Maria Sliwinska Director

She can be reached at [email protected]

Creator and Director of the International Centre for Information Management Systems & Services. She has worked at the Nicolaus Copernicus University since 1975 in the University Library (1993-1999 as the Deputy Director of the Library for Computerisation and Modernisation), 1989-1992 as a lecturer in the Department of Librarianship and Scientific Information. Currently she represents the Polish Ministry of Culture in the European Project MINERVA (coordination of digitization in Europe).

From 1998 to 2003 she was a member of the National Library Council, created by the Polish Ministry of Culture. From 1999 to 2001 she served as the ICT Stories Project jury member created by the World Bank (Washington) and InfoDev (International Institute for Communication and Development - The Hague) for assessing information technology projects in South America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

She was an initiator and member of the "Library with Horizon" agreement, which covered over 50 libraries, introducing the Horizon system (1997-1999). In 1997-1999 she was also a member of the NUKAT central catalogue Coordination Team. In the 90's she was a member of the Polish Librarians Association Commission for professional practice.

Apart from computerising the Nicolaus Copernicus University Library she has organized the European Documentation Centre, (applying to the European Commission for a collection of documents, getting a dozen or so annuals of the Official Journal from Hull and also a dozen or so permanent subscriptions for European publications from various European Agencies). In 1999 she piloted a project for free access to the collections.

In 1994 she was invited to participate in an historic meeting of library and information services specialists "From Assistance to Co-operation - an Investment for the Future", organised in Strasbourg by the Directorate XIII of the European Commission and the Council of Europe to discuss the development of information in Central and Eastern European countries, and to start co-operation with non EU member states.

As a result of 80 applications for grants in the last 10 years she has got over 4 mln Euro for the realization of 33 projects. Among the more important coordinated European Projects are:

• TEMPUS (1994-1996)
• TEMPUS13105(1998-01)
• EXPLOIT (1999-2000)
• DEDICATE (1998-1999)
• CULTIVATE (2000-01)
• DELOS (2002-2003)
• MINERVA (2003- )

Since 1999 she has been registered on the European Commission Expert's List. She received invitations for:

• Leading a session on the conference "Future of electronic present", Amsterdam (1999)
• Publication of an article in the European Commission Bulletin eCulture on the subject of Electronic Culture in Poland. (2003)
• Evaluation of the European Commission programmes and plans: TEMPUS, DIGICULT, EUROBAROMETR
• Being the European Commission publication DIGICULT correspondent (since 2003)

She has taken an active part in about 60 conferences (among them over 40 international) where she has delivered a number of papers in English. She has also taken part in conference programme councils and has led sessions in Amsterdam, Berkeley, Bielefeld, Bratislava, Budapest, Chicago, Philadelphia, Göteborg, London, Los Angeles, Rome, Sofia, Vilnius, and Zagreb.

She has published over 70 articles, over half in English. She has edited a dozen or so books.

In ICIMSS she has prepared and delivered the module "Institutional Policy" and has also assisted in delivering the "Change Management" module. Now she is preparing "The European Information Policy" module.