professional Bio
M.J. D’Elia is the Acting Associate University Librarian (Academic) at the University of Guelph Library. Along with the other members of the Library Executive Team, he provides strategic leadership and oversight for the Library, including human resources planning, strategic priority setting, resource allocation, program assessment, and budget management.
In addition to his administrative responsibilities, M.J. has taught multiple courses for the College of Business and Economics. For example, his Entrepreneurship course focuses on the entrepreneurial mindset, and encourages students to learn practices, habits, and tools used by serial entrepreneurs. With the intent of bringing the library world and startup community together he helped organize the first ever Library-themed Startup Weekend. This event brought librarians, designers, developers and business minds together to pitch and prototype new library ideas in 54 hours.
M.J.’s research interests include applied creativity, design thinking and business model design. Recently he completed the Association of Research Libraries Leadership Fellows Program.
When time permits M.J. doodles, plays with Lego and runs a small company that specializes in creative problem solving. He has facilitated sessions with libraries and associations across the country, including University of Toronto Libraries, Association of Research Libraries, University of British Columbia Library and Niagara College.
- Jan 2019