Aparac-Jelušić to receive 2025 Watson Davis Award for Service
The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that Dr. Tatjana Aparac-Jelušić is the recipient of the 2025 Watson Davis Award for Service. The award recognizes an individual member of the Association who has shown continuous dedicated leadership in and service to ASIS&T and made substantial and lasting contributions to ASIS&T governance, chapters, SIGs, committees, and publications.
Before her retirement in 2015, Aparac-Jelušić was Professor and Head of the Department of Information Sciences at the University of Zadar. In 2008 she was appointed as the Dean of the PhD program Knowledge Society and the Information Transfer, University of Zadar. She was the founder of two Information Sciences departments (University of Osijek and University of Zadar). She is an author of three books, nine chapters in books, over 150 research and professional papers (in Croatian, English and Italian). She has edited 25 books.
A member of ASIST since 2001, she is a participant at and reviewed of many Annual Meeting submissions over the years. She served as the member of several juries, and as chair of the ASIST/European Chapter and History Committee, Euclid, and Croatian Council on Libraries.
She was co-founder and co-director of the LIDA Conference which started in 2000 and celebrates now its 25th anniversary. She received Kukuljević’s Award, the highest professional recognition in Croatian LIS field, and Thompson/ISI Outstanding Teacher of Information Science 2006, Rector’s Award at the University of Zadar in 2007 and Bobcat of the year award for 2018.
In her endorsement of Aparac-Jelušić, Diane Sonnenwald, distinguished scholar in the field of library and information science, writes, “For two decades, Professor Tatjana Aparac-Jelušić has been an inspirational and dedicated leader in the ASIS&T European Chapter and throughout ASIS&T. She is a pioneer in developing and sustaining collegial networks of ASIS&T members across large geographic regions. In her role as Chair of the ASIS&T European Chapter for 7 years, she transformed the ASIS&T European Chapter into an active community of scholars, professionals, and students. She built bridges among colleagues from different countries, cultures, and areas of expertise, and in doing so, established an active network that continues to create and share knowledge as well as resources. She has been a constant advocate for ASIS&T, recruiting new members and helping to establish the ASIS&T European Student Chapter.”
Upon learning of her selection as winner of the Watson Davis Award, Aparac-Jelušić responded, “I am honoured and deeply touched by receiving Watson Davies Award from ASIS&T. It is a great privilege to join the long line of esteemed colleagues who received this award from 1976 onwards. I would like to thank the members of the jury, the nomination and support letter writers, and each person who has contributed to making ASIS&T my favourite professional family. If I may, I would like to dedicate this Award to late Tefko Saracevic who was my mentor, colleague, and friend and who introduced me to the wonderful world of information science. Thank you.”
Aparac-Jelušić will receive the award during the 2025 meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology which will be held 14-18 November 2025 in Crystal City, VA.
About ASIS&T
ASIS&T is the pre-eminent professional association for thousands of researchers, developers, practitioners, students, and professors in the field of information science and technology from 50 countries around the world. For more than 85 years, ASIS&T has been leading the search for new and better theories, techniques, and technologies to improve access to information.