Now let's meet #IAMSLIC2022 keynote presenter, Manuel Hidalgo Oconitrillo. Manuel will be speaking to us on Day 1 of the conference about "SIDALC Alliance: Innovation focused on products and services for the agricultural sector".

Manuel is Costa Rican, a computer engineer, and graduated with a Master's Degree in Computing with an emphasis on Telematics from the Technological Institute of Costa Rica (ITCR). He has 29 years of experience in the area of information systems, with seven years working for the Tropical Agricultural Research and Teaching Center (CATIE), and the last 22 years for the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) as a Specialist in Systems and Information Technologies of the SIDALC Alliance. He has a title granted by the Secretary of Peace of the Government of Guatemala that accredits him as Ambassador of the Culture of Peace. He was a consultant to FAO in Rome, for the office of knowledge exchange, research and extension. He is currently applying for the Master's Degree in Industry 4.0 at the University of La Rioja, Spain.

Next let's meet #IAMSLIC2022 presenter, and IAMSLIC membership database manager and Membership Committee chair (plus former Treasurer), Kristen LaBonte.

Kristen is a Research & Engagement Librarian at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the United States. She is a subject liaison to multiple life and environmental science departments. Kristen earned a Bachelor's Degree in Geography from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1999 and a Master’s of Library Science in 2004 from Southern Connecticut State University. She then joined the CSU Channel Islands faculty as the Digital Resources and GIS Librarian and in 2011, she returned as a Reference & Instruction Librarian to the UCSB Library.

Kristen will be presenting in person at the conference on "Strategic planning for shifting academic librarian roles: Moving from subject librarianship towards functional, skill-based teams".

Professionally, Kristen is interested in reference librarianship, subject librarianship, and science librarianship. Personally, she is interested in winemaking, organic gardening, community gardens, travel, live music, birdwatching, hiking, bikepacking and backpacking, so you can chat with her about all this and more in person next week!

If you're planning to register for #IAMSLIC2022, time is running out! The last day for virtual participant registration is Monday, October 17, 2022. We really want your participation as we encourage each other and learn about all the great work that is happening in aquatic and marine science librarianship Worldwide. Let's show up to support our Latin American members and host!

***Don't miss the boat!***
Visit the conference website to learn more about the conference and register (remember to log in first) before it's too late!  See you soon!

Next up we have presenter, and Cyamus regional representative, Amanda Whitmire.

Amanda describes herself as an oceanographer by training and a librarian by chance. She is Head Librarian at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. She earned her BS degree in Aquatic Biology from the University of California Santa Barbara and a PhD in Oceanography from Oregon State University. Amanda loves the variety of the day-to-day duties of running a branch library, but most enjoys working with faculty and students, and curating both the historical and born-digital data collections of the marine station.

At #IAMSLIC2022 Amanda will be presenting on "Collection connections: a library vignette on democratization of aquatic science knowledge". She will be presenting in person.

Professionally, Amanda is interested in collections as data, open knowledge networks, and data curation. At home, Amanda is an avid gardener, crafter, carpenter, and keeper of chickens. So there is lots to chat with her about during the conference!

Now let's meet Majbritt Bolton-Warberg, who is the Blue Bioeconomy Programme Manager at Ireland's Marine Institute.

Majbritt has 17 years’ experience in marine research topics, ranging from aquatic toxicology to aquaculture. In her current role as a Programme Manager in the Policy, Innovation and Research Support (PIRS) Service Group, she has responsibility for designing and implementing a national support and coordination function for the blue bioeconomy sector. This includes engaging with Higher Education Institutes, Public Research Bodies, industry, and researchers to promote, raise awareness of and deliver R&I projects focusing on strengthening Ireland’s competitiveness in this area. In addition to this national role, Majbritt has responsibility in a number of international initiatives including the BlueBio ERA-Net Cofund, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership and a JPI Oceans Joint Action in Blue Carbon.

At #IAMSLIC2022, Majbritt will be presenting on "Blue Bioeconomy: What is it and how can libraries help raise awareness". This will be a live online session, so have your questions ready for her!

Next up, let's meet our #IAMSLIC2022 conference presenter Jan Sung, from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Jan came to the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2008, as the Head of Access Services. Previous to that she worked at Eastern Illinois University for six years, as the assistant head of the Circulation Department. Currently she is working as a member of the Science and Technology Reference Department. Jan earned her MLIS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Jan's topic for #IAMSLIC2022 is "Voyage from Print to Electronic". Jan's professional areas of interest include statistical analysis and collection development. During her free time she likes to bother her five grandsons on FaceTime, and she enjoys paddling, sailing, singing, and hiking with her husband.

Be sure to connect with Jan during the conference about both her professional and personal areas of interest.

Yuriem is another of our presenters from our host region for #IAMSLIC2022, Grupo Latinoamericano.

Yuriem has worked for 26 years as Chief Librarian at the Center for Marine Research of the University of Havana, Cuba. She has finished all the courses of a master's degree in social development and is currently preparing her master's thesis.

She likes to study and improve herself professionally, but she also enjoys her family and good friends, plus music, dance, cinema, reading and learning about other cultures.

Yuriem will be presenting at #IAMSLIC2022 on "La Revista de Investigaciones Marinas: transformations towards sustainability. What are we thinking for the immediate future?". She will be at the conference in person, so please do connect with her about this, and any of her other interests.

Next up we have presenter, and IAMSLIC Treasurer, Geoff Timms!

Geoff is the Librarian for Marine Resources at the Marine Resources Library in Charleston, SC, USA. He has been at the library for seven years, and serves both the College of Charleston, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the NOAA/NIST Charleston laboratories. He is a tenured member of the faculty of the College of Charleston. Geoff was formerly Systems Librarian at Mercer University in Macon, GA. He has been a member of IAMSLIC and SAIL for seven years, attending every IAMSLIC and SAIL conference since fall 2019. He currently serves as IAMSLIC Treasurer, interim website manager, and on the IAMSLIC 2022 Conference Planning Committee and the IAMSLIC Resource Sharing Taskforce. (Thank you, Geoff!)

Geoff's presentation for #IAMSLIC2022 is titled "Assume Nothing! Investigating New Marine Biology Graduate Student Information Literacy and Research Practices to Inform Training".

Geoff’s current research interests include bibliometrics and information literacy. Outside of work, he loves fishing, gardening, cooking, any excuse to run a chainsaw, and being creative. Feel free to chat to Geoff during the conference about any of this and more - particularly the chainsaw :-)

Next up, let's meet our #IAMSLIC2022 conference presenters Julia Demasi Zavala & Elvira Demasi Zavala.

We are thrilled to have Julia speak to us, as she is President of the Asociación de Bibliotecólogos del Uruguay. She is a graduate of the Universidad de la República LIS program, with a dissertation on library history. From 2000 to 2013 she worked in engineering college libraries in Uruguay (Facultad de Ingeniería) and for 18 months in the US (University of Minnesota Walter Library). Since 2013 she works in a K12 school library in Montevideo. For the past 20 years she has also worked free lance as a virtual reference librarian, a knowledge organization specialist, an information literacy tutor, and assisting with moving and selling personal libraries. Julia believes there's strength in numbers so she joined the ABU as soon as she could, and loves organizations where the question is not what they do for you but what you can do thanks to them.

Joining Julia is Elvira, who has the fabulous job title of Tourismologist. Elvira graduated from the University of Costa Rica with a BSc and a MSc in ecotourism, specializing in environmental management and ecotourism. She has participated in numerous consultancies and research projects related to ecotourism, nature tourism and alternative tourism, trying to emphasize strategies to approach the objectives of sustainability. She currently works as a teacher in the Bachelor of Tourism at Universidad de la República and in the Bachelor of Educational Recreation and the Bachelor of Tourism Business Management at Universidad Católica del Uruguay. In addition to teaching, she dedicates part of her time to conducting research that addresses tourism from different perspectives.

Julia and Elvira will be presenting at #IAMSLIC2022 on "Environmental sciences libraries as a force for good in a world of skepticism and disillusion".

As might be obvious from their backgrounds, Julia is interested in library history and information literacy and Elvira is interested in sustainable tourism, territorial processes, and sustainable development. Please do chat to them at the conference about these things, and more!

Santiago will be introducing us to our host institution DINARA, where he is the Director of Institutional Communication, Library and IT.

Santiago is a veterinarian, oriented towards food technology, with a thirty five-year long career. At present he is in charge of the communication area of the governmental agency for fisheries management. Previously he was a technical adviser of an international organisation, where he was responsible for promotion, relationships, communication, project design, consultancy, conferences addresses, redaction of technical articles, publication editing, personnel supervision and general management. He has experience with the design of quality assurance plans, fishing plants inspection, and sanitary control of internationally traded fishery products.

We look forward to hearing more from Santiago during the conference!