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.

Louise has spent over thirty years working in libraries, starting as a library assistant at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Her career has spanned special libraries, local government libraries, medical librarianship and library technical services. In January 2013 she became adventurous and moved from the UK to Hong Kong as University Librarian at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library, a leading research library in East Asia. She had previously been Director of Library Services at the University of Leicester in the UK from 2007. At Leicester under her leadership the Library was named Outstanding Library Team of the Year 2012 in the prestigious Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards, and in 2010 the Library gained the UK government’s Customer Service Excellence Award. Louise has a keen interest in library management and in the UK was Chair of the SCONUL Strategy Group on Library Performance and Improvement from 2009 to 2012.

Louise also has extensive experience of library space planning and design, having opened the multi-award winning David Wilson Library at Leicester in 2008. The Library won the premier academic Library design award in the UK from SCONUL in 2010. One of her recent publications is the book chapter “Library Space and Print” in University Libraries and Space in the Digital World, Matthews & Walton (eds), 2013, London, Ashgate. At the Chinese University of Hong Kong she currently renovating two libraries, has built a Digital Scholarship Lab and a Special Collections Reading Room, and with her commitment to sustainability has created an organic vegetable rooftop garden for library staff. Sustainability was the theme of the Academic Librarian 4 Conference she co-chaired in Hong Kong in 2016, and CUHK Library has been striving to become a green library.

In Hong Kong Louise is a member of JULAC (Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee) which works for deep collaboration between eight university libraries. From 2013 to 2106 she chaired JULAC’s purchasing consortium Consortiall, and led an ebook shared DDA purchasing pilot project. She is now co-chairing the implementation of a new shared ILS for JULAC.

Louise has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Manchester University, a master’s degree in Information Studies, and a Master’s in Public Administration from Warwick University. She is on the editorial board of the journal, New Review of Academic Librarianship.

John F. Szabo is the City Librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library, which serves over four million people—the largest population of any public library in the United States. He oversees the Central Library, 72 branches and the Library’s $162 million budget. In 2015, the Library received the nation’s highest honor for library service, the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, for its success in meeting the needs of Angelenos and providing a level of social, educational and cultural services unmatched by any other public institution in the city.

Under his leadership, the Library’s major initiatives include those related to immigrant integration and citizenship, improving financial literacy and providing health resources and programs. He has expanded the library’s reach into the city’s diverse communities through partnerships with several community-based organizations.

He has more than 20 years of leadership experience in public libraries, previously serving as the director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, Clearwater (FL) Public Library System, Palm Harbor (FL) Public Library and Robinson (IL) Public Library District. Throughout his career, Szabo has championed innovative library services that address critical community needs in areas including health disparities, workforce development, adult literacy, school readiness and emergent literacy for preschoolers.

Szabo received his master’s degree in information and library studies at University of Michigan and his bachelor’s degree in telecommunications from University of Alabama. He completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also participated in a Group Study Exchange with Rotary International, visiting libraries and archives in Sicily and the Aeolian Islands.

He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of OCLC and the Board of Directors for California Humanities, Califa and the University of Southern California Center for Library Leadership and Management. He has previously served on the Executive Board of the Urban Libraries Council and as president of the Florida Library Association.

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 a past 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 Chair of the Board of Directors of the JULAC Joint Universities Research Archive, the company established to govern JURA, a collaborative print storage repository.

Peter is also a 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; a past Chair of the Asia Pacific Regional Council Executive Committee of OCLC (2013-2014); a member of the OCLC Global Council (2011-2015); Vice-President/President Elect of the OCLC Global Council (2015-2018); a former Board member of the NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations); a member of the Elsevier Asia-Pacific Library Advisory Board (ALAB) (2014-), the Proquest Asian Regional Advisory Board, (February 2016-), the Wiley Publishing Asia Pacific Library Advisory Board, (May 2016-) and a member pf the Steering Committee of the Pacific Rim Research (formerly Digital) Library Alliance (PRRLA, formerly PRDLA).  His research interests include library management and leadership, user behaviours, information literacy and learning spaces and he has published in these areas.  His most recent publication is the co-authored “Leadership Development of Asian Librarians: The Longitudinal Impact of HKU Annual Library Leadership Institute”.  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 15th 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.