ASIS&T Taipei Chapter Reception

Lynn Silipigni Connaway, ASIS&T president and senior research scientist and director of user research at OCLC Research, visited Taiwan in December 2016. To welcome Dr. Connaway and to foster interactions among LIS young scholars and junior faculty in Taiwan, the ASIS&T Taipei Chapter held a research forum and reception on December 7, 2016, at National Taiwan University Library.

The ASIS&T Taipei Chapter was established in 1982. It is one of the earliest regional chapters outside North America. In the subsequent year, the Taipei Student Chapter was also established, composed mainly of graduate students from National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University. It won the Best Student Chapter Award in 1988. Pioneers in information science in Taiwan, including Harris B. H. Seng, Lucy Tee-Chu Lee, James S. C. Hu and Margaret Fung, have been and are still playing crucial roles in facilitating local participation in the global community. Today, the Taipei Chapter has grown to be one of the strongest library and information science professional associations in Taiwan. It continues its mission to promote Taiwan in collaborating and networking with leading intellectuals around the world. In 2016, ASIS&T Taipei was under the guidance of Ming-Hsin Phoebe Chiu, chair; Tien-I Tsai, vice chair; and Wei-Chung Cheng, secretary.

Faculty members and graduate students from five different LIS schools in Taiwan participated in the research forum and reception. Twelve LIS faculty and young scholars in Taiwan shared their research on various topics through a series of five-minute madness presentations. The presenters included Suyu Lin (assistant professor, Tamkang University), Hui-Yun Sung (assistant professor, National Chung Hsing University), Tien-I Tsai (assistant professor, National Taiwan University), Ming-Hsin Phoebe Chiu (associate professor, National Taiwan Normal University), post-doctoral researcher Cheng-Ching Chang and seven doctoral students from National Taiwan University (NTU), National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and National Chengchi University (NCCU). The topics ranged from library user services and user behavior, scholarly communication and scientific collaboration, information behavior and user experience, to health informatics, bibliometrics and information repositories. In addition to the presentations, there was a social refreshment session for attendees to exchange research ideas. At the end of the event, Connaway mentored the participants on the art of five-minute madness and speaking in academic contexts and also shared tips for junior faculty and recent Ph.D. graduates on preparing for academic careers.

Prior to her visit to Taiwan, Connaway also visited China and Hong Kong. Researchers from the three areas organized a collaborative event, Symposium on Research Design, Paper Writing & Publishing in Information Science, which will be held at the University of Hong Kong on March 27–28, 2017. The joint effort was first initiated by the members of ASIS&T Asia-Pacific Chapter and the Taipei Chapter during a networking lunch at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting at Copenhagen, Denmark. After series of discussions, it became a major event derived from the ASIS&T Annual Meeting and President Connaway's Greater China trip. Thanks to Sam Chu from the faculty of education, University of Hong Kong, who is the symposium chair and main organizer, this first Asia-Pacific collaborative ASIS&T regional event will draw together talented minds from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore and the United States to pave the way for young scholars and doctoral students to develop knowledge and the ability to act as potential movers and shakers of the LIS field. More information about the symposium can be accessed from https://www.asist.org/mc-events/symposium-on-research-design-paper-writing-publishing-in-information-science/.