Home > Events & Conferences > Conference 2006 > Keynote Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Stephen Abram

Tara Brabazon

Bonnie Cheuk

Simon Morton

Professor Martin Nakata

Evelyn Tobin

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SPEAKER

Stephen Abram

Proudly sponsored by BBC Audiobooks

"Most of the time, libraries spend their time in the present, trying to serve their communities, and are not able to spend the time needed to figure out where the world's going to be three and five years out. But they have to be ready for it when it gets here."*

Stephen Abram, MLS, is immediate past-President of the Canadian Library Association and Vice President Innovation for SirsiDynix. He is the 2006 president-elect of Special Libraries Association (SLA), and has been Vice President of Corporate Development for Micromedia ProQuest and Publisher Electronic Information for Thomson. He has run libraries for Suncor, Coopers & Lybrand, Smith Lyons Torrance Stevenson and Mayer and Hay Group.

Stephen has been listed by Library Journal as one of their first "Mover and Shakers", the 'key' people influencing the future of libraries and librarianship. He has been awarded SLA's John Cotton Dana Award, and is a Fellow of the SLA. He was Canadian Special Librarian of the Year and Alumni of the Year for the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Information Studies. He was President 2002 of the Ontario Library Association as well as having sat on the SLA Board of Directors as Director and Secretary.

Stephen gives over 80 international keynote talks annually to library and information industry conferences, and writes articles and columns for Information Outlook, Feliciter, Access, Multimedia & Internet @ Schools, and Library Journal on issues close to the heart of libraries and librarians from all sectors. We are very happy to join his list of engagements and have him present at LIANZA Conference 2006.

His blog is available from: http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com

*"Charting the future of libraries," Wyoming Library Roundup, Summer 2005 [cited 27 March 2006].

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SPEAKER

Tara Brabazon

“Through education, we can make a difference. Through teaching, we recognise what we need to learn. But without libraries and librarians, we lose a way of thinking.” *

Tara Brabazon is the Professor of Media in the School of Computing, Mathematics and Information Sciences at the University of Brighton and Director of the Popular Culture Collective.

Over the past few years Tara has taught Cultural Studies and History throughout Australasia, working at Victoria University of Wellington, in Queensland and now in Western Australia.

Tara is a vibrant, engaging and humorous speaker and it is not surprising that she has won many teaching awards including 1998 Australian National Teaching Award for the Humanities.

Her achievements also go beyond teaching - Tara has also been nominated for the Western Australian Citizen of the Year and as a finalist for the 2005 Australian of the Year.

Tara is passionate about the role of libraries in education and our society and we are delighted that she will join us in Wellington in 2006.

Learn more about Tara.

* “The revolution will not be shushed: guerrilla librarians fight for literacy,” On Line Opinion, July 23, 2003, [cited 9 September 2005]. Available from www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=568

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SPEAKER

Bonnie Cheuk

Proudly co-sponsored by Special Libraries and Information Services (SLIS) and Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui Regional Committee

"In a lot of ways the term Knowledge Management is incorrect, because you can't manage knowledge. Knowledge is in people's heads. What you can manage is the processes, the infrastructure, the work practices and habits, so that the organisation can capture and share knowledge and give people a chance to gain better knowledge."

Bonnie Cheuk has over 10 years of experience facilitating knowledge sharing and managing information in both private and public organisations. Based in Scotland, she currently heads up a knowledge management unit promoting knowledge sharing across the 32 Scottish local authorities and their partners.

Bonnie received her Master of Library and Information Studies with distinction from the University of Wales in 1995. She won a Ph.D. scholarship at Nanyang Technological University and conducted research aimed at improving the understanding of information literacy in the workplace (“A qualitative study in information seeking and use in the professional workplace context: using the sense-making approach”), receiving her Ph.D. degree in library and information science in 1999. Since then Bonnie has been applying Dervin’s Sense-Making Methodology and Snowden’s complexity theory to design and implement knowledge management projects and systems to deliver business benefits.

Her research-driven yet pragmatic approach to promote a knowledge sharing culture has won over knowledge management practitioners and researchers in the UK and around the world. Two of her KM projects have been shortlisted as finalist and commendable in the 'knowledge management categories' for the Information Management Award IM2004 and IM2005 respectively. Bonnie’s work has been published in international journals, she speaks frequently at conferences, and we are honoured to have her as a keynote speaker at the Next Generation Libraries LIANZA Conference 2006.

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COMMENTATOR

Simon Morton

Simon Morton is an award winning producer for Radio New Zealand.  He founded the weekly radio series Digital Life and today hosts a weekly two hour programme, This Way Up, exploring the things we use and consume (www.radionz.co.nz/thiswayup). Simon had a stint at the World Service in London producing a weekly technology series, and has produced work for the US National Public Radio, Public Radio International and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Prior to working for Radio New Zealand Simon worked for a Christchurch based web company, ran a marketing consultancy and developed tourism products for AJ Hackett Bungy and NZ Experience throughout Europe and the Asia Pacific.  Simon has lived in the UK, France, Spain and New Zealand with professional experience in India, Nepal, Japan, Thailand, France, the Netherlands and Australia. We are delighted that Simon will be helping us make the all-important connections to our local market.

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SPEAKER

Professor Martin Nakata

"..over the last decade, the library profession has responded with great goodwill to the issues surrounding Indigenous information, Indigenous people and their intersection with the information sector. In the same period, the Indigenous information landscape has also been changing.  Indigenous knowledge issues have emerged globally and have implications that the library sector cannot ignore." *

Professor Nakata is the first Torres Strait Islander to receive a PhD from an Australian university.  He is Director of Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, and Chair of Australian Indigenous Education at University of Technology Sydney.

Martin's primary research interest is in the area of theory, and particularly the complex space where Indigenous and non-Indigenous disciplines and knowledge systems converge. His current research projects include Indigenous knowledge and libraries, archives and Information services, and curriculum and pedagogical issues in Indigenous studies in the higher education sector.

Martin has published over sixty articles on Australian Indigenous people in various academic journals, anthologies and books. He has edited a book on Indigenous peoples, racism and the UN, and has co-edited another book - Australian Indigenous Knowledge and Libraries - with Professor Marcia Langton, which has just been published by the Australian Academic and Research Libraries. His most recent research was the Evaluation of the Northern Territory Library's Libraries and Knowledge Centres Model.

Martin has presented nineteen plenary and keynote addresses at national and international conferences in eight different countries (Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Greece, Scotland, South Africa, Taiwan, Norway, Iceland) and we are thrilled to have him join us in Wellington, New Zealand at Next Generation Libraries in October. 

* "Librarians and indigenous knowledge", inCite, November 2004. Available from: http://alianet.alia.org.au/publishing/incite/2004/11/indigenous.html

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SPEAKER

Evelyn Tobin

"Ina whai mātauranga, ka haere kūare mai, engari, ka hoki mārama atu.

When seeking knowledge, people may set out with dark ignorance, and yet may return with bright enlightenment."

Evelyn is a specialist in the field of Mātauranga Māori with 30 years’ teaching experience that includes national curriculum, kura kaupapa Māori advisory, teacher professional development, and NCEA national qualifications work. She is a director of Kotare Enterprises Ltd, an Education and Training Consultancy, and is currently employed as Māori Language and Protocols Advisor for Front of the Box video and television productions. She is a member of Kōmiti Māori that provides independent advice to the National Librarian. She also brings Mātauranga Māori, cultural awareness and educational perspectives to her role as a Library and Information Advisory Commissioner.

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