In August, Elizabeth Powis took up the post of Library & Learning Support Manager and University Librarian at Bournemouth University. Elizabeth was previously University Librarian at the University of West London. Jill Beard, who was the former Library & Learning Support Manager, retired in July after 25 years at the Library.

At the University of Cambridge, Clair Castle (pictured) became Librarian of the Chemistry Department in October, replacing Judith Battison who retired in July after nearly ten years as Librarian. Clair was previously Librarian at the Zoology Department in Cambridge.

At the beginning of September, Niamh Tumelty (pictured) became Head Librarian at Cambridge University Engineering Department. Niamh was previously Assistant Librarian at the English Faculty Library at Cambridge. Niamh has taken over the post from Hilary McOwat, who retired at the end of August after 29 years in the Library.

Paul Sheehan will retire as Director of Library Services at Dublin City University, and from the profession, at the end of December. He has been Director at DCU since 1999, having formerly worked at the Dublin Institute of Technology for a short period, and at Trinity College Dublin from the beginning of his professional career. Paul sends thanks and best wishes to all his friends and colleagues in the library world.

At the end of August, Maureen Pollock retired as Senior Library Administrator Electronic Resources after 22 years at Glasgow Caledonian University. Maureen is thoroughly enjoying her retirement, having just returned from an Eastern European cruise which included St Petersburg, and is now planning a trip to Mexico in 2014 – not to mention enjoying time with her grandson.

At the University of London, Andrew Preater was appointed Associate Director, Information Systems and Services at Senate House Libraries earlier this year. Andrew was previously Head of Information Systems at Senate House where he moved in 2009 following previous systems roles at the University of Leeds and Durham University. At Senate House, the combined Information Systems and Services teams manage both the physical and digital services provided to students and scholars. Andrew also leads on innovation projects in library access technologies including the current deployment of the Kuali OLE library services platform at Senate House.

Janet Allan, now Revd Janet, left Senate House Library at the end of June to become Assistant Curate at St Augustine's, Thorpe Bay, in the Diocese of Chelmsford. She started training for full-time ordained ministry in 2010 and was awarded a BA (Hons) Theology and Ministry this summer. Janet joined Senate House Library (then the University of London Library) in 1985, initially in the Periodicals section before moving on to be Head of Periodicals Administration in 1991, Head of Circulation and Membership three years later, then Head of Bibliographic Services in 1996 (and on the NAG committee for six years), before becoming a permanent member of SHL Management Group as Head of Collection Management in June last year.

In August, Eloise Carpenter (pictured) moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) Library as Assistant Librarian (Serials). Eloise previously worked in the Institute of Education Library for 13 years, qualifying last year with an MSc in Information Management from Northumbria University. At LSHTM, she replaces Melanie Grant, who left in June for the Wellcome Trust Library.

Catherine Scutt (pictured) has returned to Oxford to take up the post of Bodleian Education Librarian & Subject Consultant, previously held by Kate Williams. This follows seven years at Liverpool Hope University as Education Faculty Librarian, focusing on postgraduate studies and support for researchers. Both roles involve extensive information literacy teaching, which is an area of research interest for Catherine. Insights readers may be interested in an article she co-authored on teaching information skills to large groups published in the Journal of Information Literacy, which has been one of their top ten most downloaded papers.

At the University of Oxford, Jocelyn English became Deputy Librarian at the English Faculty Library in August. After studying English and Related Literature at York, Jocelyn worked for a year at the English Faculty Library under Oxford's Library Graduate Trainee scheme before taking an MA in Library and Information Studies at UCL (graduating with distinction in 2011). For the past four years, Jocelyn has been at St Anne's College Library in Oxford, most recently as Reader Services Librarian. She replaces Kerry Webb, who has moved to Reading University.

After 12 years working for the University of Oxford, Kerry Webb moved to the University of Reading in July to take up the role of Arts & Humanities Liaison Team Manager and Course Support Co-ordinator, overseeing the Library's work to develop the provision of core materials to support taught courses. In addition to this, Kerry has liaison librarian responsibilities for English Literature, Film, Theatre and Television, and Museum Studies.

Kate Williams is now the Academic Support Librarian for English, Philosophy, French, Hispanic and Italian at Warwick University, responsible for Library liaison with those departments, and for designing and delivering course content embedded in the University curriculum. Kate was previously Education Subject Librarian at Oxford University.

In September Janet Gardner died peacefully after receiving treatment for cancer. Janet joined the University Library as Serials Librarian in 1979 and was steadily promoted through a series of different roles across the Library, as Acquisitions Librarian, Head of Reader Services, Head of Technical Services and, finally, Head of Planning and Resources, from which post she took early retirement in 2009 after 30 years at the library. Janet played a significant role in the Library's growth and development, combining a detailed understanding of the Library, University, excellent organization and planning skills, with a genuine interest in and care for colleagues within and beyond the University. Janet was actively involved professionally in SUPC, UKSG and as a member of the SCONUL Focus Editorial Board. In retirement she had continued to plan, organize and do as a Church Treasurer and as a volunteer with the local library selecting books for those who couldn't get to the library. (http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/UKSG/305/Janet-Gardner/?n=121b8a3f-e721-4bc0-8354-7ad4d47f99de)

In September, the very sad news of the death of Frances Norton was reported on the Wellcome Trust blog. Frances was Head of the Wellcome Library from 2004 to 2009. She joined the Trust from Leeds University Library where she was Head of Public Service Strategy, and led the Wellcome Library through significant changes, including temporary relocation during the construction of Wellcome Collection and the relaunch of the Library in 2007. Frances also helped bring the Library more fully into the digital age, laying the foundations for the Transformation Strategy that has guided the Library over the last five years. She served on the board of Research Libraries UK and the steering group of the M25 Academic Library Consortium. (http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2013/09/frances-norton/)

In August, Chris Torrero joined Thomson Reuters, Hatton Garden, London, as a Content Analyst for Thomson Innovation and related products. Previously, Chris was Senior Information Officer at LGC where he worked for over seven years.

At EBSCO, Elizabeth Jones is Vice President of Medical Product Management and Chief Content Officer, and oversees the EBSCO Health Medical Product Management department in addition to managing the Medical Editorial Teams of clinical reference tools, such as DynaMed and CINAHL. Elizabeth previously served as Senior Vice President and Publisher at the American Medical Association, where she led and managed the AMA Publishing Group.

After 17 years with Houtschild International Booksellers, Managing Director Olwyn Cross left at the end of October, though remains on hand ‘behind the scenes’ until February next year. Olwyn has managed the company through two acquisitions, firstly Blackwells in 2007 and then 12 months ago, Bertrams. Following the acquisition by Bertrams, Olwyn wanted to help with the transition for a year and then reassess her options. Olwyn leaves the business in the excellent hands of Hans McIlveen, who has been with the company for 16 years, and has accepted a new position of Head of Operations to head up the Houtschild business.

In August, Doug Kaplan was named VP Global Alliances & Partnerships at Innovative. He has served as CEO of the Asia Pacific region for LexisNexis, and also as President of the Asia Pacific region at RealNetworks, and has held senior executive positions at NetGravity and Nikkei BP. Doug has also been a founder of media technology companies including Denalii and Ringier Studios.

In September, Robert Jacobs (pictured) joined Innovative as Director of Northern European Sales. Previously, he had served in various positions at Swets Information Services, where most recently he led the company's sales and marketing functions in the UK, Africa and Middle East. Before Swets, Robert was with Thomson Learning (now Cengage Gale).

Also at Innovative, Executive Hilary Newman has been named Senior Vice President for Library Solutions. Hilary will focus in her new role on maintaining customer service while serving as a customer advocate within the company. She has been with the company for more than 15 years in a variety of roles, as a Help Desk manager, Product Manager, Manager of the Circulation Team, Director of Implementation Services, Vice President of Library Service, and SVP of Product Development.

There are three new faces on board at Kudos, the initiative which helps academics and their institutions to measure, monitor and maximize the usage and impact of their published research. Leigh Dodds has joined Kudos as Chief Technology Officer. Leigh was CTO at Ingenta before moving to Talis. Louise Russell (was Tutton), who was Chief Operating Officer at Publishing Technology until recently (pictured left), is General Manager at Kudos. And Charlotte Van Rooyen (formerly Capanni), who was Head of Journals Marketing at OUP, is working with Kudos in Partner Relations. They are all continuing to freelance/consult as individuals but each is playing a key part in helping Kudos grow.

In June, Jan Donnelly joined LM Information Delivery as Head of Training & Business Development. For the previous six years, Jan was at EBSCO where she was National Sales Manager UK & Ireland.

In September, Ruth Wells joined HighWire Press as Senior Publication Manager. Ruth was formerly Head of Engineering at Publishing Technology in Oxford.

Dr David Smith has joined the Institution for Engineering and Technology (IET) as their Head of Product Solutions. Prior to joining the IET, David was Head of Innovations for the Plantwise Knowledge Bank, a $65 million project from CABI to bring plant health clinics to smallholder farmers in the developing world. In his new role, David is looking to bring an agile approach to the various aspects of new product ideation and technical development.

Ken Michaels is now Global Chief Operating Officer for Macmillan Science and Education, with responsibility for all of Macmillan Science and Education's global operations. Based in New York and London, Ken joined Macmillan from Hachette Book Group, where he was President and COO.

In August, Kathy Law joined Portland Press/Portland Customer Services Ltd as Business Development Manager responsible for their journal fulfilment, membership management, Society services including event planning and management and Secretariat services. Kathy has worked for organizations including Macmillan and, most recently, HighWire, and now shares her expertise developing opportunities and services for the Biochemical Society's trading arm.

In June, Rafael Sidi joined ProQuest as General Manager of ProQuest Information Solutions where he leads the strategic development of the company's content-rich solutions for academic markets globally. Rafael was previously at Elsevier where he held a number of senior positions, including head of product management and development for many successful and innovative products, such as ScienceDirect, SciVerse, Engineering Village, illumin8 and Elsevier's first e-book platform.

Also in June, ProQuest appointed Matthew Brine as Vice President and General Manager of Serials Solutions to provide the vision, strategy and global leadership to deliver discovery and management solutions to libraries.

In August, Jonathan Collins was promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at ProQuest. Jonathan, who had been interim CFO since April, now oversees all ProQuest's financial functions, including financial operations, accounting, procurement, facilities, treasury, taxation and investor relations. He joined ProQuest in 2010 as Vice President of Global Financial Operations, and, prior to joining ProQuest, he was the Executive Director of Financial Operations for the North American and Asian businesses at International Automotive Components.

Tony Rummans joined ProQuest in July as Vice President Global Sales, in which role he is responsible for leading the Global Sales organization. Tony also serves on the Sales, Marketing and Customer Experience leadership team.

In July, Elica Markovska joined the sales and marketing service provider Publishers Communication Group (PCG) as European Business Development Manager and member of the PCG management team. Elica has worked in a variety of sales roles at Taylor & Francis, and most recently sold content in Europe for Burgundy Information Services.

In August, the Publishers Licensing Society appointed Jonathan Griffin to the new position of Deputy CEO and Head of Business Development. He works there with Chief Executive, Sarah Faulder, to develop strategy, identify and deliver new services in response to publishers’ needs and provide support with the day-to-day management of the organization. Jonathan was Head of Market Development at the British Standards Institution for the previous five years.

In August, Katherine Jones joined EMPact Sales as Publisher Relations Manager in the Melbourne area of Australia. For the past four years, Katherine has been at RMIT Publishing, most recently as Business Development Manager.

In September, Lorraine Ellery joined Semantico as Business Development Manager. For the previous 11 years, Lorraine worked at Swets in a variety of roles, most recently as Global Marketing Manager, Publisher Services.

At Turpin Distribution, Adam Marshall has joined the organization with overall responsibility for managing a major business project over the next 18 months. Adam has worked within the publishing industry with Portland Press for 20 years as Group Head of Marketing & Customer Services.