2025 Community Council Election

Name

Institution

Candidate Statement

Peter Murray

Index Data

I am honored to stand for election to the FOLIO Community Council. My long involvement in the project brings a wealth of knowledge to the Council, and my involvement in various areas of the project's infrastructure brings a deep perspective to the Council's work. My technical expertise, collaborative leadership style, and deep commitment to open-source values will enable me to advocate effectively for the project's needs, foster inclusivity, and drive sustainable growth for the FOLIO ecosystem.

Peter-Paul Kloppenborg

BSZ - Bibliotheksservice-Zentrum (Konstanz)

As the Deputy Director of a consortium of over 200 participating libraries and a partner institution of the GBV, I have been responsible for the FOLIO documentation for the past two years and have played a key role in its development and optimization. Our institution is a pioneer in open-source solutions for libraries. With extensive experience in leading library projects and collaborating within international communities, I bring solid expertise in open-source software, governance, and strategic planning. As a Council Member, I aim to support the long-term sustainability and growth of the FOLIO community

Vanessa French

Lehigh University

Thank you for your consideration of my nomination to the Community Council. I am the AUL for Library Access and Collection Management at Lehigh University. I took on this role at Lehigh a little over a year ago and I'm looking for more opportunities to get involved in the FOLIO Community. Since taking over this role, I've been working on re-examining and changing our workflows in FOLIO. In previous roles, I've also been involved with consortial efforts to advocate for enhanced systems functionality. I would like to continue that work on the Community Council.

Petra Schneider

HeBIS (Frankfurt/Main) - Supporting

My name is Petra and I would love to join the Community Council. I work at the University Library Frankfurt. My job right now is to manage the migration from our current system to FOLIO - mainly for our Library, but we are working together with other university librarys and the hebis Verbundzentrale to migrate every library within the hebis libray network. That's why i chose hebis as the member organisation in the formular and not UB Frankfurt.
I am working with FOLIO now for round about 2 years and I think it's a good time to get more involved in the FOLIO community.

Martina Schildt

GBV / VZG, Göttingen

I would be honored to serve on the Community Council, working collaboratively and across councils to address challenges, drawing from my experience in community engagement. As ERM project lead for GBV, I am experienced in coordinating teams, overseeing implementations and ensuring that projects meet their objectives efficiently. Since 2021, I am serving on the PC, where I actively participate in strategic decision-making to help shape product development. As a convener, I am leading discussions, facilitating collaboration among stakeholders and driving initiatives forward. I am eager to bring my dedication to the CC, cooperating on governance structures that ensure the sustainable and secure operation of FOLIO throughout the community.

Edwin Pretz

BVB - Bibliotheksverbund Bayern (Bavarian Library Network)

We are about to complete the first phase of our FOLIO/VuFind implementation within our library network (BVB). Three out of four libraries are already online and fully functional with FOLIO and VuFind. Phase two of the FOLIO implementation (nearly 30 academic libraries) will begin in August 2025. We operate FOLIO in close cooperation with the LRZ as our IT service partner.
I'm very interested in seeing the FOLIO community develop in a healthy and sustainable direction. I recognize that the long-term development and maintenance of the software and the community are crucial issues that we need to address. It would be great if I could continue participating in the CC over the next two years and contribute to this development.

Florian Ruckelshausen

Giessen University Library

University library Giessen was engaged in the development project for german reminder fees and started with FOLIO circulation in a productive system in May 2025. I am head of library IT-services in Giessen and have a longtime experience with library management systems especially in mediating the requirements of librarians as well as those of the IT-staff. I want to take a more active role in the FOLIO community and the development direction by Participating in the community council.

Tom Cramer

Stanford Libraries

I am the Associate University Librarian for IT at Stanford, a former member of the FOLIO Community Council (2022-2025), and bring 20+ years of experience in open source and international library technology communities. I seek to rejoin the Community Council with two principal goals: to help make FOLIO even better as a thriving, inclusive and participatory project, and to grow the FOLIO membership and revenue base to help it achieve a balanced, sustainable and sustainable level of innovation and operations. In the next few years, FOLIO will move from hundreds to thousands of adopters worldwide, and the steps we take in the next two years are critical.

Karen Jara Maricic

Bibliotecas Universidad de Concepción

I am pleased to submit my candidacy to the FOLIO Community Council on behalf of the University of Concepción Libraries. I led FOLIO's implementation at our institution—the first in Latin America to adopt it in production (since 2021). As Library Director and Chair of the CRUCH Library Commission, I promote open source, interoperability, and regional collaboration. I bring experience in governance, digital transformation, and the challenges of diverse institutions. I aim to contribute regional insights, support inclusivity, and help align local needs with global development priorities, fostering FOLIO’s growth in the Global South.

Christopher Spalding

EBSCO Information Services

I am honored to seek re-election to the FOLIO Community Council, where I currently serve as co-chair. Since joining the project in its earliest stages, I have worked across councils, SIGs, and governance groups to support FOLIO’s evolution as a sustainable, inclusive, and global open-source initiative. My continued focus is on strategic alignment, transparent decision-making, and expanding participation, particularly among new adopters and underrepresented regions. With significant change ahead, I believe continuity in leadership is essential. I would be grateful for the opportunity to serve another term and help guide FOLIO through its next phase of growth.

Stephen Short

Library of Congress

We are recent FOLIO adopters and are eager to become active contributors to the advancement of FOLIO. I am Chief of Collection Discovery Metadata Services, the unit at LoC that manages and supports FOLIO. Libraries matter to me and to my colleagues here. We see the FOLIO community and open-source platform as critical to our future. For us, FOLIO means that the Future Of Libraries is Ours because our effort and uses of FOLIO will be a major determinant of our future services. I believe in libraries big and small. I want to be part of a collaborative effort to ensure FOLIO vitality and responsiveness to all member needs. Thank you for considering me.