Newsletter published by the American Library Association, and has authored the 'Automated System Marketplace' feature published by Library Journal for the last six years. He has authored six issues of ALA’s Library Technology Reports, and has written many other articles and book chapters. Marshall has edited or authored five books. He regularly teaches workshops and gives presentations at library conferences on a wide range of topics. More information is available from Marshall’s Web site.

Keynote: Tony Durcan

President of The Society of Chief Librarians and Head of Culture, Libraries and Lifelong Learning, Newcastle City Council

Tony Durcan joined Newcastle as Head of Libraries and Information in 2002, taking over responsibility for Lifelong Learning in 2004, and for Culture in 2006. After having a variety of roles with Derbyshire Library Service, and before moving to Newcastle, Tony worked for Gateshead Library and Arts Service, as Assistant Director, then Deputy Director, and latterly as Head of Libraries, Arts and Information.

Priorities in Newcastle have enabled Tony to work with colleagues to modernise services, to gain acknowledgement for the quality services which were being delivered, and to create a positive profile for the Library Service within the Council. This has included Tony being Director of the PFI initiative to develop the new city library, one of Newcastle’s major projects.

Tony Durcan became President of the Society of Chief Librarians in May 2007.

Antony Brewerton

Head of Academic Support, The University of Warwick

Antony is Head of Academic Support at The University of Warwick Library. His first library marketing role was at The University of Reading where (amongst other things) he coordinated Library PR and compiled the Library’s successful entry in the LA/TC Farris Publicity and Marketing Awards.

He has written and presented on the image of librarians, marketing library services and was the Library Association’s National Academic Coordinator for the last National Libraries Week. He is the Editor of SCONUL Focus and a member of the SCONUL Advisory Committee on Communications and Marketing.

Prior to taking up his post at The University of Warwick, Antony was Subject Team Leader at Oxford Brookes University Library and Convenor of the Library Marketing Group, who were winners of the CILIP Emerald Public Relations and Publicity Award for a “promotional campaign with a budget under £500” for its imaginative Inspiration Campaign.

Dan Champion

Director, Champion Internet Solutions

Dan has over 10 years of web development experience, in both the private and public sectors. A member of the Usability Professionals' Association and Guild of Accessible Web Designers, Dan is a passionate advocate for web standards and accessibility, particularly in UK local government, regularly speaking at conferences and training events. He also contributes to the accessibility showcase site Accessites.

When not working Dan relaxes on his smallholding, and enjoys running, reading, and video games.

Dave Pattern

Library Systems Manager, The University of Huddersfield

Dave Pattern is the Library Systems Manager at The University of Huddersfield, with responsibility for the continuing development of the web services and facilities provided by the library.

A web developer with over 10 years of experience, he previously worked for a major UK library book supplier before joining Huddersfield as the lead developer on the JISC funded INHALE and INFORMS projects. More recently, he has been involved with incorporating a variety of Web/Library 2.0 style enhancements into the OPAC, as well as setting up new weblogs and wikis for the library.

David Potts

Community Libraries Programme Support Officer, MLA

David Potts is a Community Libraries Programme Support Officer in the Framework for the Future Team at The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). He focuses mainly on supporting the delivery of the Big Lottery Fund’s £80m Community Libraries Programme in England. David previously worked on the People's Network infrastructure and maintains an interest in the role of information technology in improving public library services.

David also worked for Wolverhampton and Walsall public library services, and was the Regional Libraries Telematics Officer for the West Midlands.

Richard Cameron

Citeulike

Richard Cameron graduated from Cambridge University in 1998 with a degree in Mathematics. He has worked in a variety of software engineering and management roles specialising in high transaction web systems and massively scalable Internet based architectures. He created CiteULike, a social bookmarking service for scholarly articles, to address the problem of managing a rapidly expanding body of research through the use of social filtering. He is an advocate of open collaborative knowledge management systems and shared meta-data repositories.

Richard Wallis

Technology Evangelist, Talis

Richard’s thirty year plus career in the computer information industry, the last fifteen of which has been with the UK’s leading Library Systems Vendor, Talis, coupled with his passion for and involvement with new and emerging technology trends, gives him a unique perspective of the issues challenging Libraries today. Richard has been ‘in at the birth’ of several major Library System Developments, as architect, research and technical lead. More recently as Technology Evangelist he has been at the forefront in promoting, explaining, and applying new and emerging Web technologies in the library and information domain. Richard is an active blogger on both Panlibus & Talis Developer Network and a regular podcaster in the Talking with Talis series.

Zoinul Abidin

Idea Store Manager, London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Zoinul has been involved with the Idea Store concept from its birth, starting from the public consultation to living the experience. He has over 12 years of professional library experience covering lending, outreach services, and having specific responsibilities for developing services for Black & Ethnic Communities. Currently, he works for London Borough of Tower Hamlets innovative Idea Store programme as an Idea Store Manager at its flagship Store in Whitechapel. Zoinul is currently on the Clore Leadership Programme and is a Clore Fellow 2006-7.

Liz McGettigan

Library and Information Services Manager, East Renfrewshire Council

Passionate about libraries! Liz manages a multi disciplinary service including on-line service development, public learning and information services, libraries and heritage services. She is responsible for Corporate and Public ICT Training and the management and development of the council’s corporate web portal
Liz has a track record in innovation and service transformation. She is enthusiastic about the transformational potential of library and information services, content management and knowledge sharing in organisations.
She is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland, a member of SOCITM - the Society of IT Managers, Member of British Institute of Learning and Development and a former member of the Scottish E-Content team.
She has held key roles with the Scottish Executive Standards Advisory Group, was an Expert Training Assessor for NOF and Scottish Representative to Society of Public Information Networks for 2 years.

Terry Willan

Data Services Consultant, Talis

Terry joined the Company in 1985 after six years working in public and academic libraries. His roles have included bibliographic database manager and product manager for bibliographic, resource sharing and EDI services. Terry played a key part in steering the Lyra Programme, His focus now is on the management and use of library metadata in new product developments and on ways to make that data more open and connected. Terry serves on several standards bodies including Book Industry Communication (BIC) and NISO.

Andy Latham

Programme Manager and Technical Lead, Talis

Andy joined Talis in August 2004 as a Senior SoftwareDeveloper from Morse Group plc, a leading European technology supplier. After receiving an honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Andy has been developing enterprise-scale J2EE applications for large clients in the telecommunications, banking and legal sectors on technologies from Sun, IBM and Oracle. Andy is a Sun Certified Java Programmer and Certified SCRUM Master. As a Technical Lead and Programme Manager at Talis, Andy is currently leading the technical aspects of Talis' institutional integration initiatives.

Chris Armstrong

Managing Director, Information Automation

Chris Armstrong is Managing Director of Information Automation Limited (IAL), a consultancy, research and training company in the library and information management sector which was established in 1987. IAL’s work focuses on electronic information resources, and their effective use in libraries and information centres. In recent years, e-books have been the subject of much of the company’s research. Chris and colleague, Ray Lonsdale, jointly run a series of regular training courses on the management of e-book collections in libraries. Chris is a Fellow of the Institute of Analysts and Programmers (FIAP), as well as of CILIP (FCLIP), and is currently a National Councillor of the latter and Vice-Chair of the UKeiG: the UK eInformation Group - the CILIP Special Interest Group which focuses on electronic resources and their accessibility, use and management.

Michael Stead

Knowledge Team Librarian, Bolton Central Library

Michael is a Knowledge Team Librarian at Bolton Central Library. He was one of the winners of Love Libraries’ Top 10 Librarians of the Future competition in 2006 and loves the possibilities offered by technology in libraries. Michael completed the final round of MLA’s Future Leaders programme this year and is looking forward to sharing that experience in Bulgaria, where he will be contributing to the British Council’s work there in February.

Brenda Robb

NEC Project Manager, Dundee City Council

Brenda has worked in ICT all her adult life (but is reluctant to express this in years). She joined Dundee City Council in 1988 and has had several roles in software development and ICT Corporate Strategy before moving into her current role as National Entitlement Card Project Manager.

As project manager she is responsible for the management of the National Entitlement Card Scheme operations and development of new projects. In this role she has recently been responsible for implementing a standardised approach to National Entitlement Cards working with these service’s back office management systems that are currently used within Scottish local authorities.

Subnum Hariff

Team Librarian, Bolton Central Library

Subnum began working within libraries as a Saturday assistant, and after graduating with a degree in Social and Public Policy she returned to working at Bolton Central Library as a full time library assistant. In 2000, after completing a Diploma in Library and Information Management Subnum worked as a Community Librarian for 3 years. Her role here included promoting library services to 16-25 year olds, Learn Direct coordinator and more recently coordinating the New High Street Library Project. Since July 2007 Subnum has taken on a new role as ‘Young Persons Librarian’ promoting reading to young people, developing the Headspace project at High Street Library and launching the Young Volunteer Scheme.

Heather Jardine

City of London Libraries

Heather Jardine has worked in both public and academic libraries. She is currently, and has been for twenty years, Bibliographical Access Manager (or "chief cataloguer") at City of London Libraries.

Cheney Gardner

Framework for the Future Support Officer, MLA

Cheney is one of the Top Ten Young Librarians of the Future 2006/7, as chosen by the MLA Love Libraries Campaign. She has worked in several public library authorities over the last 5 years, mainly in the areas of reader development, promotions and staff development. She has recently begun a year long secondment from Lewisham Library Service to the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council where she is supporting Framework for the Future, the government’s ten year strategy for the public library service.

Frances Hall

Hybrid Collections Coordinator, University of Wolverhampton

Frances Hall MA MCLIP works as the Hybrid Collections Coordinator at the University of Wolverhampton, where she manages a team of staff which includes the institutional repository librarian, university copyright coordinator and electronic resource librarians. In this role, she coordinates electronic resource management processes, recently leading a project to select a federated search engine, and was extensively involved in the launch of the university’s institutional repository. In addition, Frances has responsibility for advising on collection development and procurement policy and the balance between print and e-content provision. Previously Frances has worked as an Information Resources Specialist, developing processes in cataloguing and classification, acquisitions and e-resource management, and as an engineering and science subject librarian.

Karen Reece

Sales Manager, Talis

Karen has worked in her present role at Talis since 2003. Previously Karen worked in a number of roles within the library service at the University of Salford, before moving to a position at Talkingtech, a Talis partner organisation who jointly developed Talis Message. Karen has over ten years experience in the library environment and has a BA (Hons) in Literature and History and a MSc in Information Management.

Alan Holloway

Account Manager, Talis

Alan joined Talis in March 2004 as the Account Manager for Ireland and the Southern region of the UK. Alan has seven years experience in various customer focused business development roles within the software industry, working with companies such as Network Associates.

Grant White

Product Marketing Coordinator, Talis

After graduating with a Mathematics degree from the University of Birmingham in 2004, Grant joined the graduate scheme for Hays IT, a leading recruitment company, specialising in public sector IT recruitment. An avid supporter of free resource discovery, Grant joined Talis in January 2006 as part of the Sales team, and is now responsible for Talis Source.

Dan Mullineux

Senior Manager, Applications Development

Dan joined Talis in 2004, from Instron, the worlds largest materials test company, running a team developing web services to remotely test Formula One cars. Prior to that Dan founded two small software and hardware companies specialising in scientific measurement and 2D and 3D image recognition. Since graduating with honours in a BEng from the University of Queensland in 1991, Dan has worked as a consultant on diverse client-server, system integration, and automation and control applications for customers around the world, including Hong Kong, Poland, India and the World Bank.

Ian Corns

Business Analyst, Talis

Ian joined Talis over five years ago, having enjoyed a career in both public libraries and working for several library solution vendors in a range of guises. Working as a business analyst on products such as UnityWeb/Source and Talisbase, Ian has spent the last 18months on the Platform applications team on both Talis Engage and Project Zephyr, the replacement to Talis List. A certified Scrum Master, Ian was heavily involved in introducing Talis' open development initiative, bringing customers and institutions more actively into our development practices.

Sarah Bartlett

Business Analyst, Talis

Sarah Bartlett joined Talis in 2OO2, and was involved as an analyst on a number of Talis projects including Talis Keystone, which she product managed until summer 2006. In her current role as Senior Analyst, she is Product Owner for Talis’ ERM Project Xedio, and also produces market analysis across the product suite.
Sarah’s background lies mainly in special libraries – she spent 3 years running an industrial library for Castings Technology International, and 2 years managing the corporate intranet of Foseco International. She has a Masters degree in Information and Library Management from University of Central England.

Glyn Sinar

Information & Systems Manager, Lancashire County Council & Information Service

Glyn began life with Cheshire County Libraries before studying for a B.Lib at Aberystwyth (CLW) and has over thirty years experience in public libraries. He has been involved with library systems in Lancashire since 1989, having served for several years on the committee of LAMIT NorthWest, becoming Information and Systems Manager for Lancashire in 2001. Since then Glyn has been responsible for the maintenance and development of Talis and related systems to reflect the needs of an increasingly diverse library community.

Stephen Mossop

Head of Systems Development, University of Central Lancashire

Stephen has been a member of staff at the University’s Library and Learning Resources Service (LLRS) since 1999, and Head of Systems Development since 2003. His qualifications include an MSc (Information Science) and an MBA. His current role brings with it a wide range of responsibilities, including the management and co-ordination the Process Improvement, Customer Satisfaction Survey and Governance and Compliance programmes (including Data Protection, Risk Management, Copyright, FOIA). Stephen's overriding responsibility, though, is the management, development and maintenance of a comprehensive and integrated IT based system to support all LLRS operational activities, which is why he was invited to take part in a recent EU funded project in Tashkent, assisting Uzbeki Universities to develop a successful Electronic Resource Management system - and why he was so pleased to become involved in the exciting and innovative LancaShare initiative.

Jim Wilde

Talis

Jim Wilde joined Talis in 2007 having previously been MD of IBS UK delivering supply chain solutions to industry he has a successful background in consultancy and project delivery. Jim is currently working on improvements and enhancements around supply chain integration.

Mark Summers

Support Team Lead, Talis

Mark has been working for Talis for four years since graduating from University. He has recently been promoted to the Support Team Lead. Prior to this he acted as a technical support analyst dealing with system management queries regarding Solaris, Sybase and peripheral interaction. Mark is also an accredited Solaris 8 administrator.

Hywell Hames

Hywel James

Gwynedd Library Service

Hywel James is Principal Librarian of Gwynedd Library Service since 1996. Gwynedd, together with Conwy and Anglesey, are part of ‘TalNet’, , a joint Bibliographic Unit that share the same library management system. He is the current Chairperson of ‘LINC y Gogledd’ (Libraries in Cooperation in North Wales) which promotes access to resources in the academic and public sectors. He is also Vice-Chair of the Society of Chief Librarians Cymru/Wales.

Susan Murray

Deputy Director (Library) Liverpool Hope University

Susan has been Deputy Director for Library since the merged Library, Learning and Information Services department was set up in September
2005 at Liverpool Hope University. Previously at Hope she has held the roles of Deputy Manager and Technical Services Manager. Susan has held responsibility for management and development of Talis since 2000.

Claire Styles

Freelance libraries consultant

Claire Styles is a freelance libraries consultant, working with organisations including The Reading Agency, as a Senior Project Manager. She started out as a trainee librarian in Brent moved to Southwark to lead on libraries policy development. Claire was selected as a Fellow on the prestigious Clore Leadership Programme from 2005-07. She has recently submitted her Clore research into adult reading for pleasure in the USA and the Netherlands.

Heather Spencer

Lancashire County Library

After 17 years as a librarian, including 7 running the Music Department at Burnley Central Library, Heather needed a change and has temporarily joined Lancashire Libraries’ Information Management Group. As part of her work she is responsible for co-ordinating the testing of Talis’ new Engage project within Lancashire. In her spare time she is a keen amateur cellist.

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Esther Arens

Leeds Library and Information Service

Esther has a degree in German and Dutch philology from the University of Cologne and has worked in libraries for more than 10 years. She has always been involved in cataloguing, indexing and data control. Before she came to Leeds Library and Information Service she was Systems Librarian and Content Manager at the digitisation project 'The Digital Beethoven-Haus' in Bonn. In her current role Esther's particular concern is data integrity and catalogue consistency.

Warren Lord

RFID Business Manager, Holt Jackson

Warren is currently the RFID Business Manager for Holt Jackson and has been associated with the company since 1992. He initially joined as a database adminstrator and after escaping to New Zealand for 6 years, returned to administer the company's UNIX production systems. In recent years, Warren has been actively involved in the development of our web services including Choice On The Web and enjoyed the role of I.T Manager before becoming involved in all things RFID at Holt Jackson.

Andrew Cothliff

Systems Officer, Lancashire County Library and Information Service

Andrew Cothliff joined Lancashire County Library and Information Service in 1999 as a facilitator in an IT suite at Haslingden Library before taking up the role, in Feb 2000, as the People’s Network Project Manager to plan and implement the Infrastructure and installation of 955 public access PC’s. His current position is Systems Officer with the service dealing with a number of systems including Talis Prism, Talis Engage and Netloan.

Open to all, Talis Insight ‘07 is not restricted to our existing customers. We welcome all of you with a keen interest in shaping the future of your services.