[Asis-l] ASIS&T Update from Board President Connaway

[Jan Hatzakos]

by Lynn Silipigni Connaway

Lynn Silipigni Connaway is the 2016-2017 ASIS&T President. She is Senior
Research Scientist and Director of User Research at OCLC Research. She can
be reached at  <mailto:connawal at oclc.org> connawal<at>oclc.org

I am happy to report that ASIS&T has been very active again in providing
events and opportunities for our members to engage and to involve students,
new members, and prospective members. The ASIS&T Regional Meeting at OCLC on
3 March 2017 (
<https://www.asist.org/events/asist-regional-meeting/asist-regional-meeting-
oclc/>
https://www.asist.org/events/asist-regional-meeting/asist-regional-meeting-o
clc/) was well attended and provided a range of topics for the attendees and
presenters to discuss and learn about from each other. It was wonderful for
me to have OCLC as our host and for my supervisor, Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC Vice
President of Membership and Research and Chief Strategist, to present the
welcome to the presenters and attendees.

ASIS&T, under the leadership of Sam Chu, also organized the Symposium on
Research Design, Paper Writing & Publishing in Information Science at Hong
Kong University 27-28 March. It was a platform to help ease what can be a
sometimes arduous research process and to facilitate the publication of
research. The symposium provided doctoral candidates and junior researchers
an opportunity to learn from experts, to receive comments from them on their
research, and to work with them in developing a conference paper for ASIS&T.
It was a great success with participants from 11 universities and 7
countries.

In addition to events, we have had some activity from the Special Interest
Groups (SIGs) and Chapters.  The SIGs and chapters support year-round
interaction. The chapters are overseen by the Chapter Assembly, and each
group works through the year to deliver stimulating educational programs,
projects and services and to recruit and retain members, and submits annual
reports on their efforts.  The  <https://www.asist.org/find-your-groups/>
SIGs are overseen by the SIG Cabinet Steering Committee and "give members
with similar professional specialties the opportunity to exchange ideas and
keep themselves informed about current and discrete developments in their
fields."

The importance of the role of our SIGs is exemplified by the creation and
approval of the new Information and Learning Sciences SIG (SIG ILS). This
SIG focuses on Learning Sciences, which is the interdisciplinary study of
teaching and learning in both formal and informal settings. Researchers draw
on a wealth of knowledge from various fields including cognitive science,
educational psychology, computer science, information sciences and design
studies, among others.  With the launch of this new SIG, ASIS&T members will
have the opportunity to affiliate conference panels with the SIG. SIG ILS
also hopes to host a workshop at the 2017 Annual Meeting, further supporting
scholarship in this domain. The current chair of SIG ILS is Dr. Rebecca
Reynolds - Rutgers School of Communication and Information. Contact
<mailto:rebecca.reynolds at rutgers.edu> rebecca.reynolds at rutgers.edu  for more
information and to become a member.  I and the ASIS&T Board of Directors
wish them all the best!

The Visualization, Images, & Sound SIG (SIG VIS) just went live as they
launched their website ( <https://www.asist.org/SIG/SIGVIS/>
https://www.asist.org/SIG/SIGVIS/). They worked with ASIS&T Communications
Officer, Yolande Nanayakkara, and other staff at HQ to ensure they were in
compliance with the marketing policy that was approved by the Board,
including the use of the current ASIS&T logo. This collaboration with HQ and
compliance with the marketing policy provided excellent results.

The Marketing Policy is to ensure that ASIS&T branding is consistent for
increased visibility and to demonstrate that we are one organization. We
have a new presentation template that was developed with HQ and Wei-Chung
Cheng, Secretary of the Taipei Chapter and a doctoral student at the
National Taiwan Normal University. Please use this new template for your
ASIS&T SIG and chapter presentations.

In addition to the approval of the Marketing Policy, the Board also approved
Social Media Guidelines and Stephan Addo, Membership Services, is working
with the Communications Officer to promote not only ASIS&T news and events,
but news about our members. Our social media engagement has increased 10%
and we have more people liking and retweeting our posts than ever before.

The Asia Pacific, Taiwan, and Europe Chapters and SIG Education for
Information Science (SIG ED) and SIG International Information Issues (SIG
III) as well as the European Student Chapter have collaborated to develop a
session, "ASIS&T Presentation: Professional Organizations in Career
Development," for the iConference in Wuhan, China, on March 24.

Our Brazilian colleagues are finalizing their preparations to establish a
new regional, chapter (first from Latin America). The Brazil Regional
Chapter's goals include facilitating networking and providing an
organization through which members of ASIS&T located in Brazil may
participate in and publicize ASIS&T activities in the country.

Looking to upcoming events, 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.

Please make note of the deadlines. The paper submissions are due on April
16th, panels and workshops are due on May 2nd and visual presentations
(including posters, videos, storify, etc.) are due on June 23rd.

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). We will work with the reviewers to shorten the peer-review time
for submissions due in May and June to allow earlier confirmation to
presenters of the conference, leaving more time for visa processing. This
support of our international colleagues also was addressed in the Board's
public policy statement opposing the Executive Order requiring a 90-day
suspension of visas to nationals from seven countries, which was posted on
January 31, 2017 (
<https://www.asist.org/news/asist-opposes-executive-order-to-suspend-visa-to
-nationals-from-seven-countries/>
https://www.asist.org/news/asist-opposes-executive-order-to-suspend-visa-to-
nationals-from-seven-countries/).

The 2017 IA Summit Co-Chairs, Marianne Sweeny, Dave Cooksey and Susan
Mercer, have invited me to present a welcome to the IA Summit attendees.
Unfortunately, I am unable to attend the Summit in person 22-26 March in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but will present the welcome virtually.
It is wonderful to be able to benefit from cross collaboration and learning,
and I am thrilled to announce that ASIS&T is offering all IA Summit
registrants an opportunity to experience the rewards of professional
exchange by offering an ASIS&T annual membership at a special rate through
June 30, 2017. As always, the program was exciting (
<http://www.iasummit.org/program/> http://www.iasummit.org/program/) and the
registration for workshops was 33% higher than the workshop registrations at
the IA Summit 2016.

The RDAP Summit 2017 ( <https://www.asis.org/rdap/>
https://www.asis.org/rdap/) will be held in Seattle, Washington, 19-21
April. The Summit registrations are higher than for the Summit 2016, and the
two workshops were sold out by mid-March. This Summit is a great opportunity
for data managers and curators, librarians, researchers, and data scientists
to share ideas and to learn from one another.

The ASIS&T Executive Director Search Committee, chaired by Sandy Hirsh and
Clara M. Chu, is actively engaged with the executive search firm, Isaacson,
Miller (IM), in identifying and reviewing candidates for the ASIS&T
Executive Director position. The Search Committee has begun its initial
review and screening of candidates. Semi-finalists will be selected in late
March by the Search Committee and these semi-finalists will be invited to
participate in first round interviews in early April. Finalists then will be
selected and invited to ASIS&T headquarters for interviews in late April,
with a recommendation to the ASIS&T Board for a new Executive Director to
follow shortly after the conclusion of the interviews. You can see the
Position Profile here:  <http://www.imsearch.com/6069>
www.imsearch.com/6069. If you have any questions about the search, please
contact: Nanette Blandin  <mailto:nblandin at IMSearch.com>
nblandin at IMSearch.com and Jackie Mildner  <mailto:jmildner at IMSearch.com>
jmildner at IMSearch.com

In February information scientists around the world were saddened to hear
that we lost one of the pioneers in the field. Dr. Eugene Garfield was a
great innovator in information science and the study of scientific
communication through bibliometrics, as well as being a notable
entrepreneur. But he was also a staunch advocate and great friend to ASIS&T.
He held numerous positions in our organization, including ASIS&T President
in 2000, and received its highest awards. He sponsored ASIS&T scholarships
and mentored many young information science researchers. For a more complete
account of his remarkable life, please see our memorial at
https://www.asist.org/news/eugene-garfield-phd-memoriam-1925-2017/

Many of you have asked about Dick Hill. He is recovering and continuing
physical therapy. Dick thanks all of you for your positive thoughts and well
wishes.

 

 

Yolande Nanayakkara

Communications Officer

ASIS&T

The Association for the Information Age

W: 301.495.0900

8555 16th Street; Suite 850

Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA

www.asist.org <http://www.asist.org>