Maria Bonn

Maria Bonn is an Associate Professor and Director of the MS LIS and Certificate of Advanced Studies Programs at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Her research focuses on scholarly communication and open culture and on collaboration in the humanities. She teaches largely in the areas of academic librarianship, scholarly communication and publishing. Prior to her faculty appointment, Bonn served as theAssociate University Librarian for Publishing at the University of Michigan Library, with responsibility for publishing and scholarly communications initiatives, including the University of Michigan Press. She has also been an assistant professor of English at institutions both in the United States and abroad.

ASIS&T and its members do invaluable work in creating and sustaining human and technological systems for the benefit of all. In its 2020 strategic plan, the association set a goal of improving knowledge sharing opportunities. As a member, and currently the chair, of the publications committee, I have been an active part of working to achieve that goal. I chaired the search for a new Editor in chief for JASIST. I have shepherded the relaunch of ARIST. I have been an active part of developing the new, and timely, Information Matters. I applaud the Association for initiating  all of this work and the publications committee for undertaking it, but it is not sufficient. We need to collectively turn our attention beyond knowledge-sharing to the communication and application of our work in venues that make that work available to a broader public. We need to demonstrate our work’s relevance beyond our disciplinary context and to share not just our research but why it matters. As a director at large my goal will be to increase the visibility and impact of the scholarship that comes from the ASIS&T community.