Andy Dawson
(to serve until 31 December 2013)
Postnominals
BA MCLIP
Email
Andy.Dawson@cilip.org.uk
Biography
Andy is a Senior Teaching Fellow at UCL, where he is Programme Director of the MSc Information Science and MA Electronic Communication and Publishing programmes, and Director of International Relations and Projects for the Department of Information Studies. He originally studied English and Linguistics before working for a year in Lambeth Libraries and then going on to do postgraduate study in LIS at Loughborough.
Once qualified he spent 15 years in industry running information and library services for large multinational companies such as Phillips Petroleum and Taylor Woodrow, where he also became a qualified lead assessor for QA and led the Taywood Information Service to gain the first independent BS5750 (ISO9000) quality accreditation for library and information services in the UK. Active in Aslib for many years, he served on Aslib’s council from 1986-1993 and worked for over 20 years on the Aslib Computer Group committee, including long spells in all its executive roles. He was one of the founders of the Information For Energy Group of the Energy Institute and has served as its treasurer since 1986.
He is a chartered member of CILIP and was previously a member of both the LA (since 1982) and the IIS (since 1987). His professional interests focus around information retrieval, human-computer interaction and systems design, and quality systems, and he is an advocate of drawing together the different strands within the information professions, focusing on commonalities rather than differences, and encouraging hybridisation.
In such little spare time as he has, he is also active in netball, playing in mixed leagues as well as being a qualified coach, umpire, and President of the Mixed Netball Association; rides a motorcycle to work daily in all weathers; plays bass guitar rather badly in a rock and roll band; and eats too much chocolate!