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Helen Okpala is a Chartered Librarian and a graduate of Botany/Library & Information Science from University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She is a SAP– Certified Solutions Architect whose vision is ‘to be the best innately-driven librarian by always being at the forefront of knowledge expansion in any terrain, and given any situation’. Helen is an ALCTS Online Course Grant Winner and is currently the Public Relations Officer, Nigerian Library Association, Enugu State Chapter. Her career in Librarianship is non-accidental, as she was the deputy school librarian during her secondary school days. Her interest in Librarianship lead her to applying for Library & Information Science as a course which she eventually offered in her first degree (Botany/Lib. Sc.), Masters (Information Technology) and Ph.D (In View). During her Youth Service days in Niger State, she served as a UNICEF/NYSC – Certified Peer Educator trainer, involved in training students on HIV/AIDS related issues. Same time in 2006, Helen attracted a Niger State Governor’s Merit Award for developing a school library from scratch in Niger State, paying school fees for thirty indigent students, and labelling the school offices (Click here for details).  She is a beneficiary of the Carnegie-Funded CPD Programme hosted by University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2015. Helen was once an International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) nominee and currently an Africa Online Volunteering Service (AOVS) volunteer attached to support the goals and services of The Gift Kids Foundation through proposal writings and social media involvement. She is currently involved in the supervision of the digitization and repository projects of the University of Nigeria. She is a member of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Network and recently facilitated a workshop on ‘Understanding Climate Change’ for LIS final year students of UNN which earned her a Green Champion certificate from the U.S Department of State (Click here for details). Helen is a member of University of Nigeria, Nsukka Webometrics and Global Visibility Committees where she is actively involved in enhancing the online presence of the University. By virtue of her innovative contributions in this Committee, she was nominated by the University of Nigeria to attend the World Universities Summit by Times Higher Education in May 2016. Helen is purely an Emerging Technology Librarian who is vastly knowledgeable in information technology and their application in libraries. Her participation in various Information Technology-related workshops, conferences and personal trainings has widened her horizon in this field. This trait fetched her an Award from Nigerian Library Association for Best ICT-based Project which was a Courseware Design using an E-learning software. As a Youth Corper, she developed a School Library from scratch, for a secondary school in Niger State, alongside other projects like payment of school fees for indigent students and also labeling the school’s offices. This occurred in 2005, fetching her her a Governor’s Award in 2006.  (click to see the Report). Helen is the Web Content Manager of Nnamdi Azikiwe Library, University of Nigeria Nsukka with the responsibility of ensuring the online presence of the library. She is the administrator of the website and social networks of the library which includes the library Facebook page, the Twitter handle, the Youtube Channel, Blog and Instagram. Helen is a trained Cataloguer who is knowledgeable in application of advanced tools in cataloguing of books and other resources. Helen is also a freelance blogger and a Mendeley Advisor. She is currently involved in Online Selective Dissemination (OSD) of Information to researchers in Pharmacology and Toxicology. Helen is a Maker Movement Enthusiast, especially after gaining some basic training during her visit to University of Pretoria in 2015 on Makerspace technologies such as 3D-printing, 3D-Scanning and others. In fact, her interest in Makerspace in libraries led her to participate in a paid and certification online Maker workshop organized by School Library Journal, where she learnt about technologies in Library Makerspace. Her enthusiasm for makerspace led the Librarians Registration Council of Nigeria to invite her as a resource person to speak on ‘Library makerspaces: an innovation in library and information services’. December 2016, she went to Ghana to for ESEFA SAP training and Certification. She has participated in two Times Higher Education (THE) ranking Summits at South Africa and Ghana. In 2017, she was among the 1000 youths to be selected all over the world to go pitch her idea on SDG 13 at UNLEASH LAB Event, Denmark. In 2019, She was selected to participate in Galilee International Management Institute Training on Higher Education Management. This also fetched her a Jerusalem Pilgrimage Certificate, with the fulfilment of getting baptized in River Jordan. Just after she returned from Israel in July, she was selected to travel to Egypt for Elsevier training on Scopus. She took the advantage to tour the city of Cairo where she visited many touring sites including the Pyramid site. She currently supervises the digitization project of the library and also submits contents to the UNN Institutional Repository. More recently, she is the Communications and Social Media Manager at Lion Science Park, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Helen has been invited as a resource person to speak across the blog, virtually. She is a versatile librarian who gives herself to studying current trends in the world. She is tech savvy and ready to teach others. Helen is a trained professional book indexer who indexes textbooks and the like, for authors. Helen is widely published in local and foreign journals/books, and is open to collaborations with researchers in her field and related fields.  On 25th October, 2016, she was invited to for Open Access Week at Elizade University, Akure to speak on ‘Institutional Repositories and Webometrics Ranking’. Her research interests are: Makerspace in libraries, Libraries and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Library Linked Open Data, Webometrics Ranking of Universities, Digitization in Libraries, Institutional Repository, Citation Analysis, Social Networking in Libraries.  Aside her interest in academics and research, Helen loves cooking, dancing and singing. She is a food blogger at Helen’sFood. You can download her debut single from https://soundcloud.com/kenna-8/incomplete-without-you. Helen is happily married to Engr. Chidiebere Okpala and they are blessed with Michelle (6+) and Josh (2+).

Helen can be reached at:  www.helenokpala.org and helen.okpala@unn.edu.ng