Dr. Patricia Senn Breivik

Vice-President - Nehemiah Communications

Dr. Patricia Senn Breivik joined the staff of Nehemiah Communications in 2005 after 33 years of executive management in higher education. She has been instrumental in research for the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Association feasibility study and has been actively involved with information literacy consulting, workshops and seminars.
Prior to joining Nehemiah Communications, Dr. Breivik served as the Dean of the University Library at San Jose State University, where in partnership with the public library, she oversaw the planning, development and operations of a $177.5 million integrated library project. Since opening in August 2003, this innovative model library has served as Silicon Valley’s 21st century information hub. The library won numerous awards including the prestigious Gale Publishing/ Library Journal Library of the Year award for 2004. The PR generated around the library’s opening garnered two Public Relations Society of America’s 2004 Silver Anvil Awards for the best in its category and for being the best of the best for that year.

Prior to this project, Dr. Breivik was Dean of the University Libraries at Wayne State University where she had administrative responsibility for four research libraries, the WSU University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She also oversaw the planning and operations of a new undergraduate library and the faculty development center. She has held numerous leadership positions in librarianship and higher education at both the state and national levels. For example, Dr. Breivik was Chair of the National Forum on Information Literacy from 1989 through 2005. This organization is comprised of over 90 national and international organizations concerned with people’s ability to access, evaluate and use information effectively. In recent years she has co-chaired with UNESCO two international conferences on information literacy and lifelong learning.

Dr. Breivik’s educational credits include a B.A from Brooklyn College, an M.L.S. from Pratt Institute, and a D. L. S. from Columbia University. She is a past President of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a frequent speaker, and she has authored or co-authored eight books and numerous articles.

Christine Irving & John Crawford - Abstract

The Scottish Information Literacy Project - Glasgow Caledonian University

Christine Irving is Research Assistant / Project Officer of the Scottish Information Literacy Project at Glasgow Caledonian University where she has been working on the development of a National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland).

She holds a BA (Hons) in Information Management from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and an MSc in Lifelong Learning and Development from Glasgow Caledonian University. She has a long standing interest in information, people's interaction with information and lifelong learning. She has authored and co-authored several journal articles and conference papers. Previous information literacy projects she has been involved in include NOF ICT workshops for Public Library staff and a Scottish cross sector project on Information Handling Skills where she was one of three authors of online interactive material for lifelong learners / post 16 year olds. As a result of this work, in 2004 she co-authored an Information Handling Skills national qualification at Intermediate 2 for SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) and the accompanying assessment (NAB).

Frances  Norton - Abstract

Head of the Wellcome Library - The Wellcome Trust

Frances Norton is currently Head of the Wellcome Library, a post to which she was appointed in July 2004. The Wellcome Library is one of the world's finest collections for the study of the history and culture of medicine and was awarded MLA designation status in 2005. The Library now forms part of Wellcome Collection - a major new venue in which the constituent activities - exhibitions, events lectures, members club, conference centre, café and bookshop - all interact to bring medicine, art, science and history together in engaging ways.

Management of the Wellcome Library is a natural progression in a career which has, in the main, been centred around medical information. Born and educated in New Zealand, Frances moved to the UK in 1977. Beginning at Leeds Metropolitan University, as Psychology Librarian, she moved into the National Health Service, running a number of hospital libraries over a period of ten years. In 1997 she joined the University of Leeds, and was Medical Librarian there until 2003, before taking up a senior management position in 2003 to lead and develop the Library's public services as a whole.

Frances' interests are in organisational development and in delivering information and content in culturally congruent forms. The role at the Wellcome Library is as much about using collections as a means of engaging the public as it is about developing collections for academic research. In order to foster a culture in which biomedical science can flourish, be understood and debated by an informed public there is much more to be done in advocating open access to scientific and medical literature - but also in fostering scientific literacy and numeracy. Frances will speak about using Library collections in novel ways to support those larger aims.

Professor Tara Brabazon - Abstract

University Brighton

Tara Brabazon is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Brighton, United Kingdom and Director of the Popular Culture Collective. Previously, Tara has held academic positions in both Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. She has won the Australian National Teaching Award for the Humanities, along with other Awards in the areas of disability, cultural studies and postgraduate supervision. In 2005, Tara was a finalist for Australian of the Year.

Tara holds three Bachelor degrees: a first class honours in history, along with qualifications in Literature and Communication and Professional Education (passed with distinction). She has three Masters Degrees: a Research Masters in history (passed with distinction), a Master of Letters in cultural studies and a Masters of Education (with first class honours). She also holds a Doctor of Philosophy. At the end of 2001, she gained a Graduate Diploma in Internet Studies, again attained with Distinction. She is currently enrolled in a Master of Physical and Health Education.

She is the author of nine books: Tracking the Jack - A retracing of the Antipodes (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2000), Ladies who Lunge: Celebrating Difficult Women (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2002), Digital Hemlock: Internet education and the poisoning of teaching (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2002), Liverpool of the South Seas: Perth and its popular music (Perth: UWA Press, 2005), From Revolution to Revelation : Generation X, popular memory, cultural studies (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), Playing on the periphery: sport, identity and memory (London: Routledge, 2006), The University of Google: education in the (post) information age (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007) and The revolution will not be downloaded: dissent in the digital age (Oxford: Chandos, 2008). Her ninth book - Thinking Popular Culture: war, terrorism and writing is being published in June 2008 by Ashgate. Two further books are being written through 2009 and 2009 for Sage: Key Concepts in Popular Music and Understanding Cultural Studies .

Anja Timm - Abstract

Lancaster University

Anja Timm is a Research Associate at Lancaster University Management School. She has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and has been researching higher education institutions and students for over a decade.

Anja has previously worked at the universities of Aberdeen, Bristol, Stockholm and in Latvia at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. Her research interests focus on the anthropology of organisations (especially higher education institutions), HE space and organisational change, education and mobility, HE reform and HE management. In January 2008 she will be taking up a new post at the University of Southampton