Prof. Hasan MANDAL was born in Eskişehir in 1965. He received his education at Yunusemre Primary School, Atatürk Secondary School and Vocational High School on Engines and Motors. Professor Mandal received his bachelor’s degree from the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at Middle East Technical University as an honour student in 1987, and his PhD degree from Newcastle University, United Kingdom in 1992. He completed his post-doctoral studies at Newcastle University, United Kingdom during 1992-1994, and at Karlsruhe University, Germany in 1997-1998.      

In 1994, he started his academic career as an Assistant Professor in the department of Ceramic Engineering at Anadolu University. He achieved Associate Professor status in 1996 and tenured Professor status in 2001. Prof. Hasan Mandal has more than 140 published studies, 70 of them are published in SCI journals, as well as 6 international patents. He has an H-index of 16 and has been cited approximately 1200 times. Prof. Hasan Mandal has been granted various national and international awards, including the TUBITAK Science Award. He is currently a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), World Academy of Ceramics (WAC) and Academia Europaea (AE).      

Prof. Hasan Mandal served as the Director of Research and Graduate Policies (RGP) between the years of 2011-2015 and, at the same time, was appointed as Vice Rector of Sabancı University in January 2012.               

He also served as the President of the Global Engineering Deans Council, the first Vice President of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies, the President of European Ceramic Society, the Vice President of Anadolu University and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of Anadolu University, the Chairperson of Turkish Engineering Deans Council, Board Member in both ATAP and GOSP Technoparks, Board Member in Inovent Innovative Ventures, Board Member in BOREN and Executive Board Member at TUBITAK’s Technology Transfer Mechanisms Support Group (TEMEG) and TUBITAK’s Engineering Research Group (MAG).  

Prof. Hasan Mandal was appointed as a member of YÖK (Council of Higher Education) on March 25, 2015. He was elected to the Executive Board of YÖK on April 1, 2015 and as the Deputy Chairman of YÖK on July 21, 2016. Prof. Hasan Mandal served in these positions until January 12, 2018 and as Deputy Rector of Sabancı University from January 12 to February 22, 2018.               

He was assigned as the President of TUBITAK on February 22, 2018.

Prof. Hasan MANDAL was appointed as a member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policies Council on October 8, 2018 and he has assumed the duty of acting president on November 1, 2018. He was elected as the board member of the Council of Higher Education on April 27, 2019.

Prof. Dr. Yusuf Baran is a professor in Molecular Biology and Genetics. Dr. Baran has been serving as the President of İzmir Institute of Technology and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the İzmir Technology Development Zone since October 28th, 18.

After completing his bachelor’s degree in Biology at Dicle University from 1994 to 1998, he earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Middle East Technical University in 2002 and 2006, respectively. During his Ph.D. studies, he worked at the Medical University of South Carolina for six months from 2005 to 2006. He has been working at the Izmir Institute of Technology since 2007. 

Dr. Yusuf Baran has been involved in more than 40 scientific research projects supported by national and international organizations. He has more than 500 published scientific articles and conference papers and has published one book. He also presented at over 400 national and international conferences, meetings and forums on science, technology and diplomacy (including in the U.S., Brazil, China, Pakistan, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Israel, Germany, Chili, the Sudan, Greece, Macedonia, Thailand, Bosnia, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, Russia, Malaysia, and South Africa). He was invited to and presented at many important conferences of global institutions including the United Nations, the European Parliament, G20 Digital and Research Ministries Meeting, the World Science Forum, the Global Baku Forum, the World Economic Forum and, the World Life Sciences Forum.  

Dr. Baran’s scientific achievements have been recognized by national and international accredited institutions, and he has received more than 100 awards.  He was honored with the "2013 Young Scientist" award by the World Economic Forum (WEF), conferred annually to 40 scientists under the age of 40 who “actively play a transformational role in integrating scientific knowledge into society for public good.” International Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs awarded him the title of “Most Outstanding Young Scientific Leader of Turkey” in 2014.

He earned the “Young Member Honor” in 2015, given to 25 scientists under the age of 40 by the World Science Academy. He was selected as one of 30 people to participate in the “Science Diplomacy Workshop” in 2016 by The World Academy of Sciences. Dr. Baran also earned the “Outstanding Young Scientist Award” by the Turkish Pharmaceutical Academy in 2017, by the Experimental Hematology Association in 2016, by the Science Heroes Association in 2013, and by the Turkish Academy of Sciences in 2010. Dr. Baran’s doctoral thesis won the “Year’s Thesis” award in 2007. In 2018, he was one of the 28 people chosen by the American Science Advancement Organization to participate in the “Science Diplomacy and Leadership Workshop.” He was awarded with “Science Leader of the Year Award” by Turkey Innovation and Outstanding Success Awards, “Science Award” by Hacettepe University and “Innovative and Enterpreneur Academician Award” by Aegean Economic Development Association in 2021. Most recently, he was awarded with “Entrepreneur Award” by Association of Business Women in Izmir. In 2023, he was awared with “Science Diplomacy Award” by The World Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Dr. Yusuf Baran is a member of The Global Young Academy, an Executive Committee member of The World Academy of Sciences Young Affiliates Network (2016-Present), a founding member of the Developing World Academy of Engineering and Technology (2016-Present), a member of the World Association of Young Scientists (2015-Present), and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Scientists Program (2013-Present). He was also a member of the TÜBİTAK Advisory Board from 2010 to 2015. In addition, he has held various other appointments, including ambassador for the International Young Scientist Program and advisory board member of the Academic & Scientific Cooperation Project of Turkey. 

In his research, Dr. Baran focuses on the molecular biology of cancer, science policies and science diplomacy.

Mirat SATOĞLU is the Director of TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM Institute. Established in 1996 under the name of TÜBİTAK Ulakbim National Academic Network and Information Center, it provides information services such as Turkey Libraries Collective Catalog Service, EKUAL Collection Development Service, TR Index Index Service, Dergipark Magazine Hosting Service.

He played a leading role in many open science initiatives such as TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM, TÜBİTAK Open Science Policy, Aperta Open Archive, Harman Academic Archive under the management of SATOĞLU.

Mirat SATOĞLU is represented in the European Research Area and Innovation Committee Open Science and Innovation Working Group, SCOAP3 Executive Board, EOSC European Open Science Executive Board.

Mirat SATOĞLU has worked in many international areas to become a professional in the field of informatics. SATOĞLU has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering from Bilkent University, and a Master's Degree from Ege University and Pennsylvania University.

Marshall Breeding is an independent consultant, speaker, and author. He is the creator and editor of Library Technology Guides and the libraries.org online directory of libraries on the Web. His Systems Librarian appears in Computers in Libraries; he is the Editor for Library Technology Newsletter, published through Library Technology Guides. From 2002 through 2021 he was the editor and contributor for Smart Libraries Newsletter published by the American Library Association, and has authored the annual Library Systems Report published in American Libraries since 2014 and in Library Journal from 2002-2013. He has authored fourteen issues of ALA's Library Technology Reports, and has written many other articles and book chapters. Marshall has edited or authored eight books. He regularly teaches workshops and gives presentations at library conferences on a wide range of topics.

Marshall Breeding held a variety of positions for the Vanderbilt University Libraries in Nashville, TN from 1985 through May 2012, including as Director for Innovative Technologies and Research as the Executive Director the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

Breeding was the 2010 recipient of the LITA LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Outstanding Communication for Continuing Education in Library and Information Science.

Born in 1981 in Aydın, he completed his primary and secondary education in Aydın. He graduated from Middle East Technical University, Department of History. She worked as a copywriter and bilingual periodical editor in various agencies. In 2006, he started working as an Assistant Culture and Tourism Specialist at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and became a Culture and Tourism Specialist in 2010. She won the European Union Jean Monnet Scholarship. She graduated from the "Cultural Policy and Cultural Management" master's program at City University of London with the title "Digital Innovation in Not-for-Profit Arts Institutions and its Impact on the Arts and Culture Ecosystem and Policy Making Processes: A Case Study on the "National Theater Live" Application" and graduated with a "Distinction" degree. She then continued her academic studies at King's College London in the Cultural Policy and Cultural Industries PhD Program. He coordinated various cultural and literary promotion events abroad. He presented papers on literary tourism and cultural policies at various international academic meetings. He continues his academic studies on these subjects. He worked as the coordinator of literary activities at the Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Center in London for a while. He served as the Counselor for Culture and Promotion in London. After working as the Head of the Publications Department and Deputy General Manager at the General Directorate of Libraries and Publications of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, he is currently working as the General Director.

Prof. Çalışkan graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences in 1993 and completed his postgraduate education at Afyon Kocatepe University in 1995. He completed his doctorate at Dokuz Eylül University in 2001 and became an “associate professor” in 2015; he became a “professor” in 2021.

Between 2009 and 2019 he served as Advisor to Afyonkarahisar Mayor, and he was on duty as a Member of the Presidential Government System Local Governments Harmonization Commission in 2018. Prof. Çalışkan has been serving as the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Interuniversity Board since 2020.

Prof. Çalışkan has many articles, books, and book chapters written in Turkish and English on fiscal theory, fiscal policies, and performance measurement of local governments.

İsmail ÇETİNKAYA, who graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography, Department of Information and Records Management in 1998, completed his master's degree in Business Administration at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University. He worked as a Researcher in the Ministry of Forestry's Ottoman Period Forestry Research Project and publication, as a Librarian at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and as an Instructor at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, and mainly conducted Medical Librarianship and Medical Documentation courses. Çetinkaya served as the Head of the Library and Documentation Department at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University between 2006 and 2021, and has been working as the Head of the Library and Documentation Department at Isparta University of Applied Sciences since January 19, 2021. Çetinkaya, who conducted the Science Board Membership and Information Literacy course in the Primary and Secondary Education Project Execution and Science Counseling Education Project (Science Counseling Workshop in Education) carried out by the TÜBİTAK Scientist Support Department in 2007-2008, and in 2014, he was appointed by the Higher Education Board to study the University Libraries Study. Group (Improving University Libraries and Setting Standards) and was among those who prepared the report titled “The Current Situation of University Libraries in Turkey Towards 2023, Problems, Standards and Suggestions for Solutions”. Çetinkaya, who has been serving as ANKOS Board Member since 2010, has been serving as ANKOS President since 05 August 2022. He continues to share his professional knowledge and experience by taking part in many national and international events in the field of librarianship and publishing. Çetinkaya is married and has one child.

He graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Librarianship in 1984. In 1990, he completed Master's degree at Marmara University by preparing a thesis on "Service Marketing in Libraries" and in 1996, he completed PhD by preparing a thesis on "Culture and Subcultural Effects on Consumer Behavior". He worked as a librarian at Marmara University Central Library between 1985 and 1993. In 1993, he was appointed to the Department of Librarianship at Istanbul University as a Lecturer. He was appointed as Associate Professor in 2012 and asa  Professor in 2015. He still continues to work as Head of Department in Library Science.

In the field of librarianship; He works on service marketing, library management, marketing communications and user behavior. He is a member of the Turkish Librarians Association and ÜNAK. He served as TKD Istanbul Branch President and Board Member. He also worked as a manager of Istanbul University Central Library and  General Library Consultant for the Faculty of Letters. He also managed many projects in library science.

Gemma leads Elsevier’s global sales team, focused on meeting Academic and Government customer needs across Journals, Books and other solutions. In this role, Gemma thrives on building and strengthening relationships with customers to bring flexibility, creativity and forward thinking to Elsevier’s value propositions.
Gemma joined Elsevier in 2014 and has held a variety of roles, including head of Global Policy and head of Global Research Solutions, working closely with Elsevier’s Executive Leadership Team on business strategy, policy, and communications. Gemma has specialist domain knowledge of open access and has been involved in negotiating all of Elsevier’s transformative agreements to date.
Before joining Elsevier, Gemma was Head of Public Affairs for the UK Publishers Association and has worked in the creative industries both in government and in industry for the last ten years. She holds an MPhil in Politics and Comparative Government from Oxford University, but her real love is History, in which she holds a First Class Degree from Kings College, London.

Alisher Kattabekov received his bachelor’s degree in Information Technologies from Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad al-Khwarizmi in 2018. He completed master’s degree in Electronic Commerce at Tashkent University of Information Technologies in 2021.

Since 2018, he has been working at National Library of Uzbekistan named after Alisher Navoi. From 2018 to 2020 he has been the chief specialist of Information and Communications Agency under the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Uzbekistan. During 2020-2022 years he has been the head of Information Communication Technologies Service, Technical and Technological Support Service, National Educational Electronic Library Center at the National Library of Uzbekistan named after Alisher Navoi. Since 2022 he has been working as a Head of the National Educational Electronic Library Center at the National Library of Uzbekistan named after Alisher Navoi.

Alisher was nominated by the EIFL Uzbekistan Consortium to serve as the EIFL Licensing Coordinator in Uzbekistan. He has participated in many national and international conferences, seminars and events. He has been in Russia and Tadjikistan to increase his experience. His main research interests are bibliometrics, electronic resource management and management of information systems.

Piotr Lapo is Library General Expert of Nazarbayev University Library (Astana, the
Republic of Kazakhstan) since March 2015, Chairman of the Library Regulatory Documentation
Committee at the Association of University Libraries in Kazakhstan since October 2022, a
member of the editorial board of the journal Kitap Patshalygy (Book Kingdom) since October
2020. Since May 2023 he is a member of the IFLA Regional Division Committee on Asia and
Oceania.
He used to be Director of the Belarusian State University Fundamental Library (Minsk,
the Republic of Belarus) in 2000 – 2015 and President of the Belarusian Library Association in
2001-2004.
In 1999 – 2007 he was the national coordinator of the eIFL (Electronic Information for
Libraries) international consortium in Belarus.
Piotr as a Chief Teacher lectured at the School of Information and Documentation
Communications at the Belarusian University of Culture (Minsk) in Fall 1997 – Fall 2009.
In 1994 – 1999 he was Head of the Automation Department and then Deputy Director
for New Technologies of Yakub Kolas Central Science Library of the National Academy of
Belarus.
In 1991 - 1994 he occupied a position of Head of the Automation Department of the
Clothes Factory "ELEMA" (Minsk, Belarus), in 1981 –1991 of Engineer-programmer, Scientific
worker, Chief of laboratory at the Central Science & Research Institute of Organization and
Techniques of Management (Minsk, Belarus).
Piotr graduated from the Applied Mathematics Department at the Belarusian State
University (Minsk, Belarus) in 1981, had a professional training at the School of Library and
Information Science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1996-1997
and training in library management and electronic libraries at the International Center for
Information Management and Systems at the Copernicus University (Torun, Poland) in 2001 –
2002.
In 2011 he participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) (USA)
for library leaders from CIS and countries in Africa, Asia, and Central Europe.
Piotr is an author of above 80 publications on various aspects of the contemporary
librarianship.
He has quite a lot of experience in grant- finding and project management, for
example, he was a co-author of a project proposal and one of the main executors of the project
supported by the International Advocacy Programme (IAP) of the International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) for promoting UN 2030 Agenda among public
and academic libraries in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan (Nur-Sultan, 2018).
In 2021 – 2022 Piotr is an active participant in #InfoSauattylyq and #SauattyKeleshek
projects, the purpose of which is to develop media and information literacy among students of
Kazakhstani universities, as well as librarians and pupils of secondary schools in the Akmola
region in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
On February 8, 2023, he held a webinar "On the participation of libraries in Central Asia
in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals" with the presentation "Libraries,
Sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals" by Stephen Wyber, Director of the

IFLA Policy and Advocacy Team, for the heads of national libraries and library associations of
Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan).

Ayhan Tuğlu has completed his Bachelor's degree in the Department of Librarianship of the Faculty of Literature of Istanbul University and his Master's degree in the Department of Management and Organization of the Institute of Social Sciences of Marmara University. He worked as a manager at the Library/administrative units of Marmara University, Bahçeşehir University and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University. He has volunteered as a consultant in the establishment of many libraries.

In 2016, he started to establish the Presidential Library as the Library and Publications Director and continues as the Head of the Presidential Libraries Department.

Şebnem Özdemir received her bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Yıldız Technical University. She completed two master's degrees at Istanbul University, one in Mathematics Education and the other in Informatics. She received her PhD degree from Istanbul University, Department of Informatics. For her postdoctoral research, she was a researcher at the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). She then moved to MIT CSAIL, where she continued her work in the field of artificial intelligence. Özdemir is currently working at Istinye University, Department of Management Information Systems. In 2016, with the machine learning model she developed, she was awarded the "Human Development Research Award" by Koç University UNESCO Chair, and in 2020, she was awarded the "Leader Creating Awareness in Artificial Intelligence Award" by CIO Turkey. She is the founder of Usight Software and Artificial Intelligence Technologies.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özdemir has worked as an executive, consultant and researcher in many national and international projects focused on data science and artificial intelligence. Assoc. Prof. Özdemir has many book chapters, articles and patents published in national and international platforms focused on data science and machine learning. Her main research interests are artificial intelligence, data science, management information systems, decision making and mathematical modeling.

Gulzhan Irzhanova is the director of the Library and Information Center of the Taraz Regional University, named after M.H. Dulati, and the president of the Association of University Libraries of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In 1991–1996, I studied at the Kazakh State Women's Pedagogical Institute and got a degree in Library Science and Bibliography. In 2004, she covered postgraduate studies at the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

I am a coordinator of the expert group under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the development of regulatory documents in the field of information and library activities. A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Association of University Libraries and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Gulzhan Irzhanova is the organizer of annual international conferences, seminars, and trainings held in Kazakhstan.

Constantly improves his qualifications by participating in scientific conferences and advanced training courses near and far abroad. She is a certified trainer and expert in information and media literacy. Gulzhan is the author of more than 70 scientific papers. Areas of scientific interest: modernization of university libraries, professional standards, and information analytics.

Ayça AYDEMİR MAZLUMOĞLU graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Literature, Department of Library and Information Science in 2006. She continues her master's degree at Haliç University, Department of Business Administration.

Since 2014, she has been working as Acıbadem University Library and Electronic Resources Director. She also worked as a Librarian at Haliç University Library between 2007-2014.

As of 2023, Mazlumoğlu is ANKOS Board Member and ANKOS Database Evaluation Group Coordinator, and is also a member of Turkish Librarians Association and EAHIL. She is closely interested in bibliometrics, medical librarianship and electronic resource management.

Gultekin Gurdal has been working as the library director at IZTECH for 17 years. He has a Bachelor's Degree from Haceattepe University, Library Science, and a Master’s Degree from Kocaeli University, Business Administration. He has previously held positions at Bilkent University, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, Sabanci University, and TOBB University.

He has proven working experience in the field of open access, open science, and open data for more than 10 years. Between the years 2008 and 2012, he served as the Chairman of the Turkish University Libraries Consortium (ANKOS) which is one of the biggest consortiums in Europe and the Middle East. He was also coordinator of the ANKOS Open Access and Institutional Repositories Working Group between the years 2008 and 2018. He is a member of the "Open Science Committee" which was founded by The Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council in 2015, and a member of Open Access and Open Science Working Group which was founded by The Turkish Higher Education Council (CoHE) in 2018. In addition, he is the coordinator “Turkey Research Data and Open Data Task Force" sub-working group.

He participated in OpenAIREPlus, OpenAIRE2020, and OpenAIRE Advance EU projects.   He has been working as an OpenAIRE Turkey NOAD since 2011 by actively engaging with the rest of the project team. He also served as an OpenAIRE AMKE Executive Board member since 2021 and co-founder of Research Ecosystems, an R&D Company established within IZTECH Technopark in 2021.

He works heavily in the areas of open access and open science. He accomplished many firsts in this field and he became a very well-known name in open access. He has many national and international publications.

Dr. Adıgüzel completed his undergraduate education in Mathematics Education at Marmara University in 1999 and his master's degree in the same field in 2001 at Boğaziçi University. Dr. Adıgüzel completed his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Technology from Texas A&M University in 2008 and returned to Turkey in 2009 and promoted to the ranks of Associate Professor and Professor in 2012 and 2018, respectively.

Dr. Adıgüzel started his career as a Multimedia Software and Program Developer in a private company in 1996 and started his academic life by working first as a Research Assistant and then as a Lecturer at Yeditepe University between 1999-2002. Between 2002-2009, he worked as a Webmaster, Database Administrator, and researcher in a project on Special Education Technology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Adıgüzel later worked as a faculty member at Bahçeşehir University’s Computer and Instructional Technologies Department until 2020. During this time, he served as the founding coordinator of many centers and graduate programs, and as the associate dean. He joined Özyeğin University, Istanbul in 2020 as the faculty member of the Sectoral Education department and founding director of the Office for Learning and Teaching Enhancement. Dr. Adıgüzel also owns a start-up company (STEMXR), where AR and VR enriched content is developed and consultancy is provided on STEM education, which it launched in 2020.

Having advised more than 30 master’s and doctoral students so far, Dr. Adıgüzel has many national and international projects, articles, papers, and book studies on technology design, development, and acceptance in the fields of Computer Education, Science, Mathematics and Special Education. Dr. Adıgüzel has been one of the three Editors-in-Chief of the Contemporary Educational Technology journal since 2019. He is also the editor of the Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies (OJCMT).

Jamila Yusifova in 1973 graduated Azerbaijan Pedagogical Instiiute of Languages, faculty English and Azerbaijan languages, She worked Head of International Exchange Information division at Scientific Library of Baku State University and as a teacher at the same university in 1979 -2021 years. In 2019 on the occasion of the 100 th anniversary of Baku State University she was honored with the “100 th anniversary of the Republic of Azerbaijan” by the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan.

She is Head of Department of Methodological Work and Cooperation from 2020 to present day and from
2007 to present day Azerbaijan National Coordinator of Azerbaijan Library Information Consortium. She has participated in many national and international conferences, events, seminars to improve herself. She has been in countries as Georgia, Egypt, Lithuania, Moldova, France, Spain and so on in order to increase her experience constantly.

Nigar Ismayilova graduated Baku State University, faculty of Library Science in 1999,
received her master’s degree in 2001,faculty of Library Science at the same
university. In 2002, she completed training course “Information technology and
Mathematics Expertise” at Azerbaijan Teachers Institute. In 2000-2007, she worked
as a scientific worker at “Automation of library works” scientific research laboratory of
BSU. Since 2007, she has been working as a teacher at the faculty of Library
Science at Baku State University. In 2016, she defended her scientific work on the
subject ‘Historical and modern problems of the automation of library work” and 2018
she received Associate Professor degree. From 2020 she is a director of the BSU
Scientific Library to present day. Ismayilova was awarded “Certificate of honor” by
the rector of BSU many times due to all her contributions and efforts in information
technology and education.
In 2019, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of BSU, the Ministry of
Education of Azerbaijan (by order) honored her with the “100th anniversary of the
Republic of Azerbaijan” medal. Ismayilova is the arthur of many grant projects, 8
books, and many scientific articles on Library Science, Information technology and
automation of libraries. In order to constantly improve herself, she continues to share
knowledge and experience by participating in many national and international events
in the field of Library Science and publishing.
She is married, and has 1 child.

Kara Jones has a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and a MAppSci in Library and Information Management from Charles Sturt University, Australia. She has over 25 years of experience in academic libraries in Australia, England and the United Arab Emirates. She joined the American University of Sharjah (UAE) as University Librarian in 2019.  

Kara's current experience with strategy, leadership and executive membership includes AMICALCoordinating Committee membership and she is currently co-convenor of the AMICAL Open Scholarship Interest Group. She is an Advisory Board member for various publishers, representing the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. She is a Chartered member of CILIP in the UK and regularly presents on topics such as LibQual survey actions, research impact tools (ie. 11 Research Impact Things) and scholarly communications models.

Dr. Tolga Çakmak is an associate professor at the Department of Information Management, Faculty of Letters, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. He received his doctoral degree in 2016 with a dissertation titled Digitization and Digital Preservation Policies in Turkey: a proposed model. He previously worked as an assistant librarian in various libraries. He was also vice president of University and Research Librarians' Association in Turkey and he is a member of European RDA Interest Group (EURIG). He graduated from the Department of Information management in 2008 and studied information technologies at the Middle East Technical University. His main research interests are information organization, information technologies, enterprise content management, museum informatics, digital libraries, and digitization.
If you need further information please contact Dr. Çakmak at tcakmak@hacettepe.edu.tr

Tugkan Tuglular received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering
from Ege University, Turkey, in 1993, 1995, and 1999. He worked as a research
associate at Purdue University from 1996 to 1998. He has been with Izmir Institute of
Technology since 2000. After becoming an Assistant Professor at Izmir Institute of
Technology, he worked as Chief Information Officer in the university from 2003-2007. In
addition to his academic duties, he acted as IT advisor to the Rector between 2010-
2014. He served as the Chairman of the Organization Committee of the Computer
Software Applications Conference (COMPSAC) held in Izmir in 2012, with the
participation of 450 people from 40 countries. In the same year, he assumed the role of
project leader for the "Izmir Information Society Based Development Strategy" defined
by the Izmir Development Agency. Between 2013 and 2018, he worked intensively to
strengthen the Izmir techno-entrepreneurship ecosystem. Tugkan Tuglular, who
received the title of Associate Professor in 2018, works in both the Department of
Computer Engineering and the Department of Technology, Design and Innovation
Management at Izmir Institute of Technology. In 2021, he founded his second company
on research ecosystems in Teknopark Izmir and continues to work as CEO. Tugkan
Tuglular, whose academic areas of expertise include information security, software
quality assurance process, software testing and reliable software development, has
over seventy-five national and international publications.

Sami Çuhadar completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Information and Document Management at Istanbul University, BA in Economics at Anadolu University, and his PhD studies in Information and Document Management at Çankırı Karatekin University.

Sami Cuhadar is the Library Director at Istanbul Bilgi University Library and e-Resources in Istanbul, Turkey. He is also an academic staff at Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law and taught “Research Methods and Accessing Legal Information Resources” to the first-year Law School students.

Mr. Çuhadar is also active in non-governmental organizations in the field of librarianship and information management. He is the former president and board member of the Anatolian University Libraries Consortium (ANKOS) and coordinator of UNAK-Turkish Platform of Law Librarians. He has written and conducted studies on the fields of total quality management, online education and university libraries. His current research focuses on legal information, information literacy, university libraries, ranking systems, consortiums, and ERM.

Assoc. Prof. Dr.. Tuğba Tokel received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at METU, her doctoral degree from the Department of Educational Psychology and Technology at Texas A&M University. She was awarded the Dissertation of the Year Award by the department for her doctoral thesis in 2008 and she received the Young Researcher Achievement Award from the METU Development Foundation in 2013. As a research scholar, she participated in virtual reality projects at the Institute for Creative Technologies at University of Southern California in 2017.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuğba Tokel serves as a faculty member in the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at METU. Additionally, she is the founder of Metaverse Software, established in 2013 and located in METU Technopark, which develops virtual world and virtual reality applications for education, healthcare, and corporate sector. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tokel is also the head of the METU Virtual Worlds Research Group, and her research interests include virtual reality, three-dimensional virtual worlds, simulations, serious games, and distance education.

Nevzat Özel is a professor at Ankara University, Faculty of Language and History-Geography, Department of Information and Record Management. He also works as the Vice Dean of Ankara University Faculty of Open and Distance Education. His academic interest areas are digital information services and technologies, digitalization, digital education, distance education, information management, record management, organization and access of information and information literacy. He has many national and international scientific articles, books, book chapters and translations. In addition to these, there are also proceedings presented at national and international meetings. He also contributes to the scientific committees of various journals, meetings and working groups.

Jyldyz Bekbalaeva is Director of the Library at American University of Central Asia, where she manages library services and resources.  Jyldyz is a member of the Management Board of the EIFL Consortium.  She holds an MSLIS from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Kyrgyz National University.
Jyldyz was a recipient of the Fulbright Award, under which she served as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University in 2017-2018.   Her research interests include open access, digital technologies in libraries, academic library management. 

Graduated from Ankara University Department of Information and Record Management in 2006. She started to work at Swets Information Services as Customer Services Representative same year. She worked at Osmangazi University Library between 2009-2012. She did master’s degree at Osmangazi University. She worked as museum librarian at Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality. She has been working as lecturer at Anadolu University Library Electronic Resources Department since 2015 and she continues her doctoral studies at Istanbul University. She has been voluntering of Anatolian University Libraries Consurtium (ANKOS) since 2018. She is database liason and member of database assesment working group. 

Ece Tufanyazıcı graduated from “Department of Information Management” at Istanbul University in 2016. After graduation, she completed her language education at Guildford College, England. Ece continues her master's degree at Istanbul University, Department of Information and Document Management.

Ece Tufanyazıcı started her career in Databases and Serials as an Assistant Librarian at Istanbul Bilgi University and e-Resources in 2017 and has been continuing as a Specialist Librarian since 2021.

Ece Tufanyazıcı has been volunteering at the Anatolian University Libraries Consortium (ANKOS) since 2018. She is the database liaison for HeinOnline and Westlaw International databases. She is also a member of the license agreements group in ANKOS.

Kemal Sami KARACA, who graduated from Bilkent University, Department of Computer Engineering in 2007, continues his master's degree in Computer Engineering at TOBB University.

After graduation, he started working at TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM with the FATİH project. During his 10 years of TÜBİTAK experience, he has developed software in many different projects such as TRUBA, UBYT, YETKİM and FATİH projects. He was involved in the ongoing and developing YETKİM project in 2021. Within the scope of the YETKİM project, he helped our universities to be included in the federation with technical support as well as training and presentations.