[Asis-l] Fwd: ARIST

[Dick Hill]

Posted for Marcia Bates


Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 10:37:32 -0700
To: asis-l at asis.org
From: "Marcia J. Bates" <mjbates at ucla.edu>
Subject: ARIST

Folks,

It appears that there is a feeling that the ASIST Board did not consult
sufficiently with the membership regarding the cancelling of the publication
of ARIST.  I certainly had that feeling with regard to the review and
appointment of Blaise Cronin to edit JASIST.  Blaise has been doing a fine
job--I'm not criticizing his work--but the whole selection and announcement
process sure caught me by surprise.  As a long-standing member of the prior
JASIST Editorial Board, the first I knew of his appointment was when a
letter was sent from ASIST headquarters demanding my resignation as a member
of the prior Editorial Board.  Consultation with the Editorial Board would
have been appropriate, a thank you to the prior Board would have ben
appropriate, and the courtesy of informing us before it was generally
announced would have been considerate.

Now, in both cases, there may well have been more discussion than I
realized.  I've been the typical ASIST member caught up in my work.  But
perhaps that is the point.  The ASIST listserv functions solely as a place
for announcements.  I've searched for both "JASIST" and "ARIST" in the
titles of the ASIST listserv submissions, beginning beginning Oct. 1, 2007,
which happens to be how long my ASIS-L mailbox goes back, and there is no
mention whatever of either of these--not once!!!

Couldn't there have been an announcement asking for input on these two MAJOR
decisions?  We might have had a lively and interesting discussion of these
questions.   The last posting on the ASIST blog was Nov. 15, 2009. 
Evidently, that is not functioning as a site for discussion either.

And when I say major decision re JASIST, I do NOT refer to Blaise's
appointment, which is in the purview of the ASIST Board; rather I refer to a
discussion of the future directions of JASIST.  The time of transition
between a prior Editor and a new Editor is surely the ideal point at which
to have such a discussion.  The discussion could have provided valuable
input to the new Editor, who could have taken these ideas into account in
whatever way best suited him.

Finally, as a discipline, we do research on scientific communication and
information use.  (Duh!!)  There is expertise within the information science
community that understands these issues far better than the average
professor or practitioner does.  We need to be a bit more reflective on our
own communication as raising issues that every discipline has to deal with
in a new IT environment.  Opening these questions out to the general
membership might have produced some great ideas and insights.

What perhaps may not have been given sufficient attention is that actions
taken by the ASIST Board are not solely business decisions.  They are also
decisions that impact the intellectual turf, to put it bluntly, that ASIST
claims in the world of ideas.  The contributors to that academic turf need
to be consulted too.  In the end, the popularity of JASIST and ARIST rest on
their intellectual content, as well as the current dynamics of shifting
information technologies.  Surely, we in ASIST collectively know a lot about
those things.

Marcia
-- 
 
Marcia J. Bates, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Editor, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences
Department of Information Studies
Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1520 USA
Tel: 310-206-9353
Fax: 310-206-4460
Web: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/


-- 
Marcia J. Bates, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Editor, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences
Department of Information Studies
Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1520 USA
Tel: 310-206-9353
Fax: 310-206-4460
Web: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/