John Rogan - New Lingnan University Librarian

Spanning a period of more than 30 years, John Rogan has worked in libraries in a number of countries, principally Australia, but also Malaysia, England, Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam.  Most of this time has been spent in libraries in the Higher Education sector with experience in both technical services as well as in readers services.  Duties ranged from being a section head to university librarian, with the most recent appointment as Manager of Service Delivery, Finance & Staffing of the library at the Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, a large multi-campus university with a range of courses from TAFE (associate degree level courses) to PhD's.

John sees the challenge for academic libraries not only in adapting to how Web resources have changed the way libraries and users access information but how libraries position themselves in this new information environment.  Libraries need to improve the marketing of their services in time of financial restraint if they are to survive.  Librarians are extremely competent in getting the processes and procedures of the internal workings of a library operating like clockwork, but all this effort is wasted if the users do not know about the library's services.  It is also vital in the Web age when university administrators question the cost of a modern library and are convinced that all student and academic information needs can be found on the Web.

Unless we tell the world how good we are and tell them loudly and often, we may disappear as a profession.

John is looking forward to working with fellow professional librarians in Hong Kong.
 

Tommy Yeung
Lingnan University Library