Meet the Team

Anthony Sinnott

Treasurer

Anthony is Access and Procurement Development Manager at University of York. He oversees the purchase of print & electronic resources, the management of subscriptions & databases, and the operation of the reading list system. Anthony is currently leading a project to implement the Leganto reading lists system and has been tasked with investigating innovative purchasing models that ensure maximum access to resources. He has a background in public libraries, having played a key role in setting up Explore York Libraries and Archives as a Social Enterprise (Industrial and Provident Society with exempt charitable status) and, to participate in wider sector work, currently sits on two Northern Collaboration Special Interest Groups (Content & Enabling).

Eric Jackson

NAG Committee

Eric has worked at Leeds Beckett University since 2003, initially as a library assistant, then as Bibliographic Services Supervisor, and currently as their first Collections and Acquisitions manager, leading this newly formed team. Collections and Acquisitions is a team of Librarians and assistants working across two campuses. The team has a wide remit which includes all aspects of acquisitions, stock management, reading list implementation and administration, discards, training development and delivery, and project work; plus the development and interpretation of both user and stock analytics.
C&A has built a reputation as a team which embodies a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and individual development, not just within Leeds Beckett University Library, but also within the wider sector community, with team members presenting regularly at a regional and national level at conferences and events, including Northern Collaboration, NEYAL, UKSG, Meeting the Reading List Challenge, and suppliers’ open days, user groups, and forums.

Prior to joining Leeds Beckett, Eric had worked in various roles including bookshop assistant, F.E. lecturer, and Distribution Manager for The Big Issue in the North

Jennie Hillyard

NAG Development Manager

Jennie has been retitled Development Manager as NAG works to put in place our business plan and development for the future.  She is the first point of contact for our members.  She works part time for NAG (mainly on Mondays) and for the remainder of her week Jennie is the Library and Archives Manager for The Common Room.  As part of her role, she catalogues a wide variety of materials, and it has been involved with selecting and implementing Koha. She is also responsible for managing a team of volunteers and planning their project work.

NAG also employs Christine Hall as our Financial Administrator.

David Stokes

NAG Committee, Partnerships Team

David is a Library Service Manager at Birmingham City Council.

Sally Allen

NAG Committee

Sally is an Area Sales Manager at Browns Books For Students, part of the Little Group, taking care of academic libraries in the Midlands and East of England – from early years to HE institutions.

Prior to joining Browns in June 2020 Sally spent 29 years at Dawson Books performing various roles including sales and supporting libraries with new LMS EDI installations.

Sally has a great wealth of knowledge within the book industry including the internal supply chain workflows including wholesale and public library supply.

Emma Booth

NAG Committee

Emma is the Metadata Manager for Content Management at the University of Manchester Library. She manages a team of metadata specialists and cataloguers who are responsible for creating, importing and enriching bibliographic metadata to support resource discovery and evidence-based collection development activities.

Emma is an advocate for ensuring that high-quality, standardised metadata is an intrinsic part of content acquisitions processes. She acts as liaison between the NAG and the CILIP Metadata & Discovery Group, working on advocacy projects in areas such as the future of metadata standards, metadata quality for books and e-books (including Open Access) and the development of library content systems and supply chains.

Twitter: @EmmaE_B

Heather Sherman

NAG Committee

Heather has vast experience in library systems, technology, physical and digital supply chains, metadata life-cycle, e-commerce, eBooks, acquisitions and cataloguing especially in relation to academic libraries. Prior to joining BDS in 2020, Heather worked for Dawson / BLS for 15 years. She began her career as a graduate trainee at the British Library, has held posts within academic libraries and has worked with libraries worldwide including the Bodleian Library, Imperial College, the University of South Africa, and Public Libraries throughout Ireland. A regular presenter at conferences and training events, she is a member of several industry committees, and a regular presenter at Conferences and training events.

Rachel Schulkins

Chair

Rachel is the Library Content Services Lead at the University of Liverpool, with over 17 years of Library experience, 10 of which working in the area of Research, Content and Discovery. She leads on strategy and service developments around content provision and has gained ample experience in managing high-level relationships with publishers and suppliers, collaborating with Library colleagues to inform resource and service planning, and leading projects that offer innovative and forward-looking services that continuously enhance the user-experience. Rachel’s substantial experience of academic Library services is complemented by her background in academic teaching. She has given talks and demonstrations, as well as published on subjects ranging from Keats and Romanticism, Jewish Studies and innovative library practice

Laura Davison

NAG Committee

Laura Davison is Acquisitions Librarian at Queen Mary, University of London where she manages the Library’s portfolio of purchased resources, liaising closely with both suppliers and stakeholders across the university to ensure that collections meet the academic needs of students, researchers and academics. Laura began her career as a public library Saturday assistant and has worked for over 20 years in College and Higher Education Libraries, including most recently as Content Acquisitions Lead at the University of Surrey. Laura is particularly interested in streamlining and automating acquisitions workflows and working with suppliers on systems integrations.

Jeff Miller

NAG Committee

Jeff joined the University of Huddersfield in 2018 as Acquisitions Team Leader, having had a long background in Bookselling, including running shops at the Institute of Education, on the high street and as a private rare book dealer.  Bringing a strong commercial eye to the role, he set about reviewing every process and procedure, maximising efficiency within both budgets and working practice.

A strong believer in marginal gains, he continues to analyse data to identify patterns and trends, challenge perceptions and provide accurate and informative reports to Librarians, whilst always looking for new opportunities without compromising quality of service to both students and academics alike.

Elle Lund

Editor, Taking Stock

Eleanor (Elle) works as Library Management System Trainer at the University of Exeter, supporting the Library’s move to Alma. Former Library Aide and Content Assistant at Lancaster University, she decided to move across the country during a pandemic to join Exeter as an Information Assistant. She is passionate about wellbeing, inclusion, and decolonisation.

Jo Adams-Lingwood

NAG Committee

Jo Adams-Lingwood is an Assistant Librarian in the Acquisitions team at London School of Economics Library. Jo manages the team in working to provide content for both teaching and research, which includes print and eBook purchasing, digitisation of chapter extracts, and operating the inter-library loan service.

Jo joined LSE in this role in 2017, and he has been working in academic libraries since 2009. Jo graduated from the MA in Library and Information Science at UCL in 2012 and moved from supervising front-line enquiries to an acquisitions role in 2014.

Jo’s Master dissertation was focussed on comparing the Universal library as conceived by Borges and Otlet in understand how people navigate vast knowledge repositories and how the library can be understood as systems of interactions rather than just a physical location. Jo has since drawn on and
applied this theoretical approach in acquisitions work, particularly inter-library lending.

Jo has become expert in using the Alma LMS and related Ex Libris products, and works closely on this with the #metadata and systems librarians to make best use of the system’s functionality. Jo is also skilled in gathering and analysing data on usage trends and other metrics to predict demand and applying this to manage workloads and anticipate the library user’s needs.

Jack Reid

NAG Committee

Jack is the Content and Discovery Librarian at the University of East London. Jack manages the acquisition, metadata and serial management processes and is the lead for the inter-library loan service. Jack is also responsible for the administration of the LMS (Alma) alongside other team members at UEL. Coming from a background in teaching Jack started his career in HE Libraries in 2016 taking his post as the Content and Discovery Librarian following completion of an MA in Library and Information studies in October 2018. Jack specialises in marginal gains and workflow improvements for staff efficiency this includes system integration and relevant API and/or autonomous data interchanges. Jack also has a keen interest in procurement practice and legislation and is currently the co-chair of LUPC library commodity group.

Vickie Varley

NAG Committee

Vickie is the Senior Library Officer at Oldham Council

Colette Townend

NAG Committee

Stephen Mitchell

NAG Committee

Marie Hepburn

NAG Committee

Marie is an enthusiastic and passionate Product Sales Manager at Clarivate with over 14 years’ sales experience including ten years within the higher education sector covering content, analytics, and technology.

She is based in Wiltshire and currently works with universities across London and the South Coast consultatively working with libraries on their workflows and collection development strategies.

Matt Cox

NAG Committee

Matt is the Content and Discovery Manager at the University of Derby. His team are responsible for acquiring, cataloguing and making available print and digital information resources. Matt has a particular interest in offering alternative mechanisms for discovery for students.

Phil Barraclough

NAG Committee

Phil is the University of Exeter’s Library Data Analyst. Sitting within the Content and Discovery Team, he also manages the Library’s e-textbook acquisitions workflow. Phil has been passionate about reading list content delivery and e-book acquisitions, licensing, accessibility, and usability ever since his graduate traineeship at Manchester Metropolitan University. Whilst continuing to take an active interest in these areas and supporting librarians responsible for them at Exeter, Phil is currently working to foster a culture of data-driven decision making within the library and is moving into the realm of library performance management. By analysing e-book packages and e-textbook usage, Phil aims to support colleagues in obtaining marginal gains from their bulk purchases and make informed purchasing decisions. Phil is also leading the library’s efforts to integrate library e-resource usage data into learning analytics platforms in an ethical and student-focussed manner.

Yeser Street

NAG Committee

Yesh is the Content Specialist for Acquisitions at the University of Westminster, supervising the interlibrary loans and acquisitions team, acquiring both physical stock and digital content for the library collections and supporting the wider library team with collection development and acquisition decisions.

Kerry Hadaway

NAG Committee

Kerry is the Collections Acquisitions Manager at the University of Southampton with over 25 years experience of working in acquisitions and discovery. She manages a team who acquire print and online resources that support reading lists and collection development. In addition to this she has responsibility for the subscriptions portfolio and the Inter-Library loans service.

Kerry is particularly interested in ensuring that acquisitions offer the best value for money and that users have a positive discovery experience.

Emily Clark

NAG Committee

Emily is the Deputy Head of Library Services (Acquisitions and Systems) for Arden University. Emily manages a team of Librarians within the newly created and fully digital Library Service, leading on all aspects of Library resource provision and licensing, acquisitions, content development and administration of the Library Portal.

The Library team also work in partnership with academic staff to fully embed and provide 100% of course reading for Arden’s modules, which involves acquiring all resources in a digital format and managing copyright compliancy.

Emily is a Chartered Librarian with more than 20 years’ experience working in senior and managerial roles across academic and public sector library services. Prior to joining Arden, Emily worked in acquisitions, systems and scholarly communications focused roles in HE and Public Libraries.

Hannah Dobson

NAG Committee

Hannah Dobson is one of the Resource Acquisition and Supply Team Leaders at Nottingham Trent University with principle responsibility for the Acquisitions team who buy, and make available, perpetual and limited access books. Acquisitions are driven primarily by the Leganto resource list management system at NTU. Hannah’s first role in libraries was in the Acquisitions team at the University of Derby, in 2013. Hannah’s wider role involves supporting the administration of subscription ebook collections including vendor liaison, usage and collection analysis for decision making and working with metadata colleagues to help manage discovery. The role comes to life for Hannah when sourcing resources to widen access and participation in reading and when collaborating with both her team and others to learn how to do new things. She also has a new and burning interest in Open Access publishing for books. Also a budget nerd

Andrew Knight

NAG Committee

I have been in the role of Acquisitions & Content Services Manager at Imperial College since May 2020. My job is to provide strategic direction and oversight for acquisitions, metadata and document delivery across all our campus libraries, and I am responsible for the purchasing of all book and book-related material. My role involves managing the acquisition budget, evaluating and redesigning processes to make sure we are providing the best service possible, and advising other library teams about potential procurement solutions.

My background is primarily in HE libraries, although I previously qualified as an architect and as a primary school teacher. I have worked in FE colleges, post-92 Universities, Russell group and Oxbridge libraries. I am lucky enough to sit on a number of national, regional and consortia groups and bodies, and have a particular interest in supplier relationships.

Outside of work I am normally to be found playing gigs with my band in the pubs of southwest London, playing cricket and hockey with varying levels of success, or riding my moped. Originally from East London I live with my partner, daughter and three weird cats in Epsom.

Emily Davis

NAG Committee

Emily Davis is Library Specialist for Stock and Resources at Solihull Libraries. Her role encompasses purchasing for both physical and digital stock and overseeing acquisitions for the borough’s 13 libraries and Home Library Service. She manages both the bibliographic and transit teams and supports colleagues in other areas of the service including those working with priority groups, digital resources, heritage and local studies and reader development.

Prior to joining Solihull Libraries in 2022, Emily began her library career as a library assistant at Warwickshire Libraries, becoming a Senior Library Assistant then Library and Information Advisor. In 2020, she earned her Masters in Library and Information Studies from Aberystwyth University, writing her dissertation on the accessibility of LGBTQ+ resources via public library catalogues and gained the role of Reader Development Librarian at Warwickshire Libraries.

Sue Price-Jones

NAG Committee

Sue is the Senior Library Assistant for Warwickshire Libraries Stock Services team. She joined as a Library Assistant, and subsequently specialised in stock and acquisitions. Supervising a team of Library Assistants, her main focus is the acquisition of physical and virtual stock, EDI, inter-library loans, and reading groups. Sue is currently working towards her Masters in Information and Library Studies at Aberystwyth University, having in a previous life formally trained and worked as an Architect. Books won!

Sunil Varma

NAG Committee

Star Books

Kay Richards

NAG Committee

Kay is currently working for Kent Libraries as Service manager – Stock and Promotions. Her role manages all aspects of stock for the library service, including budget, stock purchasing and contract management, transport team, acquisitions and bibliographic service team, speciality services such as interlibrary loans, our music and drama library, postal loan services for visually impaired people and residential home services. Plus the Library management system contracts for Spydus.

Prior to this she worked at the University of Suffolk as library service manager and in Nottingham Libraries as a library development officer whilst studying for her MA in Information and library Management at Loughborough University.

Louise Smith

NAG Committee

Louise is the Library Manager for Content and Acquisitions at BPP University. She manages BPP’s electronic and print resources nationally, alongside overseeing its Birmingham campus library.

She started her career at Guardian Newspapers Ltd in 2005, joining BPP Leeds as an Information Assistant a year later. She moved to Birmingham to manage BPP’s library there in 2012.

Zoë Hurley

NAG Committee

Zoë is currently Bibliographic Services Librarian at the University of Bath, responsible for the Acquisitions, Reading List, and Copy and Print teams. Before this, she was part-time Acquisitions Librarian at the same institution- although she has an extensive background working in academic libraries and developing HE student support services since 1995, 2013 was the first time she entered the realm of Acquisitions, and found NAG incredibly helpful during her transition to the new area.

She is particularly interested in people management and development, change management, and the equitable sharing of/enabling access to information and resources. E-textbooks are currently the bane of her (working) life.

Kerry Hutchings

NAG Committee

Kerry has worked for Staffordshire Libraries for over 18 years. She is currently the Interim Libraries Development Manager and is responsible for the Libraries Development Team.

Her role oversees the development of the library service and acquisitions. She also manages the digital service and library data collection.

She has two grown up sons, and a very enthusiastic kitten called Poppy. She enjoys hiking with her husband and has summited over 400 mountains across England, Wales and Scotland