Myths, Stories, and Possibilities

The Programmes and Social Committee organised a talk by Dr Paul B. Gandel today:


Topic : Myths, Stories, and Possibilities

Date : 9 July 2010, Friday

Time : 3.00pm-5.00pm

Venue : Possibility Room, Level 5, National Library Building

LAS Professional Development Scheme (PDS) Points: 46
(Applicable only to librarians who are participants of PDS)

About the talk

As technology has developed over the past years moving from the Web to Web 2.0 to the Cloud, barriers have dropped and possibilities seem limitless. Our world is becoming ever more interlinked.

This presents both an opportunity and a dilemma for those of us in information services that need to plan for an increasingly technology-enabled future of interconnectedness.

How do you plan for the abundance of possibilities?
How do you plan in the absence of good predictive models?
What is really true about all the technological hype?
What really will change?
What core values and services will remain the same?

Planning for the future may be as much of process of discovery as a planning process. Success will be finding the right ingredients and partners. It also requires a bit of luck!

From the perspective of a former library dean, CIO, and now university professor, Paul Gandel leads a conversation about the challenges and opportunities he sees for this complex and cloudy future.

He illustrates these trends with stories from his own personal experiences: Creating new governance and consortium models in the face of changing technologies; green computing—an example of turning slogans into reality; and building new models of education and services for the information professional of the future.

About the speaker

Paul B. Gandel
Acting CIO, Singapore Management University
Professor of Information Studies, Syracuse University

Paul Gandel is Professor of Information Studies at Syracuse University. His teaching and research areas include the management of information technology systems, information management, leadership, information policy, and the visualization of information. Currently while on leave from Syracuse he is serving as acting CIO and senior consultant for Singapore Management University (SMU). He also is a visiting professor in the School of Information Systems at SMU.

Previously he served as the Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Syracuse University.

As Chief Information Officer, Gandel was responsible for all aspects of information technology and information services—computer services, voice and data networking, instructional technology services, business process improvement, and distance learning technology.

During his tenure as CIO he was instrumental in modernizing the University’s technology infrastructure and IT support services to ensure that SU remains competitive with the growing demands of providing high-quality information resources for research, teaching and student learning environments.

Before coming to Syracuse University, Gandel was Vice Provost and Dean of Libraries at University of Rhode Island.

Before Rhode Island, Gandel was Associate Provost and Chief Information Officer at the Ohio University, Senior Director of Academic Computing and Associate Professor of Library Science at the University of North Texas, Supervisor of the Computing Technology Group at Bell Laboratories, Head of Media Services at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and Director of the Research Library at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York.

Dr. Gandel earned his Ph.D. in Information Studies from Syracuse University, an M.A. in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin, and an M.F.A. in Photography and B.A. in History from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

What impressed me is that being a history major, he has advanced to IT field and travelled a very different path from general history graduate of his time! 

I will always remembered him as he is also a graduate of University of Wisconsin.

Source of information: email from The Programmes and Social Committee, LAS dated Jun 14, 2010