Part of the ETD /USETDA 2025 Closing Session on 26 September 2025 was the ETD Leadership Awards Ceremony, during which Janette Wright was recognized for her exceptional dedication and contributions to the NDLTD community. Serving on the NDLTD Board of Directors from 2019 through 2025, Janette was Chair of the Nominating Committee and guided both ETD 2020 and ETD 2021. Janette also advanced the innovation of launching an online ETD Journal, J-ETD. In her role as Dean of Libraries at the UAEU in Abu Dhabi, Janette initiated the support of UAEU for both conferences and the journal.
Janette has had a long and diversified career in libraries and the scholarly publishing field. These roles have included leadership roles at two Australian state libraries, (State Library of Queensland and State Library of New South Wales); two other university libraries (United Arab Emirates University and Federation University); and senior roles with library consortia, (CAVAL Ltd) and system and content vendors, (RMIT Publishing, RoweCom, Dynix and AWA Computers), as well as public libraries in Sydney and Perth.
Throughout her career, Janette has advocated for more open and accessible pathways to knowledge as an important contributor to democracy.