Gary E. Gorman is NZ Chair of Library and Information Studies at the School of Communications and Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Previously he held similar positions at
universities in Australia, prior to which he was librarian at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the UK. He has considerable professional experience in many countries in Africa and Asia, and regularly presents workshops and seminars in China, Vietnam and elsewhere. He presently is managing a substantial New Zealand government-funded training project in Hanoi and is actively pursuing research in SE Asia.
Dr. Gorman's particular interests are collection management, collection development and information access. He has written widely on developments in Asia and the Pacific. He is Editor of Online Information Review; Book Reviews Editor of Collection Building; and Internet column Editor for New Library World.
He is on the Executive of IFLA's Regional Standing Committee for Asia and Oceania, and also the Executive of the IFLA Round Table of Library and Information Science Journals.
Patricia Layzell Ward
Library Link Regional Editor: UK
Patricia qualified as a librarian through part-time study, and then became a Fellow of the Library Association following full-time study at the North-Western Polytechnic. A Masters and a PhD followed this from University College London.
She is editor of Library Management and involved in research, consultancy and writing, having been Head of the Departments of Information and Library Studies at the University of Wales Aberystwyth and Curtin University, Western Australia. Patricia is a member of the American Library Association, Aslib, the Bibliographical Society, IFLA, the Institute of Information Scientists, the Institute of Management and the Library Association. Currently Secretary/Treasurer of the IFLA Section for Management and Marketing she has also served on the Professional Board. It is not surprising that she has a special interest in management, but this extends to research methods and international and comparative librarianship. Away from professional matters she is an amateur archivist and has a long-standing involvement with the preservation of a Welsh narrow gauge railway.
Niels O Pors
Library Link Regional Editor: Europe
Niels has a MA in History and Social Science (1975) from the University of Odense and Aalborg and has been Director of Studies (Dean) at the Royal School of Librarianship 1987-2000. From 2000 he has taken up a research and teaching position as associate professor. His research interests are user studies, performance measurement, collection development, the impact of information technology, quality assurance of educational institutions, evaluation studies, labour market related topics, curriculum development and future qualifications and skills, research methodology and statistics. Niels has given numerous invited lectures in Scandinavia, Europe and Africa both at conferences and for different groupings and library authorities. He has been involved in the planning of several professional conferences including the 1st and 2nd British Nordic Conference for Library and Information Science Teachers and Educators(1995 and 1997), the COLIS 2 conference about Information Science: Integration in Perspective (1996), IFLA - conference about continuing education (1997).
Niels has been a member of the editorial board of New Library World since 1992 and has undertaken consultancy work and user studies for the EU, the Danish Library Authorities and libraries in Scandinavia. In addition he has been coordinator of the Nordic Network Nordplus concerned with student and staff exchange among Nordic LIS institutions since 1989, co-ordinator of the ICP under the ERASMUS programme since 1994, contractor of several Tempus programmes concerned with the modernisation of East European library systems and development of LIS - educations since 1994 and he has been heavily involved in other Tempus and Phare programmes. Niels has also authored numerous books and articles on the subject of information management, collection development and information technology.
James Sweetland
Library Link Regional Editor: North America
James Sweetland is Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Library and Information Science, where he has taught since 1985. He holds a master's and Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of Notre Dame, as well as a Master of Library Science from Indiana University. He teaches courses in managing collections information retrieval, social science information, and intellectual freedom.
In addition to his academic work, he has over 12 years' experience in academic and special libraries.
Sweetland has been searching online since 1976, and is a past chair of the Machine Assisted Reference Section of the Reference and User Services Association, as well as a past president of RUSA. His current research emphasizes evaluation of information systems and the reviewing process in general. He has given numerous workshops for librarians on collection evaluation.
