[Asis-l] Ceasing publication of ARIST

[El-Hadidy, Bahaa]

I agree completely with Nick Belkin. The decision
of ceasing tha Annual Review
is important for all members and the problem should be widely discussed by the membership at large. I realize the financial problems of the Society, but other alternatives should be discussed and members should have a say in this decision.. I would like to propose that this decision would be kept on hold and mambers be given the chance to give as much input as possible, and the final decision would be made during a special meeting during this year Annual meeting in Pittsburgh.  


Bahaa ElHadidy, PH.D.
Professor of Onformation Science, Retired
Tel (813)978-1551
elhadidy at cas.usf.edu
________________________________________
From: asis-l-bounces at asis.org [asis-l-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf Of nicholas belkin [belkin at rutgers.edu]
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 3:09 PM
To: asis-l at asis.org; leadership at asis.org
Subject: [Asis-l] Ceasing publication of ARIST

Dear members of ASIST,

Upon reading Blaise Cronin's editorial in the most recent published
version of JASIST, vol. 61, no. 4, I was shocked (shocked!) to discover
that the ASIST board has decided to cease publication of the Annual
Review of Information Science and Technology, after the 2010 edition. I
then went to the ASIST home page, where I saw, under ASIS&T People and
News, a link entitled "ARIST to Cease Publication". There is no
indication of when this link was posted, but I do not recall any email
notification from ASIS&T of either the board's discussion of this issue,
or of the board's decision. It certainly was made after the copy
deadline date for the February-March 2010 number of the Bulletin, as
there is no announcement there of this decision.

I find it quite remarkable that the ASIST board took, solely upon
itself, this very serious decision to cease publication of one of the
most significant activities of the Society. Would they also have taken a
decision to cease publication of JASIST without consulting the members
of the Society in general? I hope not, but this one example does not
make my feel confident in that hope. I also find  pretty remarkable the
way that this announcement has been made to the membership.

ARIST has been, since its inception, a vital research, teaching and
professional enhancement tool, used by a wide spectrum of Society
members. Its replacement by an occasional series called Advances in
Information Science in JASIST is quite unlikely to maintain the same
level of regularity and coverage that ARIST was able to achieve, despite
the obvious talents of Jonathon Furner of UCLA, who will be editor of
that series.

I think that the way in which this decision was made is quite improper,
and hereby ask the ASIST board to put a hold on its implementation,
until after a more detailed description of why this issue even came up
is given to the Membership, and until after an adequate period and venue
for discussion on this issue is given the Membership for input.

Nick Belkin

--
Nicholas J. Belkin
Professor (II) of Information Science
Department of Library and Information Science
School of Communication and Information
Rutgers University
4 Huntington Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1071, USA
Phone +1 732 932 7500 x8271
Fax +1 732 6916
Email belkin at rutgers.edu
http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~belkin/belkin.html

________________________________________
Asis-l mailing list
Asis-l at asis.org
http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/asis-l