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LIBRARY CONSULTANT TEAM

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Alexander Cohen, MLIS

Alex Cohen, MLIS, Library Consultant, is a librarian, strategist and technology professional.

Alex is a second-generation library planning consultant. He is the president of Aaron Cohen Associates (ACA); a global library consultant firm. He supports the design of libraries and shared academic services. He participates in library programming and cultural building development and design activities. He facilitates the analysis of the organization, building design and project management requirements. He is instrumental as a programmer of library buildings; space planning for the learning commons, information commons, academic commons, library operations and pre-planning for architectural design and development for academic, public, medical, law, corporate and special research libraries.

Before joining and building on ACA’s library architecture, behavioral design and space planning research, Alex earned his Bachelor's Degree in Finance from the University of Arizona. He worked for fifteen years as a project manager on global information technology projects and new software in Silicon Valley. In 2005, Alex gained his Masters in Library Science degree (MLS) with a focus on library programming and design, information management, space planning, IT and automation techniques. Here, he began to develop library programs and designs, technology plans and research strategies for all kinds of libraries.

Alex’s library consultant experiences enabled new libraries to be built and the reconfiguration and reorganization of existing libraries. His experience identifying and developing innovative service delivery options made an impact on cultural centers and institutions of higher education. Alex explored, strategized and researched new technology for libraries, library systems for cultural institutions and museums – helping them reinvent themselves.

Over the years, Alex leveraged his library science, IT and software development experiences (Yahoo, Unilever, Eurotunnel, Thomas Cook) to become a master planning consultant; long- and short-range library planning research for Stanford University, Tufts University, DePaul University, St. Louis County Library, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, NV; Poudre River Public Library District, CO; Town of Barnstable, MA; and Berks County Public Library System, PA. Alex developed operational strategies to provide better library services to resource limited areas in Barbados, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands. He developed future-orientated library buildings in Baghdad, Karachi and Riyadh; created to support social collaboration, individual research, sharing and learning activities.

As a library planner, workshop facilitator and technology planner, Alex’s experience includes space planning and design, automation, e-library development, classroom development, learning behavior research and a host of historic building projects. Alex develops college library's and large-scale building projects: academic, public, medical, law and US research libraries. He uses behavioral mapping techniques such as the Visual Scan to provide innovative solutions to library building challenges.

Alex continues to facilitate space planning and design workshop programs at ACRL, LLAMA and American Library Association Annual Meetings. Alex provides private workshops to support on-going research in library planning and design. For more info, Click Here.

As a member of Aaron Cohen Associates LTD, Alex used his abilities on several public and academic library projects, including:

Aaron Cohen, AIA

Aaron Cohen, AIA, Library Architect, is a design strategist and management professional.

Aaron has a Masters of Architecture and Planning from Pratt Institute and a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Architecture, from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Aaron is the founder and principal of Aaron Cohen Associates, a library planning and consulting firm. His strong leadership, organizational design and budgeting skills have greatly impacted modern libraries and the way in which they deliver services to their community. He is an original innovator of library building designs such as the information commons, flexible learning spaces and project based workspaces. He has helped extend library services to new users both as a design professional and as a strategic planner. His background includes 38 years as an organizational planner, programmer and design architect.

Aaron has been at the vanguard in the development of the modern library organization. He first developed a unique architectural building program to meet the needs of the changing information landscape. He delivered his designs and programs along with strategic planning studies to National Library organizations to large urban public library systems so that they could confront change through consensus. Aaron has been honored as a library services trendsetter, which many librarians valued as essential to the future of the library as a learning institution.

Aaron started planning libraries in the 1970s when many modern institutions were beginning to recognize that library building and user needs were changing the building design He recognized that circulating materials print (books) and archives (preservation) and electronic materials (digital files) required new ways to think about the organization as a whole. Over the years, he stressed that simple approaches to organizational change and building designs were needed. Thus, he expanded his skill set as an architect to become strategic planner and educator of scenario planning. He taught new ways to look at information services in the long and short term. He explored modern solutions with the greatest architects of the world to meet the needs of the digital user as well as the traditional reader. He led organizational innovations in high education to provide flexibility so that new services and solutions would improve student success. His research enabled many libraries manage change instead of change managing the library organization.

Aaron has been called a futurist and programmatic innovator. He has been linked to library advocates who have committed their lives to improving education and learning. Indeed, he has strived to enable libraries to provide greater benefits to their communities by backing efficient systems. He has developed long and short range services, equal funding mechanisms, regional service plans, technical services and staff workflows, new library building and efficient materials management systems.

Aaron’s work has led to many innovations – automation, management, self check-out, RFID, collaborative workspaces, ‘library as place’ visualizations and the visual scan consensus building activities. He has led numerous workshops on library space planning and design, strategic alignment and organizational development. He is a respected author of library design and organizational planning topics. Aaron’s research continues to improve with age. He has helped numerous library organizations develop new service options.

Aaron Cohen, AIA, is a registered architect (seven states, including California), a twenty-seven year member of the American Library Association, and a member of the American Institute of Architects. He also holds NCARB registration. His strengths include strategic and long-range planning, master facility planning, site selection, space planning and preliminary cost estimating. To this end, he has been retained to provide Master Planning studies by numerous library systems in the U.S. and abroad, including:

Other projects include: Broward County Library System, FL; Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL; Virginia Poly Tech, Blacksburg, VA; NASA-Langley, Hampton, VA; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA; University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Urbana, IL; University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL; Long Island University, NY.

In joint effort with Elaine Cohen and Alex Cohen, Mr. Cohen has conducted more than 500 seminars and workshops on space planning and design, strategic planning and library automation. The current workshop is entitled: “The Visual Scan & the Design of Future Oriented Libraries”. Also in joint effort with Elaine Cohen, he is coauthor of Planning the Electronic Office (McGraw Hill), Automation, Space Management and Productivity (R. R. Bowker) and Designing and Space Planning for Libraries (R. R. Bowker). He is also the coauthor of the chapter on Ergonomics in the CAD/CAM Handbook (McGraw Hill).

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Elaine Cohen

Elaine Cohen, MEd, Strategic Planning & Library Consultant, is a behaviorist, educator and author, best known for her books and articles about libraries, behavior, services and organizational development.

Elaine received her MEd at the City University of New York and her B.A. from Skidmore College. Elaine has worked for Aaron Cohen Associates, LTD for over 38 years. She has built up unquestionable library planning experiences as a social scientist, behaviorist, library service and programming consultant. She has focused her research on the ways in which library organizations adapt and change. She has leveraged this experience in her writing and research on numerous organizational and building planning projects. Elaine has developed and delivered new service options to large urban libraries and systems, academic libraries and small special libraries, museums and archives.

Over the years, Elaine has proven that library outreach and advocacy is a life long profession. She is unequaled in her knowledge of the ways in which libraries function. Elaine is an accomplished author and social scientist, her research focused on modernizing library services and organizations so that they can meet future challenges. She has been writing about the libraries and their future including three books on the subject of libraries - Planning the Electronic Office (McGraw Hill), Automation, Space Management and Productivity (R. R. Bowker) and Designing and Space Planning for Libraries (R. R. Bowker). She has over twenty-five (25) published articles on ERIC (education resources information center) and has written at least 300 library building programs. Elaine continues to research library behavior and improve ACA’s library strategic plans, service definitions, building programs and design criteria.

Over the past four decades, Elaine has been the chief editor on a number of ground breaking library service studies – Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, NY; Spokane Public Library, WA; Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, NV; National Library of Singapore and King Abdullah University of Science & Technology Library, Saudi Arabia. She has developed a behavioral standards and guidelines to address strategic service priorities, long and short range plans and technology innovation.

Elaine has supported several new library building designs (National Library of Bermuda; Fuller Theological Seminary, CA; Bedford Public Library, NH) and has led many library organizations through difficult transitions toward modernization. She has written about organizational change and was one of the first library planners to recognize that libraries need to move away from mainly print based facilities and into blended learning environments to succeed. Her research is the basis of ACA’s a planning framework, which focuses on providing value through implementation options and techniques. Elaine’s excellent organizational skills and report writing skills have been vital to the success of our firm. Her experiences as an original advocate and researcher enabled ACA to provide real answers to difficult questions.

Recently, she has worked on library programs and service planning projects – Boston Public Library and National Library of Greece. As a member of Aaron Cohen Associates LTD, her work includes:; Columbus Public Library, GA; St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis, MO; Long Island University, Brookville and Brooklyn, NY; Pace University Law School, NY; Cornell Medical Center, NY; National Library of Singapore. Besides being coauthor of several books on library facilities, she is the author of a chapter in Using Consultants in Libraries and Information Centers, a Management Handbook (Greenwood Press). Articles include: "Building Trends in Special Libraries" (Library Trends, University of Illinois). A recent article titled “The Visual Scan and the Design for Future-Oriented Libraries” is in Public Library Quarterly, November 2005. In tandem with Aaron Cohen, she has led more than 300 space planning, design, strategic planning and automation workshops including in-house workshops for clients.

Natalya Palevski - ASID

Natalya Palevski, ASID, NCIDQ, Building Program and Library Consultant, is a Library Service Planner.

Natalya received her Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Architecture and Masters of Architecture from the Architectural School of the Institute of Civil Engineering, Russia and an Interior Design Associate Degree from the New School for Social Research. Her qualifications have been certified by the U.S. National Council for Interior Design (NCIDQ). Her special areas of expertise include library programming, layout, design, site selection, space planning, AutoCAD modeling.

Natalya has been a member of Aaron Cohen Associates LTD for 28 years. She has helped visualize a large number of space planning innovations that have formed the basis of ACA’s contributions to the development of the modern library. She has developed library programs and CAD layouts for large urban libraries (New York Public Library, National Library of Singapore), digital learning spaces and distance learning classrooms (Southeastern Louisiana University, Duquesne and University of California), circulation and reference desks technical services and operations workflow, meeting rooms and classrooms (Long Island University, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District).

Natalya has been instrumental in the development of ACA’s library programs and organizational design solutions. She has been involved in the visual representation of innovations to support operational efficiencies such as flexible seating and meeting spaces, self check out and materials management. She has developed 3D visuals of ACA’s collaborative space “post and beam” and improved ACA’s library space programs for special libraries. She modified ACA’s building programs to meet new challenges such as flexible classrooms, meeting and programming spaces. She has designed efficient compact storage systems and developed detailed book retention layouts for the NYSHA and Smithsonian Institution. She has developed CAD visuals for numerous phased building plans and created shelving efficiencies for important archives and preservation organizations. Natalya has worked on many innovative master planning programs and building studies including; Las Vegas-Clark County Library System, NV; NATO World Headquarters Library, Brussels, Belgium; National Library of Greece, Athens; King Abdullah University of Science & Technology, Saudi Arabia; Columbus Public Library GA; Long Island University, NY.