Paul Gandel is a professor in the School of Information Studies.

Previously he served as the Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Syracuse University. As Chief Information Officer he was responsible for all aspects for information technology and information service--computer services, voice and data networking, instructional services, business process improvement, and distance learning. During his tenure as CIO he was instrumental in modernizing the University's technology infrastructure and IT support services to ensure that SU remain competitive with the growing demands of providing high-quality information resources for research, teaching, and student learning environments. He was also responsible for initiating and developing the Green Data Center at Syracuse, one of the "greenest" data centers in the world.

Before coming to Syracuse University, Gandel was Vice Provost and Dean of Libraries at University of Rhode Island. Before Rhode Island, Gandel was Associate Provost and Chief Information Officer at the Ohio University, Senior Director of Academic Computing and Associate Professor of Library Science at the University of North Texas, Supervisor of the Computing Technology Group at Bell Laboratories, Head of Media Services at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and Director of the Research Library at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. He has also done work internationally as a Senior Consultant and Interim CIO for Singapore Management University.

Gandel has made presentations and published on topics related to the management of information systems, library administration and services, software engineering, and visualization of information.

Dr. Gandel has a Ph.D. in Information Studies from Syracuse University, an M.A. in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin, and an M.F.A. in Photography and B.A. in History from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Since August 2010, Hirshon has been the Associate Provost and University Librarian at Case Western Reserve University, a highly research-intensive university located in Cleveland, Ohio. Immediately prior to joining Case Western Reserve, Hirshon served for ten years as Executive Director of NELINET (a consortium of libraries throughout New England) where he launched an array of new services for consulting, digital libraries, and open source software support. While at NELINET, Hirshon also did extensive consulting and training in the United States and in over forty countries on six continents.
Hirshon also managed the merger of NELINET with LYRASIS, and served briefly at LYRASIS as the Chief Strategist and Executive Consultant, where he provided strategic planning and human resource coaching and development services for librarians.

Prior to NELINET, Hirshon served as Vice Provost for Information Resources and Chief Information Officer at Lehigh University, where he was responsible for university computing and libraries. Before that, Hirshon was University Librarian at Wright State University, Associate Director of Libraries at Virginia Commonwealth University, and in library administrative posts at Duke University and Wayne State University.

Hirshon is a Past President of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services of the American Library Association. He is a member of the Management Board of EIFL.NET, an international association of library consortia in fifty developing countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. For EIFL, Hirshon also provided consulting services and numerous workshops and presentations.

A highly experienced international consultant on issues of organizational, strategic and business planning, facility redesign, operations management and assessment, and technology integration, Hirshon served for six years as an advisor for a Carnegie Foundation-funded project to develop new ways to employ technology to advance faculty research at major research universities of South Africa.

Hirshon has an extensive scholarly publications record that includes many monographs, articles and book chapters on topics such as strategic planning, outsourcing, technology applications in higher education, organizational leadership, service integration, operations assessment and optimization, and non-profit management.

Peter Sidorko (http://hub.hku.hk/cris/rp/rp01299) has enjoyed a career in academic libraries spanning thirty years and is currently the University Librarian at The University of Hong Kong (HKU).  In this position he has full responsibility for leading and directing all aspects of the HKU Libraries network of 6 libraries.  Peter is the current Chair of JULAC (the Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee http://www.julac.org/), a forum to discuss, coordinate, and collaborate on library information resources and services among the libraries of the eight tertiary education institutions funded by the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong.  He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the JULAC Joint Universities Research Archive, the company established to govern JURA.

Peter is also the immediate past President-elect of the Hong Kong Library Association, serving from 2011-2012.  He holds several honorary international positions: he is a member of the Board of Directors of CLOCKSS; the immediate past Chair of the Asia Pacific Regional Council Executive Committee of OCLC (2013-2014); a member of the OCLC Global Council (2011-2015); a Board member of the NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations); and he is a member of the Elsevier Asia-Pacific Library Advisory Board (ALAB).   His research interests include library management and leadership, user behaviours, information literacy and learning spaces and he has published widely in these areas.  His most recent publication is the chapter “Hong Kong projects and trends” in the book Better Library and Learning Spaces (Les Watson, editor) released in October 2013,   He has also presented at almost 100 conferences and seminars, several of which have been published as proceedings. Peter's interest in effective management and leadership in libraries led to the establishment of the University of Hong Kong's Annual Library Leadership Institute in 2003, aimed at developing leadership qualities in Asian librarians, and now in its 13th year of operation. Peter was also a Faculty member of the Educause Australasian Leadership Institute between 2001 and 2003.

YC is Deputy University Librarian of the University of Hong Kong Libraries. He has over 30 years of experience in academic and public libraries in Hong Kong. He has also been teaching library courses in Hong Kong since 1988.

YC received his bachelor degree at the University of Hong Kong in 1980 and doctoral degree in information and library science at the University of Wales Aberystwyth in 2001. He has served in a number of different positions since joining the University of Hong Kong Libraries in 1987, namely Special Collections Librarian, Reader Services Librarian, Fung Ping Shan Librarian and Head of Main Library Services. YC has a keen interest in Hong Kong studies, particularly in the history of libraries in Hong Kong and digitization of Hong Kong materials.