Cassie is the Scholarly Communications Manager at University of the Arts London, and has a varied background in subscriptions and licensing, children's libraries, and website management. She is enjoying getting involved in the Scholarly Communications environment, and finding out how libraries influence the way research is disseminated. She completed her chartership in 2019.

Cassie spends her spare time reading, knitting wonky jumpers, and bothering her cat.

Arved Werner Kirschbaum - Treasurer

Arved is currently working towards Chartership, having recently completed an LIS degree from the University of Sheffield with Distinction. He currently holds the position of Senior Library Assistant (Marketing & Communications) at King's College London

Arved has diverse experience in both academic and special libraries collection management, library teaching, and community work having previously reclassified the Durham Classics Library and worked in library reading list support for the University of Durham, after which he completed his Library Graduate Traineeship in the library cataloguing department of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

When he’s not running around to meet people somewhere - he runs around on a football pitch, climbs up walls in the closest bouldering gym, and racks up Parkruns. He also reads voraciously, loves to traipse through one of London’s many museums, and does his best to get his hands on any and all biscuits he can find. On Twitter you can find him as the very on-brand @0ptimistBiscuit.

A keen networker – he would love nothing more than for you to get in touch and share your knowledge with him and by extension the wider community.

Jane Pothecary - PRSO

Jane (she/her) is a Learning & Teaching Librarian at King's College London, developing the information literacy knowledge and skills of students and researchers, as well as NHS staff at King's College Hospital Trust and Guy's & St Thomas' Trust.

Jane has worked in libraries for over ten years, starting her career in further education. In 2015, she was awarded chartership and is a mentor for CILIP's professional recognition scheme. Jane was recently awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in recognition of her expertise in teaching and learning.

Jane loves reading and swimming, and is currently learning Portuguese. You can find her on Bluesky as @janepoth.bsky.social

Claire Sagar - Social Media Manager & Newsletter Editor

I currently work as a Subscriptions and Licensing Advisor at London South Bank University, covering e-resource management and troubleshooting, and managing electronic subscription renewals.

I have previously worked in university libraries in both a customer services and acquisitions role, and also have experience working in charity administration and fundraising. In my spare time I enjoy cooking, practising my Spanish, and playing football.

Nora Camann - Secretary

Nora Camann, M.Ed, MCLIP. Nora has recently worked as an Information Skills Librarian and has a passion for teaching and learning. Her hobbies are game design and dog training.

You can reach her at cilip.secretary@cilip.org.uk

Vanesa Dimitrova - Students and New Professionals Rep

Vanesa is an Assistant Librarian at Epsom College. She is just starting her librarianship career as a recent graduate of Politics and International Relations from the University of Bath, who also volunteered at her local public library in the summer. Alongside being a school librarian, she is studying the distance-learning MA Information and Library Studies course at Aberystwyth University. She is excited to be learning about children's and young adult literature, and wider library skills such as cataloguing and acquisitions. In her spare time, she enjoys reading fiction, playing board games, fencing, and learning French.

Yen Le - Web Editor

Yen (she/they) is the digital resources librarian at the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

With a background in school libraries, a summer stint in public libraries and 2 cherished years as a student library assistant, they are still discovering their place in the library and information world but are keen and passionate about resource discovery, user experience and digitisation.

Outside of work Yen tries, and often fails, to balance cosy gaming with catching up on a backlog of movies, and reading sci-fi, LGBTQIA+, and occasionally YA fiction (because growing up is overrated!).

Livia Bartels- Events Lead

Liv is the Academy Librarian at Bridge Academy Hackney, a secondary school in London, where she is working to foster a love of reading and create access in diverse interest areas for students. She was a secondary teacher for three years, but currently is pursuing Chartership along with her career change.

Her hobbies include reading, organising, knitting, and trying out new recipes.