AISTI Ninth Annual Mini-Conference:

Stephen Abram, is President 2008 of SLA and the past-President of the Canadian and Ontario Library Associations. He is Vice President Innovation for SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute. Stephen was listed by Library Journal as one of the top 50 people influencing the future of libraries. He has received numerous honours and speaks regularly internationally. His columns appear in Information Outlook and Multimedia and Internet @ Schools, and SirsiDynix OneSource and he is the author of ALA Editions bestselling Out Front with Stephen Abram. He blogs at the popular Stephen's Lighthouse.

Elisha Allen is an Associate Director of UNM's New Media & Extended Learning Group. He has been living in Albuquerque since 1982. He received his bachelor's degree in Environmental Design with a minor in Spanish from UNM. He has been working in the design and development of educational multimedia, knowledge management systems, and web-based applications since 1995. Proficient in a wide variety of programming, multimedia, web, and database tools, Elisha is interested in finding ways that technology can be appropriately applied to educational needs and in drawing on architectural symbology for the development of intuitive user interfaces.

Edward Angel is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Director of the Arts Technology Center at the University of New Mexico and director of the Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) at UNM, a major new interdisciplinary facility to support research, education, and economic development in digital media. Until July 2007, he was Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Media Arts at UNM and director of the Arts Technology Center, a research arm of the College of Fine Arts. He is also the first UNM Presidential Teaching Fellow. Professor Angel serves on the Governor's Film and Media Council and on the Mayor's Advisory Board for Film and Media (Albuquerque).

Thomas Frey is the Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute, and currently Google's top-ranked futurist speaker. He specializes in the future of libraries, working with dozens of library organizations each year. As part of the celebrity speaking circuit, Tom has captivated people ranging from high level government officials to executives in Fortune 500 companies. Because of his work inspiring inventors and other revolutionary thinkers, the Boulder Daily Camera has referred to him as the "Father of Invention". The Denver Post and Seattle Post Intelligencer have referred to him as the "Dean of Futurists". Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer.

Stacey Greenwell is the Interim Director of the Information Commons at the University of Kentucky. A frequent presenter on Facebook, blogs and RSS, Second Life, and other technology-related topics, she has presented multiple times at the SLA Annual Conference as well as at numerous regional and local events. She is the immediate Past Chair of the Information Technology Division of SLA. She has been active in Second Life since January 2007 and serves on the University of Kentucky's Second Life Master Planning, Policy, and Steering Committee.

John Hubbard is a Senior Academic Librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. As the Web Services and Electronic Resources Coordinator, he is the UWM Libraries Webmaster and administrator of their virtual reference system. His duties also include OpenURL and federated search system management, coordinating access to electronic journals and research databases, remote access support, traditional library reference and bibliographic instruction, and other university service. John is an author at LISNews, the founder of LISWiki, and the operator of the Library Link of the Day. He has been interviewed on National Public Radio about librarian stereotypes, and has previously written and presented about the benefits of new publication formats. In 2006 John was named one of Library Journal's "Movers & Shakers," as one of the innovators "who are transforming libraries for the future."

Dr. Larry Johnson is Chief Executive Officer of the New Media Consortium (NMC), an international consortium of colleges, universities, museums, research centers, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to using new technologies to inspire, energize, stimulate, and support learning and creative expression. He is an acknowledged expert on the effective application of information technology in higher education, and has authored a number of books, monographs, and articles on that topic. Dr. Johnson has over 25 years of experience in the higher education arena, having served in roles from faculty to dean, CIO, provost, and president.

Deb LaPointe is the Assistant Professor and Assistant Director for the Education Development at the UNM Health Sciences Library & Informatics Center with a secondary appointment to Organizational Learning and Instructional Technology, College of Education. Deb began teaching online in 1997 when a chemistry teacher and she developed the first online course at Albuquerque TVI (now CNM)--Legal Terminology for Court Reporters. She has taught a variety of subjects at a distance since then. She has always been interested in peer interaction in online learning. One especially interesting experience has been teaching synchronous online ESL classes to people in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore, using mics and headsets. This teaching experience increased her interest in the cultural aspects of online learning, the different processes engaged in reading versus writing versus speaking versus hearing as well as the role of context in learning.

Corinne Lebrun is the Executive Director of AISTI. Year to year she collaborates with the AISTI Chairman and Board of Directors to develop a conference program that breaks the barriers of conventional thinking and embraces the future. She specializes in developing and implementing strategies that help business and organizations achieve their vision and goals. Coming from a business and financial management background, her love of cutting edge technologies, science and innovative thinking brought her to AISTI in 2000. She strives to bring a constant fresh approach to all of the AISTI endeavors. Aside from having pursued in-depth studies in psychology, physics, and mysticism, Corinne has an A.S. in Communications, a B.A.in Liberal Arts and advanced graduate studies in anthropology.

Holly Phillips is the Resource Access and Delivery Coordinator at the UNM Health Sciences Library & Informatics Center. Holly oversees collection administration and acquisitions at the Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center (HSLIC). She also manages the HSLIC website and serves as the HSC administrator for DSpaceUNM. Holly's research interests include the adoption of the NIH Public Access Policy, institutional repositories, open access publishing, and information seeking and educational uses of Second Life. Although Holly does not participate in distance education in her current position, she fondly remembers her days on the other side of WebCT at the University of Arizona. Although she could wander the stacks, distance students had to blandly wander the online catalog. At first hearing of Second Life, she dreamt of having a visual representation of library stacks that enabled serendipitous browsing combined with the accessibility of electronic formats. This idea, and a background in Sociology, has led to the exploration of group information seeking behaviors in a virtual space.

Martha G. Russell - An interdisciplinary social science research agenda in high bandwidth technologies was developed in 1999 at the Internet2 Sociotechnical Summit, was organized by Martha Russell, Associate Director of Media X at Stanford University. Before joining Media X, Dr. Russell led programs to develop technology leadership by bringing together interdisciplinary research teams at the University of Minnesota and The University of Texas at Austin. Martha's background spans consumer and marketing issues for The Pillsbury Company and the NACS/Coca Cola Leadership Council to microelectronic and information sciences for companies such as Control Data, 3M and Honeywell. Her research has provided insights to reduce risks in management decisions, as well as to build and sustain brand relationships.

Johann van Reenen is an Associate Professor of Librarianship and Adjunct Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico (UNM). He is the Assistant Dean for Research and Instruction Services for the University Libraries. He is familiar with science and technology information consortia through his frequent chairmanship of the AISTI and as Director, for nearly a decade, of the Digital Library Linkages Program of the "Ibero-American Science & Technology Education Consortium". Johann is a Distinguished Member of the "Academy of Health Information Professionals" and holds postgraduate degrees in Science and in Library & Information Sciences. He has published over 45 articles and chapters in books. He regularly speaks at international conferences and his current interests include opportunities to support the re-invention of scholarly publishing processes and the development of electronic information products for academic libraries. Since the mid-1990's he has taught workshops on "Risk taking and decision making in the electronic environment" and Leadership courses for librarian.