[Asis-l] The results are in for the 2006 ASIS&T Chapter Awards Winners!

[beata_panagopoulos at Harvard.Edu]

Congratulations to the winners of the 2006 ASIS&T Chapter Awards!

Before I announce the winners, I would like to thank the juries for a job
well done.  The first jury which judged the Chapter Event of the Year and
Chapter Publication of the Year awards was chaired by ASIS&T Deputy Chapter
Assembly Director, Amy Wallace.  The jury consisted of the current Chapter
Assembly Advisors: Marija Dalbello, Darcy Duke, Deb Helman, Linda McCann,
and Rosemary Ashton.  The second jury, originally appointed to judge The
Chapter of the Year Award, but which ultimately granted the Chapter
Innovation Award, was chaired by me.  The jury members were Tatjana
Aparac-Jelusic, Allison Brueckner, Julia Daniel, and Beatrice Pulliam.
Many thanks to all for your hard work!

CHAPTER EVENT OF THE YEAR
The Chapter Event of the Year Award goes to a pair of events hosted by the
New England Chapter (NEASIST):  “Buy, Hack, or Build: Optimizing your
Systems for Your Users and Your Sanity” and “Social Software, Libraries,
and the Communities.”  Although these events were only held three days
apart both events drew sizeable crowds. The first event was a panel of
knowledgeable practitioners, Joshua Porter, Pete Bell and Casey Bisson.
The second event featured speaker, Steven M. Cohen.  The two programs were
designed to explain the significance of Web 2.0, findability, guided
navigation, OPAC hacks, and the infrastructures needed for bringing online
communities and libraries together.

The awards committee was impressed by the timeliness of the topic, the
selection and balance of the speakers, and the excitement it generated
among attendees and members. The use of blogs and podcasts to bring program
content to a wider audience also shows how energetic and committed this
chapter is to its mission, not only to its members but also to the larger
information science community.

CHAPTER INNOVATION AWARD
ASIS&T Chapter Assembly is pleased to present the first Chapter Innovation
Award to the Arizona Chapter, AZ-ASIS&T!  The purpose of the award is to
recognize innovation by a chapter that will have a positive impact on
future operations, collaborations, or communications within the chapter
and/or within ASIS&T.  An implicit AZ-ASIS&T goal, given the nature of
Arizona’s geography of isolated rural and a few dense urban communities, is
to facilitate meaningful global connections for its members.  To accomplish
this, AZ-ASIS&T is using dLIST, the first open access archive for the
information sciences, as a resource for building the LIS community in the
area and for revitalizing the local chapter.  By taking advantage of their
connection to dLIST, the chapter leaders are creating a foundation for the
future growth of the chapter, fostering virtual community building through
the use of social software and the digital repository.  AZ-ASIS&T is
helping to transform their local community into global one, making ASIS&T
meaningful, not only for people in Arizona, but also for those in places
such as Dar-es-Salaam, Africa, and Australia.  We applaud the Arizona
Chapter for using its LIS capital to support ASIS&T’s strategic goal of
becoming the international information organization.

CHAPTER PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR
The Chapter Publication of the Year Award goes to "30 years of NJ-ASIST,"
which outlines a brief history of the New Jersey Chapter of the American
Society for Information science and Technology (NJ-ASIST). The 16-page
history was written by Ellen Pozzi and Marija Dalbello, and produced by
NJ-ASIST for the attendees of the chapter's 30th Anniversary Celebration
held on February 13, 2006 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The publication is
a limited edition and each copy is hand-numbered. The history includes a
section on the founding of the chapter, a list of past chapter chairs, and
notable events sponsored by the chapter.  This anniversary edition is a
by-product of a research project to study the history of information
science practice and information science research communities in New
Jersey.

The awards committee noted that the publication was well executed using a
chapter development grant to fund the effort, well researched using chapter
archives and conducting oral histories, and well written covering a number
of key areas.  The publication also aptly shows the important contributions
that the chapter has made to our society at large through the efforts
tremendous efforts of its members at both the chapter and national level.


Congratulations to all for your energy, creativity, and valuable work for
your chapters and ASIS&T!  I’m looking forward to Chapter Assembly where we
will be celebrating the winners and giving them a hearty round of applause!

Beata

Beata Panagopoulos
ASIS&T Chapter Assembly Director

Head of Technical Services
Kennedy School of Government Library
Harvard University
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel. 617-496-1775
Fax 617-495-1972
Email: beata_panagopoulos at harvard.edu