VALA Committee Members 2021-2022

The VALA Committee provides governance, policy and strategic direction for the Association and is made up of a President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and up to 6 general committee members.

Executive | General Committee | VALA Secretariat

Executive

President – Melissa Parent
State Library Victoria

Bio: Melissa is Metadata Coordinator at the State Library Victoria. Melissa takes a keen interest in library data and systems (particularly next-generation library systems) and is a member of the Australian Committee on Cataloguing. She also currently holds the role of Australian representative on the Dewey Decimal Editorial Policy Committee.

Vice-President – Sae Ra Germaine
CAVAL

Bio: Sae Ra is the Manager of Member Services and Digital Platforms for CAVAL and has over 15 years working with high profile systems companies from a diverse range of fields including IBM and Federation University. Sae Ra is an all things open, tech evangelist with a focus on leveraging user experiences and open standards as a driver for innovation and change. She is an active advocate of free and open source initiatives and is currently the President of the Linux Australia board and Vice-Chair of Internet Australia. Sae Ra is also on the Technical and General Advisory Standing committees for auDA (.au Domain Administration).

Secretary – Michelle McLean
Casey Cardinia Libraries

Bio: Michelle is passionate about library services and the online world, two things she has combined well with her role as Information Services Coordinator at Casey Cardinia Libraries. She is a past-recipient of a Ramsay Reid Scholarship (State Library of Victoria), alumni of the Aurora Institute, is a published author and has presented at many conferences and seminars around Australia, as well as in the US. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts (Librarianship) and a Master of Business (Information Technology).

Treasurer – Andrew Iacuone
La Trobe University Library

Bio: Andrew is the Senior Manager, Library Business Services at the La Trobe University Library and has over 25 years’ experience in the university and not for profit sectors. Andrew’s experience in infrastructure and project planning, finance, resources and HR management together with strategic and business planning led him to the library world five years ago. His interests are in delivering an outstanding digital and place based library environment to the student cohorts within a challenging and changing academic library space. His achievements include the development of Digital Learning Labs across all five Library campuses and the new La Trobe Library, Bendigo Campus received a Commendation at the 2021 Australian Interior Design Awards.

 

 

General Committee

Mary Filsell
Flinders University

Bio: Research librarian & futurist focused on providing academic library research services for researchers, staff, masters by research and PHD students at Flinders University, South Australia. Personal research interests include: The Carpentries, Open Access Research & Data, FAIR, AI, XR, TDM, GLAMR, DH, UI, UX, CX.

Megan Lee
Supreme Court Library and Law Library of Victoria

Bio: Megan has worked as a systems manager in special, academic, and public libraries.  She has led Library system implementations at Monash University (ExLibris) and in public libraires (SirsiDynix and Spydus), has been Chair of the ANZREG Committee (Australian and New Zealand Regional ExLibris Group) and a long-time member of the Alma Product Working Group Committee. She is continually amazed by how creatively Librarian use technology, and excited to be working in libraries when technology is becoming so integral to everything we do.  Her current interests include analytics and the use of big data and data visualisation to drive business intelligence.

Amy Miniter

Bio: Amy is a Librarian at the pointy end of a Computer Science degree at RMIT University. She graduated with a Masters of Information Management in 2020 and in a previous life she worked in administration and customer service. Amy is interested in the technology that we use to manage information and is working towards a career that combines Librarianship and Software Development.

Monica Williams
Star of the Sea, Brighton

Bio: Monica is a freelance consultant and the Digital Literacy Specialist at Star of the Sea College, Brighton. Monica has a passion for e-learning and technology. Monica has over 10 years experience working as a Multimedia Technician within the corporate and education sectors. She also works as an IT consultant for the School Library Association of Victoria.