|
President-Elect
 Harry
Bruce
Bio
Harry Bruce is a professor and the Dean of the Information School of the University of Washington. Before coming to the University of Washington in 1998, Harry was a faculty member in the Department of Information Studies at the University of Technology in Sydney. Harry is a recipient of the ASIST UMI Doctoral Dissertation award. He has served as a member of the JASIST editorial board. He is a passionate and effective leader and advocate for the discipline of information science and the information professions. His research and scholarship focus on the study of human information behavior. The purpose of this work is to develop a deeper understanding of how people need, seek and use information in their professional and everyday lives. The new knowledge generated by this research is used to inform the development or enhancement of resources, services and technologies that facilitate information access and use. Harry's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Washington State Library, and the Australian Department of Employment Education and Training.
Statement
I am deeply committed to a philosophy of leadership through service. I center my efforts and actions on the needs of others; I find out how I can facilitate or support, and insert my influence or expertise where it will provide the greatest value and serve the needs of my peers, collaborators, profession and discipline. I will follow this practice of leadership through service, should I be elected as President of ASIST. There are several issues that I would emphasize:
- We must continue to develop ASIST as an intellectual and professional community representing a broad range of disciplines, fields and subfields, and facilitate deeper levels of engagement by ASIST members. The information professions are extremely diverse and growing. ASIST must invest in tracking and supporting the multiple career opportunities that are available to qualified information professionals, thereby expanding the professional base of our society and promoting our strengths in team building, problem solving, project management, collaboration and interdisciplinary research.
- ASIST must become an international association in membership and focus. We have members from many countries around the world, but we still cannot claim to be an international society. Why is this so important? The most compelling professional and scientific challenges for the information field are now global. ASIST must draw its membership from the best and brightest practitioners and scholars from around the world, but it must also actively celebrate and promote global practices in information provision, and the ethical and culturally sensitive design of secure information services and systems.
- The value of ASIST membership must be clearly stated, and easily and widely understood. Existing, new, and prospective members must be convinced by the ASIST value proposition—the benefits of participation in annual meetings, the quality of ASIST publications, services, etc.
- ASIST must be more strategic, agile and visible in its response to emerging trends, challenges and opportunities affecting the information disciplines and professions. We must be professionally and scientifically engaged with new paradigms for scientific inquiry and the demands by data-centric science for innovative practices in data management, curation and preservation. We must be involved with the challenges of cloud computing, social networking, information assurance and cybersecurity, virtual worlds, information entrepreneurship and business building, online learning, ethics and information technology, assistive technologies, and so on.
I am passionate about growing and strengthening ASIST. I look forward to working with you.
Directors at Large
 Lynn
Silipigni Connaway
Bio
Lynn Silipigni Connaway is a Senior Research Scientist at OCLC Research who has experience in academic, public, and school libraries, as well as library and information science education and corporate and non-profit organizations. Prior to joining OCLC Research, she was the Vice-President of Research and Library Systems at NetLibrary, the director of the Library and Information Services Department at the University of Denver, and on the faculty of the Library and Informational Science program at the University of Missouri, Columbia.
Connaway was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Sheffield, Information Studies Department, and has completed several JISC-funded UK projects to investigate users' behaviors, including virtual research environments and digital repositories. Connaway currently is collaborating with JISC and the University of Oxford to study students’ and scholars’ engagement with technology. She also is mining WorldCat bibliographic and use data for another UK-funded Arts and Humanities Research Council project in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Sheffield. Connaway is working with colleagues at Rutgers University in an IMLS-funded project to investigate and compare virtual reference services (VRS) and social question and answer sites. She was the co-principal investigator of an IMLS-funded project to study and evaluate the sustainability and relevance of VRS, and a co-investigator on another IMLS-funded study to investigate the information-seeking behaviors of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. Connaway is the co-author of the 5th ed. of Basic Research Methods for Librarians published in October 2010.
Connaway received her doctorate in library and information science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MLS from the University of Arizona. She has been a member of ASIS&T since she was a doctoral student and is a member of the Classification Research; Information Needs, Seeking and Use; and Digital Libraries Special Interest Groups. Connaway has served on many ASIS&T award and review committees and is a frequent ASIS&T conference presenter, in addition to serving as the Co-Chair of the 2011 ASIS&T Annual Conference. In this capacity, she worked with the Co-Chair to provide a program that would appeal to a discipline-diverse international membership and offering more refereed paper sessions than in previous years.
Statement
With the globalization of information and the many professional opportunities available to researchers and practicing information professionals, it is imperative for ASIS&T to provide value to its members. I believe this can be achieved by
-
Continuing to attract an international membership represented by diverse disciplines,
-
Focusing on early-career professionals and researchers by offering career development and mentoring opportunities,
-
Providing more refereed publishing and presentation opportunities for the membership in multiple formats, such as webinars, conferences, and online subject-specific publications.
Based on these goals, I will work with the ASIS&T Board in creating an association that entices researchers and professionals to become ASIS&T members and to retain their membership. I also will work with the Board and the membership to engage participation in ASIS&T conferences and ASIS&T-sponsored professional and research
activities.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sanda Erdelez
Bio
Sanda Erdelez is an Associate Professor at the School of Information Science & Learning Technologies at University of Missouri (MU). She also serves as Associate Director for Education at MU’s Informatics Institute and is the founder of MU’s Information Experience Laboratory. Her prior academic appointment was at University of Texas at Austin. She holds a Bachelors of Law and a Masters of Law degree from University of Osijek, Croatia and as a Fulbright Scholar received a PhD in Information Transfer from Syracuse University. Her research and teaching focuses on human information behavior and usability evaluation of information systems. She has been actively engaged in SIG USE as a past chair, research symposium organizer, and its current Treasurer. Her contributions to ASIS&T extend to all organizational levels: membership on the program committees and chairing tracks for annual meetings, mentoring in the Future ASIS&T Leaders program, regularly reviewing and contributing to JASIS&T, and serving as a faculty co-mentor for the ASIS&T student chapter at
MU.
Statement
All of us who have a long personal history with ASIS&T (mine began in 1988 with the annual meeting in Boston) know it as a welcoming and engaging association of information researchers and professionals. The familiar features of our ASIS&T are its annual meetings, SIGs and local chapters, ASIST-L, and JASIST. However, these traditional forums for collegial relationships have lately been expanded with the instant connectivity of LinkedIn, Mendeley and other professional and research-oriented social media. Instead of turning into a legacy association, ASIS&T has already accomplished much in the integration of new technologies into many programmatic activities, both within and outside of the annual meetings. I believe another critical area of engagement is the systematic understanding and dynamic response to the changing needs of ASIS&T members throughout different stages of their professional careers (from students to senior scholars and managers) , during critical times of transition (job loss/search, new research areas, career change) and attention to the unique requirements of specific geographical locations (U.S. and international). If elected as a Director-at-Large, I will bring to this complex task my international and interdisciplinary educational background, my research expertise in information needs and system usability, and my commitment to innovation and collaborative decision making.
|