Introducing ENSULIB Standing Committee Members
There are 20 Standing Committee members in IFLA’s ENSULIB Section. In this issue, we introduce 8 of them. Names are listed in alphabetical order of family names.
Beth Filar Williams is currently the Head of the Library Experience and Access Department at Oregon State University Libraries, United States of America. She is an active member of the OSU Faculty Senate Carbon Commitment Committee working toward carbon neutral for campus. Beth is the co-founder of the American Library Association’s Sustainability Round Table and continues to work within the committee, as well as being an adviser for the Resilient Communities: libraries respond to climate change. She has worked professionally for over 20 years in the many facets of librarianship but always including sustainability principles, mentoring students, and collaborations. The opportunity to host virtual international students over several years, as well as guest lecture in Parma, Italy for the DILL program was a highlight. Beth earned a Master’s of Library Science from the University of Maryland and a BA in Geography from the Johns Hopkins University.
Sarah Foezon works at Goethe-Institut France. She earned a Master of Library and Information Science from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany), a University Certificate of Teaching Librarian and a Bachelor in Cultural Studies. She worked for over ten years at the library of the German Historical Institute Paris (Max Weber Foundation) and has been Head of Library at the Goethe-Institut Paris since 2016. The Goethe-Institut is represented in nearly one hundred countries, promoting knowledge of the German language abroad and fostering international cultural cooperation. Sarah Foezon’s work there focuses both on collaboration with institutions in the field of literary and cultural mediation and education in a Franco-German and international context, and on the further development of library services with regard to changing usage demands. Sustainability is an important topic of her library work, and she has been involved with ENSULIB since 2021 to support and network projects in the field of green libraries.
Arnold Mwanzu is the Associate University Librarian & Regional Librarian, East Africa at Aga Khan University where he manages all the campus libraries in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. He holds a Master’s in Information Science from Kenyatta University, A Master’s in organizational development from USIU-Africa and a certification in Lib@web Programme from University of Antwerp, Belgium. He is currently completing a PhD in Information Science at Moi University. He was previously a standing committee member of the IFLA Preservation & Conservation section (2017 -2021); the current Secretary of the Kenya Library & Information Science Consortium; the Country coordinator for EIFL and an IFLA/OCLC Fellow from the Jay Jordan fellowship in Columbus, Ohio. His research interests are in library automation, knowledge management, evidence based practice and green libraries. He has been involved in ENSULIB since the satellite conference in Berlin (2017) and has been a reviewer of IFLA Green Library award for the past three years. He has also authored a book chapter for ENSULIB’s book project, Going Green: Implementing sustainable strategies in libraries around the world.
Katharina Portugal has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vienna in German studies and Theater, Film and Media Studies. Since 2015, she has been a staff member at the Austrian Library Association, where she currently works in the area of communication and cooperation.
Rosario Toril Moreno works at National Center of Environmental Education, Spain.
She holds a degree in Documentation and Hispanic Philology, and earned her Master’s degree in Environmental Management. Since 1991 she has worked at the Documentation Center of the National Center for Environmental Education (CENEAM), Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge of Spain. Since 2002 she has coordinated the Spanish Network for Environmental Information and Documentation (RECIDA), a national Seminar on Environmental Documentation Centers and has organised courses on environmental documentation and images. Since 2010 Rosario has collaborated with the IFLA Environmental Sustainability and Libraries Section. She authored many publications on environmental documentation. She collaborates with SEDIC (Spanish Society for Documentation and Scientific Information) and is currently Secretary General. Since 2016 she has been a Spanish representative for the National Reference Centers in Communication of the European Environment Agency.
Amélie Vallotton Preisig works at Alliance Sud Infodoc, Switzerland. She first graduated in philosophy, literature and religious sciences (MA) and then in library and information sciences (MAS). She started her career as an e-librarian for the NGO Globethics.net in Geneva between 2009 and 2012, and has been working as a librarian at Alliance Sud Infodoc since 2012. She has been serving in professional associations since 2011 (IFLA/FAIFE Committee Member and Secretary 2011-2017; BIS/Bibliosuisse Committee Member since 2015 to present; Bibliosuisse/Biblio2030 Commission co-president since 2017; Bibliosuisse vice-president since 2019 ; IFLA/ENSULIB Steering Committee Member since 2021).
I am a librarian in the Philological library at the Freie Universität Berlin. I have a bachelor degree in library management and I am currently enrolled in a part-time Master’s programme “Education – Sustainability – Transformation” at the University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde, Germany. Parts of my daily work concern communication and engagement within the University and their libraries to convey the subject of library sustainability. I am one founding and active member of the “German Green Library Network” and also co-initiator of “Libraries4Future”.
I am head librarian of the Šentvid Library, a branch of the Ljubljana City Library in Slovenia’s capital. I developed an ecologically themed program for my library which received the IFLA Green Library Award in 2019. Since then, I have been lecturing about and promoting green librarianship at various conferences. I have participated in the preparation of professional recommendations and standards for public libraries for the period 2018–2028 for Slovenia’s National Council for Library Services. I have been engaged in the introduction processes for the RFID system and technology that has been initially implemented in the Šentvid Library. I am president of the Ljubljana Library Association. I have been invited to join ENSULIB where I could contribute more effectively to the goals of sustainable development and the preparation of guidelines for library activity on the more global scheme. I think it is very important that library professionals across the world work together, exchange their knowledge and experience, and develop best possible programs of operation that will reach the widest range of libraries possible.