Volume 1 Issue 1

Welcome to the new monthly e-Newsletter!

We know your time is valuable, and so we're combining all ASIS&T announcements on activities, events and deadlines into one monthly e-newsletter. No more individual emails on various news, but a one-stop location of everything ASIS&T. You'll still receive the Bulletin's intriguing articles, nothing is disappearing, we're adding another way to ensure you know about how ASIS&T is working for you with the least amount of disruption to your day.

We hope that you find this communication vehicle appealing and helpful. As with all our services, this e-newsletter is for you, so please let us know how we can make it more useful to you. Please drop us a line letting us know what professional news you'd like to share or what new accomplishments you have achieved.

 

ASIS&T ROUNDUP

• Board President, Lynn Silipigni Connaway virtually welcomed 2017 IA Summit attendees on March 24th. Her speech emphasized the symbiotic relationship between practitioners and researchers. As Dr. Connaway explained it, "...what researchers discover can afford practitioners with new insight, providing a competitive edge to their work. Equally, practitioners offer researchers understanding into the practical implementation of theory. The logic of this reciprocal relationship is clear to all of us. It is a symbiotic relationship that sparks creativity and benefits our society." To encourage cross collaborations, ASIS&T offered all IA Summit registrants a special membership discount, good until June 30th.

• Executive Director, Dick Hill is recovering from his stroke. Dick and his family wish to express their gratitude for all the positive thoughts, prayers and well wishes that have been forwarded by members and colleagues. Jan Hatzakos, ASIS&T Director of Finance was made the Interim Executive Director. Dick maintains regular contact with Jan and so stays abreast of ASIS&T activities and continues to provide his guidance.

• The ASIS&T Executive Director Search Committee, chaired by Sandy Hirsh and Clara M. Chu have been working with the Isaacson, Miller search firm in identifying qualified candidates that will lead new insights and ideas in supporting ASIS&T's mission.

• As the new U.S. administration announces new policies that affect our field, ASIS&T has responded. ASIS&T's stand on the executive order banning seven nations, can be reviewed here: ASIS&T Statement on Visa Executive Order.

• The Information Science field was deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Eugene Garfield on February 26th. Though the ASIS&T's Memoriam tried to embody what we were all feeling, it could not completely capture all that this remarkable innovator contributed to the field or the impact he made to those who knew him. ASIS&T continues our remembrance of Dr. Garfield in the upcoming April/May issue of the Bulletin. SIG METRICS provided personal reflections from Ton van Raan and Paul Wouters -- http://bit.ly/2nUGmH0; and there was also an obituary published in Nature-- http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v543/n7646/full/543492a.html?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews.

• ASIS&T's new Communications & Marketing Policies were recently approved by the Board of Directors. The goal of the policies is to promote ASIS&T's mission, goals and values; support the creation of internal and external communication tools; expand public awareness; develop positive public perceptions; and drive marketing initiatives. HQ will be working with Chapters and SIGs to ensure a systemic approach to promoting the organization.

• Newly renamed Bob Williams History Fund -- Dr. Robert V. Williams, affectionately known as Dr. Bob, passed away January 14, 2017. Bob Williams created the archival studies program, was an architect of the library school/history joint degree, and designed the undergraduate program in Information Science for the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. He received the prestigious Watson Davis award from ASIS&T in 2011 and was the primary supporter for our History of Information Science project. The ASIS&T History Fund was largely the result of Bob Williams’ dedicated enthusiasm and continued fundraising efforts to promote attention to the history of ASIS&T and of Information Science. It was a result of his initiative that the SIG Foundations of Information Science became the SIG History and Foundations of Information Science in 1995. He was tireless in his efforts, helping to organize conferences, compiling bibliographies, organizing an extensive oral history program, and serving as mentor, earning the SIG Member of the Year Award in 1999. ASIS&T is pleased to rename the History Fund in his honor https://www.asist.org/about/awards/history-fund-awards/ . You can make your tax-deductible online donation to the History Fund (or any other ASIS&T program) by visiting the following page: https://www.asist.org/asist-charitable-donation-form/.

• ARIST Survey -- the ASIS&T Publications Committee just compeleted a survey to gain feedback on what members thought of the Annual Review of Information Science & Technology (ARIST). They had 205 respondents. An overwhelming number of respondents (over 90%) selected "yes" to the question "Do you think that ARIST should be revived?". A complete report of the survey results will be shared by the Committee once they have completed it's analysis.

• ASIS&T Events Calendar provides information on events happening through HQ, Chapters and SIGs. Learn about professional events around the globe in one place! Don't forget to check back periodically as events are constantly being added to the calendar.

• Member-Get-a-Member Campaign (MGM) -- this recruitment campaign has been underway since January. We have 16 members who are recruiting for the campaign, with 30 new members recruited. So far Sam Chu is in the lead. ASIS&T membership has seen a drastic decline over the last several years and is at a critical level. ASIS&T has no better ambassadors than our members. The most powerful recruitment tool we have is you, because most persuasive to a prospective member is your personal testimony – why you are a member. Membership dues are a predominant source of revenue for ASIS&T. An association is only as strong as its membership. For your efforts, you will receive a discounted on your renewal dues for each new member you bring in. We want ASIS&T to be strong and vital as it enters it's 80th year. Won't you please help us? Learn how to participate and starting earning a discount on your renewal!

• Stephan Addo, Membership Services Assistant is now also working with Communications as ASIS&T's new Social Media Specialist. Working with the Communications Officer, they make sure news and information is disseminated through all ASIS&T communication channels. In addition, Stephan spends time researching the world wide web to bring news of interest to our members, as well as monitoring social media channels. We would like to acknowledge Rebekah Willson at the University of Strathclyde for her research efforts in providing us a list of possible organizations for expanding our reach. Since Stephan began, we have seen engagement up by 10% in the last month. Social media provides a quick way for you to convey the topics that interest you, thus providing us with direction on what to post. Please "like" those posts that interest you, and let the ASIS&T community know what you think!

• The Symposium on Research Design, Paper Writing & Publishing in Information Science was held on March 27th at Hong Kong University. Sam Chu organized this ASIS&T event that provided information and guidance on developing a conference paper for ASIS&T for research students and junior researchers. Participants were from 11 universities and seven countries.

• The SIG Board determined last year a need for a training program for potential SIG members and leaders. A survey will be going out shortly to ASIS&T members, asking about barriers to leadership, what they want to know about SIGs, etc. We will analyze results and identify several topics. We will be sending these topics out to the SIGs and ask each SIG to pick a topic. The SIG will prepare a 15-minute presentation that will be recorded at the next annual meeting. More information on the way. We appreciate your participation. Please contact Darin Freeburg at darinf@mailbox.sc.edu.

CHAPTERS & SIGs NEWS

SIG InfoLearn is ASIS&T's newest SIG! SIG Information & Learning Sciences (SIG InfoLearn) launched in March of 2017 to support an exciting and growing scholarly research domain, at the nexus of information and learning sciences. The working group for the launch of SIG InfoLearn comprised (listed alphabetically) Dr. June Ahn (NYU), Dr. Sam Chu (University of Hong Kong), Dr. Hong Huang (University of South Florida), Dr. Eric Meyers (University of British Columbia), Dr. Rebecca Reynolds (Rutgers University) and Dr. Soo Young Rieh (University of Michigan). With the support of over 60 scholars who wrote letters on behalf of the SIG’s formation, the working group carried the proposal through to ASIS&T board approval in March of 2017, with the guidance of SIG Cabinet Director Dr. Kristene Unsworth, who the officers thank for her keen involvement. SIG Overview: Researchers in both information and learning sciences aim to reach a deeper understanding of the cognitive and social processes that facilitate inquiry, learning, and knowledge co-construction, in order to advance theories of learning, information-seeking, and learning systems’ design. Special issues of several journals, and a number of international workshops and seminars have discussed these intersections in human information and learning behaviour, for instance the 2016 Journal of Information Science special issue on “Searching as Learning,” the 2016 special issue of the The Information Society (“Revealing Mutually Constitutive Ties between the Information and Learning Sciences”), the 2014 IIiX workshop on “Searching as Learning,” the 2015 iConference “Digital Youth” workshop, the Schloss Dagstuhl seminar on “Searching as Learning,” and others. This SIG builds upon the growing recognition of the ways in which the scholarly disciplines of information science and the learning sciences stand to enrich one another theoretically, methodologically, and, empirically, for instance through design improvements within systems in which human learning is to be expected. We aim to support annual panel sessions and workshop(s) at the annual conference further supporting scholarship in this domain, and have developed social media and listserv channels for ongoing scholarly communication within the SIG. We invite participation by those who conduct research in areas such as: Information-seeking processes during both formal and informal learning endeavors; Learning and/or information-seeking by the full diversity of youth, adults, elders and specialized populations: at work; at school; at play; Design and use of learning systems and information systems involving searching and learning, in multiple contexts; Information, communication, and technology (ICT) issues in computer supported collaborative learning; Ethnographic, emancipatory, critical-race theory and post-structural research involving information and learning; Digital divide, literacies, access, and learning systems; Learning analytics and/or data science perspectives on inquiry activity with learning or information systems; Research on data sharing, information architecture, knowledge ecosystems in E-learning; and Social and ethical issues, privacy and security concerns in online and cyber-learning. The next election for new officers will be held prior to the 2018 annual meeting. The inaugural SIG Officers, through October 2018 are as follows.
Chair: Dr. Rebecca Reynolds, Rutgers University
Secretary/Treasurer: Dr. Eric Meyers, University of British Columbia
Communications/Member Recruitment and Retention: Dr. Denise Agosto, Drexel University
Webmaster/Social Media: Dr. Warren Allen, Florida State University; Dr. Christopher Leeder, post-doctoral researcher, Rutgers University
Web Site
Facebook Group

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SIG VIS launched their new website which includes archive of activities, pictures and their 2004-05 Blog. Check it out! You can also review their Newsletter.

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ASIS&T Presentation @ iSchool Conference -- the Asia Pacific, Taiwan and Europe Chapters, along with SIG Education for Information Science (SIG ED) and SIG International Information Issues (SIG III) collaborated on a presentation about ASIS&T and it's professional value to the field. Emil Levine, Chapter Advisor for the Asia Pacific chapter masterfully coordinated everyone's contributions for a unified presentation that followed the new policy guidelines. The iSchool conference was held in Wuhan, China from March 22-25, 2017. The ASIS&T presentation, "Professional Organizations in Career Development" was held on March 24th. We want to acknowledge everyone's efforts and wish to express our gratitude for their collegial spirit.
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Daniel Alemneh, ASIS&T Chapter Assembly Director, along with Irene Lopatovska and Jeonghyun (Annie) Kim have been reviewing all the Chapter Resources currently available to determine what needs updating and what new resources could be added. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, you can email them to insideasist@asist.org and they will be forwarded on to Daniel.
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The Communications department worked with Wei-Chung Cheng, Secretary of the Taipei Chapter to develop an ASIS&T Presentation Template for Chapters. Using Wei-Chung's design talents, the PowerPoint template allows chapters to insert their specific information while retaining a continuous branding image. A similar template for SIGs is currently in production.
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SIG DL will be hosting another round of #SIGDLChats via Twitter on April 18 at 6pm Eastern. The Digital Liaisons Twitter Chats are thematically structured around what Digital Librarianship looks like in practice and how Digital Libraries contribute to the communities they serve. This chat is designed as a mentoring opportunity for students and early-career information professionals to connect with mentors in the Digital Library community.
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SIG-KM is looking for an editor for its upcoming new newsletter. The newsletter will feature guest columns from KM experts, as well as recurring columns on topics of interest to members. The editor will help with getting content put together, copyediting, and formatting. This person will also work with the SIG-KM leadership to solicit content. It’s a great way to get involved!
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The SIG-DL Student Engagement Awards are intended to encourage professional activity in ASIS&T by students who are interested in digital libraries and related initiatives. The First Award is a modest monetary sum to assist with deferring travel costs to the ASIS&T Annual Meeting; the Second Award is a student-level membership to ASIS&T. The awards will be issued to the winning students prior to the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. Award certificates will be presented in a ceremony during the SIG-DL Business Meeting at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting.
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Want to win the ASIS&T Best SIG Publication Award? Publish a special section in the ASIST Bulletin. There have been numerous winners over the years including 2016 winner, SIG STI. Guest Editors Moriana Garcia and Tod Colegrove did a great job presenting 3D Printing and Digital Fabrication Technologies in Libraries and Museums. SIGs are the driving force in fostering and disseminating innovation inside ASIS&T. No one is so well equipped as you to identify new areas of practice or new research results of interest to everyone. And if you present them through the Bulletin you have the advantage of a great editorial staff to help you with all aspects of the publication to produce a professional product you can be proud of. If you have ideas, please let Irene Travis, Bulletin Editor know at <itravis@austin.rr.com> or contact ASIS&T Communications Officer, Yolande Nanayakkara at <yolande@asist.org>.
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New Regional Chapter in Brazil is being developed! The first chapter in South America will facilitate networking and develop professional activities that address their needs, while promoting ASIS&T to encourage new memberships.
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The Association for Information Science & Technology, New England Chapter (NE-ASIS&T) is pleased to announce two awards to support participation in the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. Our goals are to support scholarship and connect research and practice, bringing new voices to the chapter. There will be a student award and a practitioner award. Each award will support your year-long membership in ASIS&T as well as your conference registration and part of your travel costs up to $750.

Applicants do not need to be current NE-ASIS&T members, nor do they need to live or work in Boston. However, award winners are expected to participate (in person or remotely) in NE-ASIS&T programming in 2017-2018. The application deadline will be Friday, April 21st . More information will be posted to neasist.org and to our neasis-l listserv in early April.

AM17 UPDATES

The program committee is working hard on planning the 80th ASIS&T Annual Meeting in Washington DC from Oct 27-Nov 1, 2017. Unlike previous years when the conference ended on Tuesday, the conference is being extended to Wednesday. The luncheon will be held on Wednesday.

We are very excited to announce our two keynote speakers for the annual meeting - Richard Marks and William Powers. Richard Marks is the Head of Playstation Magic Lab at Sony Interactive Entertainment. His area of expertise is social aspects of virtual reality and augmented reality. William Powers is the author of Hamlet’s Blackberry and Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab. His area of expertise is work-life balance in a technologically-connected world.

To assist international attendees that might be affected by visa or U.S. entry issues, visa support letters for attendees and presenters will be issued promptly upon request (by filling out a form on the conference website-coming soon). We will work with the reviewers to shorten the peer-review time for submissions due in May and June to allow earlier confirmation as presenters in the conference, leaving more time for visa processing. We will make arrangements for remote presentations and virtual presence for those unable to get visa or timely entry for the conference.

Please make note of the deadlines. The paper submissions are due on April 16th. Based on the reviews, the program committee will select the three top conference papers, whose authors will have a chance to meet with the JASIST editor about the possibility to publish in JASIST. Panels and workshops are due on May 2nd, and visual presentations (including posters, videos, storify, etc.) are due on June 23rd.

The program committee consists of international scholars with Sam Chu (Hong Kong) and Mega Subramaniam (USA) as paper co-chairs, Dania Bilal (USA) and Nouf Khashman (Qatar) as panel/workshop co-chairs, and Kanwal Ameen (Pakistan) and Kyungwon Koh (USA) as co-chairs for visual presentations. For more information on the conference and planning activities, please contact the AM co-chairs Sanda Erdelez erdelezs@missouri.edu and Naresh Agarwal agarwal@simmons.edu.

Authored a new book? ASIS&T provides you wonderful exposure to hold a book signing sale at AM17. Reach out to your publisher and discuss this opportunity with Vanessa Foss @ vanessa@asist.org.

MEMBER UPDATES

Past ASIS&T President (2014), Harry Bruce will be stepping down from his leadership position as Dean of the University of Washington's Information School (iSchool) this coming June. His diligent efforts led to the MLIS program being named #2 in America by U.S. News & World Report. Dr. Bruce plans on taking a well earned year's sabbatical while determining his next professional move. Everyone at ASIS&T wishes Harry well as he moves into a new stage of his professional career.

 

 

 

 

 

2004 Past President Sam (Samantha Kelly) Hastings will be retiring on May 15th of this year. Dr. Hastings received ASIS&T's prestigious Watson Davis award in 2008.

If you have news you'd like to share with the ASIS&T community, please send your updates to insideasisst@asist.org.

 

 

 

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

April 5, 2017
Re-envisioning Management Education and Training for Information Professionals (ASIS&T Webinar)
Presenters: Rajesh Singh and James Vorbach

April 6, 2017
Data on the Web Best Practices: Challenges and Benefits (ASIS&T Webinar)
Presenters: Bernadette Farias Lóscio, Caroline Burle dos Santos Guimarães, and Newton Calegari

April 7, 2017
Demonstrating the Value of Academic Libraries in Times of Uncertainty: A Research Agenda for Student Learning & Success (ASIS&T supported Presentation)
University of Hong Kong
Presenter: Lynn Silipigni-Connaway, PhD

April 19-21, 2017
RDAP Summit
Seattle, Washington

April 27, 2017
Nailing Jello to a Wall: Metrics, Frameworks and Existing Work for Metadata Assessment (ASIS&T Webinar)
Presenter: Christina Harlow

May 1, 2017
New Leader Applications Deadline is May 1st.

May 15, 2017
Library Carpentry (NEASIST Workshop)
Presenter: Thomas Hohenstein

June 1, 2017
James M. Cretsos Leadership Award Deadline is June 1st.

PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Eugene Garfield Information Sciences Pioneer Award, has been created by Clarivate Analytics in honor of Dr. Garfield's legacy to Information Sciences. An annual award, selected by a board of prominent scientometricians, for the most innovative research in scientometrics that have global application. It will be awarded to early-career researchers (PhD + 10 yrs max) and in addition to the award, Clarivate Analytics will provide the successful applicant with in-kind support and access to Web of Science data. The online application will be available starting in April 2017. Learn more by visiting clarivate.com.

DCMI-2017 Call for Participation: International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications to be held in Washington, D.C., USA, October 26-29, 2017. The conference will be collocated with the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. For topics and deadlines visit DCMI Call for Participation page on their website.

SIG AH and SIG VIS are co-sponsoring the 2017 Virtual Symposium on Information and Technology in the Arts and Humanities on April 18 and 19.
SIG AH is sponsoring a Student Research Award.

SIG DL Student Engagement Awards are intended to encourage professional activity in ASIS&T by students who are interested in digital libraries and related initiatives. The First Award is a modest monetary sum to assist with deferring travel costs to the ASIS&T Annual Meeting; the Second Award is a student-level membership to ASIS&T. The awards will be issued to the winning students prior to the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. Award certificates will be presented in a ceremony during the SIG-DL Business Meeting at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. Deadline is August 27, 2017.

Library Carpentry, a one-day, hands-on workshop will cover jargon busting, data structures, using regular expressions for pattern matching, use of the Bash shell (aka the command line) to speed up and automate tasks, and using OpenRefine for data cleanup. This event is sold out.

Submissions for the AoIR 2017 Doctoral Colloquium are now being accepted and are due by 20 May 2017. The colloquium is being to be held as part of the Association of Internet Researchers annual conference which is being held in Tartu, Estonia,18-21 October 2017.

RESOURCES

• Agricultural Libraries and Information Centers play vital role in advancing food, agriculture and nutrition information towards achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals. With a view to sharing related information worldwide, a blogspot 'Agricultural Libraries Worldwide" has been created and activated. http://agriculturallibraries.blogspot.com/

• Wroclaw Poland, new public library -- only a little over 580 square meters, a new public library will open in May 2017 at the main railway station in Wroclaw. Designed for residents and travelers, the "homelike" interior welcomes users to not only read printed books, journals and e-books, but also listen to music.

• Canada's Federal Science Library has launched a new web portal connecting several departmental libraries into a central science library portal. Check out the new Canadian Federal Science Library.

• The International Foundation for Information Technology has created their own "File Plan Attributes for Records Management". Note: All attributes have also been included in and aligned with the RM Control Grid.

ARTICLES

The Persistence Polyglot for Big Data and Tiny Data

Kalev Leetaru has several interesting articles:

Creating A Massive Network Visualization of the Global News Landscape: Who Links To Whom?

Visual Geocoding a Quarter Billion Global News Photographs Using Google's Deep Learning API