Kay Ann Cassell is presently an adjunct professor at the Rutgers University Department of Library and Information Science where she teaches a variety of courses including reference and information services, collection development, public librarianship and government information resources. She has worked in public and academic libraries. She has been the director of several public libraries and was the Associate Director for Collections and Services at the New York Public Library. As NYPL’s Associate Director of Collections and Services she oversaw the development of reference, collections, programs and services for all of the branches and initiated new programs and services. She received her MLS from Rutgers University and her PhD from the International University for Graduate Studies. She is the author of Managing Reference Today and Public Libraries and Their Communities, and she was selected as the 2019 winner of the Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award, the Reference and User Services Association’s highest honor.
Uma Hiremath was Executive Director at the Ames Free Library, Massachusetts; Assistant Director at the Thayer Public Library, Massachusetts; Head of Reference at the West Orange Public Library, New Jersey; and Supervising Librarian at the New York Public Library. She received her MLS from Pratt Institute, New York and her PhD in political science at the University of Pittsburgh.