Terrence Curtiss, Author at Association for Information Science and Technology | ASIS&T

Winners of 2021 ASIS&T SIG-SI Awards

Terrence Curtiss — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 17:36:34 +0000

Winners of 2021 ASIS&T SIG-SI Awards

The Awards Jury of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Special Interest Group for Social Informatics (SIG SI) is excited to announce the winners of our 2021 ASIS&T SIG SI Awards.

First, we are pleased to announce the winner of our 2021 Social Informatics Best Paper Award. We had several excellent nominations this year. Each nominated paper received two reviews from external social informatics scholars, with those reviews then evaluated by our Best Paper Award jury of Colin Rhinesmith (SIG SI Co-chair), Lingzi Hong (SIG SI treasurer), and Adam Worrall (SIG SI Chair-elect). Reviewers and the jury evaluated papers on their relevance to social informatics; the clarity of their methods, findings, and implications; their significance and contribution to social informatics research; and their overall strength as deserving of the Best Paper Award.

The award jury chose one winning paper whose authors will receive the $750 (US) prize:

John Seberger (Indiana University) and Geoffrey Bowker (University of California-Irvine) for their paper, “Humanistic Infrastructure Studies: Hyper-Functionality and the Experience of the Absurd,” published in Information, Communication and Society

(Full citation: Seberger, J. S. & Bowker, G. (2020). Humanistic Infrastructure Studies: Hyper-Functionality and the Experience of the Absurd. Information, Communication and Society. https//doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1726985).

Given the high quality of nominated papers, we also wish to recognize one honorable mention:

Rachel Simons (Texas Woman’s University), Kenneth Fleischmann (University of Texas at Austin), and Loriene Roy (University of Texas at Austin), for their paper “Leveling the playing field in ICT design: Transcending knowledge roles by balancing division and privileging of knowledges,” published in The Information Society.

(Full citation: Simons, Rachel N., Fleischmann, Kenneth R., & Roy, Loriene. (2020). Leveling the playing field in ICT design: Transcending knowledge roles by balancing division and privileging of knowledges. The Information Society, 36(4), 183-198.)

Next, we are thrilled to announce our second-annual winner of the Emerging Social Informatics Researcher Award. The awards jury assessed the relevance of the student’s current and future research to social informatics, along with any submitted or accepted contributions to the ASIS&T 2021 Annual Meeting and our own Social Informatics Research Symposium (jointly led by SIG SI and SIG IEP). One winner is being recognized as an emerging researcher in social informatics and will receive free / reimbursed registration for the ASIS&T 2021 Annual Meeting and the Social Informatics Research Symposium, where they will be able to network and interact with other social informatics researchers:

Jessica K. Barfield is doctoral student in the School of Information Sciences, in the College of Communication and Information at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Her research and scholarship in social informatics focuses on the design and use of technology such that it increases the social and cultural diversity among users. Jessica’s paper “Hey There! What Do You Look Like? User Voice Switching and Interface Mirroring in Voice-Enabled Digital Assistants (VDAs)” (co-authored with Dania Bilal) will be presented during a session at the ASIS&T annual meeting on October 31, from 3:00 - 3:30. With this work, they seek to provide design guidelines for voice-based digital assistants that allow the user's race, culture, and ethnicity to be considered as options when users choose a voice interface to converse with.

All award winners will be recognized during the 2021 Workshop (The 17th Annual Social Informatics Research Symposium and the 3rd Annual Information Ethics and Policy Workshop: Sociotechnical Perspectives on Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (SIG-SI and SIG-IEP)), to be held in a hybrid virtual and in-person format on Oct 29th from 8 am - noon (Mountain time) as part of the ASIS&T 2021 Annual Meeting. For more details on and to register for the Annual Meeting and Social Informatics Research Symposium, please go to https://www.asist.org/am21/.

I would especially like to thank all of our paper reviewers for their support of SIG SI: we could not ensure such a high quality of review without their help. Thanks again to those who reviewed nominated papers for our Best Paper Award this year: Catherine Dumas, Kristin Eschenfelder, Noriko Hara, Caroline Haythornthwaite, Eric Meyer, Colin Rhinesmith, Howard Rosenbaum, Adam Worall, Lingzi Hong, Julia Bullard, and Miriam Sweeney.

Congratulations again to our winners for their existing and emerging contributions to social informatics. We hope to see everyone (virtually or in person) for our 2021 Social Informatics Research Symposium and the ASIS&T Annual Meeting!

Rachel Simons, Ph.D.
Awards Coordinator, ASIS&T SIG SI

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Member Spotlight

Terrence Curtiss — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:55:23 +0000

Member Spotlight

Dr. Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo
Professor, Universidad Autónoma
de Chihuahua, Mexico Associate Editor for Information Development,
and Digital Library Perspectives

Dr. Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo

What skills does one need to understand and study Information Science?

Traditional information science skills such as cataloging, classification and providing reference services are still relevant nowadays, although they must be complemented by skills mostly related to digital technologies, which augment information scientists’ work. There are also other important skills that are not necessarily associated with our profession that have been getting more attention, as they conform competitive advantages for us and allow us to redefine our roles with activities such as video and podcast production, which allow us to gain a broader outreach; being involved in and providing advice to journals and scientific publications (not necessarily of our discipline), managing research and scientific production in knowledge institutions, and training students, researchers and other professionals. User education or bibliographic instruction has morphed into information literacy, which may include diverse topics as using the library, information resources and research tools; academic writing; and how to publish and handle research indicators. Information Science is relatively young as a discipline, but it is very dynamic, and we can find work and collaboration opportunities in many diverse roles.

What skills and knowledge are over emphasized and are not necessary while working within the discipline?

We have such a wide variety of challenges and opportunities that I believe that there are no unnecessary skills for us, as we can turn them into strengths and pave our own careers around them. However, Information Science education is also diverse, some schools would center more on classic ‘librarian’ skills and services, others focus more on administration and management, while a few train students on state-of-the-art technologies and processes. I think that a good Information Science curriculum will balance these three perspectives as best as possible and would help enhance soft skills (mainly social and communication skills), as well as providing specialized training on research and on teaching people to improve their information as well as their research practices. Training and information literacy for individuals at different educational levels are, at least for me, among the most relevant areas in which we are being increasingly required.

In your eyes, what are the major hurdles that inhibit people from pursuing the study of Information Science?

Our discipline might have some of the strongest stereotypes of all disciplines, around the career itself and ourselves as professionals. Phrases such as: “Librarian? Information Scientist? Oh, you must read a lot”, or worse yet: “Do you have to study for that?” are among the most common clichés. Moreover, in some countries you will find that in our “natural” habitat (libraries) there are few professional information scientists leading them; there might not be a single professional there. All of this is sadly caused by a general social misunderstanding of our importance and of all the areas in which we can successfully work, together with the issue that we tend to not explain properly “what we do”, and perhaps we can double our efforts in promoting it. Perhaps our biggest asset and at the same time our largest drawback is that we specialize in working with certain things that some people struggle to grasp their real value (libraries, information, knowledge, scientific production), as their value is quite intangible and returns on investments are much harder to see than with other resources. So, with this heavy baggage, some people might prefer not to choose to study Information Science.

What parts of Information Science give you the most joy and enable you to continue this work?

As a librarian, perhaps most obvious answer would be to aid users with their information needs and then to see them get their “a-ha moment” when they realize how they can solve a particular information problem; this is because I am convinced that among the most important things we should aim for when providing training or advice is to develop independent information users. I also enjoy training sessions, which turned out to be among my main activities, and one of the reasons why I switched to an academic and research position; leaving libraries behind but teaching at least one course per semester on an Information Science bachelor program. Moreover, I integrate my know-how (including an extensive use of information resources and technologies) into any program I teach in (which also includes a master and a PhD on education) and I also conduct research on our topics and their intersections with other disciplines, mainly with education. Currently, what I mostly enjoy are delivering lectures, supervising graduate students, conducting research and publishing my findings.

How has the pandemic of COVID-19 changed how you interpret and see your work?

Educational institutions in Mexico have been in lockdown for almost a year now and that has brought many challenges and issues. For professors, workload has increased significantly and as we do not have to go to our workplaces, working hours have been an overly complex and ambiguous concept to grasp, as they have multiplied during the whole week; these issues demand for a high degree of resilience, which we manage well as long as we can transmit it to our students (and users). We must be stronger than ever to better support others that are depending on us. Past year has been the year in which I have been the most active with lecturing, conferences and webinars, guest lectures and publications. Among increased productivity, working online has favored stronger collaborations with colleagues around the world and has allowed us to widen our reach, for which technological skills and past online experiences have been paramount to succeed at these times. Fortunately, Information Science does not depend on the availability of labs as other disciplines to advance and conduct research, but even so, it has been particularly challenging to apply instruments such as surveys, so we must rely on networks of colleagues and even social media to push them. Finally, as in many other fields, I feel that information scientists have also been “all hands-on deck” regarding the study of the pandemic and providing solutions and alternatives to the issues it has been causing; from our perspectives and endeavors, obviously.

Have you witnessed any noticeable shifts within the greater Information Science community at this time?

I have been genuinely concerned with the moment when we will reopen libraries and this long period before that, because if the professionals behind them have not been busy with providing alternatives for their regular services, we will have a scenario where libraries might lose the relatively low importance they have and hence, someone could say: “if we did not need them during lockdown, perhaps they are not so necessary anyway”. That is a troublesome thought. However, with the pandemic we have seen that some barriers (often institutional) have been torn down, specifically those preventing professionals and their libraries to have an active presence on social media to engage and serve their users, to reposition libraries within their institutions, to enhance their support of other areas, and to strengthen the library community through online activities, special portals, and new online services. However, some institutions are still inflexible regarding their stance on this subject. Perhaps these will most likely not be missed, as they “were not there”; these will be the case of other institutions that were awfully slow to react and just now they are realizing that they have to provide remote access to digital resources and provide assistance and training to ensure they are being used. Nevertheless, there have been wonderful initiatives that have responded to the pandemic in our field, for instance, there has been an explosion of online courses, tutorials, podcasts, conferences, and webinars led by libraries and information professionals. Moreover, document delivery services have been crucial for ensuring that students have access to the specialized literature required in their academic programs, but some of it is not even available digitally, at least officially. This issue will perhaps allow us to critically reexamine how the bibliography supporting the curriculum is selected and to strengthen the debates surrounding copyright. Publishing dynamics during the pandemic have also highlighted some important challenges and opportunities for us, as the production of preprints have increased as well as the importance of repositories and the issues surrounding peer-review, both pre- and post-publication.

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Annual Meeting 2021

Terrence Curtiss — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:50:10 +0000

Annual Meeting 2021

News You Need: Travel and Housing, Schedule, and Call for Proposals

Plans for the 84th ASIS&T Annual Meeting are well underway! We are so excited to be planning this face-to-face meeting after more than a year apart from all of you. Recognizing there may still be difficulties for some to travel, we are working on a plan to allow some remote presentation and virtual attendance. Check the website often for regular updates. Registration and housing information will be posted later in March.

Travel and Housing

The meeting will be held in Salt Lake City, UT, October 30-November 2, 2021 at the Marriott Salt Lake City Downtown at City Creek. Except for a couple of meeting rooms, most of the meeting, including exhibits, breaks and meals, will be held on the main level of the hotel, making it very easy to navigate. The Marriott is conveniently located to many historic landmarks, terrific shopping, and restaurants. Check out the highlights of this fabulous city. Be sure to allow time in your schedule to take advantage of all this city has to offer.

Schedule

Mark your calendars now for these special events; details will be available in June when registration opens. Premeeting workshops will be held on Friday and Saturday, October 29-30. The student reception will be held on Saturday evening from 5:15-6:15 p.m. The meeting will then kick off on Sunday morning with continental breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and the Opening Plenary from 9-10:30 a.m., followed by a full-day of educational sessions. Please review the schedule-at-a-glance to see an outline of the meeting so you can make your plans now.

Call for Proposals

The submission site is open, and we encourage you to consider submitting a proposal for a session. Complete instructions and the template for each submission type is on the Annual Meeting website. Paper, panel, alternative event, and workshops submissions are due April 19. Posters are due June 9. The deadline for Doctoral Colloquium submissions is June 16.

Mark your calendar now for the 2022 Annual Meeting which will take place in Pittsburgh, PA, October 28-Novmber 1, 2022, at the Wyndham Grand. This was going to be the location for our 2020 meeting, but the pandemic forced us to pivot to a virtual meeting, which was wildly successful. We are excited to be able to meet in Pittsburgh in 2022. We will begin adding information to the website in the next few months as those plans come together.

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Chapter Updates

Terrence Curtiss — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:48:33 +0000

Chapter Updates

New England Chapter Annual Meeting

Registration is now open for NEASIST’s Annual Conference, It Took a Pandemic: Reinventing Libraries in an Era of Change, which will be held virtually through Zoom on Friday, March 5.

The theme for this year's conference is “It Took a Pandemic: Reinventing Libraries in an Era of Change.” Since Spring 2020, libraries and other information science institutions have had to transform many existing practices and services to continue to meet the needs of their patrons and communities in the midst of the global pandemic. While the past year has brought immense challenges to our institutions, it has also provided opportunities to reexamine practices, provide innovative new services, and to collaborate with one another.

Space is limited so please register early!

Schedule

Please note that the schedule is subject to change up to the day of the conference. All times listed are EST.

See below for more detailed descriptions of sessions.

9:30-10:00 AM: Welcome, Conference Logistics, & Reports from the Chapter Executive Committee.

10:00-10:50 AM: Keynote - Elaine Martin, Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

10:50-11:00 AM: Break

11:00-12:00 PM: Panel Presentation (sponsored by Simmons University Student Chapter of ASIS&T)

Panelists: Deeth Ellis (Boston Latin School), Kevin Kidd (Wentworth Institute of Technology), David Leonard (Boston Public Library), Kate Nyhan (Yale University), Jae Rossman (Yale University)

12:00-12:45 PM: Break for lunch

12:45-1:45 PM: Presentation “Usability Evaluation of COVID-19 Dashboards” – Rong Tang, Simmons University and Simmons University student research teams

Presenters: Ray Stevens, Danielle Pytko, Sherri Schon, Jennifer Ronca, Nick Bodanza, Jocelyn Cozzo, Chris Kaufmann, Yishan Zhang

1:45-2:00 PM: Break

2:00-3:15 PM: Breakout Session 1 (choose from one of two options below at time of registration)

Option 1 - Projects and Programs (presentations and Q&A)

Mega Subramaniam and Linda Braun, “Essential Research Needed: The Role of Public Libraries Before, During, and After Crises”

Ann Graf, “Covid-19 and the Graffiti Art Response”

TBD

Option 2 – Workshop (registration limited to 60 participants)

Sarah Moazeni, Daria Hafner and Karen Storz, “Alice in Zoomland: Jam Tomorrow, Jam Yesterday, and Jam Today”

3:15-3:30 PM: Break

3:30-4:45 PM – Breakout Session 2 (choose from one of two options below at time of registration)

Option 1 - Instruction and Instructional Design (presentations and Q&A)

Sharon Radcliff, “Re-envisioning Instruction for the Virtual World”

Naresh Agarwal, “Teaching online: Instructional design and practical strategies for remote education”

Cindy Li, “Promote Library Services During COVID-19”

TBD

Option 2 – Workshop (registration limited to 30 participants)

Africa Hands, “It only took a pandemic to level up our skills”

4:45-4:50 PM: Conference wrap-up

Detailed Session Descriptions

(more will be added as sessions are finalized)

"Usability Evaluation of COVID-19 Dashboards"

Fifteen graduate students at School of Library and Information Science, Simmons University, conducted a usability testing and UX research project throughout the Fall 2020 semester on publicly accessible COVID-19 dashboards and tracking systems. This is a team project for the LIS455 Usability and UX Research course, taught by Dr. Rong Tang. Student teams identified research questions and developed testing instruments to carry out remote usability research via Zoom on four dashboards (Coronavirus Tracking by Johns Hopkins University, COVIDview by CDC, WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard, and

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) COVID-19). Student teams recruited testing participants, ran multiple usability testing sessions, collected and analyzed data. In addition, the teams performed content inventory, conducted heuristic evaluation, and developed wireframes to articulate recommendations for improving their usability.

Mega Subramaniam and Linda Braun, “Essential Research Needed: The Role of Public Libraries Before, During, and After Crises”

When the pandemic struck and library buildings closed, public libraries nationwide had to re-envision their services. In some cases, re-envisioning harnessed a deep commitment to working with community members, organizations, stakeholders, and decision makers to build crisis-related services. Unfortunately, in other cases, closing of buildings meant quickly taking tried and true services and reformatting them for the virtual world, even if those services were not needed during the pandemic. In order to better understand the challenges libraries faced in crisis times, and to design solutions with communities that public libraries serve, Subramaniam and Braun facilitated a series of participatory design sessions, in the summer of 2020, with over 130 library staff nationwide. This process led to the development of a Field Guide that library staff can use to prepare for a crisis and a call to action for library and information science (LIS) researchers to collaborate with library staff to investigate the emerging research problems before, during, and after crises. This presentation will introduce the participants to the field guide that LIS educators can share with their students and a research agenda designed to engage LIS researchers in building stronger practices in the areas of community engagement, public library structures and systems, staff training, and programs and services.

Ann Graf, “Covid-19 and the Graffiti Art Response”

The graffiti art community is historically quick to respond to social events with vibrant images in public spaces. The Covid-19 pandemic was no exception. While research for many academics was either slowed or halted, or at the very least changed, by the isolation imposed by the pandemic, the artistic expression of graffiti artists and the documentation of their works could still take place in relative safety. In parallel, academic examination of such works on the popular image sharing site Instagram could also take place in a very accessible way, from the quarantined comfort of the home office set-up so many of us found ourselves working in, as institutions closed their doors to slow the spread of the virus.

On two separate days in late April and early May last year, I searched for two tags on Instagram: #covidgraffiti and #coronavirusgraffiti. There were 157 and 174 posts, respectively, using these tags at that time. I gathered screenshots of all images that were actually of graffiti art. Examination of the images, accompanying tags, texts, locations, likes, and numerous other facets of the works reveals a number of visual themes in response to this serious global challenge.

Sarah Moazeni, Daria Hafner and Karen Storz, “Alice in Zoomland: Jam Tomorrow, Jam Yesterday, and Jam Today”

Teaching information literacy in a remote COVID environment presents unique challenges. Transforming in-classroom instruction to Zoom or even asynchronous sessions is not an easy translation task for librarians who embrace tactile teaching activities. Together, we will explore and discover hands-on learning activities through free, browser-based platforms that enable students to bring their ideas to the information literacy table and experiment with search techniques.

In this workshop, we will approach remote teaching innovation from an asset-based and feminist pedagogical framework. The tools we have chosen to share are transparent and collaborative, and center students’ ability to create knowledge together as well as to question and construct authority. Tools include Google Jamboard and Flippity, both free and easy to learn browser-based programs. Our goal is to choose tools that are flexible and allow students to literally shape the lesson due to their non-hierarchical natures. Participants will have the opportunity to try out tools as well as to exchange ideas about activities and tools among themselves.

Sharon Radcliff, “Re-envisioning Instruction for the Virtual World”

The presenter will describe how they reinvented their "Information Literacy and Sustainability " course, originally designed for face-to-face instruction, as a completely virtual course while preserving the lecture, discussion, group work, peer reviews, office hours, and class survey project that were core components of the course. She will describe various elements of Blackboard, Google Drive, and Zoom used to re-create these activities in the online environment. They will also discuss how various functions worked, and feedback received from students both positive and constructively suggesting changes that could be made in some approaches. The presenter will particularly focus on the group work as a nexus of controversy in the class. They will discuss problems and solutions that arose around group work in zoom. The presenter will discuss how they made the class as inclusive as possible, including complying with ADA, and adapted the assessment aspects of the course to accommodate the problems students were having related to Covid-19.

Naresh Agarwal, “Teaching online: Instructional design and practical strategies for remote education”

In the past few years, online teaching has become increasingly prevalent. Many of the instructional design strategies such as the backward design process apply both to face-to-face and online teaching, while there are certain differences arising out of the difference in modality. The end goal is to ensure that the degree of student engagement remains equally effective no matter which modality is chosen for teaching. In the year 2020, heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, both students and instructors in various institutions had to quickly adapt to remote education, even if they had been sceptics of online learning in the first place. In this presentation, I will share my experiences in online teaching since 2014, the instructional design and teaching strategies I've employed, and my experiences in helping fellow faculty move online during the COVID crisis - especially by creating videos on using Panopto, Zoom, etc. The presentation should shed light on workable, practical strategies to facilitate active learning and student engagement in a remote, online environment, and special considerations to keep in mind during the time of a pandemic.

Cindy Li, "Promote Library Services During COVID-19"

Public health crisis has created many big challenges for patrons to use our services, but this also force us to explore different options. In this presentation, attendees will have the opportunity to learn how different tools can be implemented to assist library virtual reference, engage student learning, and provide technical support for patron when majority of our courses have switched to online. Presenter will also share their story about collaborating campus IT to integrate library platform into learning management system and have webinar to attract faculty to use library resources and work together, as well as co-sponsor with other academic unit to advocate library services. Participants will leave with motivation and tools to start their own journey to use new technology and team with others to promote library.

Africa Hands, “It only took a pandemic to level up our skills”

The pandemic has brought many of us an opportunity, imposed or voluntary, to reinvent – to learn and experience new skills. We’ve quickly switched modes of communication with patrons from face-to-face to online. We’ve changed our work environments, moving to home offices, troubleshooting technical issues, and installing new equipment. We’re also multitasking differently and using new tools to organize our days. It’s been “go, go, go” since spring 2020. But, have we had a chance to reflect on and assess the new skills we’ve developed along the way? In this interactive session, attendees will spend time brainstorming and reflecting on skills acquired or strengthened during the pandemic. Participants will leave with a reinvention inventory of how they’ve grown professionally over the past months and ideas and resources for continued development.

For more information and to register, please visit our registration page for more details.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact neasist@gmail.com.

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SIG News

Terrence Curtiss — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:47:00 +0000

SIG News

SIG-AH

We have published a new edition of our newsletter for Winter 2021! To read about our new officers and hear from some members about their experiences with work & research during the COVID-19 pandemic, you can do so here.

Additionally, if you would like to read any of the past SIG AH newsletters, you can do so from our website:
SIG-AH Newsletters - Association for Information Science and Technology | ASIS&T

Social Media Accounts

The committee for the SIG AH has been working on our programming for the coming year and in an effort to get the word out, we are rebooting our social media presence! This reboot includes the creation of a new Twitter account for SIG AH as we regretably lost access to the previous account. We encourage you to come follow our new Twitter @asist_sigah, as this account will feature all of our latest news, updates, and calls for participation and the old account will remain dormant.

We also have created a new group in LinkedIn, which we encourage you to join and hope it will become a new forum for sharing news and projects of interest to the SIG AH membership as well as sharing and celebrating the successes and research of our wonderful members. Finally, we still maintain a Facebook page, and while the number of followers there is small, we hope to grow that community as well to offer social media engagement for our members on the social platforms they prefer.

Here are the links to our various accounts:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/asist.sig.ah
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ASIST_sigah
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13941942/

SIG-DL

Hello to our SIG-DL members,

We know how busy everybody is, but we seek an opinion from our members to increase our presence and bring us out from knowledge hibernation. We are thinking of arranging our official leadership meeting next month (1st week of March).

As shared co-chair Peter Organisciak, we hope to extend the discussion to our members and seek your opinions of what we want to achieve this year.

SIG-KM

The SIG-KM is going to publish a newsletter in March, 2021. We are inviting our SIG-KM members to share their scholarly activity (academic achievements: conference presentations (accepted/given), publications (accepted/published). We would also like to highlight any news relevant to SIG-KM.

Please send us anything you would like us to share with our community by 20 February, 2021. Please send your updates to Darra Hofman, Publication Secretary (darra.hofman@gmail.com)

SIG-USE

On behalf of Dr. Yan Zhang, SIGUSE Chair:

Please join us for the March SIGUSE virtual social hour on March 2nd 1:00-2:00 EST or March 2nd 10:00-11:00AM CET.

We have two times available to try and create more options around time zones and conflicts. Students, faculty, and practitioners are all welcomed. We will chat about experiences of conducting research during COVID-19 in an informal manner (no PPT slides). It will also be a social time for everyone.

Since we cannot share snacks, we want to encourage you have a snack and beverage. With that in mind we recommend this easy scone recipe to bake at your home and virtually share the results!

To avoid Zoom bombings please login to iConnect to see session details and meeting passwords.

We hope to see you there!

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Upcoming Events

Terrence Curtiss — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:46:00 +0000

Upcoming Events

Annual Meeting 2021 Submission Tutorial - Panels, Alternative Events, and Posters

March 3, 2021, 8:00 AM EST - 9:00AM EST

Annual Meeting 2021 Submission Tutorial - Papers

March 3, 2021 8:00 PM EST - 9:00 PM EST

NEASIST’s Virtual Annual Conference - It Took a Pandemic: Reinventing Libraries in an Era of Change

March 5, 9:00AM EST

Meet the Author Series: Cyber Republic Reinventing Democracy in the Age of Intelligent Machines

Sponsored by ASIS&T
Georgios Zarkadakis
March 25, 11:00 AM EST - 12:00 PM EST

Introduction to the DDI Metadata Standard (DCMI)

April 21st, 10:00 AM EST - 11:00 AM EST
Sponsored by DCMI
Jane Fry, Jared Lyle, Barry Radler, Arofan Gregory

SIG-AH Virtual Symposium
June 24, 2021

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Affiliated Organization News

Terrence Curtiss — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 13:45:00 +0000

Affiliated Organization News

2021 IDEA Institute on Artificial Intelligence – Call for Applications

New Application Deadline: March 1, 2021

Please spread the word to colleagues, librarians, and other information practitioners, who may be interested. Applications will be accepted until March 1, 2021. Fellows accepted to the Institute will be notified in mid-March 2021.

We invite applications for the inaugural IDEA (Innovation, Disruption, Enquiry, Access) Institute on Artificial Intelligence (AI). We are seeking library and information professionals holding full-time positions in US institutions interested in enhancing and applying their knowledge of AI in their workplace, to participate in the Institute.

Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the IDEA Institute offers one-week of intensive learning and practical experience in AI applications in library and information environments. The first Institute will be held at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville on July 10-16, 2021 (dates are tentative, pending COVID-19 circumstances).

We are seeking 15 IMLS-funded Fellows. IMLS-funded Fellows will have their Institute expenses covered (housing, meals and program fee) and will only be responsible for the cost of their transportation.

Our priority is to recruit and create a cohort of Fellows who will represent diverse socio-demographic backgrounds, types of positions, types of libraries, and capacities of implementing AI in their workplace. We are recruiting applicants who:

are enthusiastic to learning, evaluating, and applying AI in library and information environments;
are committed to learning web coding and statistics fundamentals during the Pre-Institute Onboarding Program;
hold full-time positions in US institutions as library and information professionals;
are committed to participating in the online Pre-Institute Onboarding Program (10-15 hours contact time over three months) and post-Institute activities (e.g., project presentations and implementation);
can attend the 2021 IDEA Institute in Knoxville, Tennessee, for one week; and
have institutional support to apply learning gained from the Institute to AI projects in their own workplace.

IDEA Fellows will be chosen through a competitive selection process.

The first Virtual Information Session was held on January 12, 2021. The recording can be accessed at: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_g9syh01v/160939361.

To Apply, visit the Application Form directly or the Institute's website http://idea.infosci.utk.edu and select APPLY.

For more information, see http://idea.infosci.utk.edu or direct questions to Dania Bilal at dania@utk.edu

WEPIR 2021: Third Workshop on the Evaluation of Personalisation in Information Retrieval at ACM CHIIR 2021

19 March 2021

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Hideo Joho, Associate Professor, University of Tsukuba, Japan

Evangelos Kanoulas, Professor, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The Workshop on the Evaluation of Personalisation in Information Retrieval (WEPIR 2021) is the third in a series of workshops focusing on the examination of evaluation strategies and methods for the exploitation of personalisation in information retrieval systems. series held previously at CHIIR 2018 and CHIIR 2019. WEPIR 2021 will build on the activities and outcomes of the previous editions of WEPIR held at CHIIR 2018 and CHIIR 2019. The goal of WEPIR 2021 is to move beyond identification and discussion of general topics relating to personalization in information retrieval and its evaluation, to the development of practical methods to tackle evaluation of personalization for several use cases. The specific use cases will be determined by the Workshop participants, but potential cases could be: Medical Search; Museum Visitors; General Web Search.

Workshop format

WEPIR 2021 will feature two Keynote talks, presentations of contributed papers, development by participants of the use cases for investigation and then exploration of practical evaluation strategies. Development of evaluation methods for individual use cases will take place in breakout groups of participants. The breakout groups will meet (virtually) throughout the day, according to their needs and constraints. Each group will seek to identify specific relevant factors relating to their use case in terms of user activities, data to be collected, ethical issues, evaluation metrics. Groups will share their findings in a final plenary session. The overall goal of the workshop is to work towards developing a general set of principles and guidelines for addressing the evaluation of specific instances of the use of personalization in information retrieval tasks.

Paper submissions

While the focus of WEPIR 2021 is primarily on the examination of practical use cases, we also seek short paper contributions. Papers should be 2 to 4 pages in length in the standard ACM conference format. Contributions can be in the form of reports which describe evaluation plans, issues or problems of personalized systems, or position papers on designing or conducting evaluation of personalization of information retrieval in specific contexts.

Submissions should be in ACM Standard SIGCONF format. LaTeX and Word templates are available at https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template.

Papers should be submitted in pdf format through the EasyChair system (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wepir2021)
no later than midnight Sunday 28 February, 2021 (AoE). Submissions will be reviewed by members of the workshop program committee. Accepted papers will be included in the extended CHIIR 2021 Proceedings and will be available via the ACM Digital Library.

Important dates and times

Midnight Sunday 28th of February (AoE): Deadline for paper submission
Midnight Sunday 7th of March (AoE): Notification to authors
Midnight Tuesday 16th of March (AoE): Final version of papers due
08:00 - 23:00 UTC, 19th of March: WEPIR 2021 at CHIIR 2021

Participation and registration

Participation in WEPIR 2021 requires only a sincere interest in personalization of information retrieval, methods for the evaluation of information retrieval, and willingness to work with colleagues with similar concerns, to develop ideas to enhance the state-of-the-art in evaluation of personalization of information retrieval.

If this describes you, please register for WEPIR 2021 through the CHIIR 2021 website: https://acm-chiir.github.io/chiir2021/.

You will find further information about WEPIR 2021 at its website:
https://wepir2021.disco.unimib.it/

In addition to registering at the CHIIR 2021, we would appreciate those who intend to participate in WEPIR 2021 indicating your intention to join us on the WEPIR 2021 website.

Return to Inside ASIS&T, February 2021

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December 2020 President’s Column

Terrence Curtiss — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 12:39:00 +0000

December 2020 President’s Column

Dr. Brian Detlor PhD ASIS&T President

It is with great pleasure and excitement that I write my very first “President’s Message” for Inside ASIS&T in my new role as President of the Association. I am very happy and honored to serve in this capacity and I look forward to working with ASIS&T staff and the ASIS&T membership over the next year.

The Annual Meeting was a great success. Attendance was healthy (more than we had expected given the online context) and we learned so many things about how to run an online event. We had always wanted to provide more online offerings at the Annual Meeting, and the COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst to figure out exactly how to do that. Importantly, after the Annual Meeting, members of the Program Committee and the Board of Directors met to do a post-event analysis of the things that went well and the few things that could have been run better. We will use this knowledge to deliver online events and Annual Meetings in the future.

My goal over my tenure as President is to oversee the strategic plan and set the Association up for success in terms of delivering the four goals, 15 objectives and 39 tactics outlined in the plan. We have established dates/times for regular Board meetings. At these meetings, I want the Board to review the health and performance of all strategic tactic items. I think regularly monitoring and tracking progress on these strategic tactic items, such as through a performance dashboard, will allow the Board to react quickly if progress on any particular item is delayed. If items need quicker attention, the Executive Board can meet between regular Board meetings.

We have a lot of strategic tactics on our plate! I do not expect all items to be done or worked upon at the same rate, but during my term, I feel the following items are particularly noteworthy: bringing back the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST); launching marketing campaigns; increasing and engaging the membership; creating new publication outlets (e.g., Information Matters); and developing opportunities to generate new funds.

To ensure work on these strategic tactics gets done, I believe the Association should leverage its reserve funds to seed fund these items, with the ultimate goal that these initiatives would be self-funding and rolled into Association’s operational budget down the road.

I encourage all members of the Association to take an active role in carrying out and implementing the tactics outlined in the strategic plan. I believe that many hands make light work and that the responsibility of implementing the tactics should not be borne by just a few, but rather spread across the membership and the Association’s various SIGs, chapters, and committees.

A few weeks ago, I attended the ASAE CEO Symposium with our Executive Director, Lydia Middleton. It was a great learning experience and an opportunity to learn best practices regarding how Boards function and the relationship between a Board and senior management. Boards provide governance and strategic oversight; senior management is accountable to the Board but has authority over the operational side of the enterprise. My goal is to have ASIS&T function in such a way, where the Executive Director is viewed as a leader of the Association and charged with operationalizing the strategic plan and maintaining proper finances, while the Board is concerned with the strategic direction and policies of the Association, and not involved in daily headquarter operations.

Lots of activity has occurred over the last couple of months. The Association now has a new curator, Deanna Hall. In that role, Deanna will be responsible for monitoring the discovery, preservation, and accessibility of resources relating to the history of ASIS&T, both in the Association's possession and elsewhere, and for making recommendations as appropriate. Thank you, Deanna for serving in this new role.

ASIS&T also has a new editor of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Dr. Steven Sawyer. Welcome aboard Steve! I know you will do a great job. Dr. Sawyer succeeds Dr. Javed Mostafa who has been editor since 2016. Thank you Javed for all the good work you have done for the journal over this time!

Other exciting news is that the call is now out for submissions to the Annual Meeting in 2021 in Salt Lake City! Dr. Jim Jansen has done an incredible job in stepping up to serve as Conference Chair, making a call to the membership and selecting a dynamic and impressive team to help him deliver a strong program. The theme of the conference is “Information: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Justice, and Relevance.” Importantly, the conference will run October 30^th to November 2^nd. I am very much hoping the pandemic will be under control by then to allow us all to meet together in person!

Again, am looking forward to an exciting year. And as 2020 winds down, I like to wish everyone the opportunity to find time to relax and regroup over the next few weeks. Happy Holidays!

Brian.

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December 2020 Governance Update

Terrence Curtiss — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 12:37:33 +0000

December 2020 Governance Update

October 2020

The Board of Directors met on October 12, 2020 via video conference. In attendance were Clara Chu (President); Brian Detlor (President-Elect); Ina Fourie (Treasurer); Emily Knox; Agnes Mainka; Soo Young Rieh; Ana Maria Tammaro; James Andrews (SIG Cabinet Chair); Michael Olsson (Chapter Cabinet Director); Lydia Middleton (Executive Director); and Steve Hardin (Parliamentarian). Also in attendance were Naresh Agarwal, PhD, Incoming President-Elect; Maria Bonn, Publications Committee Chair; Sam Chu, Deputy Chapter Assembly Director; Hamid Jamali, EDI Task Force Co-Chair; AJ Million, Deputy SIG Cabinet Director; and Ana Ndumu, EDI Task Force Co-Chair.

Diversity & Inclusion

Ana Ndumu presented the report of the EDI Task Force. Each Board member gave input on the report. It was agreed that there are some recommendations that are immediately possible to address, and others that require more time or support to accomplish. EDI needs to be systematized into ASIS&T and we need to make these efforts visible. The Board decided to make the report available for a Town Hall discussion and continue to support an EDI Task Force to continue this work.

Consent Agenda

The consent agenda, which was approved included the following:

Draft Minutes of September 14 2020 Board Meeting
September 2020 Financial Statement
September 2020 Membership Report
September 2020 Merrill Lynch Investment Report
ED Report

President’s Update

ASIS&T President Clara Chu reported on the following items:

Clara Chu promoted the Opening Session at Annual Meeting and invited all to attend.

SIG Cabinet Update

James Andrews reported the following:

There has been a flurry of election activity.
Working on identifying a new SIG Cabinet Deputy Director and Steering Committee Members.
SIGs plan to meet at Annual Meeting.

Chapter Assembly Update

Michael Olsson reported the following:

Elections are underway for the next round of Chapter leadership
Chapter Award selection is complete

Committee Update

Awards have been decided and announced.

History Committee

The Board decided that HATHI Trust should make ARIST issues available using Creative Commons license CC BYNC-ND.

Publications Committee

Maria Bonn reported on the work of the Publications Committee. She demonstrated the new Information Matters platform and presented the Committee’s funding request. The funding request assumes that the publication will be self-sustaining within 3 years. The Board approved an investment from reserves of $25k in Year 1 and $22k in Years 2 & 3 to support the development of Information Matters.

JASIST Editor-in-Chief

Maria Bonn reported that the EIC search committee had received applications for the position and decided to interview three finalist candidates. The Search Committee recommended that Steven Sawyer be selected as the next Editor-in-Chief of JASIST. Steve stood out as having both excellent qualifications and a clear vision. While the committee recognizes that this is not a very diverse choice, the candidate pool was quite diverse and the selection was made based on merit. The Board agreed to move forward with the appointment of Steven Sawyer as JASIST Editor-in-Chief.

Membership Committee

Lydia Middleton presented the Membership Committee Report and provided the rationale for providing free membership to individuals in the most financially disadvantaged countries. It was agreed that we should enable the option for members to pay something if they can. The Board approved the Membership Committee’s proposal to set Tier 3 member country dues to $0.

December 2020

The Board of Directors met on December 14, 2020 via video conference. In attendance were Brian Detlor, PhD (President); Naresh Agarwal (President-Elect); Clara Chu, PhD (Past President); Ina Fourie, PhD (Treasurer); Sam Chu, PhD (Chapter Assembly Director); Anna Maria Tammaro, PhD; Dan Wu, PhD; Lydia Middleton, MBA, CAE (Executive Director); and Steve Hardin, MLIS (Parliamentarian)

Consent Agenda

The consent agenda, which was approved included the following:

Draft Minutes of 14 October 2020 Board Meeting
November 2020 Membership Report
November 2020 Financial Statement
November 2020 Merrill Lynch Investment Report
Annual Meeting Evaluation Results

President's Report

Brian Detlor reported on the following:

He recently represented ASIS&T at the ICKM Annual Conference
He has met with Sandy Hirsh as President of ALISE to discuss ways in which our two organizations could collaborate
He will be working with Lydia on developing a format for tracking strategic plan progress.

Executive Director Report

Lydia Middleton reported on the following:

Progress made during 2019-20 as reported at the Business Meeting.
The current status of membership and financials since the Annual Meeting
Her priorities for the coming months.

History Committee

The Board approved the use of OMEKA-S to house ASIS&T's digital assets.

Publications Committee

The Board approved the Publications Committee's proposed job description for the Information Matters Editor-in-Chief.

Professional Development Committee

The Board approved the proposed plans from committee to conduct a 24-hour conference and an industry/research summit.

Staffing

The Board approved allocating $126,000 from reserves through FY22 to hire two new staff, a Managing Editor and a Director of Marketing and Communications.

ASIS&T Statement on Timnit Gebru

The Board approved the development of a public statement on the importance of research in the ethical use of AI.

Next Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Board will be held as follows:

Monday, 8 February 2021
8 - 10 am EDT
Via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89300714556

All current members of ASIS&T are welcome to attend as observers without voice or vote.

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2019-20 President’s Report

Terrence Curtiss — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 12:35:59 +0000

2019-20 President’s Report

Clara Chu, PhD
Former ASIS&T President

Dear ASIS&T colleagues,

I close out a year unlike any other in history, a period of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has magnified our inequities and differences, while drawing on our resiliency, creativity and our shared intellectual and social capital. I have been honored to serve as 2019-20 ASIS&T President, aiming to strengthen and expand our community and advance our interests. In my candidacy statement, I had pledged: “As President, the values I will bring to navigate the future course of ASIS&T are diversity (our membership reflects our global information society), inclusion (our association is intentional in engaging all voices), collective impact (our work is cross-sector and multidisciplinary to achieve our mission), ethics of care (our association/membership is connected and interdependent), and sustainability (our association has the resources to thrive)….[and] I envision ASIS&T as the touchstone for information practice, research, education and professional development to build a sustainable world and change lives.”

Thus, this past year, I have invited the ASIS&T community to join me in advancing a three-pronged plan for organizational and social transformation: “We are ASIS&T: Be, Belong, Become”, a conceptual approach informed by the Early Years Learning Framework. As well, complementing it with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to guide this year’s conference theme and association activities: Information for a Sustainable World: Addressing Society’s Grand/Global Challenges.

BE: focuses on connecting with ourselves and each other, and contributing to not just ASIS&T but to Society (locally and globally).

BELONG: focuses on a strong sense of identity.

BECOME: focuses on thriving.

First, BE: focuses on connecting with ourselves and each other, and contributing to not just ASIS&T but to Society (locally and globally). The opportunities to BE in 2019-20 were:

83^rd ASIS&T Annual Meeting – We anticipated the 2020 Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh on October 23-28, 2020, with the theme: “Information for a Sustainable World: Addressing Society’s Grand/Global Challenges”. However, as it became clear that the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic would not permit a safe in-person meeting, we made the decision to hold it virtually. Our inaugural virtual conference has provided safer and greater access across the globe, and the opportunity to join locally while connecting globally, and to continue to engage with the rich content beyond the conference through the recordings. The programming for the conference was intentional to address the social challenges in our society and within our association. I introduced two new series (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Accelerator Series, and Industry Series), and the ASIS&T unCommons, a space for SIGs and others to showcase, engage and collaborate. The emphasis on “accelerator” for the EDI series is to go beyond the ASIS&T Diversity Statement and introduce issues and ways to advance EDI in all realms of our work, now and not in the foreseeable future or because we don’t have the knowledge or resources to do so. Keynote speaker Houman Haddad (Head of Emerging Technologies at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), which has received the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize), spoke about “Depoliticizing Information Through Blockchain”. As founder of WFP’s “Building Blocks” project, the world’s largest implementation of blockchain technology for humanitarian assistance, he elaborated on harnessing the power of blockchain to foster interagency collaboration and create efficiencies. The President's Opening Program and Reception was a meet-and-greet conversation on the infodemic during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the closing plenary was a call to action, where our regional chapter leaders spoke about their chapters applying information to advance a sustainable world and proposing individual and collective solutions. All sessions were organized by the United Nations SDGs, and conference sessions addressing the COVID-19 pandemic were specifically valuable.
Advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – At last year’s conference, my President’s Advisory Group (Kendra Albright, Jia Tina Du and Bharat Mehra) led a full-day international incubator to develop and create transformational actions using information to advance the SDGs. The results from this pre-conference workshop, a series of Information Briefs, serve as catalysts for the information community to act locally or globally, personally or collectively. These constitute transformational actions using information to advance the SDGs that the ASIS&T community can undertake.
Recognizing that we only have a decade to act, the United Nations has launched a Decade of Action. Toward this end, I invite the ASIS&T community to collectively celebrate ASIS&T work on “Information for a Sustainable World: Addressing Society’s Grand Challenges” by nominating our members’ (personal or institutional) research, teaching and/or professional work that addresses the conference theme. The actions will be acknowledged on the ASIS&T webpage on “Information for Sustainability” and the nominee will receive a certificate. The call has been extended until March 31, 2021.

Our committees are enhancing how we work together, such as the new Governance Committee, which is working to ensure the quality and performance of the Board of Directors and the governance structure of the Association. And our members and staff that have been actively engaged in webinars, including re-starting our Meet the Author Series webcast, SIGs and Chapters activities, mentoring activities, and publications.

Second, BELONG: focuses on a strong sense of identity. The opportunities to BELONG in 2019-20 were:

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force (formerly Diversity and Inclusion Task Force), co-chaired by Ana Ndumu and Hamid Jamali, has reviewed the Diversity and Inclusion in ASIS&T: A Report and Recommendations from AM16 Luncheon Discussion (see also from Wiley) and submitted its report. The task force will continue to work in the coming year to implement the recommendations in alignment with the ASIS&T Strategic Plan 2020-2025.
ASIS&T HOUR – I introduced this monthly virtual meet-up to enable the Board and/or other ASIS&T leaders to meet with members to connect and discuss issues important to the Association, our community and the field. I have learned from many of you at the ASIS&T Hour, offered at a different set time every other month in order for our members from around the world to have the opportunity to connect synchronously, and for those who couldn’t, a recording has been made available.
Connecting around the Globe – I have enjoyed meeting our members in person at conferences pre-COVID-19 and since, online at chapters activities. One of these, was the organizing meeting of the new Africa Chapter.

Third, BECOME: focuses on thriving. The opportunities to BECOME in 2019-20 were:

The 2020-25 ASIS&T Strategic Plan provides a road map for a thriving and expanding association. Brian Detlor, then President-Elect, chaired the Strategic Planning Task Force, which developed the plan and includes strategies for enhancing membership, publications, knowledge sharing and co-opetition.
One knowledge sharing activity to look forward to is the IDEA (Innovation, Disruption, Enquiry, Access) Institute on Artificial intelligence (AI), funded by a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program Grant ($208,142) from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS grant number RE-246419-OLS-20), received by Dania Bilal, Soo Young Rieh and I. The Institute will create two cohorts of leaders with the knowledge and skills to innovate, apply, and evaluate AI in library and information environments. ASIS&T and the American Library Association (ALA) are supporting organizations for the project. The IDEA Institute will live on through ASIS&T after the grant period. The collaboration was a result of the Big Ideas discussions led during Elaine Toms presidency.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not only facing uncertainties and health disparities, to which the ASIS&T community has responded with research and knowledge sharing, but we have also been witness to the George Floyd killing, one of many victims of police brutality, which has drawn attention to systemic racism, and the need for change worldwide. The Board issued the ASIS&T Statement on Injustice and Standing with George Floyd, on 4^th June 2020, in a recognition that we need to commit to addressing injustice, which highlighted some of our association efforts, and resulted in online conversation on Open Forum and an ASIS&T Hour.
Co-opetition through the creation of the iFederation, a collaboration with ALISE and the iSchools, will allow for greater synergies and address issues on a common front.

I wish to close by thanking our Board of Directors for stewarding the association with me; Executive Director Lydia Middleton and all central office staff for all they do to deliver the Association’s activities and support our work; the many committees and task forces for providing leadership to strengthen the association, and the SIGs and Chapters for building community that create our sense of identity and belonging. I am especially indebted for the support, contributions and guidance from my Advisory Group, Kendra Albright, Jia Tina Du and Bharat Mehra. The work I have been able to lead and do has been possible by those mentioned here and many of you, who have not been individually named.

A special thank you to our conference sponsors and donors, and warm congratulations to our Award winners for the excellence for which you are being recognized.

It has been an honor to serve as 2019-20 ASIS&T President. I am thankful for the gift of community at ASIS&T, where scientific and professional engagement leads to inspiration, synergies, and connections. Information and technology are vital in advancing sustainability, locally and globally, and at ASIS&T, let’s continue to lead to address society’s grand challenges.

---We are ASIS&T: Be, Belong, Become. Thank you.

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