Inside ASIS&T, June 2017
Executive Director's Column
Greetings Colleagues:
I write to you today with three full weeks of experience under my belt as the new Executive Director of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T). In those three weeks I’ve learned that I can’t even begin to know what I don’t know. This organization has such a rich history and tradition of service to the information science community that it will take me much more than a few weeks to even begin to appreciate it.
That said, the Board, staff and I have an aggressive agenda to provide you, our membership, with increasing member value and experience. This is a tall order and we are actively pursuing ideas that we believe will augment the benefits and services that you already receive as ASIS&T members. But we need your input. I am eager to hear from you about what we are not currently doing that you’d like to see us doing that would make your work life easier.
What data do you not have but really need to explain to decision makers that an investment makes sense? What resources do you wish somebody would compile so you’d have them at your fingertips. What are the best practices in information science that would inform how you approach your role? We want to answer these questions for you. We just need to know what questions to ask!
To that end we will be conducting more formal assessment processes in the future, but for the short-term I would like to invite you to share your thoughts with me. I am eager to hear from our members about what ASIS&T can do to make your job easier, your profession more fun, your impact on your own organization greater. That’s why we’re here and that’s what we want to do for you!
So please, if you have ideas, take a few minutes to jot them down in an email and send them to me at lmiddleton@asist.org. I commit to you that every idea you send me will be seriously considered and, if possible, worked into future planning. If for some reason we can’t pursue your idea, I will let you know why that is. The Board and I are committed to making our governance and decision-making process transparent to you, our membership. I can assure you that all ideas will be given due consideration and responded to in some form.
I cannot tell you how excited I am to be taking on this role as the Executive Director of YOUR association. Let me repeat that. We are YOUR association, and we are here because you have made an investment in your own professional development through us. I take your trust in us to fulfill that promise of supporting your professional development very seriously, as does the Board. We stand ready to support you in every way we can. But we need to hear from you about how we can better fulfill that promise.
One easy and reliable way that we fulfill that promise is through our Annual Meeting. You will have seen that we opened registration to the 2017 Annual Meeting this past week. We have two tremendous keynote speakers that will challenge and engage you. And while I am admittedly no expert, I have been fascinated and intrigued by the paper, panel and workshop sessions that we are accepting for this meeting. I should note that we’ve had to turn away two times as many sessions as we’ve accepted because the caliber of the submissions has been exceptional. But rest assured that we’ll try to get all of this great content to you through alternate channels such as webinars so no good knowledge goes to waste!
Let me just reiterate that I am your Executive Director. I am here to provide you with the best membership experience I and this organization are able to provide to you. My virtual “door” is always open and I would love to hear from you. Please call or email me with comments, complaints, praise, ideas, suggestions and out of the box notions. I’m eager to hear it all!
I will be in Chicago for the ALA meeting at the end of the month and would be delighted to meet any ASIS&T members that are in attendance. Please email me if you are planning to be there so that we may coordinate schedules.
Standing by and waiting for your call, email, or alternate form of communication…
Warm regards.
Lydia S. Middleton, MBA, CAE
Executive Director
Leadership Training Program Poll
What leadership development program will make you more effective in 2017-2018?
Always striving to provide our membership with what it wants and needs, the ASIS&T Leadership Committee is seeking your feedback on relevant leadership development programs. Each year at the Annual Meeting, a Leadership Program is offered to help you develop skills that make you more effective. This year, the committee is polling the membership to rank 5 leadership development topics. The top choice will be part of the ASIS&T 2017 Program at the Annual Meeting. The poll closes June 12, 2017.
Developing Effective Programs That Engage. Wonder why some programs are effective and others not? Have great ideas for programs you’d like to develop? Learn the overarching planning issues, the “nitty gritty details, and best practices required to run a successful meeting/program.
Virtual Meetings – Best Practices. In today’s high-tech, distributed work environment, collaboration across distances has become commonplace. Which tools and software work the best? Discuss and learn the current best practices for managing meetings globally.
Public Speaking That Wows An Audience. Effective public speaking can motivate, lead and influence. Increase your worth by learning some of the key skills that every good public speaker knows.
“I Don’t Have Time…” Getting Volunteers & Leading Them Effectively. Attracting volunteers can be challenging. This session will focus on the art of building relationships that inspire support and commitment in volunteers.
Rules That Enhance & Stimulate Creative Leadership. Nearly everyone can think of an example of bureaucratic rules that feel onerous and stifling. This session will help leaders reframe the rules to foster creativity and engagement, especially in the non-profit, volunteer-driven environment.
Your opinion matters! Vote Now!
The poll closes on June 21, 2017.
If you have any questions please contact Ixchel Faniel, Leadership Committee Co-Chair at fanieli@oclc.org
ASIS&T Roundup
- Want to gain experience in leadership skills? Become more involved with ASIS&T activities or governance decision making? Volunteer to work for a group, committee, award juries or the Board. It's simple to get involved!
- Daniel Alemneh, Chapter Assembly Director is pleased to announce the election results for the following two positions: Irene Lopatovska has been elected as the new Student Chapter Representative to the Chapter Assembly. Jeonghyun (Annie) Kim will serve as the new Student Chapter Alternative Representative to the Chapter Assembly. These are important positions as they are the link between the various student chapters and the Chapter Assembly. Their responsibilities include forming the jury for the Student Chapter of the Year award, presenting the award during the Award Luncheon at the Annual Meeting, managing the Student Chapter membership competition, organizing the traditional "secret" student part at the Annual Meeting, developing engagement initiatives and maintain the student listserv. We very much appreciate their time and effort and hope you join us congratulating them on their respective new assignments.
- The Communications department is seeking volunteers to help with developing marketing collateral in various languages. One project is to do voiceover narration for the student chapter promo video. The other project is to translated revised and updated material that has already been translated. Anyone interested should contact Yolande at yolande@asist.org.
- The Member Get A Member (MGM) campaign is now over. We want to thank those wonderful, dedicated members who participated in the campaign and brought in 52 new members to the ASIS&T community!!
- Don't miss out on the Bob Williams History Fund Awards!! The Research Award provides a grant of up to $2,000 and will be awarded for the best research proposal submitted by June 30, 2017. All topics relevant to the history of information science and technology may be proposed. The proposal should include: the central topic or question to be researched and an extended abstract, qualifications of the researcher (brief vita should be included), a budget and how the funds will be expended. The Best Paper Award will be for a maximum of $500 and will be awarded for the best paper submitted by June 30, 2017. All topics relevant to the history of information science and technology will be considered. The paper may have been previously published or submitted to a journal. The paper should not exceed 30 pages double-spaced, including notes and references, using APA Style Manual. Nominations or self-nominations can be made from anywhere.
- On May 31st, Jan Hatzakos retired from ASIS&T after 28 years as our Director of Finance. Over that time Jan has worn many hats. Please join the ASIS&T Board and staff in wishing her well as she starts a new chapter of her life.
- ASIS&T website - please make sure when you are visiting the ASIS&T website that you are using the correct URL -- www.asist.org. If the web address doesn't have a "t" then you are on the wrong website.
- If you missed the President's Page in the June/July Bulletin, you can read it here.
MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT HALL OF FAME
MGM Recruiters (in alphabetical order)
Muge Akbulut
Eugenia Bertulis
Donald Brower
Kai Wah Sam Chu
Michele DeFilippo
Timothy Dickey
Peter Gatiti
Claudio Gottshalg-Duque
Elke Greifeneder
Zack Frazier
Tamarack Hockiin
Michael Hohner
Xiao Hu
Maja Krtalic
Josephine Lau
Dalia Levine
Gercina Lima
Jerome McDonough
Jose Nunes
Virginia Ortiz-Repiso
Amanda Rinehart
Lynn Silipigni-Connaway
Rajesh Singh
Beth St. Jean
Sanjica Faletar Tanackovic
Phil Willke
THANK YOU FOR BRINGING IN 52 NEW MEMBERS!
ASIS&T Awards Deadlines
Increase your worth and get recognized for your professional accomplishments!
June 15, 2017 Deadlines
Best Research in Information Science Award
Pratt Severn Best Student Research Paper Award
ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award
June 30, 2017 Deadlines
Bob Williams History Fund: Research Grant
Bob Williams History Fund: Research Paper Award
July 1, 2017 Deadlines
Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship
Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award
Student Chapter of the Year Award
Award of Merit
Best Information Science Book Award
July 15, 2017 Deadlines
Watson Davis Award
SIG Publication of the Year Award
August 15, 2017 Deadlines
Chapter of the Year Award
Chapter Member of the Year Award
Chapter Event of the Year Award
Chapter Publication of the Year Award
Chapter Innovation of the Year Award
SIG of the Year Award
SIG Member of the Year Award
August 30, 2017 Deadline
Best JASIST Paper Award
September 30, 2017 Deadline
Lecture Series Award
Upcoming Events
ASIS&T Events:
June 6, 2017 2:00pm – 3:00pm EDT (UTC 18:00:00 – World Clock)
Exploring the Challenges & Uses of Linked Open Data for Digitized Special Collections
Timothy W. Cole, Alex Olivia Kinnaman, Deren Kudeki
June 14, 2017 10:00am-11:15am EDT (UTC 14:00:00 – World Clock: http://bit.ly/Webinar-Clarke)
How to Design & Build Semantic Applications with Linked Data
Dave Clarke
June 14, 2017, 11:30am – 12:30pm EDT (15:30:00 – World Clock)
Meet the Authors Series/ Deep Text Analytics: What Is It and What Can It Do For You?
Tom Reamy
EuroIA 2017
Stockholm, Sweden
September 28-30, 2017
AM17
Washington, DC
October 27-November 1, 2017
Other Events
ETD 2017 Symposium
Washington, D.C.
August 7-9, 2017
KDD First International Workshop on Data-Driven Discovery
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
August 14, 2017
Sierre 2017
Sierre, Valais, Switzerland
August 16-17, 2017
Digital Directions: Fundamentals of Creating and Managing Digital Collections
Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
August 21-23, 2017
5th European Conference on Engineering of Computer Based Systems
Larnaca, Cyprus
August 31 - September 1, 2017
Faceted Classification Today: Theory, Technology and End Users
London, United Kingdom
September 14-15, 2017
Early Bird Fees close June 30, 2017
MANLIBNET 2017 International Conference: Innovation in Library Technology, Services and Resources -- Current Trends in Libraries Globally
Noida, India
September 15-16, 2017
NDSA Digital Preservation Conference: Preservation is Political
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
October 25-26, 2017
CFP HICSS Minitrack Global, International and Cross-Cultural Issues in IS
Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS)
January 3-6, 2018
(Papers due June 15, 2017)
Big Island, Hawaii, U.S.A.
ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval
March 11-15, 2018
(Paper and perspectives due October 1, 2017)
New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A.
AM17 UPDATE
The AM17 Committee Chairs are pleased to announce the Keynote Speakers for AM17!
Dr. Richard Marks, is Senior Research Engineer and Head of the PlayStation Magic Lab at Sony Interactive Entertainment. Dr. Marks founded this division which is designed to push the boundaries of play by investigating how technology can be used to create new entertainment experiences. Marks has worked at Sony’s game division for 17 years. He has a doctorate in philosophy, aeronautics, and astronautics from Stanford University.
William Powers, is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Hamlet’s BlackBerry. Widely praised for its insights on the digital future, the book grew out of research he did as a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. It has been selected as the Common Read at a number of colleges and universities, and published in many other countries and languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German and Russian. He graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude with a degree in U. S. history and literature, and did graduate study in Spain as a Rotary International Scholar.
REGISTER NOW AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EARLY BIRD DISCOUNTS!!
The AM17 Committee and Board President Lynn Connaway-Silipigni is looking into the possibility of discounted group tickets to see The Book of Mormon at the Kennedy Center. If you would be interested in this, please email Yolande@asist.org so we can get an initial idea of interest.
SIG & Chapter News
CO-ASIS&T is pleased to continue its third annual Summer of Tours! We've already had two successful events - the Library Media Center at Thomas Elementary of the Dublin City Schools and SEA, Limited Forensics and Research Library - and we have three more scheduled:
6/13 - Columbus Metropolitan Library Operations Center - the logistical arm of the largest public library in Central Ohio
6/28 - Pontifical College Josephenum Library - theological library for the only pontifical college in the Western Hemisphere
7/25 - The Ohio State University Special Collections - extraordinary items from all over the world in a number of different collections
Chapter tours will cover a variety of different types of libraries. For more information, visit the CO-ASIS&T website at https://www.asis.org/Chapters/coasis/. Please join us!
SAVE THE DATE! On Friday, Sept. 8, the Central Ohio, Northern Ohio, and Indiana chapters of ASIS&T will be hosting the 2017 ASIS&T Midwest Regional Chapters Conference. The full-day conference will highlight innovations in the 21st-century information professions, and will take place in Columbus, OH. Conference program and registration information coming soon!
Students at Sun Yat-sen University are organizing ASIS&T's first student chapter in China! They held their first meeting on May 11th, and are now editing the bylaws. They have elected an executive committee, and planning their activities program.
Resources
- The United Nations Digital Library (UNDL) is now available and can be accessed globally free of charge. The new system, which offers easy access to UN documents, maps, speeches, voting data, as well as non-sales publications, will help global researchers find the UN information they need, quickly and accurately. Learn more
- There's a petition to members of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to protect Net neutrality. Learn more.
- Will the Internet Fragment? is Professor Milton Mueller's new book where he argues that the fragmentation diagnosis misses the mark, and the rhetoric of fragmentation camouflages the real issue: the attempt by governments to align information flows with their jurisdictional boundaries.
- Primary Research Group Inc. has published the International Survey of Research University Leadership: Evaluation of the Academic Library, ISBN 978-157440-453-1. The 125-page study asked 314 higher education leaders what they thought of the overall performance of their library, of the performance of the library in meeting the needs of their particular departments, and of library performance in a range of areas: cost control, information literacy, collection breadth, supplier of bibliometrics, and other areas. Learn more.
Articles & Reports
Semi-Automated Conversion Projects: Best Practices: An overview of current processes, tools and methods for mitigating problems in a conversion project for high-volume legacy materials.
By Mark Gross, President, Data Conversion Laboratory, appearing in Industry Today
Center for Data Innovation Unveils 10-Step Agenda for Congress to Harness Power of Data to Grow Economy and Benefit Society Report
By Daniel Castro, Joshua New and Matt Beckwith; Center for Data Innovation
Understanding the Different Forms and Purposes of Reference Data for Master Data Management
By The International Foundation for Information Technology
UN Makes a Solid Case for the Benefits of Multilateral Collaboration, Openness and the Transformative Potential of Technology
By UN Conference on Trade and Development
Primary Concerns for Data Strategy and Governance
By The International Foundation for Information Technology
Geniuses Wanted: NASA Challenges Coders to Speed Up It's Supercomputer. To improve the performance of one of the world's biggest supercomputers, the agency is crowdsourcing some new ideas about an old coding language. There are two separate contests on the table. One calls for big-picture, strategic ideas to re-envision the code, with prizes up to $20,000. The other calls for tactical changes that might increase efficiency, with up to $35,000 in cash prizes. Read the full New York Times article.
"The Landscape of Climate Research Funding" looks at the growth and content of climate research investment and note its deep impact on monitoring, regulatory and policy organizations. The report was presented at the Week of the Arctic event in Fairbanks, Alaska May 8-14, 2017. The report uses data from the Dimensions database of competitive research grants, which indexes more than $1 trillion across more than 1.5 million individual grants and awards, linked to principal investigators and to their institutions.
Read the report in English
Read the report in Russian
Did You Know?
Through the Corporate Committee for Library Investment, organizations and businesses are banding together to help protect and secure federal funding for America's libraries. Read more.
The Performing Arts Readiness Project supports a variety of programs to increase the knowledge and ability of performing arts organizations to create and execute emergency recovery plans. Learn more.
The JAPAN LIBRARY series is a collection of English translations of Japanese books. In March 2017, 14 new titles, listed below, were added to the series and copies were donated overseas, mainly to college libraries. The 14 titles are available for purchase in traditional hard copy and will soon be available in eBook format. An additional two titles have also been published in cooperation with overseas publishers to make for a grand total of 26 books published so far! Learn more!
Merging Man and Machine -- Ever heard the term “brain-computer interface?” It is an idea that SpaceX and Tesla CEO, and all around billionaire, Elon Musk, is attaching himself to with a business venture called Neuralink. As reported in The Wall Street Journal in an article entitled “Elon Musk Launches Neuralink to Connect Brains With Computers”, Musk makes the case that the time is fast approaching for biological intelligence to merge with digital intelligence. “If you assume any rate of advancement in artificial intelligence, we will be left behind by a lot,” he said at a conference last June, according to the WSJ article. Neuralink makes devices that can be implanted in the human brain. The idea is to make communications between men and machines faster, more seamless, and intelligent. Is merging the human brain with digital intelligence a good or bad thing, and why? We’d like to hear your thoughts on the subject. Email your responses to info@dclab.com and in next month’s DCL newsletter, we’ll handpick some of the most interesting responses.
Equinox Open Library Initiative Inc. is a nonprofit company engaging in literary, charitable, and educational endeavors serving cultural and knowledge institutions. As the successor to Equinox Software, Inc., the Initiative carries forward a decade of service and experience with Evergreen and other open source library software. At Equinox OLI we help you empower your library with open source technologies. Learn more.
IFLA has published a policy statement which underlines the crucial work libraries are doing in safeguarding cultural heritage. The policy statement supports the UN 2030 Agenda target 11.4 which calls on member states to strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world's cultural and natural heritage. Read full statement. Also view the UNESCO Memory of the World statement.
The Educopia Institute and the UNC School of Information and Library Science have been awarded a grant worth over $681,000 from the Institue of Museum and Library Services for OSSArcFlow, a project to investigate and support the adoption of open source tools for libraries, archives and museums. Read the full announcement.
Professional Opportunities
There are over 140 position opening listed in the ASIS&T Career Center. From Director of Information Science in New York to a Scholarly Communications Librarian in Hong Kong, you'll find a wide variety of positions and locations that will meet your needs. Sign up for job alerts so you never miss a new posting! Find your new dream position, while supporting ASIS&T. Learn more.
University of British Columbia is seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow to work with the Designing for People (a pan-university research cluster). This one-year (renewable for a second year) position will play a pivotal role in designing and delivering an innovative cross-departmental graduate program in Human Computer Interaction. The position is available immediately at the UBC's Point Grey campus in Vancouver, Canada. For more information contact Karon MacLean (maclean@cs.ubc.ca) or Joanna McGrenere (Joanna@cs.ubc.ca).
The Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information invites applications for the position of Research Fellow in Computational Social Science with expertise in social network analysis, machine learning, natural language processing, or related areas. Interest in conducting web-based experiments and/or exploring big data is a plus. Successful candidate will work on projects focusing on the emergence and evolution of social systems and the role that human communication plays in them. Possible (but not limited) research topics include cooperation and coordination, contagion and diffusion, trust building, team formation and performance, group information seeking and processing, collective decision making and problem solving, and network dynamics.
Special issue on Reproducibility in Information Retrieval ACM Journal of Data and Information Quality (ACM JDIQ) Call For Papers. In this special issue of JDIQ, we aspire to provide an overview of innovative research at the intersection of information retrieval and data quality, from theory to practice, with a focus on challenges, solutions, and experiences in reproducibility of IR experimental results. See submission guidelines.
DuraSpace and Data Curation Experts are pleased to invite you to attend the Fedora and Hydra Camp at Oxford University, Sept 4 - 8, 2017. The camp will be hosted by Oxford University, Oxford, UK and is supported by Jisc. Training begins with the basics and build toward more advanced concepts–no prior Fedora or Hydra experience is required. Participants can expect to come away with a deep dive Fedora and Hydra learning experience coupled with multiple opportunities for applying hands-on techniques working with experienced trainers from both communities. Registration is limited to the first 40 applicants so register here soon! An early bird discount is available until July 10.
RGU has launched an online Petroleum Data Management Graduate Certificate. The 9 month course aims to promote the understanding of subsurface exploration and production data and evaluate its importance to upstream oil and gas businesses. Learn more.
9th International ACM Conference on Management of Digital EcoSystems (MEDES'17)
Extended submission date to June 26, 2017
Bangkok, Thailand
November 7-10, 2017
International Journal on Digital Libraries -- Call For Papers for Special Issue on Networked Knowledge Organization Systems (NKOS)
Paper submission deadline is September 30, 2017
Call For Papers in JeSLIB Special Issue: "Visualizing the (Data) Future"
Paper submission deadline is August 1, 2017
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