General Bio

General Bio

A leader and spokesperson of information literacy that has travelled to more than 60 countries in library-related work, Dr. Lau is a passionate advocate of the role of information competencies in our knowledge society, and the impact of information to transform lives.  Having led five academic libraries, with the responsibility for raising funds and building new library facilities at two of them, Dr. Lau currently holds the position of adviser to the Academic Provost, Universidad Veracruzana, the fourth largest public university in Mexico.  With a Ph.D. in Information Science, Sheffield University, England; a Master’s Degree in Library Science, Denver University; and Law Degree at Sinaloa University, Mexico, he has been awarded the title of National Researcher for eight consecutive three-year terms, 1989-2014 (Mexico). He has played a national and international leading role as a member of the Board of Directors of the Special Libraries Association (USA.  In addition, representing SLA, he served two terms the Governing Board; and the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA - The Netherlands), he served as the first Chair of IFLA’s Information Literacy Section.  Dr. Lau is Past-President of the Mexican Library Association (AMBAC) and a member of the Trejo-Foster Foundation (USA).  The author of more than 200 papers and articles and 15 monographs, including the IFLA Information Literacy Guidelines (translated into 12 languages) and an InfoLit Marketing manual, he currently edits the ALCI Book series on library management and leadership.  Dr. Lau received the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2011 (FIL) Librarian of the Year Award, the highest of its kind in Mexico, and previously received other awards, such as the Librarian of the Year Award by the Border Regional Library Association (Texas -New Mexico Border) in 1998.