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Inside ASIS&T, October 2017

 

Table of Contents

President's Column
ASIS&T Roundup
Awards
Chapter and SIG News
2017 Annual Meeting Update
Upcoming Events

PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

Lynn Silipigni Connaway, PhD
October 15, 2017

It’s hard to believe that this is my final ASIS&T President’s column. It has been a busy year, with many changes and transitions. Dick Hill, the ASIS&T Executive Director for 27 years, announced his retirement and planned to stay onboard until a new Executive Director was hired. Unfortunately, Dick became ill in January 2017 and did not return to work. The Board appointed an acting executive director and I worked closely with the staff to better understand the budget, staffing, policies, and procedures. As would be expected, this brought many changes to the Association. ASIS&T hired an executive search firm and created a search committee co-chaired by Sandy Hirsh and Clara Chu. In May ASIS&T hired a new executive director, Lydia Middleton. We have had a staff transition and several of the staff are no longer with ASIS&T. A new Director of Marketing & Development, Maureen Markey, and a Director of Meetings & Events, DeVonne Parks were hired. A temporary staff member has been hired to assist with the finances and budget.

During the transition period the ASIS&T Board has continued to review our strategic plan and to address some of our identified priorities – membership, programs/services, publications/communications, and institutional knowledge.

MEMBERSHIP

We initiated several membership campaigns and the ASIS&T membership has increased 10% between September 2015 and September 2017. We also have been working to re-engage information science professionals in the association and have initiated collaboration with the IA Summit. I was invited to give a welcome to the attendees of the 2017 IA Summit and we have created the IA Industry Panel that is organized and presented by active members of the IA Summit and will be included as part of the annual meeting program each year.

We also have adopted a new communication system for members provided by Higher Logic. The platform enables members to communicate through blogs and forums. Member communities, such as Chapters, SIGs, and committees, will have their own sections of the site that will serve as a document repository and communication hub. This new platform is in response to ASIS&T members’ requests for member networks and easier modes of communication between members. Look for the platform to debut at the Annual Meeting and be up and running early in 2018.

The Board recommended that ASIS&T reduce the number of at-large members from six to three during the next three elections. This was passed by the membership with 205 votes approving the change, 26 votes against the change, and 6 votes abstaining.

PROGRAMS/SERVICES

Another priority focuses on mentorships, virtual networking and programs and local events. We have continued the Meet the Author webinar series that was initiated by Past President Nadia Caidi. We also have been involved in numerous regional and local events for ASIS&T members. ASIS&T Chapters hosted several regional and student meetings this year, with emphasis on international membership, which I was able to attend. Asia Pacific Chapter Regional Meetings were held at Nankai University in Tianjin, China and Hong Kong. The Taipei Chapter organized a regional meeting as well as sessions for me to meet with students, faculty, and information professionals at the various information science programs throughout Taiwan. The European Chapter organized regional meetings in Barcelona, Florence, and Berlin. The European Chapter won the Chapter of the Year Award and the European Student Chapter won the student chapter of the year award. The Central Ohio (CO-ASIS&T) Regional Chapter held two meetings, one of which included the Northeastern Ohio and the Indiana Chapters and CO-ASIS&T won the Chapter Event of the Year Award for its 2017 Summer of Tours. The University of South Carolina Student Chapter organized a lecture and lunch with doctoral students for me.

Members identified academic and professional mentoring programs as a priority for them. We have developed a Mentorship Program, sponsored by OCLC, that will meet for the first time at our 2017 Annual Meeting. The OCLC sponsorship provides a small travel allowance for protégés. Stephanie Alexander, Social Sciences and Assessment Librarian at California State University, East Bay, and David Schwieder, PhD, Political Science Librarian at the University of Florida, are leading the Mentorship Program since they have developed and led a successful Mentoring Program for the American Library Association Library Research Round Table. Rebekah Willson, PhD, Lecturer in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and the New Leader who is working with me for two years, agreed to Chair the Review Committee for the selection of mentors and protégés. This is a two-year commitment, beginning at the ASIS&T 2017 AM and ending at the ASIS&T 2018 AM. We are excited to launch the program and will continue to change it based on the evaluations and suggestions of the mentors and protégés. The Mentorship Program complements the existing New Leaders Program and the Doctoral Colloquium.

PUBLICATIONS/COMMUNICATIONS

Rethinking ASIS&T’s publications portfolio also was identified as a strategic goal. The Board has worked closely with the ASIS&T Publications Committee to develop a monograph series and the launch of Inside ASIS&T, a member-only communication vehicle for news about the organization and its members. With the retirement of Irene Travis, editor of the Bulletin, coupled with the results of the Publications Committee’s survey to the membership and Irene’s recommendation, the Bulletinhas ceased publication until there is time to review and evaluate the publication.

INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE

The Board voted to formalize the ASIS&T Archive and Kathryn La Barre has agreed to be the ASIS&T Curator. The ASIS&T staff is conducting an inventory of our in-house assets and has been organizing the ASIS&T library, network server, and paper files.

We have accomplished these things and organized a great annual meeting. Sanda Erdelez and Naresh Agarwal, co-chairs of the annual meeting, and their co-chairs, Sam Chu, Mega Subramaniam, Dania Bilal, Nouf Kashman, Kanwal Ameen, and Kyungwon Koh, have developed a great program for us. We have added a half-day to the conference in order for attendees to have more time for networking and meeting with colleagues.

The Women Leaders of the Information Field Happy Hour is back by popular demand. We also have organized the Career Connection where doctoral students, academics, and higher education hiring departments have the opportunity to interview, network, and learn about each other. The 80thAnniversary Celebration is combined with the Welcome Reception on Sunday evening and The Professorsare providing music after the reception. Tuesday evening will close with the final SIG CON in its current format. After this year’s meeting, SIG CON will no longer be a part of the formal program so that it can go back to its roots as an informal session, often organized in the annual meeting hotel bar.

It’s been a year full of surprises but we have accomplished a lot and ASIS&T now is experiencing a period of change and rejuvenation. It has been an honor to serve as the ASIS&T President during this past year. As my term ends, I look back on a year that broadened my thinking and forced me to make some very difficult decisions. In addition, I had the experience of a lifetime meeting members in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe, and the US and have gained a stronger appreciation of the power of ASIS&T’s networks.

I look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting in Crystal City!

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ASIS&T ROUNDUP

NEW MEMBERS

ASIS&T welcomes all the new members who joined in September and October:

  • Marissa Alexis Afetian
  • JiHo An
  • Channon Taylor Arabit
  • Theodora Balmon
  • Stephanie Barnaby
  • Chris Barrett
  • Cassandra G. Becker
  • Jyldyz Bekbalaeva
  • Sara Bond
  • Aaron Bowen-Ziecheck
  • Brittany Brannon
  • Emily Rose Bruce
  • Gina Camozzi
  • Heather C. Canfield
  • Shujin Cao
  • Alisa Sho-ni Chen
  • Shu-Yi Chen
  • Amanda Click
  • Caroline Coward
  • Brenna Cox
  • Kristy Cunningham
  • Jiamin Dai
  • Heather Doncaster
  • Prince Manu Duodu
  • Nkeiru Amauche Emezie
  • Alicia C. Esguerra
  • Fatima Espinoza Vasquez
  • Lyn Fenex
  • Gretchen Lynch Gallagher
  • Isha Ghosh
  • Anjali Gulati
  • Matt Gully
  • Timothy Michael Hagemeister
  • Marisa Christin Hernandez
  • Li-Min Huang
  • Angela C. Hummel
  • Lauren Ingrassia
  • Nicholas Janning
  • Romona Renee Johnson
  • Rachael Juskuv
  • Usman Omeiza Kazeem
  • Stuart G. King
  • Cynthia Kumah
  • Brittany Lambert
  • Xan Lasko
  • Gordana Latinovic-Rauski
  • Sue Ann Ramirez Lau
  • Madeline Lowry
  • Mr. Bertram Ludaescher
  • William Lundmark
  • Cuichang Ma
  • Jinxuan Ma
  • Samantha Mahoski
  • Sarah Elizabeth Maran Martin
  • Kim Martin
  • Nithin Kumar Re Mekala
  • Cheryl Meyers-Saffold
  • Dina Mohammed Ali
  • Qammer Naveed
  • Caroline Nyaga
  • Shaye Olmstead
  • Shaharima Parvin
  • Erin Marie Perfect
  • Katie Pierce
  • Wanda Power
  • Gila Prebor
  • Ray Pullaro
  • Bianca Reisdorf
  • Jean Rene
  • Lillian Rigling
  • A. M. Salaz
  • Terry Schiavone
  • Vanessa Schlais
  • David Sibley
  • Tobias Siebenlist
  • Kathryn V. Siegel
  • Alicia Takaoka
  • Richard Thomchick
  • Nitin Verma
  • Ziye Wang
  • Elizabeth M. Weir
  • Harley Williams
  • Mr. Isaac Freeman Williams
  • G. Blane Winston
  • Morgan Wofford
  • Zhaopeng Xing
  • Jennifer Akwi Yunga
  • Chenwei Zhang

GOVERNANCE

Bylaws Amendment Vote: The Board recommended that ASIS&T reduce the number of at-large members from six to three during the next three elections. Member voting results are as follows:

  • 205 - approve
  • 26 - against
  • 6 - abstain

IN MEMORIAM

Helen Brownson

Helen Brownson, 100, passed away on August 5, 2017 at a hospice center in Washington, DC. She was an information specialist with the National Science Foundation from 1950 to 1970 who directed publication of reports and documents relating to information handling and scientific communication,

Ms. Brownson, a Washington, DC resident, was born in Kansas City, Kansas She moved to the Washington area in 1941 and worked for several boards and committees on scientific research during World War II.

Mauro Pittaro, Jr.

Mauro John Pittaro, Jr., 81, of Bowie, MD passed away quietly and peacefully at home on August 21, 2017 after a long illness. Mauro was born in Astoria, Queens on September 5, 1935 and was a native New Yorker for 67 years. A graduate of Columbia University, Mauro held a a Bachelors and Masters in Electrical Engineering. Later, Mauro earned a Masters in Theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, NY and became a third order Dominican. During his career Mauro worked and was well known in the indexing and abstracting world. He served as President of the American Society of Indexers and was an active member of other technical societies. Mauro was very active in ministries in his parish church, St. Francis in Astoria, NY and St. Pius X church in Bowie, MD. He was a man of quiet faith with a genuine, kind heart. If you would like to make a donation in memory of Mauro, the family suggests either Dominican Friars, St. Vincent Ferrer Church, 869 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10065 or Hospice of the Chesapeake, 9500 Arena Drive, Suite 250, Largo, MD 20774.

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AWARDS

Many of the ASIS&T awards were featured in the Inside ASIS&T Augustissue. Awards announced in September and October are below. Congratulations to all of the following ASIS&T award winners. Awards will be presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting where you can meet and greet all of the winners.

International Awards

Award of Merit: Thomas Daniel Wilson

Watson Davis Award: Emil Levine

Best Information Science Book Award: Ryen W. White, Interactions with Search Systems

ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award: Sarah Alix Buchanan, A Provenance Research Study of Archaeological Curation

Pratt Severn Best Student Research Paper Award: Natalie Ornat, Reading for Your Life: The Impact of Reading and Writing During the Siege of Sarajevo

Chapter Awards

2017 Chapter Member of the Year Award: Asia-Pacific Chapter Chair, Dr. Christopher Khoo Soo Guan

2017 Chapter Event of the Year Award: Central Ohio Chapter’s (CO-ASIS&T) “2017 Summer of Tours”

SIG Awards

SIG of the Year Award: SIG/Visualization, Images & Sound (SIG/VIS)

SIG Member of the Year Award: Arjun Sabharwal

SIG Publication of the Year Award: SIG/Arts & Humanities’ (SIG/AH) publication, The June/July Bulletin Special Section on A New Open Humanities

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CHAPTER AND SIG NEWS

CENTRAL OHIO, NORTHERN OHIO, AND INDIANA CHAPTERS

Columbus, OH Regional Meeting

On Friday, Sept.8, three ASIS&T chapters (Central Ohio, Northern Ohio, and Indiana) hosted the 2017 Midwest Regional Conference in Columbus, OH. More than 60 people from 4 states met at the newly-renovated main branch of Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) for the event, themed "Innovations in 21st-Century Information Services."

The two featured speakers were Patrick Losinski (CEO, Columbus Metropolitan Libraries) and Lynn Silipigni Connaway (ASIS&T President and Senior Research Scientist, OCLC). In addition, each of the three sponsoring chapters offered a strong panel of speakers: "The right to be forgotten and digital collections," "Evolving landscapes in public and academic libraries," and "Big data management." The full program is here.

As is typical for events in the Central Ohio (CO-ASIS&T) chapter, they attracted attendees from ASIS&T membership and non-members in roughly equal numbers, as well as serving a large number of practitioners. Generous sponsorships from IUPUI and Kent State University, and venue and parking support from CML helped keep the registration fees low.

The meeting hosts are in the process of collecting more formal feedback from participants, but heard comments (one even from the podium) praising the quality of the program and the experience, and several participants asked if the Midwest ASIS&T chapters could make this kind of event a more regular occurrence.

Anyone interested in hearing more about their experience, or thinking about planning a regional meeting with your chapter and others, feel free to contact Timothy Dickey, Chapter Chair, or catch him at the ASIS&T 2017 Annual Meeting this month.

SOUTH CAROLINA STUDENT CHAPTER

Lynn Silipigni Connaway, ASIS&T President, will be speaking at the at the University of South Carolina (USC), School of Library & Information Science, on October 25, 2017. USC faculty, students, and librarians have been invited.  The ASIS&T South Carolina Student Chapter will be there to meet students and encourage their involvement in ASIS&T.

EUROPEAN CHAPTER

Berlin

Earlier this month more than thirty ASIS&T members came together both in person and online for our first-ever hybrid regional meeting, held on October 4 at Humboldt University in Berlin.

The meeting, which was hosted by ASIS&T’s European Chapter, brought together members from around the region for a one-day meeting examining issues of interest to attendees from Europe and around the world. Topics covered include The History of Library and Information Science in Europe; the new European Library & Information Science Map created by the European Chapter; Exploring Digital Data; Intelligence, Forensics, and Preservation; and Digital Literacy in the Era of Fake News: Key Roles for Information Professionals. In addition, several Humboldt University students provided lightning talks on their own research.

Given the success of this meeting, ASIS&T will be looking for more ways to create these interactive long-distance educational experiences.

If you are interested in hosting a regional meeting in your area, please contact Maureen Markeyto explore the possibilities.

European Student Chapter

The ASIS&T European Student Chapter is conducting a Scientivity Contest. This contest is designed to help European research students in LIS programs share their research projects with professors, researchers and other students around the world in creative ways (e.g., poster, essay, video, comic, or any format you can come up with).

First prize:

  • Financial support to attend the iConference 2018 on March 25-28, 2018 in Sheffield, UK
  • Mentorship by Javed Mostafa, Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Information Science and Technology (JASIST), for a journal submission to JASIST.

Second Prize:

  • The top three winners will receive a one-year ASIS&T student membership.

The submission deadline is 15 December 2017.

Submissions via e-mail: esc.scientivity@gmail.com

Full details are here.

SIGs

SIG Election Results

Results of the SIG election for Deputy Director and incoming Steering Committee members are:

  • Sarah Buchananwill be the incoming Deputy Director:
  • New Steering Committeemembers are Catherine Dumas, Heather Pfeiffer andTim Gorichanaz

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2017 ANNUAL MEETING UPDATE

We hope to see all of you at the ASIS&T 2017 Annual Meeting next week. The educational content includes 62 papers, 24 panels and 99 visual presentations including posters.

ASIS&T will be celebrating its 80thanniversary and you’re all invited.

80TH ANNIVERSARY HAPPENINGS

  • Join us for the 80th Anniversary Welcome Receptionon October 29th at 6:30pm. The 80th Anniversary Advisory Group is hosting an initiative to capture people's "Favorite ASIS&T story."  They will be collecting these stories from meeting attendees. If you've got a story to tell and want to arrange for a specific time, please contact klabarre@illinois.edu.
  • Don’t miss Evolving Traditions: From Documentation to Information Science and Technologyon Sunday, October 29 at 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm with the 80th Anniversary Invited Panel. This invited panel session will engage the audience through presentation and discussion of the work of three scholars representing a broad trajectory of career accomplishments. The work of these three individuals has been selected in order to showcase the breadth, depth, and richness of Information History in celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Association for Information Science and Technology.
  • Tribute to Eugene Garfield-- This panel pays tribute to Dr. Eugene Garfield, one of the “fathers” of bibliometrics, former president of ASIS (1999-2000), and the    founder of the ISI citation databases who passed away on February 25, 2017. The panelists are all well-known researchers who have known and worked with Dr. Garfield. Each panelist will highlight an aspect of Dr. Garfield’s contributions that has transformed science and scholarship, and how, in turn, their own work has been influenced by his contributions. The panel will be moderated by Judit Bar-Ilan and Dietmar Wolfram.
  • Help Us Select the Best JASISTPaper of the Decades- We want your vote to help determine the best JASISTpaper of all time! We have developed a peer-reviewed list of what we believe are the JASISTpapers that have contributed the most to our field in the past 80 years.These papers are the best of the best! They will inspire you, challenge you, educate you and remind you of the history of information science.  See all the papers on the JASIST80th anniversary website. After you enjoy reading and remembering many of the papers, please provide your vote to help us determine the best paper of each decade. The paper with the most votes will win best ASIS&T 80th Anniversary Paper.
  • Tagging the ASIS&T Gallery-- Adjacent to the registration desk, during the hours registration is open, participants are invited to visit the ASIST Gallery and tag images with incomplete or missing metadata. Images for the Gallery were digitized from photographs currently stored at ASIST Headquarters by Trudi Bellardo Hahn and her team for the ASIST 75th Anniversary. Contact klabarre@illinois.eduif you want to volunteer to help, have an image you would like to tag, or have any questions about this initiative.

MEETING APP

The Annual Meeting app is now ready for conference attendees to start planning your conference experience. For download instructions and features, click here.

TOURS 

  • Tours to the National Archives and the Library of Congress have been set up for conference attendees. You may register for them here! Dates and times are as follows:
    • National Archives
      • 10/28; 1:15 - 5:00 PM
      • 11/01; 2:30 - 6:00 PM
    • The Library of Congress
      • 10/28; 1:30 - 5:00 PM

YOGA

Need some time to refresh and regroup during the Annual Meeting? Attend the morning yoga class on Monday (10/30) and Tuesday (10/31) from 7:00 - 8:00 AM. You may sign up for the class upon checking in at registration. Don't forget to bring your mat with you. But if you forget you may purchase one on site.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

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