This website uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some of these cookies are used for visitor analysis, others are essential to making our site function properly and improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Click Accept to consent and dismiss this message or Deny to leave this website. Read our Privacy Statement for more.
About Us | Contact Us | Print Page | Sign In | Join now
LIRG Committee
Group HomeGroup HomeGroup PagesDirectory & Features Join Group
LIRG Committee members

 

LIRG Committee members
The Committee are responsible for organising events, administering LIRG awards and bursaries, overseeing the production of the Group's monthly email bulletin and pursuing activities which will further LIRG's aims.

Currently, the LIRG Committee meets monthly via Zoom, and much of the business is handled between meetings via an electronic mailing list for committee members.

We encourage active participation from our members and we welcome nominations for the Committee. The Group pays travelling expenses within the UK to attend any in-person meetings if these cannot be reclaimed from elsewhere.


Committee Vacancies

There are no current LIRG committee vacancies.

Meet the LIRG Committee

Cath Dishman - Chair

Cath is the Open Access and Digital Scholarship Librarian at Liverpool John Moores University. She takes the lead for open access advocacy at LJMU and manages the institutional repository as well as the Open Journals Service. Cath has over 20 years’ experience in libraries in a range of roles from academic services, customer services, user support and most recently researcher engagement. Cath graduated with an MA in Information and Library Management from Liverpool John Moores University and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Cath is passionate about open research and is looking forward to supporting and raising the profile of library and information science research as part of the committee.
 

Alison Brettle

Alison Brettle - Committee Member

Alison Brettle is a committee member of the Library and Information Research Group (LIRG) and a Professor in Health Information and Evidence Based Practice in the School of Health and Society at the University of Salford.

Her teaching and research interests include evidence based practice, the effectiveness and impact of library services and systematic reviews and systematic review methodology. Alison is still a library practitioner at heart, and began her career providing information support to clinicians and health researchers in health related research units.  After providing information support within Evidence Based Health Care, Alison became a champion of the Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP) movement.  She has published widely in this area. She co-edited the book Being Evidence Based in Library and Information Practice with colleague Denise Koufogiannakis, which brings together and moves forward current thinking and practice in the EBLIP field, and co-authored a report for CILIP which brings together the latest evidence to demonstrate the value of trained library and information professionals.

 

She is working with Knowledge for Health to develop resources to routinely collect impact data on health library services and CILIP to develop access to evidence based resources for the library profession. Alison has served various roles on the LIRG committee as well as serving in various editorial roles on the Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Journal, including Editor-in-Chief 2011-2014 and hosting the EBLIP6 conference in 2011. She also serves on the International Programme Committee for the EBLIP, EAHIL, ISHIMR, and ASIS&T conferences and nationally is academic advisor on the Knowledge for Health (KfH), Quality and Impact Group.

 

At the University of Salford, she is Director of the Centre for Applied Research in Health, Welfare and Policy (CARe) and was Director of Post Graduate Research (PGR) within the School of Health and Society for 6 years. She has supervised multiple PhD students and also leads the post-graduate Evidence Based Practice Module within the School of Health and Society.

 

Emma Ramstead - Hon. Secretary

Emma works as deputy library manager at Croydon University Hospital. Emma enjoys working on critical appraisal, recording key performance indicators, carrying out searches and developing searching skills and training on health literacy. Emma received her chartership in 2013 and tries to revalidate annually.

In her free time Emma is a keen walker, enjoys cooking, reading, attending her reading groups, studying Spanish and French, jogging and socialising with friends.

 

Kirsty Thomson

Kirsty Thomson - Treasurer

Kirsty is an Academic Librarian at the University of Dundee. She has a MSc in Information Analysis from Robert Gordon University and an undergraduate degree in zoology.  Kirsty is a Chartered Librarian and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  Her professional interests include support for international students, student inductions, and methods for making information literacy instruction more fun.

 

Leo Appleton

Leo Appleton - Events Officer

Leo Appleton is the incoming chair of the Library and Information Research Group and works as a Senior University Teacher in the Information School at the University of Sheffield, where he is the programme co-ordinator for the MA in Librarianship and Deputy Co-ordinator of the online Library and Information Services Management MA. He teaches in all aspects of library and information management and leadership, professional development and information organisation. His research interests include library leadership and management, library performance measurement and the role of the public library in the information society. He has published and presented widely in these fields. He was previously the Director of Library Services at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has held numerous other library leadership and management positions in further and higher education institutions throughout his career. He is a chartered fellow of CILIP, a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is the editor-in-chief of the Taylor & Francis journal New Review of Academic Librarianship, as well as being a member of the editorial board for LIRG's own journal Library and Information Research.

 

Ebony Burke - Events Officer

Ebony is a Senior Library Assistant at King's College London. She works as part of the Learning, Design and Delivery team which creates and delivers 121 support and workshops to the KCL community. Her area of work focuses on systematic reviews, critical appraisals of research, supporting NHS partners to access resources and teaching skills to enable life long learning and independent learning.

This is Ebony's first time being actively involved with CILIP and the LIRG committee and she hopes to create activities that will engage a diverse community. She has experience of organising a variety of physical and online events - watch this space!

 

Judy Wright - Awards Officer

Judy is a senior information specialist at the University of Leeds and enjoys working closely with research teams, helping design and manage information retrieval for evidence synthesis projects. Judy's teaching and research interests include literature search methods for a range of types of review, particularly mixed-methods reviews, grey literature sources, and literature searching to support grant applications. Judy manages the information specialist team, is the director of the Leeds Mixed Methods Systematic Review courses, and is a NIHR Research Design Service advisor. She has an MSc in Information Management from the University of Sheffield, is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Associate Editor for BMC Systematic Reviews. Judy's looking forward to supporting the LIRG committee in providing opportunities and impact for LIS research through its award schemes.

 


Jessica Blackburn-Smith - Marketing & Communications Officer

Jessica is the NHS Wales e-Library Specialist Lead at Digital Health and Care Wales. She started as a Weekend Library Assistant at Cardiff Metropolitan University soon after graduating from Cardiff University (BA Archaeology and Ancient History) and then had various roles in higher education libraries, including Senior Library Assistant, Scholarly Communications Library Assistant, Assistant Subject Librarian for Journalism and Assistant Electronic Resources Librarian, before joining the NHS Wales e-Library.

Jessica enjoys supporting NHS Wales e-Library users with information searching and maintaining access to e-resources to support evidence-based practice. This is her first role in a committee, and she is looking forward to contributing to the group to help support research in library and information science.

 

Esther K. Dohrau - Marketing & Communications Officer

Esther is a qualified librarian with extensive experience working in UK libraries across various sectors, alongside digital marketing expertise gained in Switzerland, where she currently resides and works as a self-employed freelance web content management specialist and website creator. She holds a Diploma in Digital Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK).

After a planned career break for childcare, she continued her professional development by completing the Diploma in Digital Marketing (2020) and undertaking independent study and short-term projects to stay up-to-date with digital communications and information science. She is passionate about supporting the library and information profession through volunteer work.

 


Sherry Xie - Marketing & Communications Officer

Sherry holds a Master's degree in Information Management from the University of Sheffield. Her academic background has given her a strong foundation in information systems, digital resources, and research support.

She is enthusiastic about contributing to LIRG's marketing and communications activities and supporting the promotion of library and information research through her role on the committee.