Carson Block, President, Carson Block Consulting Inc.
Carson Block has lead & loved library technology efforts for more than 20 years. He's been called a "Geek who speaks English" and occasionally compared to Ferris Bueller and Calvin (and Hobbes). Carson is dead serious about the essential and positive community impacts of libraries and focuses his consulting practice on helping libraries increase their capacity to serve patrons. Carson has served in leadership positions in ALA ASCLA, ColoradoPLA and others, and evangelizes libraries to SXSW Interactive and other tech communities. Carson is the author of Managing Library Technology: A LITA Guide (Rowman & Littlefield).​
Emily Clasper, Director of Service Strategies, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Since 2003, Emily Clasper has worked with a wide range of libraries across the country, offering a unique skill set as a librarian, technologist, speaker, trainer, consultant, and certified Project Management Professional (PMP®). A leader in the profession and Library Journal Mover and Shaker (2012), Emily has served as an ALA Councilor, member of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, and member of numerous other ALA and NYLA committees. Most recently, Emily has entered the world of academic libraries, joining the University of Rochester’s River Campus Libraries as their Director of Service Strategies. This comes on the heels of 13 years working with the 56 public libraries of Suffolk County, NY as the Training and Operations Manager for their shared ILS.
Janie L. Hermann is the Public Programming Librarian at Princeton Public Library in Princeton, NJ where she oversees a cross-departmental team of 15 staff that members that plan and execute more than 1,700 programs per year with an annual attendance in excess of 54,000 at the programs. She is currently a member of the ALA Public and Cultural Programs Advisory Committee and the co-chair of the ALA Programming Librarian Interest Group.
Sarah Houghton is the Director for Discovery and Delivery at the California Digital Library.Djaz F. Zulida is a Job Information Resource Librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library, focusing on resume and career advice for job seekers of all ages. As a board member for Urban Librarians Unite, they offer advice on diversity, representation, and the rights of prisoners to reading. They have recently joined the Rainbow Round Table's Stonewall Book Awards Committee for Non-Fiction.