Alla Aslitdinova, Tajikistan
Maja Bogataj, Slovenia
Baljid Dashdeleg, Mongolia
Christopher Friend, UK
Teresa Hackett, Ireland
Becky Hogge, UK
Mariana Harjevschi, Moldova
Tseli Moshoeshoe, Lesotho
Wilma Mossink, Netherlands
Denise Nicholson, South Africa
Janice Pilch, USA
Irina Razumova, Russia
Sofia Rafikova, Kyrgyzstan
Kevin L. Smith, USA

Alla Aslitdinova, eIFL-IP coordinator Tajikistan

Alla Aslitdinova,  Ph.D., Associate Academician of the International Informatization Academy from 1997. Director of the Central Scientific Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan one of the largest scientific, cultural-educational institution of Republic of Tajikistan. Library was established in 1933 and moved from collecting literature about Tajikistan and Central Asia to the acquisition of literature in many various fields of science and technology, turning it into the largest library of the Central Asian region by the end of the 20th century. At present the entire collection of the library system consists of about 1. 5 million items.

Alla Aslitdinova participated in the Mortenson Center of the International Library program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  in 1997 and  German Research Program in  2000,  in 2004-2005 she worked under her project with Fulbright fellowship support. She has more than 50 publications.


Maja Bogataj
Biography to follow

Baljid Dashdeleg, eIFL-IP coordinator Mongolia

Baljid Dashdeleg has been an Information Manager at the Open Society Forum (www.forum.mn), the current Soros Foundation in Mongolia, since 2003. In this capacity, she manages an Information Resource Center at the Open Society Forum and is responsible for publishing the OSF publications. She contributed to the creation of the Mongolian Consortium of Libraries (MCL), officially established in April 2008, and promotes the use of e-resources and the electronic library in order to make available affordable resources to Mongolia’s library community. She is a board member of the library consortium and she has been working as a local communications officer for the eIFL.net project since January 2009, which is implementing for the National Library of Mongolia funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Christopher Friend

Christopher Friend, on leaving Bradfield College in 1964, planned to follow his father’s footsteps into the brewing industry. In October 1965, after only six months of his initial training, he was blinded in an industrial accident in Munich, Germany. After initial rehabilitation, he worked as an International Correspondent for the French industrial and commercial magazine “La Revue Francaise”.  For two and a half years he travelled extensively throughout East Africa for the magazine, and it was during this time that he first came across the work of Sight Savers International (SSI)

In August 1968 SSI appointed him to develop a new Appeals programme in the South East of England and the Channel Islands.  In 1972 he was successful in applying for a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship - being one of the first blind person to receive this award.  He spent two months observing blind welfare work in North America and Australia followed by two months visiting SSI projects in Malaysia, India and Kenya.

Since 1977 Christopher Friend has worked at Sight Savers International’s headquarters as a senior member of its fundraising team.  Currently his work concentrates on programmes to strengthen the fundraising capacity of SSI’s partners overseas and his work for the World Blind Union’s Institutional Development Programme. In June 1999 he was awarded the MBE ‘For services to Sight Savers International’ in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Mr Friend was married in 1973 and he and his wife Judy have two children - Toby, born in 1977 and Georgina, born in 1982.

Becky Hogge

Becky Hogge is the former Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, a UK-based grassroots civil liberties and consumer rights advocacy organisation that campaigns for intellectual property reform. She was previously the managing editor, and then the technology director and technology commissioning editor for openDemocracy.net. During her time with openDemocracy she helped establish the China environment website chinadialogue.net, along with editor Isabel Hilton.

As a writer and commentator, she covers the global politics of technology, open source, and intellectual property rights. Her articles have been published in the New Statesman, Prospect, The Guardian and Index on Censorship. Her views have been broadcast on TV
and radio across the world.

Teresa Hackett

Teresa Hackett has been Programme Manager for eIFL-IP: Advocacy for Access to Knowledge since 2005. eIFL-IP raises awareness and builds capacity in copyright issues for libraries in eIFL.net member countries and represents member interests in international policy fora.

Teresa was the Director of the European library association (EBLIDA) from 2000-2003, provided technical support to the European Commission library research programme and was part of the team to establish electronic information centres at the British Council Germany. Teresa has a special interest in legal issues in information work, especially in the electronic environment. She is a member of the Copyright and Other Legal Matters Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA-CLM). Teresa is a chartered librarian and in 2004 completed a post-graduate diploma in legal studies at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Teresa is a native English speaker and speaks Irish, German and Dutch.

Mariana Harjevschi, eIFL-IP coordinator Moldova

Mrs Mariana Harjevschi is a Director of the Public Law Library, branch of the Municipal Library “B.P.Hasdeu” since 2001. Since September 2001 she has been an assistant lecturer at the School of Library and Information Assistance at State Moldova University where she teaches Legal Framework for Libraries and Intellectual Freedom courses. 

During 2005-2008, Mariana was a chief of Legal Issues and Social Protection Section within the Library Association from Moldova. Since November 2008, she was elected for four years term as a vice President of Library Association having as responsibilities coordinating international relations of the association and fundraising activities.
 
Also, since 2008, Mariana Harjevschi acts as eIFL IP copyright librarian within eIFL Direct Moldova Consortia, member of eIFL.net dealing with copyright issues for librarians and advocating fair and balanced copyright legislation in Moldova. In March 2008 she represented eIFL.net at WIPO 16th Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights.      

Mariana Harjevschi has special interests in library and information policy issues, including copyright, intellectual freedom and access to information. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Library Science and Information Assistance (1999) and a Master's in Journalism and Communication Sciences (2001), both from Moldova State University. During 2004-2005 Mariana Harjevschi completed the Junior Faculty Development Program, supported by American Councils for International Education at School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University in Bloomington, US.


Tseli Moshoeshoe, eIFL-IP coordinator Lesotho

MATŠELISO (tšeli) ’MAMAHLAPE M.C. MOSHOESHOE-CHADZINGWA

Tšeli a mother of four girls, is a librarian, a documentalist or information worker by training and practice.  She holds a general BA with a Certificate in Education, M.A. plus a PhD in Library and Information studies.

Her apprenticeship started in 1977 when she joined the Lesotho National Library which she served for 5 years.  She then joined the National University of Lesotho (NUL), Institute of Southern African Studies (ISAS) in 1983 as a Trainee Documentalist within the Documentation and Publication Division which is the principal interdisciplinary research institute. ISAS prepared her fully, to appreciate and support academic research.  She sharpened her skills in collecting, documenting, storing, indexing, repackaging and disseminating specialized information that various research studies continuously feed on. During her tenure as head of the Documentation and Publication Division, ISAS publication Division joined international bodies such as African Publishers Network that she also served at the level of governing Council.  Her own research output therefore mirrors, on the one hand an academic librarian; on the other, a technician with a taste in indexing, abstracting, listing, editing and publishing techniques, especially in the specialization of two disciplines that she often documents on, namely, agriculture and gender.  

Having successfully taken keen interest in advancing development of free flow of information and cooperation at both the local and international information platforms, she was appointed to serve the IFLA Committee on Freedom and Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) and the 2008-2011 term on IFLA Africa Section. As the IP and eIFL country coordinator too, she has fostered links of collaboration with relevant structures even at home. Since 1997, Matšeliso has been the University Librarian at the National University of Lesotho; hence part of the (NUL) Management where she has influenced decisions towards the adoption of the Open Access and Institutional Repository policies, and where she is currently pushing the IP agenda.


Wilma Mossink

Wilma Mossink is the legal advisor of SURFfoundation and SURFdiensten. Her expertise is in copyright management in higher education and the legal aspects of open access. In this area Wilma undertook many activities: she developed the Copyrighttoolbox of which the SURF/JISC Licence to Publish forms an important part, wrote an inventory study on copyright and repositories for the DRIVER’s Guide to European Repositories, was co-author of a study about the use of a Creative Commons licence for material stored in repositories. She also wrote a chapter for the international study on the impact of copyright law on digital preservation.

Furthermore, Wilma advises the legal committee of the FOBID, the Dutch Library Forum. In this capacity, she represents the Netherlands in EBLIDA’s Expert Group on Information Law. She is the Dutch representative in the Copyright and Legal matters committee of IFLA (CLM) and is its information coordinator.

Wilma Mossink participates in several (inter)national working groups (Wilma is chair of the Knowledge Exchange Licensing Working Group and a member of the NISO ONIX-PL Working Group) and regularly gives presentations nationally and internationally about the position of libraries in the information society, the legal aspects of open access, institutional repositories and the changing relationships of authors, institutions of higher education and publishers because of new technologies.


Denise Nicholson, eIFL-IP coordinator South Africa

Denise Rosemary Nicholson has a BA degree and Higher Diploma in Library Science from the University of South Africa (UNISA). She has also passed two WIPO/UNISA Copyright modules on “Essential Copyright Law” and “Internet Aspects of Copyright and Trademarks”.
 
She is currently the Copyright Services Librarian at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where she has been employed in various positions since March 1983. She is responsible for copyright clearances for teaching material at Wits and provides an advisory service on copyright and related issues to academics and students. 

Denise has been very active in South Africa and in other parts of Africa in addressing copyright and issues affecting access to knowledge (A2K).   She received the LIASA/SABINET Online Academic Librarian of the Year Award in 2001. This was for her efforts as Convenor of two Copyright Task Teams, mandated by the SA Vice-Chancellors’ Association and the Committee of Technikon Principals, in 1998 and 2000, which successfully challenged restrictive Government proposals to amend the Copyright law.  She promotes open access and continues to campaign for more balanced and appropriate copyright laws for South Africa and other developing countries.

Denise is a member of a number of international, regional and local copyright committees and/or access to knowledge projects. She is the SA representative for eIFL-IP. She spearheaded the establishment of the African Access to Knowledge Alliance, which is currently involved in the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge Project (ACA2K). She is Policy and Dissemination Advisor of this Project which involves research and a comparative study of copyright laws in 8 African countries, including South Africa.

She has presented at many conferences, has a number of publications and has contributed to various international and local research reports, position papers and policy documents on copyright.  She has also had input into the eIFL Model Copyright Law. 

She provides an online information service on copyright and other topics relating to access to knowledge. In 2006, she was the first librarian from a developing country to attend a WIPO General Assembly in Geneva, where she presented a joint IFLA/eIFL statement on “Libraries and the Development Agenda”.

In December 2008, she was invited to join the SA Department of Trade & Industry’s Copyright Task Team to review limitations and exceptions in the current copyright legislation. This Team’s inaugural meeting has not yet been convened but she hopes to make a positive contribution to changing the Copyright laws in South Africa.

March 2009


Janice Pilch

Janice T. Pilch is Associate Professor of Library Administration and Head of Slavic and East European Acquisitions in the University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 2001 she has researched and published on international copyright issues. Janice has served as chair of the American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy Copyright Advisory Subcommittee, and is currently an international copyright advocate for the American Library Association, representing the Library Copyright Alliance at copyright-related meetings of the World Intellectual Property Association and other international fora. As an advocate, she represents the interests of American libraries and contributes to position statements to advance fair and equitable access to information.

Janice chairs a permanent committee on copyright issues within the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, which is dedicated to education, current awareness, and practical assistance on copyright for scholars and librarians in the field of Slavic studies. In 2006-2007 Janice represented the University Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in public roundtables and in statements in connection with the review of Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act being conducted by the Section 108 Study Group organized by the U.S. Copyright Office and the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program of the Library of Congress. She is currently co-authoring a book on international copyright for librarians and educators.

Janice is a graduate of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, achieved Ph.D. candidacy in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian Language and Literature at Brown University.


Irina Razumova, eIFL-IP coordinator Russia and member of eIFL.net Advisory Board
Biography to follow

Sofia Rafikova, IFL-IP coordinator Kyrgyzstan

Safia Rafikova is Director of Library Services of the American University of Central Asia (AUCA). She graduated from The Kyrgyz State University, Philology Department (1980) and Bishkek Humanities University, Bibliography and Library Science Department (1995). Participated in training on e-Library and Information Management Program (India, 2000). Currently, she is in process of a Ph.D. dissertation on information technologies development of libraries in Kyrgyzstan.

Safia is the member of AUCA Technology Council and Co-chair of AUCA Staff Development Committee. She is eIFL-IP coordinator for Kyrgyzstan since 2006. She is manager of the Corporate Repository of Scientific Work of Scientists of Kyrgyzstan project and has published articles on librarianship, information technologies development, copyright issues in libraries of Kyrgyzstan in local and Russian publications. Participated in IFLA (Germany, 2003), Crimea – 2005, eIFL General Assembly (Jordan, 2006) and other international Conferences.


Kevin L. Smith

Kevin Smith has been the Scholarly Communications Officer at Duke since June 2006. He began his academic career with graduate work in theology and literature at Yale and the University of Chicago, then obtained a library degree from Kent State University in 1995. He has worked as a academic librarian in both liberal arts colleges and specialized theological libraries. He completed a law degree while serving as the library director at Defiance College in Ohio, where he also taught Constitutional law. His legal studies were the culmination of a long-standing interest in intellectual property issues and their relationship to broader legal concerns in higher education. As Duke's first Scholarly Communications Officer, Kevin's principle role is to teach and advise faculty, administration and students about copyright, intellectual property licensing and scholarly publishing; he also serves on the University's Intellectual Property Board and gives numerous presentations for faculty and librarians both on campus and around the country.
His highly-regarded blog on scholarly communications issues is found at http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/