The Steering Group acts on behalf of the Board to guide the development of Academic Libraries North (ALN) and its work. It oversees all ALN activities, manages the progression of the ALN strategy and sets the agenda for Board meetings. The Group meets three times a year to monitor the activities of the organisation.
Members of the Steering Group are elected for a period of three years, with an option for re-election.
The Steering Group currently consists of:
| Name | About | Institution |
| Kay Grieves
|
Chair Kay is Chair of the ALN Steering Group and ALN Board. Kay works closely with the Deputy Chair and ALN Development Managers and chairs the Steering Group and Board meetings. She also represents ALN at a national level. Kay has an ongoing commitment to ALN, having led the Service Engagement and Impact Special Interest Group and holding the Groups Lead role. Kay is Deputy Director of Learning, Teaching and Research at Teesside University where she has a remit for learning, teaching and research for Student and Library Support and responsibility for the one stop shop Student Life offer. |
Teesside |
| Kathryn Smith
|
Vice Chair Kathryn has been University Librarian at Northumbria University since 2018 but has actually worked within the Library since 1999. Her roles have covered front line enquiry services, support for education and support for research. Kathryn’s current areas of focus are working on Northumbria’s Future Library project, making recommendations for the future development of the library service and leading the Student Support Working Group for Northumbria’s introduction of Claude for Education, an enterprise level AI tool for our staff and students. She originally joined the Steering Group of Northern Collaboration just prior to the creation of Academic Libraries North and was part of the transitional group which oversaw the merger with NoWAL, jointly leading the communications strand. She has been Vice Chair since the creation of ALN. |
Northumbria |
| Lesley English
|
Staff Development Lead Lesley joined the Steering Group in January 2024 as the Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI), and has recently taken over as Staff Development Lead. She is the Head of Academic Engagement and Teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University Library, leading a team of 24 (including 4 Student Partners), and is a member of the Senior Leadership Group. She has worked in a Library teaching and learning role for a number of years, both at the University of Cumbria and Lancaster University, moving into a management role in 2021. Lesley is committed to fostering a culture of EDI in her role as a leader and manager, as well as promoting EDI across the library and the University. She strives to create work, study environments and cultures where everyone can feel safe, develop a sense of belonging and is empowered to achieve their full potential. Having previously led the Staff Development Group at Lancaster she is excited to be leading Staff Development for ALN. |
Manchester Met |
| Louise Speakman | EDI Lead – more info to follow | |
| Michael Fake
|
Finance Lead Michael is Associate Library Director: Student Learning & Experience, at the University of Leeds, where he has responsibility for frontline customer services, academic skills teaching, business support operations, and facilities and space. Throughout his career, he has worked in most areas of academic librarianship, including metadata, systems, open access advocacy, and academic liaison, and has always valued the cooperative nature of the profession, working as part of multiple overlapping collaborations across and between libraries – Michael has always believed that the super power of librarians is helping each other. He has been Finance Lead on the ALN Steering Group since its formation in 2021. |
Leeds |
| Jackie Oliver
|
Procurement Lead Jackie is the Assistant Director (Learning, Teaching & Research) at Teesside University. She has over 35 years’ experience of working in HE, working in a Customer Services Management role from 2009 and in Senior Management roles since 2018. She has extensive project management experience and has supported a range of refurbishment and new build programmes at Teesside. Jackie gained CILIP Chartership status in 2005 and Fellowship status in 2018, which she continues to revalidate annually. She is Procurement Lead on the ALN Steering Group, providing updates to the Steering Group and to the ALN Board, as well as supporting the ALN Procurement Community of Practice (CoP) as their Steering Group Partner. She is also Steering Group Partner to the ALN Metadata and Linked Data CoP and has supported delivery of the ALN Frontline Forum pilot through 2024-25. Jackie is an active member of the ALN Leaders’ Network. |
Teesside |
| Theo Stubbs
|
Groups Lead Theo is Head of Academic Services at the University of Huddersfield, a role he has held since 2022. His portfolio includes responsibility for library content and systems, subject support, and archives and records management. Prior to joining Huddersfield, he held various roles at Imperial, King’s, and Leeds Arts University. He is a member of the ALN Steering Group as the Groups Lead. He has been involved in various intra-institutional groups around collaborative collection management and is on the programme board for the UK Print Book Collection. He likes cycling and eating. |
Huddersfield |
| Nicky Freeman | Development Manager | ALN |
| TBC | Development Manager | ALN |
The Chair and Vice Chair are nominated from among the Board and an election will be held if more than one nomination is received. Other officers, including the Finance Lead, will be agreed within the Steering Group. It is anticipated each Steering Group member will lead in one area, for example, Staff Development, SIGs/CoPs, Procurement etc.
Development Managers
ALN employs 2 Development Managers on a job share basis who deal with the day-to-day activities of ALN and have responsibility for the administrative running of the reciprocal Staff Development programme; serve as secretary to the Board, Steering Group and Associate Directors’ Group; serve as members of the Conference Planning Group; and have an overview of the procurement activities undertaken by the consortium.
The Development Managers report directly to the ALN Chair, are employed by SCONUL and are ex-officio members of the consortium’s Steering Group.
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