Julie Carpenter

Director and Lead Consultant

Julie Carpenter began her professional career in the Centre for Learning Resources in the Inner London Education Authority, advising teachers and librarians on using print and non-book resources in schools. She joined the British Council in 1978 and travelled widely in Africa, working to improve the Council’s own library and information services and managing British book aid programmes. As the Council’s Assistant Director Greece (1980-86) she was responsible for management of library, information, book trade, and cultural exchange programmes in Greece, and for the Council’s books and information activities in Cyprus and Palestine. Subsequently, as Information and Books Projects Officer she led the Council’s collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Publishers Association in formulation of policies on educational book and information provision for the World Bank, which have had a powerful impact upon development practice worldwide.

She has been a consultant since 1990 when she set up Carpenter Davies Associates, specialising in advising government agencies and educational institutions in transitional and developing economies on strategic directions in library and book development, and taking part in policy and sector review missions for international development agencies. At the same time, the partnership was successful in developing and managing research projects under the European Union’s early R&D Framework Programmes, and worked extensively with UK organisations such as the British Library and the Library and Information Commission on strategic research benefiting the library and information communities in a time of considerable change.

With the establishment of EfC in 1997, she directed and managed DFID’s British Books for Managers programme in Central and Eastern Europe and specialised in the impact of electronic information and digitisation in the education and cultural heritage sectors, with a particular focus on the management of change. In the UK she led research and consulting projects for the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), several national museums and universities, and the British Library. She directed the evaluation of the UK Big Lottery Fund’s ICT Content for Learning Programmes (2004/06). She is now Project Director of Researchers of the Future: A three year (BL/JISC) study tracking the research behaviour of 'Generation Y' doctoral students.

Julie’s international experience is broad having worked for DFID, UNESCO, UNIDO, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Commission, in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. She recently directed external evaluations of UNESCO’s Strategic Programme Objectives in the Communications and Information and Culture sectors. She is a member of the EfC team commissioned by UNICEF to prepare the Capacity Development Strategy for the Education Sector in Sierra Leone and she has worked with the Flemish Universities Association University Development Cooperation programme as an international expert in evaluations and country strategy preparation in Africa and the Caribbean.