WHO WE ARE.
Our mission is to foster organizational commitment to evidence-based decision making, library assessment, research and development. Our focus areas include: improving library and university organizational strategy, outcomes and success metrics; building the case for effective budget presentations; refreshing library assessment and statistical gathering activities; supporting institutions with their accreditation.
OUR TEAM.
Martha Kyrillidou, Director & CEO
Martha Kyrillidou consults in management, evaluation, assessment and R&D activities. She helps libraries respond to customer needs through the development of user-focused services and culture that enhance the user-experience. With an understanding of trends in services, collections, facilities, and personnel she can help a library tell their story through narratives, visuals and numbers. Martha can help you with accreditation, grant writing, evaluation plans or serve as your external evaluator and data analyst for your grant and sponsored activities. As the original architect of the StatsQUAL suite of services at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Martha is well positioned to consult and help you maximize the benefits you derive from LibQUAL+, ClimateQUAL and MINES for Libraries. She has also worked on digital library as well as special collections assessment and evaluation methods. Her work has defined the growing and dynamic library assessment community of practice across the globe.
Joyce Chapman, Assessment Analyst & Consultant
Joyce Chapman is the Assessment Analyst & Consultant at Duke University Libraries. Prior to her current position, Joyce was the statewide Data Analysis & Communications Consultant at the State Library of North Carolina. Joyce has additionally worked as an independent consultant since 2015. Her consulting work focuses on data visualization and analysis, evaluation and assessment, and survey design. Joyce received her MSIS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009.
Erika Kanda Fitzpatrick, Library Intern
Erika is an intern at QualityMetrics (2020-2021). She is currently working towards a master’s in library and information sciences at the University of Tennessee Knoxville as part of CALL, an IMLS-funded grant program focused on science liaison librarianship. Erika received her undergraduate degree in computer science at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Shana Hattis, Communications Associate
Shana Hattis is a communications associate for QualityMetrics, LLC. She has a degree in Jouralism and a Master of Science in Education from Northwestern University. She has authored numerous books for academic, library, and business audiences. She has worked extensively with both federal- and state-level data on a wide variety of topics, ranging from education to vital statistics to government spending. She has also served as a consultant for private business, nonprofit, and state agency clients.
Tom Hickerson, Library Consultant
Tom Hickerson is a library consultant with rich experience and a record of accomplishments. Tom Hickerson’s distinguished career includes international leadership in library and museum administration, archives and special collections, technical innovation, and library building design. As an archivist, he guided Cornell University Library’s archives and rare book programs, serving as President of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and on the International Council on Archives Executive Board. As a technology innovator, he created campus and international collaborations using emerging technologies to expand access to diverse holdings, including operation of arXiv.org and the Center for Innovative Publishing.
In 2006, Tom became Vice Provost at the University of Calgary with a mandate to lead the design of a new model for university libraries. The $205M project to build the Taylor Family Digital Library led to broad recognition and to his founding role in the Designing Libraries for the 21st Century Conference series. His professional leadership includes serving on the Board of the Association of Research Libraries and as President of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. His recognitions include being named an SAA Fellow and Computerworld Honors Program Laureate for “the use of information technologies for the benefit of society.”
At QualityMetrics, Tom draws on his diverse range of experience to help libraries and cultural institutions achieve excellence in their programs, guided by a compelling vision for the future.
Steve Hiller, Library Consultant
Steve Hiller has been a leader in the assessment community for 30 years. He retired as director of assessment and planning at the University of Washington Libraries in December 2017 and now serves as strategic analysis and institutional research Librarian (40% post-retirement). He led a robust assessment program that utilizes a variety of quantitative and qualitative assessment methods, including the triennial survey for faculty and students, which has been running continuously since 1992. He also led the development and implementation of two strategic plans. He was honored by the University of Washington with the David Thorud Leadership Award in 2016, a rare achievement for a librarian.
Steve has presented and published on a number of assessment-related topics including user needs assessment, survey design and analysis, library planning, outcomes and performance metrics, articulating library value and developing organizational capacity for sustainable assessment. His career also includes years of service to the assessment community through his research, publications, presentations, mentorship, and leadership. He is a co-founder and co-chair of the biennial Library Assessment Conference and served as a Visiting Program Officer for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) from 2004 through 2018, providing consultation, training, and expertise to the ARL community and beyond, including co-leadership of the seminal Effective, Sustainable and Practical Assessment program which worked with 42 research libraries across the US and Canada. Steve has served as an evaluator for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) since 1992.
Jonathan LeBreton, Library Consultant
Jonathan LeBreton is an experienced library administrator and consultant well versed in multi-disciplinary project management, facilities design and operation, and organizational planning, as well as financial operations and data gathering and reporting .
Between 1984 and 2001, Jonathan was Administrative Services Librarian and then Associate Director of Libraries at UMBC (the University of Maryland Baltimore County). In addition to core responsibilities for planning, facilities, budget and human resources, he led a number of internal data collection efforts and oversaw revision of University System of Maryland library data collection for consortial operational reporting and for space planning. After moving to Temple University, where he became Senior Associate University Librarian, his work expanded to include technical services operations and computing. In 2011 he was recognized as a Research Library Leadership Fellow by the Association of Research Libraries.
Jonathan’s experience at Temple conducting library cost studies led to his current role participating in library cost studies for large research libraries in support of F&A rate negotiations following his retirement from Temple.
Jonathan holds his Master of Science in Library Science from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He also holds an MA in History from Northern Illinois University. He has served as the PI or co-PI on grants by the IMLS, the Maryland Humanities Council, the NEA, and several private foundations and represented both UMBC and Temple in multi-type consortial activities.
Joe Mathews, Library Consultant
Joe Matthews has a long career as a consultant in assisting libraries with strategic planning projects, evaluation of services and technology. Joe has worked with numerous academic and public libraries, library systems (cooperatives), and state libraries. Joe has also assisted a large number of libraries and library consortiums in preparing building programs, strategic plans, technology plans, evaluating existing library services, exploring new innovative services and working with architects on the design of library facilities.
Joe has written a number of books, including Library Assessment in Higher Education (2nd Edition), Strategic Planning and Management for Library Managers; Adding Value to Libraries, Archives and Museums; Measuring for Results; The Customer Focused Library; The Measurement and Evaluation of Library Services (2nd Edition), Getting Started with Evaluation; Scorecards for Results: A Guide for Developing a Library Balanced Scorecard and Listening to the Customer among others. Joe has taught for the San Jose State University School of Library & Information Science where he taught an evaluation of library services class, research methods, managing technology and management classes. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Public Library Quarterly.
Peter Melinchok, Technical Assistant
Peter is serving as our part-time Technical Assistant at QualityMetrics. He is finishing his degree in computer science at the University of Maryland Baltimore-County.
Katerina Miteloudi, Administrative Assistant
Katerina Miteloudi is our part-time administrative assistant. She is helping us with marketing and administrative support tasks when she is not working as an interpreter.
Robert (Bob) Molyneux, Library Consultant
Robert (Bob) Molyneux has collected, compiled, and analyzed library data from a variety of sources—domestic and foreign. He has experience in creating, documenting, recompiling, analyzing, and publishing longitudinal files from existing library data. He has taught in three ALA-accredited library schools and a technical training firm. The library school courses largely dealt with networking and the Internet in the context of the information revolution. The courses at the training firm dealt with networking and the Internet protocols also but at a more technical and intense level. He has worked in libraries, for the Federal Government, and private firms doing practical data analysis in those environments. He also maintains an archive of US library data and publications about that data in the Library Data Archive which is housed at the Library Research Service.
Shaneka Morris, Diversity and Library Consultant
Shaneka has spent nearly two decades honing her unique skill set in the data and information landscape. Shaped by her early research in experimental psychology and social psychology and her training with the National Coalition Building institute, an international organization that provides diversity, equity, and inclusion training, Shaneka’s expertise sits at the nexus of research methods, data analysis, and racial equity praxis. Her 10-year tenure at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) began in September of 2010. She engaged with over 100 libraries in the U.S. and Canada and nearly 400 survey coordinators annually, scaling up her data collection, management, and training skills to successfully support and coordinate ARL’s international annual data collection for the Association’s seminal data products, the ARL Salary Survey and the ARL Statistics survey. For nearly 10 years she managed these two surveys and coordinated the biannual ClimateQUAL survey cycles, eventually becoming the point person for custom analyses of ARL’s longitudinal data sets and for inquiries regarding the use of ARL data. Anti-racist, equity-driven, and empowerment-focused long before the current racial reckoning, Shaneka has engaged with groups and individuals as a catalyst for positive and sustainable change. Her professional interests include survey design, data strategy, data analysis techniques, and evaluation. Shaneka received her MS in Library Science in May of 2010 from the University of North Texas.
Carolyn F. Norman, Library Consultant
Carolyn F. Norman has experience in advancing initiatives at the local, state and national level. As Coordinator of Library and Learning Resources Programs for the California Community College Chancellor’s Office she led the development, implementation and management of the Library and Learning Resources Programs in the 100+ institutions in the California Community College system. During her tenure, she conducted ongoing qualitative and quantitative research, prepared analytic models of the issues and programs; developed or revised regulatory, statutory and fiscal policy; and secured resources for Research and Development projects and ongoing statewide programs. Accomplishments include development of a statistics program for the library and learning resources programs, the first systemwide master plan for the California Community College libraries and learning resources programs, information literacy regulations, and securing a telecommunication planning grant for the college system. Carolyn holds a Master’s from Syracuse in Library and Information Science and a Master’s in History with a Public History focus from the University of San Diego. Her Bachelor’s in Spanish is from Chapman (College) University.
Genya M. O’Gara, Library Consultant
Genya O’Gara is the Deputy Director at VIVA, the academic library consortium of Virginia serving 71 non-profit higher education institutions. Prior to her current position, Genya was the Director of Collections at James Madison University, where she oversaw the Collections Management, Digital Collections, Special Collections, and Preservation Units. Genya has held previous positions at North Carolina State University Libraries in Special Collections and Collection Management. Genya has worked as an independent consultant with Quality Metrics since 2021. Her consulting work focuses on evaluating statewide programs, initiatives and awarded grants, assessing services and collections, and providing high level analysis and reports to stakeholders.
Jennifer Pesek, Library Consultant
Jennifer Pesek is in her last year of her MLIS at San Jose State University. She is working towards an academic librarianship career, with an emphasis on research and instruction. Jennifer is currently completing several projects and internships which focus on analytical research (ClimateQual survey and a Student Employment competencies analysis) and ILI instruction (design on several specialized ILI modules, one for the business department at CSUEB and another for the Convent and Stuart Hall High School library archives). Her previous field work included the opportunity to create a customized subject taxonomy and controlled vocabulary for a history archives database. She is also currently the Vollstedt Intern for Library Administration at the University of Oregon, where she has the opportunity for mentorship and direct field work at the university’s extensive libraries.
Jennifer’s previous career was as a public interest and private solo attorney, working in the fields of immigration, disability rights, and small business entrepreneurship. In that career she focused on community empowerment through education and communication, providing frequent public workshops on legal topics. She has presented for the California Bar Association, American Bar Association, Santa Clara County Bar Association, Small Business Administration, and to many local community organizations. She also created extensive written materials for her private clients, including education and empowerment with her representation.
Jennifer’s goal is to combine the educational, subject knowledge and service aspects of her legal career with her MLIS education and field work experience and apply all these skill sets to a rewarding and service-oriented career in academic librarianship at a law school or research-oriented university.
Mark Puente, Diversity and Library Consultant
Mark A. Puente is the Associate Dean for Organizational Development, Inclusion, and Diversity, and Associate Professor at the Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies. Previously, Puente served for 11 years as the Senior Director of Diversity and Leadership Programs at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in Washington, DC. A frequent clinician, speaker, facilitator, and author, Puente also works with numerous organizations (i.e. library, archive, museum, K-12 education) on strategies for accelerating change in organizational culture, inclusion in the workplace, climate assessment, strategic planning, racial equity, inclusive leadership, diversity recruitment and retention, and numerous other topics. Puente has worked extensively with organizations and institutions across the United States and Canada and has presented internationally. Puente holds a master’s degree in Information Resources and Library Science from the University of Arizona and their Knowledge River Program, as well as a master’s degree in music (voice) from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. He has directed and served on the faculty or advisory groups to numerous leadership development programs such as the ARL Leadership and Career Development Program (LCDP), the ARL Leadership Fellows Program, Boston Leads, the Archives Leadership Institute, the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries’ Leadership Fellows Program, and the Leading Change Institute.
Jennifer Rutner, Library Consultant
Jen started her career in higher education, as a Assessment & Planning Librarian at Columbia University Libraries, where she drew connections between organizational strategy and user experience. From there, she moved to Ithaka S+R, where as a Senior Analyst, she broadened her scope of inquiry and insight to the evolving nature of scholarly work and communication. Since then, Jen has been deeply embedded in her local community, working with a range of people, businesses, and non-profits as they take on pressing community issues. Jen has a passion and a talent for research with a human focus. Her curiosity, analytical sensibilities, and instinct for meaningful communication help her uncover and share stories that make an impact.
With experience and training in qualitative and quantitative methods, Jen matches the right research method to the question at hand and uncovers information that illuminates an inquiry. Jen can work with you on developing, conducting, and analyzing data from focus groups, interviews, surveys, questionnaires, usability studies, space studies, and observational studies. In every research project, she stays focused on the practical–connecting the data we gather to your organizational goals and projects.
Jen also works with individuals and organizations to clarify your mission, visions and goals, create innovative and practical strategic plans, evaluate their successes, and help you take the next step.
Stephen Town, Research Consultant
Stephen Town has over thirty years experience of leading libraries and the strategic development and transformation of university information services, retiring as Director of Information and University Librarian of the University of York, UK in fall 2015. Stephen has undertaken international consultancy since 1989, and has experience as investigator, leader, manager and board member for programs, projects and contracts for research, development, digitization, e-learning, and information and educational services for clients including government, industry, prestigious foundations and charitable trusts. Stephen has delivered invited keynotes, presentations, strategy retreats, leadership courses, workshops and advice to organizations including individual universities and higher education consortia, across four continents and in more than twenty countries. Educated at Cambridge University with a PhD in organizational value from the University of York, Stephen has contributed over sixty publications to the academic and professional literature in the fields of leadership, strategy, performance, and quality. Stephen has worked with Martha Kyrillidou for fifteen years; helping libraries to understand themselves better and to tell their stories in a compelling and persuasive way.
Bill Wilson, Library Consultant
Bill Wilson brings significant experience as a library practitioner as well as more than 25 years of work as a full-time library consultant to the QualityMetrics team. Bill worked in public libraries in jobs ranging from “page” to director and served as Wisconsin’s State Librarian prior to embarking on his independent consulting career with Himmel & Wilson, Library Consultants. Over the past three decades he has completed more than 400 projects in 46 states for libraries, regional library systems, more than half of the state library agencies, and for several federal agencies.