ASIS&T President’s Vlog

Dear ASIS&T colleagues,

Greetings from my home to yours where most of us find ourselves at these uncertain times during the COVID-19 pandemic. I decided to send a video message to use high touch communication to bridge the gap between us.  I am Clara Chu, and in my third Message from the President, I want to continue to focus on “We are ASIS&T: Be, Belong, Become,” my three-pronged plan for organization and social transformation. Our staff, leadership and members continue to advance the work of the association, offering opportunities to learn and engage around information issues, including the JASIS&T publication and recent webinar on global health crises as information crises; the drafting of our new ASIS&T strategic plan is well underway, and our office stays open and much more with the use of ICTs. While we have had to forego many opportunities to engage in person recently, I am hopeful that we will have the opportunity to meet in person at the 2020 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, taking place October 23rd-28th, in Pittsburgh. At the conference, we will have the chance to address and discuss information research and solutions on our theme: Information for a Sustainable World: Addressing Society’s Grand Challenges.  As a world community we are facing many challenges that include poverty, climate change, conflict, gender inequality, and much more, and for this reason I call on the information science and technology community to lend our expertise and voices to creating a sustainable world. In the lead up to the conference, I invite you to consider what actions you can take to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. With Kendra Albright, Jia Tina Du and Bharat Mehra, we have been developing ideas for ASIS&T to be at the forefront of Addressing Society’s Grand/Global Challenges. We look forward to sharing these soon on the ASIS&T website. I want to end by turning our attention to our immediate global grand challenge, flattening out the COVID-19 curve, and I appeal to our ASIS&T community to stay safe and practice social distancing, make information and technologies freely and easily accessible, and contribute your information expertise to alleviate the crisis. Together, we will come out the other end, changed but resilient. We are ASIS&T: Be, Belong, Become.