Vision Conference of Estonian Research Libraries

On the 1st of November, the Estonian research libraries are holding a vision conference as an event of the Year of Libraries 2022. The aim of the conference is to take a look at the future of the research libraries and discuss the possible perspectives and visions. During the conference, the participants can get an overview of the ongoing projects of the Estonian research libraries. 

 

Eva Méndez holds a PhD in Library and Information Sciences (LIS) and is an expert in metadata. She defines herself in her Twitter profile as an ‘open knowledge militant’ (@evamen). She has been a lecturer at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), LIS department since 1997. She has been an active member of several international research teams, advisory boards and communities including DCMI, OpenAire, Metadata2020, RDA, etc. From 2005-06 she was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA). She has taken part in and led several research projects and acted as an advisor to many more in the fields related to standardization, metadata, semantic web, open data, digital repositories and libraries, in addition to information policies for development in several countries. In 2015 she won the Young Researcher of Excellence award of her University. In November 2017 she was named “Open Data Champion” by SPARC Europe. She is currently Deputy Vice President for Scientific Policy-Open Science at UC3M and a member of the EU-OSPP (European Open Science Policy Platform) on behalf of YERUN (Young European Research Universities Network). She is the OSPP chair for the 2nd mandate of the platform.

Luukas Kristjan Ilves is Estonia’s Government Chief Information Officer and Undersecretary for Digital Development at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. Most recently, Luukas was the head of strategy at Guardtime, a leading blockchain company. He previously served in various positions for the Government of Estonia and the European Commission before joining the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based think tank. Luukas is a graduate of Stanford University.

Erin Stalberg is the Associate Director for Collections at the MIT Libraries, which includes Scholarly Communications and Collections Strategy, Technical Services, Distinctive Collections, Copyright Strategy, and Digital Preservation – advancing the Libraries’ goals towards digital-first collection-building, promoting open scholarship and equity, diversity, inclusion, social justice (EDISJ) impact, and increasing access to emerging and distinctive formats. She has held previous positions in library collections and technical services at Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA), North Carolina State University Libraries (Raleigh, NC), the University of Virginia Library (Charlottesville, VA), and as the Librarian for Semester at Sea (spring 2007 voyage), travelling around the world. She has taught courses in Information Organization, as adjunct faculty at Simmons University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and she is actively involved with the American Library Association. Erin holds a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and an M.L.S. from Drexel University.

Heather Sardis who spent a childhood curled up with a book in the reading room of the Liverpool Public Library is now an Associate Director of Technology at the MIT Libraries. Her work in the nonprofit, humanitarian, and technical sectors is united by the idea that information not only wants to be free, but information is also what frees us all. During her time at MIT, Heather has been an invited speaker at the U.S. Library of Congress Machine Learning and Libraries Summit, a core member of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Task Force, and an invited participant at the MIT Grand Challenges in Information Science and Scholarly Communication Summit, focusing on the role of libraries in technical and cultural transformation.

MacKenzie Smith is the University Librarian and Vice Provost for the Digital Scholarship at the University of California, Davis. She oversees all aspects of the library and its evolution to support a modern research university. She also oversees the University’s adoption of digital scholarship, including the use of technology and digital resources for research and teaching, and support for data science and informatics. She previously worked for the libraries at Harvard and MIT, leading digital library and archives initiatives such as DSpace, a popular open source software platform, and Semantic Web applications to improve scholarly communication, and research data management. She currently focuses on transforming scholarly publishing, particularly with Open Access, modernizing library workflows with new technologies such as linked data, and data science as a library service supporting the University’s mission of research, teaching and public service.

Martin Eessalu is the Head of Research Infrastructure at the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. Martin is responsible for the development of the strategic planning and funding of research infrastructure, language and culture related R&D, and the digital issues of the RDI system in Estonia. The role of research libraries and access to scientific information is part of the latter.

Aija Sakova is a literary scholar and research administrator. Since 2021 she is working as the Manager of Knowledge Transfer and Business Cooperation of Tallinn University and is also leading the Office of Knowledge Transfer and Project Support. Her research fields over the years have covered the following topics: memory studies and memory philosophy, life writing and identity formation in Russian-Estonian and Estonian expatriate literature, as well as the accessibility of cultural heritage. Topics that she has discussed in forms of opinion pieces and public talks cover the role of humanities and the responsibility of the researcher, deceleration and penetration and multilingualism and language learning. 2012–2017 she worked as the Head of Baltica and Old Books department and later as the head of development and communications at the Academic Library of Tallinn University; 2017–2021 she was Senior Researcher at the Estonian Cultural History Archives of Estonian Literary Museum.

Tanel Alumäe is an Associate Professor of Speech Processing and the Head of the Laboratory of Language Technology at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech). He received his PhD degree from the same university in 2006. After that, he worked in several renowned research teams, including LIMSI/CNRS, Aalto University and Raytheon BBN Technologies. His recent research has focused on practical approaches to low-resource speech and language processing.

Andres Kollist is a candidate of chemical sciences, scientist, social activist and since 2004 Director of the Tallinn University Academic Library and since 2009 the chairman of the Council of Research Libraries. He has been awarded the Order of the White Star (2001), the Class II Cross of Merit by the Estonian Border Guard, the Medal of Tallinn (2018), the Medal of the Estonian Academy of Sciences (2019) and the Medal of Tallinn University (2021). Over the years, the focus of Andres Kollist has been to establish a modern Digitization Center, lead the development of a joint search portal of Estonian memory institutions called E-varamu as well as develop the library's physical space.

Olga Einasto works as the Head of the Services Department at the University of Tartu Library. Olga is passionate about library user servicing, service culture and communication with users. She began her library career as a bibliographer 35 years ago in Moscow. Since 1991 Olga is dedicated to servicing the University of Tartu Library users, over the last 20 years she has been the head of the Services Department. Olga Einasto holds a PhD degree in Media and Communication and a Master’s in Cultural Management from the University of Tartu. Her academic interests are connected with the library (e-)service quality and user satisfaction, post- and digimodernism, library transformation, and librarian’s image. She has published works in international scholarly journals and books and presented her research at conferences and universities in Estonia and abroad. Two library projects managed by Olga Einasto – “The Night Library” and “Talking textbooks” – won the IFLA Marketing Award in 2007 and 2013.

Ragnar Siil is a Founder and Director of Creativity Lab, an international cultural policy and creative industries think tank and a Director of European Cultural Policy Designers Network. He is a former Estonian Undersecretary of the Arts and advised both Estonians as well as other countries in drafting the national cultural policies. Ragnar coordinated the writing of the vision paper 21st Century Library for Estonian libraries, developed a quality assessment model for Estonian public libraries and launched a national training and development programme for library specialists.