Introduction

Maria Sliwinska, is the director of ICIMSS, and has expertise in library and information science, teaching, editing experience. She studied library and information sciences at the Nicholas Copernicus University in Torun, and holds a PhD in bibliology from Wroc?aw University. From 1993 to 1999 she was the Deputy Director of the Nicholas Copernicus University Library in Torun, responsible for its computerisation and modernisation. From 1989 to 1992 she also served as a lecturer in the Department of Librarianship and Scientific Information of the NCU. At present she is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Politics and International Studies where she teaches journalism studies and cultural studies at the Faculty of Polish Philology. 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. From 1998 to 2003 she was a member of the Library Council serving the Ministry of Culture, and in 2005 represented the Minister of Culture at the MINERVA project Board. 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. Since 2008 she has been a member of the Europeana Dissemination Group. Maria has participated in a dozen EC projects as local coordinator. The EC projects include TEMPUS: training for local administration in ICT; EXPLOIT ? support for specialists from memory institutions; DEDICATE ? distance learning courses in information awareness; CULTIVATE - cooperation between cultural heritage institutions such as archives, libraries and museums, DELOS ? digital library issues; MINERVA ? coordinating digitisation in Europe; EURIDICE ? pictures bank creation for distance learning courses; Training for the Stage ? professional profiles in administration, management, and promotion of performed arts; EMapps.com ? alternative reality educational games creation; MICHAEL ? national registers of digital collections, CUSTODES ? intends to increase the socio-economic value of cultural sites in the participating regions, ATHENA - a project which contributes to content provision to Europeana and most recently Linked Heritage.

Edward J. Valauskas is Chief Editor and Founder of First Monday. He teaches at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Edward is also Curator of Rare Books at the Chicago Botanic Garden. He is the founder and principal of Internet Mechanics, a technology consulting group which since 1993 has been advising schools, libraries, government agencies, and corporations on telecommunications, computing, and the Internet. Edward has written and edited several books on computing and the Internet. Edward has a life?long interest in paleontology and related fields. He was a Shinner Fellow in the Department of Geology at the Field Museum of Natural History, a Summer Student Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, and a graduate student in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. Edward is shown in the image above at the Field Museum of Natural History in August, 1969 while a Shinner Fellow. He is pictured in the invertebrate paleontological collections of the Museum, holding a slab of fossil crinoids. This image (Negative Number GN81691) is reproduced with the kind permission of the Field Museum of Natural History.