We are pleased to announce that our middle keynote speaker for IGeLU 2026 is Aaron Tay, Head, Data Services, Singapore Management University (SMU) Libraries, Singapore.
Aaton Tays’ professional interests lie at the intersection of library discovery, research analytics/bibliometrics, and AI-assisted research workflows, with a practical focus on evaluating what modern (and increasingly AI-mediated) academic discovery systems help users find—and what they systematically miss.
He is also the author of Musings about Librarianship (recently moved to aarontay.substack.com) since 2009, a long-running blog/newsletter that explores library technology, discovery systems, bibliometrics and other library topics of interest.
Beyond writing and speaking, Aaron regularly is invited to conduct professional workshops and talks for librarians. This includes an intensive three-part workshop series (3 hours × 3 sessions) on AI-powered search and evaluation. The series has run twice to date (each time reaching capacity), and has attracted enthusiastic positive feedback for combining conceptual depth with practical takeaways: participants have highlighted how the sessions demystify AI-search jargon and clarify what’s really happening under the hood in “semantic search”.
Aaron serves on several advisory and editorial boards, including Clarivate’s Academia AI Advisory Council, the CORE Advisory Board, and the editorial board of Katina: Librarianship Elevated.