Access Lab 2021

Andy Anderson is the Business analyst at OpenAthens. Andy likes that there is a real sense of camaraderie and dynamism within OpenAthens. We pull together to get things done and embrace new and innovative ways of working.

Jon has worked in publishing for 20 years with a variety of commercial and business publishers. His career has spanned the transformation from print to digital as companies have reacted and adapted to new technology. But his belief remains that the fundamental purpose of a publisher hasn’t changed. Accessibility to accurate, intelligent, insightful information has never been more important. Trust is paramount and Jon is delighted that OpenAthens participates in establishing that trust between the publishers, libraries and the end users.

Peter Berkery has been Executive Director of the Association of University Presses since early 2013. Berkery comes to AUPresses from Oxford University Press, where he served for the previous five years as Vice President and Publisher for the US Law Division. Prior to that he worked for Wolters Kluwer for 11 years in a series of positions, publishing works on securities licensing examination training, securities law, taxation, and financial planning.

David Bukenya is deputy university librarian and head of library systems and electronic services at Uganda Christian University library. He manages the library systems, institutional digital repository, library management system, electronic information services, and research and digital scholarly services. David teaches digital literacy, is a library technology enthusiast and keen on using the available technology to facilitate and enable access to essential research information and resources.

Samantha leads on data analysis and management in Libraries and Learning Innovation at Leeds Beckett University.  She provides senior managers, library decision makers and academic support colleagues with evidence and insight about resource usage, user engagement and library impact, so that students, lecturers and researchers have appropriate, impactful and cost-effective learning materials, all within the confines of a limited budget.  Samantha previously worked in the university’s Registry, Strategic Planning and Student Centred Change Management teams, as well as IT project management in the private sector.  She enjoys finding new and enhancing existing solutions.

Sam Herbert is co-founder of 67 Bricks.  Sam has taken a lead in exploring how technologies like AI, machine learning and natural language processing can deliver value in the information industry by increasing the worth of data, strengthening user engagement and delivering new sources of revenue.  He has a unique ability to understand clients’ needs and unravel the latest technologies that will help them deliver exceptional user experiences.

Sam joined OpenAthens at the start of 2020, working as part of the onboarding team to assist customers in configuring our software in order to maximise benefit for the organisation and their users.

Timothy Renick is the founding Executive Director of the National Institute for Student Success and Professor of Religious Studies at Georgia State University. At Georgia State, he has served as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, Director of the Honors Program and Senior Vice President.

Naomi L.A Smith is an Assistant Librarian at University of East London and a part-time Library and Information Studies postgraduate student at University College London. In 2014 she completed a Masters in Race and Resistance at University of Leeds, and hopes to use this knowledge within the Library Sector.

Mark has been with Jisc 2003, working on access management for the last fourteen years. A background in FE provides a constant reminder of what can be done with technology and what should actually be done with technology.

Scott has been working in digital and technology since 1997. From Scoot, Financial Times, Google, AOL, Azimo and Habito (to name a few). Scott has worked across marketing, commercial, customer experience, technology and product design. An expert in customer facing scenarios, combining business and strong technical acumen to understand customer tensions and needs developing customer focused products. In recent years, developing native cloud experiences and functions for two businesses that have landed them in the FinTech Top 50 plus recently working with 67 Bricks on developing a whole new business architecture and delivery platform. 

Emily Singley is Associate University Librarian, Systems & Technical Infrastructure at Boston College and has previously held technology positions at Harvard University, Southern New Hampshire University, Curry College, and the University of Minnesota. She serves on the SeamlessAccess Outreach Committee, and her primary research interest is in how users access Library resources.

Jake is a product manager at OpenAthens, he will be providing an overview of OpenAthens’ future product plans and priorities. We’ll highlight the focus areas and problems we aim to tackle with some sneak peeks of future updates and functionality. This session will cover the future roadmap for our library and publisher products, focusing on key strategic areas over the next year.

Liz Sayce OBE, will lead our panel debate as panel chair. Liz is a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics and was chief executive of Disability Rights UK. She is chair of the Commission for Equality in Mental Health, vice-chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee and a member of the Disability Advisory Committee of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Lettie, Publishing & Product R&D Consultant brings 20 years’ experience in scholarly publishing to her diverse portfolio of product research and development projects. She is dedicated to helping information organizations cultivate a user-centered, standards-compliant approach to digital publishing and academic programs. Her expertise lies in optimizing user engagement, discoverability and accessibility of content platforms.

Darren is Product Owner within the NHS login team. His focus is on using technology to build an identity service that meets user needs, while also adopting a standards-based approach to meet the needs of consuming services. Darren has over twenty years’ experience delivering technology services. This knowledge is key to ensuring that the services and products are of the highest standard.

Matthew is Academic Librarian for Medicine, Health, Social Work, and Sociology at the University of East Anglia. The online information literacy guides he provides via the local VLE are accessed 30,000+ times a year by students in his areas but he is always looking for new ways to provide support at the point of need.

As a product manager, Jas helps drive our product vision and incorporates user needs into our product strategy and development roadmap. An important role to ensure OpenAthens remains fit to face the challenges of today and tomorrow.  Jas previously worked in product and standards development roles for the British Standards Institute.

Faye Mazzia is the Electronic & Technical Services Librarian at Touro University Nevada, a small private medical school.

Andy has worked at the University of Salford since 1993, in various IT and Library roles. He currently works as a systems librarian, working mainly with Ex Libris products, but also with OpenAthens. In a previous role in IT, he worked for some years with user management systems.

Chris has worked in the field of technology-enhanced learning for 15 years and manages a team of subject specialists who support Jisc’s member organizations with issues of digital practice. He specializes in communication and collaboration and has a particular interest in the interplay between narratives and data.

Matthew is Managing Director of Lean Library, the library services provider owned by SAGE Publishing, and has held leadership roles in both start-ups and established research information organizations, including Publons, Taylor & Francis and Springer Nature. Matthew studied Modern History at the University of Oxford and has continued his research interests alongside his career: he is currently completing a PhD in Global Education at the Institute of Education, UCL.