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President-Elect Candidates
 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.
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 Dietmar
Wolfram
Bio
Dietmar Wolfram is a Professor at of the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he also recently served as interim Dean. He received his PhD in library and information science (1990), MLIS, and BSc from Western University in Canada. He has published widely in the areas of information retrieval and applied informetrics. He currently serves on five editorial boards, including the
Journal of Informetrics and Information Research. He received an Emerald Literati Network Outstanding Reviewer award for 2010. Dietmar has been a member of ASIST since 1988 and has been involved with the society at all levels. He has served as faculty advisor to the UW-Milwaukee student chapter, occupied every officer position of the Wisconsin chapter, and served nationally as chair of the former SIG/OIS, secretary/treasurer of SIG/MET, member of the Education Committee and Annual Meeting Program Committee, co-chair of the Awards and Honors Committee, Director-at-Large (2004-06), and chair/member of six different award juries.
Statement
ASIST has been my primary professional and scholarly society since I was a graduate student. What I value most from ASIST are the intersection of information science research and practice and the growing international composition of the society. Like other societies, ASIST is competing with professional and scholarly groups to maintain existing members and attract new members. The fiscal health of many groups depends on their dedicated members and the services provided. ASIST is in a fortunate position to be able to draw revenue from its publications, but a strong membership is still needed for a healthy society. While some regional chapters with an active member base continue to thrive, others wither under low membership. If elected president, my primary goal will be to explore and implement additional ways in which ASIST can serve its members by creating more opportunities for member participation and interaction. More specifically, I would plan to:
- Enhance opportunities to increase membership, meeting attendance, and career counseling for students from the growing number of undergraduate programs in information science. They, along with graduate students, represent our future membership.
- Work with the Board, Chapter Assembly, and SIG Cabinet to explore ways to increase member interaction nationally and internationally in regions without an active chapter presence by capitalizing on interactive technologies for professional development and content delivery.
- Explore the feasibility of making meeting participation more accessible through satellite meetings or virtual attendance at annual meetings and summits.
Director at Large Candidates (2 will be
elected)
 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
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Continuing to attract an international membership represented by diverse disciplines,
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Focusing on early-career professionals and researchers by offering career development and mentoring opportunities,
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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.
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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.
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 June
Abbas
Bio
June Abbas, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at the University of Oklahoma, Norman campus. She obtained her PhD in Information Science from the University of North Texas in 2001 and taught in the Department of Library and Information Studies at the State University of New York in Buffalo from 2001-2008 before joining the SLIS in August 2008. She also held professional positions in public and special libraries. Her research focuses on the development of user-centered digital libraries, institutional repositories, and other knowledge organization structures. She conducts research on youth and their use of technology, and the intersection between information behavior, information retrieval, and structures for organizing knowledge. The courses she teaches include those related to the organization of information and knowledge resources, cataloging and classification, indexing and abstracting, digital collections, and digital information retrieval. She has also served as project manager on eight digital libraries projects and on task forces to develop institutional repositories. Her recently published book "Structures for organizing knowledge: Exploring taxonomies, ontologies, and other schema" was nominated for ASIST Book of the Year in 2011.
Statement
ASIST has been my professional home since I joined in 1998. I look forward to attending the Annual meeting each year to reconnect with colleaguse and friends, to be inspired by novel ideas and innovative research, and to learn. Each year I go home full of renewed energy and enthusiasm for the discipline, research, and the information professions.
I have served ASIST in various capacities through the years, both as member and officer. The highlights of my service were when I was asked to serve as Chair and later Co-Chair of the Information Science Education Committee and when elected as Chair of SIG DL. Both have taught me much about ASIST and how our society functions.
If elected as Director at Large I would work to enhance our outreach to students and practitioners in efforts to increase their membership in the society. It is often through their experiences and involvement that we learn about societal issues that affect us all, regardless of whether researcher, information scientist, or practitioner.
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 Beata
Panagopoulos
Bio
Beata Panagopoulos is Assistant Director, Technical Services at the Mildred F. Sawyer Library at Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts. As part of the management team, she collaborates in the development of library objectives and formulating policies consistent with them. Previously, she was Head of Technical Services at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS) Library, where she not only managed and oversaw every aspect of acquiring and cataloging the Library’s print and electronic collections, but was also engaged in the HKS community by coordinating its Ombuds Program. In 2007 Beata was honored with the “Harvard Heroes” award for her extraordinary contributions to the University. Beata has been an active member of the Board of the New England Chapter of ASIS&T since 1994, serving as Program Chair/Chair and Membership Chair. She serves on the NEASIS&T Program Committee and conducts the chapter’s annual student travel award competition. In 1998, she won the ASIS&T Chapter Member of the Year award. As Chair of SIG Pub, she organized two panels for ASIS&T annual meetings. She has also served on various ASIS&T committees, including Nominations and Leadership Development. She was elected to two terms as Chapter Assembly Director (2004-2008) and as such, was privileged to be a member of the ASIS&T Board of Directors. Beata has a B.A. in Politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an M.S. from Simmons
GSLIS.
Statement
Libraries and museums across the world are being radically transformed to meet the needs and interests of new generations of information seekers. Due to economic imperatives, these organizations are struggling to become leaner, more efficient cultural institutions. Simultaneously, more money is being invested in content than ever before. So too must ASIS&T change to attract a younger membership to the Society—the time has never been better to take up this challenge. ASIS&T is very rich in resources: its members’ research, publications, and teaching have an international impact on all aspects of innovation in information studies. However, it has become a hidden gem. As someone who has benefited tremendously both professionally and personally from my involvement with the Society at the national and chapter levels, I would be honored to serve as Director-at-Large. If elected, I would like to work with the Membership Committee to understand how ASIS&T can meet the needs of young information professionals in a world with myriad online networking and learning opportunities.
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