ASIS&T 2017 | 80th Annual Meeting: Diversity of Engagement Tapped as Theme of Milestone Meeting

Reflecting on its history in the fields of information science and technology, ASIS&T leaders found the perfect theme for its milestone 80^th Annual Meeting: Diversity of Engagement: Connecting People and Information in the Physical and Virtual Worlds. This theme will help focus presenters and attendees on the diverse ways in which people from different backgrounds, cultures and disciplines forge connections with each other, discover and use information and engage with technology. From October 27-November 1, 2017, ASIS&T will celebrate its achievements, goals and challenges in suburban Washington, DC.

The ASIS&T Annual Meeting is a premier, peer-reviewed international conference that gathers scholars and practitioners from around the globe to share research, innovations and insights regarding how information and technology mediate the creation and use of knowledge within and across cultures and enhance lives. Paper, visual presentation, panel and workshop submissions that focus on the conference theme, as well as the production, discovery, recording, storage, representation, retrieval, presentation, manipulation, dissemination, use and evaluation of information and on the tools and techniques associated with these processes are welcome. The conference embraces plurality in methods and theories, and encompasses research and development from a broad spectrum of domains, as encapsulated in ASIS&T's many special interest groups (SIGs).

At this milestone meeting, participants will address the opportunities and challenges of navigating through physical and digital/virtual realm with computers, tablets or smartphones to interact in work and everyday activities. Within this information environment, there also are those who choose to disengage and those who have no access to or knowledge of technology, widening the digital divide. ASIS&T 2017 will provide an interactive platform for exploration of these complex and rapidly changing technological and socio-cultural developments.

Conference chairs for the ASIS&T 80^th Annual Meeting are Naresh Agarwal, Simmons College ([email protected]), and Sanda Erdelez, University of Missouri ([email protected]). A special advisory group for the 80^th Annual Meeting will assist the conference chairs with the particular task of planning 90-minute invited sessions. Members of the advisory committee are Kathryn La Barre, Michael Buckland, Toni Carbo, Ken Herold, Tatjana Aparac, Javed Mostafa, Dania Bilal and Nouf Khashman.

The 80^th Annual Meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport in suburban Washington, DC. But long before the meeting is convened, planning work is underway. Many of the deadlines are rapidly approaching. Submissions are now being accepted with the following deadlines:

Eugene Garfield

1925–2017

The ASIS&T Board and the information science community mourn the passing of Eugene Garfield who passed away on February 26, 2017. Dr. Garfield was an exemplary leader of the information science field. He developed Current Contents, Science Citation Index and many other indexes in the sciences. He established the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) as an international information agency. Lilley & Trice call him a “creative genius in the realm of non-conventional information systems.”

Dr. Garfield's career in scientific communication and information science began in 1951 when he joined the Welch Medical Indexing Project at Johns Hopkins University. The project was funded by the Army Medical Library, the predecessor of the National Library of Medicine. The goal of the project was to examine basic and applied problems of medical information retrieval and the application of new methods to indexing the biomedical literature; a key objective was to improve the currency of the Current List of Medical Literature through machine methods of compilation. This led to the present Index Medicus. In addition, the Welch Project planted the seeds for several major advances in scientific communication and information science that have distinguished Dr. Garfield's career. They can be expressed as two basic and related themes: information discovery and information recovery.

In 1958, Garfield was contacted by Joshua Lederberg, who was interested in knowing what happened to the citation index Garfield had proposed in 1955 in Science. Their correspondence eventually led to a meeting with the NIH genetics study section and funding to produce and distribute a Genetics Citation Index.

Beginning in 1961 Garfield's career is marked by an extraordinary development of new information tools for researchers combined with constant enhancement of existing tools. This included Automatic Subject Citation Alert (a personalized selective dissemination of information service now called Research Alert) as well as numerous other indexes that assisted a wide range of fields – from sciences to the humanities. Garfield began regular publication of the Science Citation Index in 1964 through the Institute for Scientific Information, the name his firm assumed in 1960. The SCI soon distinguished itself from other literature indexes and was recognized as a basic and fundamental innovation in scientific communication and information science.

It is no surprise that Garfield held many positions (including 2000 ASIS&T president) and won numerous awards (spanning seven decades from several organizations) for his contributions; served on multiple boards and his impressive bibliography is enviable. However, what ASIS&T members will remember is the man himself. As the rest of the world reflects on the passing of a scientific genius, ASIS&T reminisces on the dignity and generosity of a colleague. Eugene Garfield gave generously of his time to mentor young professionals starting out in the information science field. He demonstrated his intelligence by knowing that a good idea can come from anyone – even a young student. He was a dedicated family man and had a dry sense of humor. We all feel a bit lonelier with his warmth gone and extend our condolences to his family for their loss. We honor his contributions and thank him for not only enhancing the IS field, but our lives as well.

Lynn Silipigni Connaway

2017 ASIS&T President