Hilde Hardeman
Hilde Hardeman, Director-General of the Publications Office of the European Union, joined the Commission in 1994. Previously, she served as Head of the European Commission's Service for Foreign Policy Instruments; Deputy Head of Cabinet to the Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness; headed the Commission President’s briefing team; and was in charge of the Units for Relations with Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. Hilde holds a PhD in Slavic Philology and History of the University of Leuven after studies at Leuven, Stanford University, and Paris. She was visiting professor at the College of Europe. On 1st of December Hilde took up her new function as Director-General of the Publications Office.
Nikolaos Petalas
Economist, MBA and a team leader at the Stakeholder Relations unit of the Publications Office of the EU. Previous to this role, he worked as a teacher of Economics, a consultant and a financial officer in the private sector.
Sergio Butelli
After graduating in medieval history, my professional and study interests turned entirely towards the world of libraries and information management.
I started working libraries even before finishing my studies. Since 2004, I have been working at the library of the European Commission.
My interests as a librarian have ranged from retrospective cataloguing, to circulation service, to interlibrary loan service. Nowadays, I am mainly involved in the management of the IT systems of our library, including our presence on the Intranet and on the Web.
Carol Riccalton
As a trained librarian, I have experienced many aspects of the profession in different library settings: academic, a national charity and, eventually, a health research centre. When I came to the Publications Office in 1997, I left the world of libraries behind and worked in various departments including Public Procurement and the Official Journal.
In recent years, however, I have made it back to my ‘roots’. I am now head of a unit responsible for several activities in the fields of metadata, identification, archiving and now also the EC Library. In addition to my responsibilities of the running of the unit, I also represent the Publications Office as a director on the board of the International ISBN Agency and the DOI Foundation.
Ewa Dessaignes
Originally from Poland, where I obtained a master in History of Art, I spent most of her life abroad. First in France studying information and knowledge management, then in the UK and Greece putting her knowledge into practice. In 2008 I joined the European Commission as a translator before moving to the OP in 2014 where she leads the publications’ metadata and identifiers team.
Working on the EU Legal Deposit was an opportunity to return to her roots: preservation of the cultural heritage while using competencies in the domain of identifiers and metadata. I am also the person behind the Inter-institutional Database of EU Studies that offers yet another view on the EU Institutions intellectual output.
Jan Vandamme
I’m the library and metadata coordinator at Eurofound, having joined the Agency in 1998. Previous to this role, I was a librarian at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium) and Natolin (Poland). With a keen interest in open science and meaningful impact assessment, I promote the 'Inside-out' library concept and increased cooperation with the Publications Office of the European Union. I hold a postgraduate degree in library and information science.
Dorota Minkiewicz
After my studies in modern languages and intercultural connections (University of Warsaw, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen) my mind was set on the world of publishing. So when I came to the Publications Office in 2019 and plunged myself into world of cataloguing and archives, I felt like I belonged, even if it was all very new.
Now I am getting comfortable in the digital long-term preservation team and working on different projects connected to it, mostly the implementation of the EU Legal Deposit scheme and the Interinstitutional Database of EU Studies.
Izabela Szyprowska
Born in a family with deep library roots, and always surrounded by books, I graduated in Library and Information Science (PL), and in EU Studies (BE). After 20 years, I’m still working at the Publications Office – a perfect place where both backgrounds can be combined. I’m currently head of the Content Acquisition sector that is responsible for collecting material which otherwise might be lost forever: PDF files of publications produced outside OP by other EU institutions and agencies, or ephemeral EU Web content. I am an enthusiast of books and... permanent identifiers, in particular a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which can guarantee that these books can always be found to be read.
Alexandre Angers
I am head of the sector within OP that manages the long-term preservation of EU publications, as well as large-scale digitisation projects. Our archives contain both digital and physical documents - both with their own unique sets of challenges – filled with the stories of the European project.
Our team’s mission is to preserve these stories in a secure and trustworthy manner, ensuring they will remain accessible (and authentic) for current and future generations of citizens.
Silvia Sevilla
I am the coordinator of the web archiving service at the Publications Office. The EU web archive preserves the websites of the EU institutions, agencies and bodies. I hold a degree in law but my work has always been related to publications in one way or another both in the private sector and in the Publications Office, where I started working in 2006.
Taavi Saarimäki
You can find me in the EC Library… giving a course on effective search skills, planning a webinar or spreading the word about trusted information sources and amazing EC Library services.
Come to me… if you are interested in knowing more about our monthly Search like a pro course that is part of the EU Policymaking Hub training programme. Email me or get in touch on Yammer.