The core IMA team

The consultants: their roles and project experience

How the IMA system works

IMA puts together teams of specialist consultants to conduct specific projects. The core work of IMA is maintained through a group of retained IMA consultants. The IMA core team consists of:

David Streatfield

David is Principal of IMA. He was previously (1981-1990) Head of Information Research and Development at the National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales, where he led a team of 16 staff involved in a variety of national and international research and development projects and was then Managing Director of NFER Enterprises, its training and consultancy company. Before that (1975-1980) he was Principal Investigator for Project INISS, a UK national research project focussed on information seeking and use of social workers. Earlier he had managed information and library services for the Confederation of British Industry, the London Metropolitan Police and the Council of Voluntary Service for Wales. ↩

Greg Jefferies

Greg is responsible for IMA research support and data analysis and has worked on many IMA contracts. Earlier he was a secondary school teacher, department head and General Editor of Jonathan Cape’s Geography Jackdaw Series, before moving to the Schools Council as a Development Leader. He was a Teachers’ Centre Leader in Somerset and then in Dorset, completing his M.Ed dissertation on ‘In-service Teacher Education and the Development of a Teaching Profession’ and was a Fellow at the School of Education, Bristol University working on the development of Governor Education materials. He worked with David Streatfield on the two NFER reports on the effects of the 1986 and 88 Education Acts and on the NFER publications on School Governor Training. He was Chairman of Schools and then Leader of the Opposition for Somerset Local Education Authority and has written numerous articles for the Times Educational Supplement, Teacher and other journals. ↩

Sharon Markless

Sharon is a Lecturer in Higher Education at the King’s institute of Learning and Teaching, King’s College London and a Senior Associate, IMA. She has taught in secondary schools, further education, prisons and higher education and was a Senior Researcher at the National Foundation for Educational Research until 1990. She has conducted national research and development on information literacy and on library development in schools, further education colleges and higher education and has conducted a wide range of training and professional development for the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and many academic institutions including work with police, hospital consultants and library service managers of all kinds. She has conducted overseas consultancy work in Finland, Portugal, USA and Malaysia. ↩

See also: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/learningteaching/staff/sharonm.html

Simon Rae-Scott

Simon is managing director of ConnectWorks Limited, which specialises in arts and information publishing. He has backgrounds in teaching, professional photography and ICT consultancy. His role is to bring new media technology solutions and innovation to bear upon the presentation of the arts and public sector information. The range of work includes online galleries, specialist extranets, online learning resources, internet access to applications and – either in close co-operation or partnership with IMA – the development of online evaluation, survey and sector skills tools for clients including The National Preservation Office at the British Library, Natural England, Skills for Care, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Beside managing ConnectWorks publishing projects, Simon Rae-Scott is also a SFEDI accredited business adviser, providing ICT and business consultancy under a range of programmes. ↩

see also: http://www.connectworks.co.uk

Noeleen Schenk

Noeleen has extensive experience in the information industry as a consultant, researcher and practitioner, so she is able to combine a strategic approach with practical experience in the field. She has worked for the last ten years as an information consultant specializing in projects related to all aspects of records, information and knowledge management.

Noeleen’s projects include:

  • Information and knowledge management strategy development
  • Records management strategies and implementation
  • Information service development and enhancements
  • Business case development to support change
  • Analysis of information requirements to match business needs.

Noeleen was part of the IMA team investigating Best Value and Better Performance in Libraries (see http://www.informat.org/bestvalue/) and the Natural England Customer Review of Information and Library Services. She also worked with IMA on the options appraisal of Information and Resource Strategies for the Study of the Moving Image for the British Film Institute and on the Comparative Evaluation of the Subject-Based Gateways approach to providing access to Network Resources (for JISC). She also led a team (including IMA) investigating The Use of Volunteers in Public Libraries for what is now the Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals. ↩

Professor Tom Wilson

Tom is a Senior Associate, IMA. He is also Professor Emeritus, University of Sheffield and Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds Business School and at Högskolan I Borås, Sweden. ↩

For his CV and biography see: http://informationr.net/tdw/cv.html