Speakers

We have a number of speakers across the conference programme including Talis staff, Talis customers and from external organisations.

Keynotes

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. Dave has a BSc in Mathematics and a Postgraduate qualification in Mathematics and Physical Education.

Andrew Stevens, Senior Policy Advisor for Libraries - Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Andrew Stevens has been Senior policy advisor for libraries at the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council since February 2003. His role is in leading libraries development at MLA, including implementation of Framework for the Future. Andrew was head of libraries in Westminster from 2001-2003 and previously held various posts in Berkshire and Oxfordshire.



Rachel Van Riel, Director - Opening the Book
Rachel Van Riel taught in university and adult education before moving into arts development. She began Opening the Book in 1991, laying the foundations of the reader development movement which has changed the way public libraries engage with their borrowers.
Rachel’s new approach to promoting reading has influenced libraries, publishers, booksellers, arts organisations, education and the media. Opening the Book works closely with all library authorities in the UK, providing training for their national programmes and managing staff support websites. Every library service in the UK now has reader development in their core service.

Dr Paul Miller - Director of Common Information Environment
Paul Miller is Director of the Common Information Environment (CIE), a collaborative activity involving a growing number of public sector bodies across the United Kingdom. Members currently include Becta, the British Library, the Cabinet Office's e-Government Unit (formerly the Office of the e-Envoy), Culture Online, the Department for Education & Skills (DfES), the e-Science Core Programme, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA, formerly Resource), The National Archives, the National Health Service's National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH) and UKOLN.A key focus for CIE activities is the shared recognition that the information held in trust by various organisations should be visible, useful, meaningful and reusable for a wide range of potential beneficiaries.Prior to taking up this newly created post in January 2004, Paul worked at UKOLN as UK Interoperability Focus.Paul holds a Doctorate in Archaeology from the University of York. His current interests are in empowering Citizens to make use of the information gathered on their behalf, and in exploring new ways of creating, delivering and sharing Knowledge.


Guest Speakers

Mary Jackson - Association of Research Libraries, USA
Mary E. Jackson is the Director of Collections and Access Programs for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in Washington, DC. In that position she serves as Project Manager for the Scholars Portal Project and oversees the 2003 Assessing ILL/DD Services Study. Mary is an internationally recognized authority on interlibrary loan, document delivery, and resource sharing issues. She serves on the Editorial Board of Interlending and Document Supply. She was a member of IFLA’s Governing Board and Professional Committee from 2001-2003 and chaired the IFLA Standing Committee on Document Delivery and Interlending.

George Kerr - Freelance library consultant. BA., MCILIP
George has worked in libraries for 40 years prior to taking early retirement in 2002. Over the years his work in these areas has been recognised as innovative and this has led to him being asked to lecture widely all over the UK, as well as in Germany, Holland and the USA. He was granted membership of the Bertelsmann Foundation's International Network of Public Libraries. Since leaving West Lothian George has been operating as a library consultant carrying out work for various libraries on stock management as well as several projects for SLIC (Scottish Library and Information Council).

Scott Simpson, Information Access Officer - East Renfrewshire Council
Scott's interest in the ICT side of libraries grew from his experiences at University and although his first job was as an assistant librarian at Ferguslie Park library in Renfrewshire he was seconded to work with the automated systems team. Scott then worked for 4 years at Bell College in Hamilton where his duties involved managing a network of PCs in the college library and a certain amount of systems admininstration of the library system that was used. In 1997 Scott joined East Renfrewshire Council as the Systems Librarian where his first task was the implementation of the Talis system into an authority with no previous LMS experience.

Stuart Rawson - Queen's University Belfast
Stuart has been at Queen’s for thirty years, working in the Medical Library and Library Systems among other areas before moving to his present post. As well as the acquisition and cataloguing of books and journals, he is responsible as database manager for management information in the library and also looks after the co-ordination of electronic resource access and setting up the systems needed to support that.

David Lightfoot, County Library and Information Service Manager - Lancashire County Library
David has been the Head of Lancashire’s County Library and Information Service since 1998. 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 is Treasurer for the Society of Chief Librarians. He has served on the Resource Sounding Board involved in the development of the Single Regional Agencies. He is Chair of the Public Library User Survey Committee, a member of the Committee for Public Library Statistics and on the Advisory Board for the Library Information Statistics Unit of Loughborough University. David is a Director of Libraries North West and also Deputy Chair of the new North West Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA North West). David has also been asked to lead the development of the next phase of Public Library Standards and Performance Indicators for public libraries on behalf of the Advisory Council for Libraries and the DCMS.

Sandra Sharp - Leeds Library & Information Services
Sandra has worked for Leeds Library and Information Service since 1971 in a variety of posts. She was involved in the rollout of Talis to the 55 sites across the city, firstly as a Branch Librarian then as Systems Librarian. In her current role as Business Development Manager she also manages the ICT support team, and was Project Manager for the implementation of the People's Network in Leeds.



Dr Angela Conyers, Research Fellow - evidence base, University of Central England
Angela moved into research from library management in September 2003. She is responsible for the HEFCE-funded e-measures project, which is working with the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) to develop ways of measuring the use of electronic services in higher education libraries. She is also currently working on the JISC study and analysis of usage statistics for the NESLi2 publisher deals. Before joining evidence base, Angela was Director of Library Services at Canterbury Christ Church University College for thirteen years and prior to that worked for the University of Brighton. She now works from home in Folkestone, Kent.

Ian Winship, Electronic Services Manager - Northumbria University
Ian has responsibility for managing and facilitating access to external information resources and developing electronic library services for Northumbria University's Library and Learning Services Department . He is also involved with integrating library resources into Blackboard, the university's learning environment, and is the university administrator for JISC's Plagiarism Detection Service. Previously he was responsible for library stock and services in science and technology for many years. A long time user of the Internet, he was joint author of the Student's Guide to the Internet, which reached three editions, and is currently a member of the Netskills Steering Group.

Ian Mayfield, Associate University Librarian - Portsmouth University
Ian manages the Technical Services Team at the University of Portsmouth, with a responsibility for co-ordinating electronic services. He was previously Subject Librarian for the Environment and retains a subject role with the School of Architecture. Ian has a long standing interest in teaching and learning and is keen to maintain activities in this area, particularly with regard to peer group learning in relation to electronic resources.

Peter McCracken, Director of Electronic Content Management - Serials Solutions
Peter worked as a reference librarian at East Carolina University (Greenville, NC) and the University of Washington (Seattle, WA), before starting Serials Solutions with his two brothers and a high school friend. He holds an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College, a Masters in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Masters in Maritime History from East Carolina University. At Serials Solutions, Peter is responsible for oversight of data acquisition, data management, and product delivery. This includes the continuous work of associating metadata from database aggregators with bibliographic data from the Library of Congress and other sources.

David Supple, Corporate Web and Portal Manager - University of Birmingham
David Supple is manager of the Corporate Web team at the University of Birmingham and manager of the University's Institutional Portal Project, my.bham.ac.uk. His team's remit is the development of the large university web presence to facilitate the e-business and e-learning aims of the institution, and the delivery of the digital campus vision through my.bham. Over the coming year, David's focus will be on continuing to develop my.bham to deliver not only more services to current students but also to serve further communities such as prospective students and staff; he is keen to engage with the HE community on this new type of development to help maximize the potential of this technology.

Paul Dalton, IT Project Manager - Askews Library Services Ltd
Paul has worked for Askews for the last three years, and oversees the bespoke development of  production system software as well as managing the IT staf and computer systems. One of his key responsiblities is to ensure that all EDI development work is viewed strategically and adheres to standards. Along with Book Industry Communication (BIC) and other interested library suppliers and library management system suppliers, Paul has been actively involved in moves to make EDI development a more cooperative and cohesive process within the library industry.

Darren Ratcliffe, Library Divisional Manager - Intellident Ltd
Darren Ratcliffe has spent the last ten years designing, implementing and consulting on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) solutions across a number of different markets. He developed solutions for customers such as Sainsburys and Marks and Spencers but now works exclusively in the Library Market. Darren manages a very experienced team of software developers, RF engineers, field support engineers, project managers and sales staff for Intellident, a single source solutions provider. Over the last three years he has helped Intellident become the UK's largest and most successful RFID Library solutions provider with an 80% share of the market. Their work focuses on using the technology to maximise self service, security and stock management benefits.

Andy Holmes, Computer Services Librarian - East Lothian Council
Andy has worked for East Lothian Libraries since 1979 in a variety of posts. He was heavily involved in the implementation of Talis in 2001 in an authority with very little knowledge or experience of library management systems. Andy is currently responsible for the system management aspects of Talis and administration of the People's Network.

Lynne Stanley - Staffordshire County Council Library & Information Services
Lynne has been employed by Staffordshire County Council since 1979 in a variety of roles within Library & Information Services.  Since April 2004 she has been employed in the Education Joint IT Unit where she continues to work with LIS on strategic developments in a Business Unit Consultancy role.  Lynne’s roles over the years have included a good deal of time on the frontline working with other members of staff and the public, giving her an insight into the increasing requirements of customers in terms of both access to services and service delivery itself.

Phil Adams, Senior Librarian - De Montfort University
After a decade spent cataloguing items on arrival at De Montfort University, Philip felt it was time to find out what happened to the data once he had pressed the "SEND" button. This opened out the worlds of SQL databases, HTML, configuration files and accessible stylesheets. Philip's motto for new customising new applications is "Try to consistently change the font colour; if you can do this you will have a thorough understanding of how the whole thing works."

Nicole Harris - Joint Information Systems Committee

Marguerite Gracey, Strategic Change Manager - Bolton Libraries

Diana Edmonds, Head of Library Service - London Borough of Haringey



Talis Speakers

Rachel Amos, Lead Analyst - Talis
Rachel joined Talis in 1997 having previously worked as an Assistant Subject Librarian at Wolverhampton University. She studied for a postgraduate qualification in Information and Library Studies at Aberystwyth University following a BSc in Mathematics and Management Science at UMIST. Rachel is currently managing Talis Prism, Talis List, Talis Signpost and Talis Inquire.



Katie Anstock, Business Development Manager - Talis
Katie has been with Talis since April 2003, taking up her current role after working as Product Manager for Talis Prism. Katie has extensive knowledge of libraries, with particular expertise in resource discovery, resolver and metasearch technologies and resource sharing. Prior to joining Talis, Katie was at Fretwell-Downing, and has also worked at Leeds, Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam Universities.





Ann Baguley, Business Development Manager - Talis
Ann joined Talis in 1993, undertaking a variety of roles encompassing development and support, which lead to her current role. Originally trained as a librarian, Ann worked as a Commercial Researcher, then took a Masters degree in Computer Science. She worked for other companies in the library automation market before joining Talis. Ann may be more familiar to people as Ann Whittle.





Sarah Bowman, Product Analyst - Talis
Sarah has worked for Talis since 2002, after spending three years running an industrial library for Castings Technology International, and two years managing the corporate intranet of Foseco International. At the start of her career, Sarah spent a number of years with British Gas as a Systems Analyst. She has a BA in Modern Languages and an MSc in Information and Library Management.



Ken Chad, Sales Director - Talis
Ken has over 17 years experience in the library automation industry. Working first for CLSI and then Geac, he went on to successfully introduce both Innovative Interfaces and Endeavor to the European market. At Talis he helped launch the Talis Information Environment and has overseen Talis' growing success in the UK and Ireland. Ken received his Masters from the Department of Information Science at City University in London.




Lindsay Cooper, Product Manager - Talis
Lindsay joined Talis in 1999 following completion of her Masters degree in Library and Information Studies. With a background in academic libraries and experience in lending services, ILL and serials acquisitions, she worked as a Business Analyst before moving into her current role. With responsibility for product strategy, planning and development, her product portfolio now includes Talis Text, Talis Alto and Talis Mobile.




Lee Cox, Senior Manager Products Group - Talis
Lee joined Talis in January 2003 from P & L Systems, a London based technology consultancy, where as Commercial Director he was responsible for commercial contracts, business partnerships, and the management and co-ordination of product development. P & L Systems used leading edge technologies to develop information management and publishing systems for institutions such as the BBC, Tokei Bank and the London Stock Exchange. A current MBA student, Lee leads the Talis Product Group.




Fiona Leslie, Product Manager - Talis
Fiona joined Talis in 2002 after working as a Product Manager for the major US bibliographic data provider, Bowker, where she was primarily responsible for the development of international content on their Global Books in Print product. Her experience in working with information databases comes on top of a background in the publishing industry with the major trade and academic publishers, Dorling Kindersley and Cassell.




Steve Pile, Technical Manager - Talis
Steve joined Talis in 1979 after completing an Engineering degree and working as computer programmer for Lucas Aerospace. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the British Computer Society, and recently achieved a postgraduate Diploma in Software Engineering from the Open University. Steve has helped to design and implement library management and shared cataloguing systems for 25 years and is currently investigating the utility of Microsoft technologies for Talis products.


Karen Reece, Account Manager - Talis
Karen has been in her present role at Talis since the beginning of 2003. Previously she worked in the library at the University of Salford, then moved on to a position with Talkingtech, who developed the Talis Message product. Karen prides herself on her rounded view of Talis, as she’s been a Talis customer, a partner, and now an employee!







Eamonn Sorohan, Consultancy Manager - Talis
Eamonn joined Talis in 1997 as a software developer, later becoming Software Development Manager. During this time he was heavily involved with developments such as Talis Prism and Talis Alto. Eamonn has a degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering, and over ten years experience in the software industry. He is currently managing Talis' Consultancy team, and has special interests in Software Accessibility, CRM, and project management.




Katharine Spellman, Product Analyst - Talis
Katharine joined Talis in 1987 following the completion of a post graduate diploma in Library and Information Technology. Initially in Support, she ran various training courses as well as supporting the BLS system, the Talis system and Talis Web. More recently Katharine joined the Development team where she initially assisted with the development of Talis Prism and now works on Talis Alto.




Richard Wallis, Technical Development Manager - Talis
In 1991, after a career in hardware support and software R&D, Richard joined BLCMP as a consultant for a new product that became the Talis LMS. Since then he has contributed to many leading edge developments including TalisWeb, Talis List and Talis Prism, for which he was the architect. More recently he has used his experience of the Talis product portfolio to drive forward the realisation of its integration capabilities.




Terry Willan, Standards Manager - Talis
Terry is the focus for Talis’ commitment to standards and serves on several standards bodies including BIC and NISO. He has extensive experience of bibliographic data and systems as well as acquisitions and resource sharing, and an interest in managing e-resources and the uses of metadata and web services.






More information will be published when speakers are announced.

© Talis Information Ltd 2004