Biographies of committee members

Gary Birkenhead
I am Chair of the Membership and Publicity panel of the Health Libraries Group. The panel is responsible for the following areas of HLG activity: prizes and awards, membership, website, general publicity, corporate identity, publications (not newsletter or journal) and co-ordinating our presence at events.

Pauline Blagden
I have worked in the health sector for several years but also have experience in FE and HE. My current role involves developing services to primary care. Professionally, I'm interested in progressing the idea of evidence-based librarianship. I am involved in CPD locally and regionally, and was chair the HLG CPD panel, organising the last two HLG COnferences.  I am currently chair of HLG.

Richard Bridgen
Chair of IFM Healthcare (IFMH), a partnership organisation of the Health Libraries Group, IFMH seeks to provide support to information professionals in the management of their own service and in the provision of information to managers working in health and social care, by keeping subscribers up-to-date and better informed about issues relating to the management and delivery of healthcare.

I am currently Head of the Knowledge and Information Service at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, and is one of the two East Midlands representatives on the National Core Content Technical Reference Group.

Heather Chesters
My current post is Assistant Librarian at the Institute of Child Health, University College London, where I have worked since 2003.
I have been in Higher Education sector libraries for a number of years, previously at Imperial College and at Goldsmiths College.
I joined the HLG Committee in June 2008, as Assistant Treasurer, and I am currently Treasurer for the group.
 
Elise Collins
Elise has seven years of experience of working in the health sector and is currently working as Information Specialist at the National Collaborating Centre for Cancer based in Cardiff, developing cancer clinical guidelines for National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence. Her career in health libraries started at Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust where she was Assistant Librarian / Policy Co-Ordinator for four years.

She is the current editor of the HLG newsletter, having edited the Calendar of Events column for the newsletter for the past two years

Hélène Gorring
Hélène has been Library Services Manager for Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Trust for the last 2 years. Prior to this she managed library services for Coventry Primary Care Trust and set up an Open Learning Centre for Birmingham Social Services.

Andrea Lane
I am a member of the Membership and Publicity Panel, specifically responsibile for co-ordinating an HLG presence at key LIS events.
I am an Information Specialist at the British Medical Journal Publishing Group working for the BMJ KNowledge Department.

Julie Ryder
Julie is a freelance consultant working primarily in the field of disability and health information, having previously worked for many years for Westminster Public Libraries.

She is responsible for the HLG website and is also the co-ordinating editor of HLISD - the Health Library and Information Services Directory, jointly produced by HLG, RCN and NLH.

Chris Thornton
Chris Thornton has worked in the health sector since 1996 and has been Head of Library Services at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since 2000. She leads a team of professional and non-professional staff who are currently in the throes of bringing five service points together into a single library. As a former teacher and sometime Associate Lecturer at the Department of Information and Communications at Manchester Metropolitan University, staff development is one of her main professional interests.

Maurice Wakeham
Maurice is currently Faculty Liaison Librarian for Health and Social Care at Anglia Ruskin University. He has been involved with LfN, UHSL (now UHMLG), LIRG and HLG CPD over the years. He has carried out research projects on the use of libraries by nurses and researchers and has written and presented on library history, enquiry based learning and library support of research.
Having volunteered to Chair the HLG Policy Panel he has found himself upon the HLG Committee which he has to represent to the CILIP Policy Forum.