[Asis-l] ASIS&T President's Page

Fri Jun 9 10:04:53 EDT 2017

President's Page

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

This column appears in the ASIS&T Bulletin, June/July Issue

I have so many great developments to share with you in this issue of my
column. Top on my list is the hire of ASIS&T's new Executive Director -
Lydia Middleton ( <https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiamiddleton/>
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiamiddleton/). I am thrilled to welcome Lydia
as the new Executive Director of ASIS&T. Lydia's first day with ASIS&T was
on May 8. I have had the opportunity to orient Lydia with ASIS&T and to work
with her in the ASIS&T office in Silver Spring, MD, in May, and it has been
a fulfilling and worthwhile experience. 

Lydia joins ASIS&T at a critical juncture in our history - the 80th
anniversary and the end of Dick Hill's 27 years as Executive director, which
brought growth and financial stability to the Association. She is poised to
lead and manage ASIS&T, being guided by its strategic plan, which includes
membership growth, a stronger global presence, greater opportunities to
connect academic and professional interests, pursuit of new sources of
revenue, and implementation of new modes of communication and engagement
with technology to support member interests. Lydia not only values the
diversity of ASIS&T staff and members, but also looks forward to enhancing
the Association's value to its members, and its presence in our professional
and academic communities.

As a member of the ASIS&T Executive Director Search Committee, I want to
take this opportunity to thank Sandy Hirsh and Clara Chu, Co-chairs of the
Search Committee; the other Search Committee members - Jamshid Beheshti,
Nadia Caidi, Lisa Given, and Marjorie Hlava; and the executive search firm,
Isaccson Miller, whose expertise and excellent service throughout the search
was key to our success in identifying qualified candidates and in hiring
Lydia. The Committee thanks the ASIS&T staff and members for their valuable
input during the search process. Two hundred fifty-two individuals were
considered in the search either as sources or as candidates. This
appointment may be one of the most critical decisions of my presidential
term and I feel privileged to have been a part of this important hire.

I also have had the opportunity to work with our ASIS&T Annual Meeting
co-chairs and 80th Anniversary Advisory Group members. We are very excited
to announce our two keynote speakers for the Annual Meeting - Richard Marks
and William Powers. Richard Marks is the Head of Playstation Magic Lab at
Sony Interactive Entertainment. His area of expertise is social aspects of
virtual reality and augmented reality. William Powers is the best-selling
author of Hamlet's Blackberry and Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab. His
area of expertise is work-life balance in a technologically-connected world.

The members of the 80th Anniversary Advisory Group have been busy planning
for the Annual Meeting. This group is chaired by Kathryn La Barre, and
members include Michael Buckland, Toni Carbo, Ken Herold, Dania Bilal, Javed
Mostafa, Nouf Khashman and Tatjana Aparac.  Details about our invited 80th
Anniversary-themed panel session will be available soon, and the plans for
the 80th Anniversary-themed Welcome Reception are ongoing. Please forward
names of ASIS&T friends and members who have died recently to Kathryn at
<mailto:klabarre at illinois.edu> klabarre at illinois.edu, to be honored with a
moment of silence at the reception. Time will be devoted during the
reception to honor Gene Garfield's contributions to ASIS&T.  Kathryn also is
facilitating efforts to create an interactive exhibit honoring 80 years of
ASIS&T, to debut at the reception and to be available throughout the
conference. If you have images, videos, or audio you would like to share,
please contact her at  <mailto:klabarre at illinois.edu> klabarre at illinois.edu.

Our ASIS&T members in Asia also have been quite busy. I was invited to spend
two-weeks (26 March-7 April) at the University of Hong Kong as a Visiting
Professor in the Faculty of Education, working with the Master of Library
and Information Management (MLIM) Program faculty and students. I began my
visit by participating in the two-day Symposium on Research Design, Paper
Writing, and Publishing in Information Science that was hosted at HKU and
sponsored by the ASIS&T Asia Pacific Chapter (Christopher Khoo, Chair) and
the Taipei Chapter (Ming-Hsin Phoebe Chiu, Chair, and Tien-I Tsai, Vice
Chair), and Sam Chu (Paper Co-chair for the ASIS&T 2017 Annual Meeting). I
discussed qualitative research methods and also had the opportunity to lead
a break-out session with students. The students discussed their research,
and I provided feedback on how to make the paper publishable in the ASIS&T
journal, JASIST, and/or to submit a paper for review for the ASIS&T 2017
Annual Meeting. I am thrilled to report that one of the doctoral students in
my break-out session did submit a paper proposal for the ASIS&T 2017 Annual
Meeting. I hope it gets accepted! Javed Mostafa, the editor of JASIS&T, also
attended the symposium and advised students and faculty on preparing and
submitting papers for review for publication in JASIST.

During my two-week visit, I met with many students, faculty, and practicing
professionals in Hong Kong and Macau. Dr. Chu made sure I worked and played
hard. He scheduled hikes with students and faculty so I was able to work in
a beautiful outdoor environment with stimulating discussions. I am honored
to have had the opportunity to spend time working with the students,
faculty, and practitioners in Hong Kong and Macau. I learned so much from
everyone and got to do so with wonderful colleagues in a gorgeous setting
while eating delicious food!!

When I returned from Hong Kong, Nadia Caidi, ASIS&T Past President, and I
attended the Council for Scientific Society Presidents meeting in
Washington, DC, 6-8 May. This meeting is an opportunity for ASIS&T
presidents to meet with presidents and executive directors of other
scientific associations. It's good to share challenges and opportunities and
learn about different ways to lead change. The speakers are excellent, and
this year we heard speakers from Harvard, Yale, Rutgers Universities; the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California,
Berkeley, National Public Radio, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the National Institutes
of Health, as well as other government scientific agencies. The speakers
introduced such diverse topics as the factors that count as evidence in the
world of fake news, the current challenges facing the sciences, building
with 3-D printed renewable resources (building with recycled tires), 3-D
cell neurobiology and gene editing, computer models, the national strategy
to improve safety testing (addressed testing skin lotions, perfumes, and so
forth), and data-driven public engagement initiatives. Nadia, Lydia, and I
attended the Kavli Lecture to hear George M. Church, professor of Genetics
at Harvard Medical School and professor of Health Sciences and Technology at
Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also is
director of the U.S. Department of Energy Center on Bioenergy at Harvard and
MIT and director of the National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence
in Genomic Science at Harvard. We even had a photo op with Dr. Church!

Since ASIS&T is a prominent society for the advancement of information
science and technology, we officially partnered with the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Earth Day Network
for the March for Science. Check out the story, videos, and photos of ASIS&T
member participation in the March in Inside ASIS&T, Volume 1, Issue 2
(https://www.asist.org/publications/inside-asist/inside-asist-volume-1-issue
-2/). Don't miss the events that are available to you as ASIS&T members
since several important deadlines are approaching.

One deadline of critical importance is for the ASIS&T awards. The award
descriptions and deadlines are available at
<https://www.asist.org/about/awards/> https://www.asist.org/about/awards/.
These awards provide the ASIS&T membership an opportunity to nominate and
honor fellow members for their professional and scholarly work and
contributions to ASIS&T and the information science community. I encourage
you to nominate colleagues for these prestigious awards.

The Member-Get-A-Member Recruitment Drive (
<https://www.asist.org/8-for-our-80th-anniversary/>
https://www.asist.org/8-for-our-80th-anniversary/) ended June 1st with 54
new members! We want to thank all the members whose dedication and loyalty
made this campaign a success. For their efforts, they will receive a
membership renewal discount and a chance to win a free registration to the
2017 Annual Meeting. There also will be 2nd and 3rd prizes of a gift basket
containing limited edition 80th anniversary merchandise. Thanks much to all
those who participated! 

And, for the Annual Meeting, you still have time to submit your visual
presentations, formerly known as posters! The deadline is 23 June and we are
encouraging different types of visualizations in addition to traditional
posters. Learn more about AM17 at https://www.asist.org/am17/.

I also want to encourage each of you to share your accomplishments with
ASIS&T so that we are able to celebrate with you. Please send your news to
<mailto:yolande at asist.org> yolande at asist.org or use the website feedback
form at  <https://www.asist.org/new-site-feedback/>
https://www.asist.org/new-site-feedback/. And, speaking of sharing news,
please remember to schedule your summer professional activities that are of
interest to the membership on the Events Calendar that is available to all
members on the homepage of the ASIS&T website (
<https://www.asist.org/asist-events-calendar/> https://www.asist.or
g/asist-events-calendar/.) To add an event, simply login using your ASIS&T
account information and click on the "Add Event" icon.

Remember, you are ASIS&T. Make it the association that meets your
professional and scholarly interests and ambitions!

Attendees at the symposium on Research Design, Paper Writing and Publishing
in Information Science hosted at Hong Kong University; April 2017

ASIS&T leaders in Hong Kong April 2017 left to From right: Tien-I Tsai, Vice
Chair of the Taipei Chapter, Lynn Connaway-Silipigni, ASIS&T President and
Javed Mostafa, JASIST editor

At the Council for Scientific Society Presidents in Washington, DC, May
2017. Left to right, Kavli Lecture speaker, George M. Church of Harvard,
ASIST Past President Nadia Caidi and 2017 ASIS&T President Lynn
Connaway-Silipigni

This is nothing but to pretend like I'm doing something. Need to start
getting sally ready for my departure. I'm not that valuable for them to
care. They'll take Lydia over me. I'm used to that. Then I need to see about

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