Inside ASIS&T

Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Dec 2003/Jan 2004

Annual Meeting Coverage

While the December/January issue of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology traditionally contains in-depth coverage of the ASIS&T Annual Meeting, this year's late October meeting fell outside the production cycle for this issue. Therefore, the bulk of the Annual Meeting news, such as reports on major technical sessions, photographic and textual coverage of the winners of the ASIS&T awards and news of other relevant activities, will appear in the February/March 2004 issue of the Bulletin.

New Officer and Directors Join ASIS&T Board

The start of a new administrative year brings new faces to the AS1S&T Board of Directors. Three new members were welcomed to the Board at the conclusion of the Annual Meeting in Long Beach, while three retiring members were thanked for their service.

Each of the new members will serve the society for three years. Those elected to the Board during the summer balloting are Nicholas J. Belkin, president-elect; and Dietmar Wolfram and Gail Hodge, directors-at-large.

As the new members took their seats, Samantha Hastings, elected last year as president-elect, assumed the presidency from Trudi Bellardo Hahn, who now serves as past president for one year. Former president Donald Kraft and directors-at-large Dudee Chiang and Michael Leach completed their terms of service on the Board.

Samantha Hastings is an associate professor of information science and fellow of the Texas Center for Digital Knowledge at the University of North Texas in Denton. She teaches courses in digital image management, telecommunications, and science and technology reference.

Nick Belkin has been professor of information science in the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers University since 1985. Prior to this appointment he was senior lecturer in information science at The City University, London. he is currently chair of the Department of Library and Information Science at Rutgers, and was previously the director of the Ph.D. program in Commu-nication, Information and Library Studies there. He has held visiting positions at institutions in Canada, Germany, Singapore and Finland. Nick holds the Ph.D. in information studies from the University of London, and the MLS and BA from the University of Washington. He is a recipient of the ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award (1990) and the ASIS&T Research Award (1997).

Dietmar Wolfram is professor at the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. he teaches courses in the areas of information science, electronic networking, and database systems and conducts research in information retrieval, applied informetrics and technology education for information professionals. he holds a Ph.D. and MLIS in library and information science and a B.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario. As an ASIS &T member, he has served as faculty advisor to the UW-Milwaukee ASIS&T Student Chapter and as an officer (secretary, vice-chair, chair) of the Wisconsin Chapter; as chair and communication officer for the former SIG/OIS (Office Information Systems); on the Awards and Honors and Education Committees; and he has organized and presented on a number of panels at ASIS&T Annual Meetings.

Gail Hodge is a senior information scientist in the Advanced Information Research and Technologies Group of Information International Associates. She is a consultant and contractor for government and private sector organizations, specializing in database design, metadata, taxonomy and controlled vocabulary development, process reengineering, standards and information policy. Gail has served as chair and program chair for SIG/IFP, developing sessions on intellectual property, public domain and government information policy, and is also a member of SIGs/STI and ALP. She has been a frequent speaker at ASIS&T Annual Meetings and has contributed to the Bulletin on topics such as digital preservation, electronic journals, e-prints and database protection.

News About ASIS&T Chapters

For the program in conjunction with its annual business meeting in October, the Potomac Valley Chapter offered a presentation on The ASlST Web Site Redesign Project: Objectives, Stakeholders and Workplan. A Web redesign group in the DC area is looking at the redesign process and all its aspects - from identifying users and stakeholders to recognizing the forms, databases and transactions that are typically conducted by Society members. Members of the team shared insights into Web processes and workflows, usability testing, IA and interface design and highlevel business requirements.

In September, the Central Ohio ASIS&T Chapter (CO-ASIS&T) offered a program entitled, Current Awareness Services for Librarians, presented by Jay Kegley, Columbus Metropolitan Library. He shared his insights on the best current awareness services for librarians.

For its November program, CO-ASIS&T planned Copyright Catch-Up: What's Happening Now?, featuring Trisha Davis, The Ohio State University Libraries, speaking about copyright and recent events affecting it.