NISO Virtual Conference, The Library of the Future - Inside & Out

Helping people gain a greater understanding of the information community — our issues and concerns, challenges and opportunities — is core to NISO's mission. Our events are a key element of this, with our popular webinar program at their heart. And, following the NISO/NFAIS merger earlier this year, all NISO members can now attend all 14 webinars in 2020 completely free of charge! This includes an unlimited number of places and full access to a recording of each webinar for anyone who is unable to attend the event itself.

Carl Grant is Associate Dean for Knowledge Services & Chief Technology Officer at the University of Oklahoma Libraries. Previously he was Chief Librarian and President of Ex Libris North America. He’s active in ALA, ACRL, LITA and NISO. Mr. Grant holds an MLS from the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Danuta A. Nitecki is Dean of Libraries at Drexel University and Professor in its College of Computing and Informatics. Previously, she held library administrative positions at Yale and three state flagship universities. She has taught, published, presented and consulted extensively on topics such as library spaces, research methods, document delivery, and management of library services and information technology applications. Active life member of ALA, she currently is ACRL’s liaison to Society of College & University Planners. Dr. Nitecki holds a PhD [University of Maryland] and MS [Drexel University] in library and information science, and MS [University of Tennessee] in Communications.

Gail Clement is a Library Administrator and science research librarian at Caltech where she oversees a team of subject librarians, repository, metadata and licensing specialists who develop knowledge management resources, publishing services, and authorship programs for the Caltech community. In this role she also represents Caltech Library on various groups including the Carpentries; the Organizational Advisory Assembly for the Research Data Alliance, the Committee on Publication Ethics, and the Overleaf Steering Committee. She is a certified Data Carpentry Instructor and, as Coordinator of Author Carpentry, Gail collaborates with developers and researchers to create practical, hands-on, and useful lessons in responsible, reproducible, and reuseable open publication. The Reproducible Reporting with Rmarkdown course developed through this work has been well received by researchers worldwide through the Force11 Scholarly Communication Institute and the CODATA-RDA Summer School in Research Data Science.

Jacob Nadal is Director for Preservation at the Library of Congress, responsible for the stewardship of the Library's collections, ensuring their availability in the present and into the future. The Preservation Directorate is accomplishes this through direct treatment of collection items in a diverse array of formats, reformatting materials when their original formats become unusable or obsolete, and through a coordinated program of collections management activities that includes storage, inventory control, and collections security. Prior to joining the Library of Congress, Mr. Nadal led preservation efforts at Indiana University, UCLA, and the New York Public Library, served as Director of Library and Archives at the Brooklyn Historical Society, and was Executive Director for ReCAP: The Research Collections and Preservation Consortium. He holds an MLS from Indiana University.

Karen Diaz is Dean of Libraries at West Virginia University. She served as Associate Dean of Libraries at WVU from January 2016 –July 2017. Prior to her appointment at WVU, Karen served as the Head of Teaching and Learning at the Ohio State University Libraries. Her 25 year career at OSU also included positions as Reference Librarian, Web Librarian, and eLearning Librarian. She has presented and published on information literacy, digital storytelling and their intersection. Recent work has shifted toward the practice of the “learning organization” and unbundling journal packages. Karen received her BA from the University of New Orleans and MLIS from Louisiana State University.

Matthew Sheehy is the Brandeis National Committee University Librarian at Brandeis University. Prior to joining the Brandeis administration, Sheehy held leadership positions in access services at the Harvard University Libraries, and reference and research services at the New York Public Library, was an associate dean at Adelphi University, and worked in other academic and public libraries. He earned a BM (music composition) from the University of Hartford, The Hartt School and both an MLS and MA (musicology) from the University at Buffalo.

Nancy Davenport is the University Librarian at American University, appointed to the post in September 2012. Prior service includes a variety of libraries: Director of Library Services at DC Public Library (2006 – 2012); President of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), (2004 – 2006). Prior to her CLIR appointment she was at the Library of Congress, where she held multiple senior leadership positions: Director of Acquisitions (LC); Associate Director of for Special Programs in the Congressional Research Service of LC. Ms. Davenport is active in the American Library Association and the Association for College and Research Libraries. She is a Trustee of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra and the Vice-chair of the Board of the Washington Master Chorale.

Steven Escar Smith is dean of libraries at the University of Tennessee’s flagship campus in Knoxville. In this role, Smith administers the John C. Hodges Main Library and two branch libraries with emphases in music, social work, and agriculture and veterinary medicine, and oversees a budget of $20 million and a collection of more than 3.5 million print and electronic volumes. The UT Libraries ranks 25th among major US public research libraries. Smith was formerly associate dean for collections, services, and advancement at Texas A&M University. At TAMU, Smith oversaw fundraising initiatives that resulted in more than $19 million in cash and gifts to support the library’s mission in addition to securing the two largest outright gifts in the library’s history. Over the course of his career, Smith has led numerous library renovation and construction projects, led the implementation and integration of numerous programs and services, and built collections of international standing.