Áine Carey leads the Teaching & Research Development team and Maynooth University Library, and is Chair of the CONUL T&L committee. Áine has over 20 years’ experience as a library professional, and has worked in a range of library sectors, including academic, corporate and specialist libraries. Áine has previously been Chair of the Academic & Special Libraries Section of the LAI, and has been an active member of a number of LAI committees, including the LAI Executive Board (now LAI Council). Her interests include activity-based models of teaching, use of threshold concepts in information literacy, and exploring student engagement techniques in online and face-to-face teaching.
Arlene Healy is responsible for Digital Systems and Services in the Library of Trinity College Dublin, where she is a member of the Leadership Team. She is responsible for the Library’s IT systems and digital infrastructure, digital collections and digital preservation programmes and electronic resources management. Arlene is currently Chair of the CONUL Research Group and co-convenor of Digital Scholarship Network Ireland. She represents the Library of Trinity College Dublin on the UK Legal Deposit Libraries Implementation Group, and Technical Group. Research interests include the use and re-use of digital collections for research, teaching, and public engagement and she is co-investigator on the IIF4Research network project investigating the potential for innovative forms of scholarly discussion and interchange offered by the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF).
Allison Kavanagh is Head of Library Services at Technological University Dublin’s City
Centre Campus. She was appointed Head of Library Services at Dublin Institute of
Technology (now TU Dublin) in 2018. Allison joined DIT in 2004 having returned to Ireland
from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business Library. She completed her
American Library Association-accredited Masters in Library and Information Science at the
San José State University in 2001. A qualified taxation consultant, Allison previously worked
as an International Corporate Tax Consulting Manager with KPMG’s Silicon Valley office and
held a number of taxation consulting positions in Ireland, including at FGS (now Grant
Thornton). Allison is Chair of the Consortium of National and University Libraries (CONUL)
and a member of the Irish University Association’s Librarians Group (IUALG) and of the
Library Association of Ireland’s Professional Standards Committee. Allison’s areas of interest
include change management and library design.
Martin is Communications Coordinator at UCC Library. He has widely published and presented in the areas of library outreach and communications, marketing libraries, social media and Chinese Librarianship. He co-runs the Irish Library blog Libfocus. He runs the music and socio-cultural blog The Blackpool Sentinel. He co-hosts the library radio show Shush! Sounds from UCC Library.
Sarah-Anne Kennedy is the College Librarian for Sciences & Health based in Grangegorman. Previous to this she was the College Librarian for Business, Media, & Law. She is current Chair of the TU Dublin Library Services Communications & Marketing Group for City Campus. Sarah-Anne is interested in innovative and new ways to support students, academics, and researchers in their teaching, learning, and research. She is particularly interested in finding new ways to support students and staff with a disability by utilising universal design principles and digital tools to support all Library users.
David heads up the Directorate of Special Collections & Archives based in DCU’s O’Reilly Library in Glasnevin. He leads an expert team which cares for original and rare physical and digital collections from the 13th century to date, and which supports the university’s research activities in the fields of education, history, humanities, literature, media, politics and religions. Active in various roles over 20 years in higher education since he obtained his library masters at UCD, he was previously Librarian at Mater Dei Institute of Education, and before that Business Librarian at DCU, where he also earned his cataloguing spurs. He is chair of CONUL’s Regulatory Affairs Sub-Committee, which is currently focused on the impact of copyright rules and licensing arrangements on research and learning in academic libraries, making some use of his undergraduate studies in law. David is also a member of CONUL’s UDC Committee, and has chaired the Library Association of Ireland’s Rare Books Group. He has also been a member of the Acquisitions Group Ireland and LIR committees.
As Director General, Jim leads the IUA as the representative ‘Voice of Irish Universities’. The
IUA member universities account for over two-thirds of under-graduates, 80% of post-grads
and 90% of research expenditure in higher education.
Jim has extensive experience across a variety of commercial, communications and
campaigning roles and provides leadership to the sector at a time of significant change and
challenge.
An economist and Chartered Director, he was Project Director of The Gathering 2013,
following a decade as co-founder and CEO of MyHome.ie. He was previously General
Secretary of Fine Gael and Chief Executive of Dublin Chamber of Commerce, having spent
his early career as a journalist at RTE and a volunteer with Concern. Jim is also the current
Chairman of Sightsavers Ireland. As a Roscommon exile, he is a proud Rossie supporter!
Orla Nic Aodha has worked in libraries for over 20 years. She currently works in DCU and is a member of the senior management team. She was appointed Associate Director of Public Services and Outreach in 2016. Prior to that Orla was the head librarian in St. Patrick’s College, Drumconda. Orla has an MA in Irish, a diploma in Employee Relations and Human Resource Management and qualitied as an Executive Coach in 2019 from the Coach Institute of Ireland. Orla completed the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) Leadership Development Programme in 2016. She is a member of GlasDrum, a non-profit organisation, which works in partnership with local and national organisations to programme arts and cultural experiences for the people of North Dublin. Glasdrum and DCU library recently collaborated on an exhibition showcasing the works of Aosdána artist Marie Hanlon. Orla sits on the EDI committee, a subcommittee of DCU Governing Authority and is a member of the IFUT Trade Union.
Donna Ó Doibhlin is the librarian for the College of Medicine & Health in UCC and manages
the Boston Scientific Health Sciences Library. Donna has worked in several third level
organisation libraries and has been involved in the design and delivery of embedded
research support and information literacy programmes, as well as staff development
initiatives throughout her career. She is currently Chair of CONUL Training & Development
Committee and was recently appointed to the EAHIL Council, the European Association for
Health Information and Libraries. Donna represents IULCC (the current governance body of
IRel which is IUALG & TUD) on the NORF Skills & Competencies subgroup.
Christoph Schmidt-Supprian is Acting Keeper (Collection Management) at the Library of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. His teams collect (nearly) everything published in Ireland and the UK, manage mainstream purchases and donations, and are expert practitioners of bibliographic metadata and resource description standards – among other things. Christoph holds a PhD in modern history from Trinity, has lectured on information organisation in UCD and the Dublin Business School, and sits on the Council of the Library Association of Ireland. He has chaired the CONUL Collections Group since May 2019.
Mrs Laura Shanahan, MA, is Head of Research Collections at the Library of Trinity College Dublin, based within the Old Library. She has responsibility for the departments of Manuscripts and Archives, Early Printed Books and Special Collections, the Map Library and Music. A focus is on widening access and use of the collections for learning and enjoyment at all levels, and developing deep research collaborations with the academic community. Major active projects include preparations for the redevelopment of the Old Library, and delivery of the Virtual Trinity Library programme – a philanthropically / grant funded programme to develop a new Irish research entity that is open for the world. A Scot, Laura has previously performed a variety of roles in the National Library of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh Library. She is a graduate of English Literature, and a qualified Librarian. Laura is currently Chair of CONUL’s Unique and Distinct Collections Group, TCD’s representative on the Research Libraries UK Special Collections Leaders’ Network, and a member of the Worth Library Trust Management Committee.