Mary Ellen Bates
Principal, Bates Information Services, Inc.
Mary Ellen is the owner of Bates Information Services, providing strategic business research to business professionals and special librarians, and training and consulting services to the information industry. She is a prolific writer and speaker, having keynoted at conferences around the world and written six books and innumerable articles on the information industry. She is a regular columnist for ONLINE magazine. She received her MLS from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked in special libraries for over a decade before starting her own company in 1991. She publishes two free monthly e-newsletters (see www.BatesInfo.com) and she blogs at Librarian Of Fortune. She serves on the board of directors of SLA.

Robert I Berkman
Editor, The Information Advisor Associate Professor, Media Studies, The New School, NY, NY
As the founder and editor of The Information Advisor, an international monthly journal for business researchers, Robert Berkman has over 25 years of experience teaching others about effective research techniques. He is the author of several books on research, online searching, and the media, including The Art of Strategic Listening (Paramount Market Publishing, 2008); The Skeptical Business Searcher (CyberAge, 2004) and Find it Fast: How to Uncover Expert Information on Any Subject (HarperCollins, 5th ed. 2000). He has given workshops and presentations on research and searching to firms like Accenture and Eastman Kodak and organizations such as the Special Libraries Association and the European Journalism Centre.

Berkman is also an associate professor at the Department of Media Studies and Film at the New School in New York City where his focus is on emerging media technologies. Berkman lives in Rochester, New York.

Kathy Dempsey
Editor, Marketing Library Services newsletter Owner, Libraries Are Essential consultancy
Kathy Dempsey is the editor of the Marketing Library Services newsletter and former editor-in-chief of Computers in Libraries magazine. Kathy has a Journalism degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, and worked in publishing for 6 years and in libraries for 7 years before joining ITI in 1994. She has been a regular contributor to the U.K. info industry newspaper Information World Review and to the reference monograph The Bowker Annual. She writes, speaks at seminars, and leads workshops about library marketing topics. Kathy also blogs about library marketing at "The M Word." She started a consultancy called Libraries Are Essential to help librarians promote their value. She also wrote the book The Accidental Library Marketer, published by ITI in July 2009.

Dan Giancaterino
Education Services Manager, Jenkins Law Library


Dan Giancaterino teaches online Continuing Legal Education classes at Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia.  He has discussed Web searching on The Michael Smerconish Morning Show, The Glenn Beck Program, and Bill O'Reilly's Radio Factor on The Big Talker, WPHT 1210 AM.  Dan is an Adjunct faculty member at Drexel University.

Laura Gordon-Murnane
Intranet Web Master, Library, BNA
Laura Gordon-Murnane is currently employed at BNA as their intranet web master.  She has been with BNA for over ten years.  Laura earned her MLS degree from the University of Maryland.  Library Journal named her as one of their Movers and Shakers for 2005 and she has published many articles for Searcher and Online.

Ran Hock
Principal, Online Strategies
Ran is the author of The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook, The Traveler's Web, The Extreme Searcher's Guide to Web Search Engines, and Yahoo! to the Max. He is also a frequent contributor and columnist for professional publications. Through his company, Online Strategies, Ran creates and presents courses on using the Web for professional associations, governments, NGO's, companies, schools, and businesses in the U.S. and abroad. Ran has held management and training positions with DIALOG and Knight-Ridder Information Services, and has been a reference librarian at MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently an adjunct faculty member for Catholic University's School of Library and Information Science, Lesley University's Technology in Education Program, and Johns Hopkins University. He is active in the American Society for Information Science and Technology and the Association of Independent Information Professionals.

Greg Notess
Reference Team Leader, Montana State University
Greg Notess, founder of SearchEngineShowdown.com and reference team leader at Montana State University library, is an award-winning author, consultant, and international conference speaker. He writes the "Search Engine Update" columns for ONLINE, and his most recent book is Teaching Web Search Skills: Techniques and Strategies of Top Trainers.

Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE Magazine
Marydee Ojala edits ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals and writes its business research column ("The Dollar Sign"). She contributes feature articles and news stories to Information Today, Searcher, EContent, Computers in Libraries, Intranets, Cyber Skeptic's Guide to the Internet, Business Information Review, and Information Today's NewsBreaks. Her blog is ONLINEInsider.net. A long-time observer of the information industry, she speaks frequently at conferences, such as Web Search University, Internet Librarian, Online Information (London, UK), Internet Librarian International, and national library meetings outside the U.S. She has adjunct faculty status at the School of Library and Information Science at IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis). Her professional career began at BankAmerica Corporation, San Francisco, directing a worldwide program of research and information services. She established her independent information research business in 1987. Her undergraduate degree is from Brown University and her MLS was earned at the University of Pittsburgh.

Gary Price
Publisher, ResourceShelf ResourceShelf.com
Gary Price is  the Founder and an editor of both ResourceShelf and DocuTicker, published by Free Pint, Ltd. He co-authored (with Chris Sherman) The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See, published by Information Today, Inc. Price lives in suburban Washington D.C. and earned a Masters of Library and Information Science from Wayne State University in Detroit.

Chris Sherman
Executive Editor, Search Engine Land
Chris Sherman is executive editor of Search Engine Land and president of Searchwise LLC, a Boulder CO-based web consulting firm. He is the author of Google Power: Unleash the Full Power of Google, published by McGraw-Hill. He co-authored (with Gary Price) The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See, published by Information Today, Inc. From 2001 through 2006, Chris was executive editor of SearchEngineWatch. Chris holds a master's degree in interactive educational technology from Stanford University and a B.A. in visual arts and communications from the University of California, San Diego.