Dr Jessica Bates joined the NIPR Advisory Panel in October 2015 and became its Chair in May 2017. She also attends meetings of the NIPR Board in an ex-officio capacity. Dr Bates is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an experienced lecturer and researcher in the School of Education, Ulster University where she is Course Director for the Library and Information Management programme and undertakes research across Library and Information Science and Education. Her research has been published in key international journals including the Journal of Academic Librarianship, Library and Information Science Research and School Libraries Worldwide. Dr Bates regularly reviews for a number of academic journals and is an Editorial Board Member of the New Review of Academic Librarianship. She has also published two books with her husband as Rathlin Island Books, HMS Drake: Rathlin Island Shipwreck by Ian Wilson and The Call of the Running Tide by Wallace Clarke. She lives on Rathlin Island with her husband and son.