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Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology ­ August/September 2008 ­ Volume 34, Number 6




                                                                                                                        NANCY RODERER
                                                                                                                        ASIS&T President 2008
                                                                                                                        Johns Hopkins University
                                                                                                                        Welch Medical Library
                                                                                                                                                   I  I don't know about others of you in the academic world,
                                                                                                                                                   but once upon a time I imagined that moving to that sector
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        on it a powerful comparative advantage in an otherwise
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        congested arena." We are indeed fortunate, both to have
                                                                                                                                                   would give me lovely, quiet summers. Turns out not to be             had such a fine editor in Don Kraft and to have Blaise
                                                                                                                        nrodererjhmi.edu
                                                                                                                                                   true in medical centers, but in addition to that issue this          willing to take over the helm now.
                                                                                                                                                   summer has been an extraordinarily busy time in ASIS&T                   As noted in my last column, at the April Board meeting
                                                                                                                                                   as well. Your stories about what you are doing should you            the Board approved an International Relations Committee
                                                                                                                                                   be so lucky to have a quiet summer would be welcome as               proposal to create a Global Alliance of Information Sciences,
                                                                                                                                                   vicarious reading. Meanwhile there is much to report:                Technologies and Service Societies. In the words of the
                                                                                                                                                        The publications area has been particularly busy. While         proposal, the Alliance will "create a common space in
                                                                                                                                                   you are likely to have heard about our new JASIST editor,            which national and international scholarly and professional
                                                                                                                                                   Blaise Cronin, by the time this column is published, as I            societies active in whole or part of the broad field of
                                                                                                                                                   write it is very new information. Blaise, the Rudy Professor         information sciences, technologies and services will be
                                                                                                                                                   of Information Science and the Dean of the School of                 able to accomplish the following:
                                                                                                                                                   Library and Information Science at Indiana University, is            I Offer an attractive image to prospective entrants in the

                                                                                                                                                   both a thought leader in our field and a person of                      information professions
                                                                                                                                                   considerable editorial service. In his application for the           I Facilitate the sharing of public information resources

                                                                                                                                                   position, he described JASIST in relation to other journals          I Facilitate the identification and implementation of joint

                                                                                                                                                   in the field, saying "...JASIST differs in one key respect              activities
                                                                                                                                                   from all of these competitors and others such as D-Lib               I Facilitate for their members exposure to international

                                                                                                                                                   Magazine and First Monday: Its scope is information                     activities and resources and international networking
                                                                                                                                                   science in-the-round, not one or other of its many sub-fields,       I Therefore better respond to the needs of their members

                                                                                                                                                   be it IR, digital libraries or HCI. This very catholicity               with regard to the growing importance of the
                                                                                                                                                   differentiates JASIST from most other journals and confers              international dimensions of the field.

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                                                                                                                                                                       The full report by Becker and Kinney ­ must reading for anyone interested in information
Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology ­ August/September 2008 ­ Volume 34, Number 6




                                                                                                                                                                                      professional education ­ is available at www.asist.org/news.html.



                                                                                                                                                                       This ambitious undertaking will be a long-term project,       information systems, informatics, information technology
                                                                                                                                                                  but we have to begin by sending letters of invitation to a         or information science.
                                                                                                                                                                  large and varied group of other information-related                    The full report by Becker and Kinney ­ must reading
                                                                                                                                                                  organizations worldwide.                                           for anyone interested in information professional education
                                                                                                                                                                       There has also been excellent progress on my                  ­ is available at www.asist.org/news.html. The report is
                                                                                                                                                                  presidential initiative being spearheaded by the Task Force        also being made available to the information organizations
                                                                                                                                                                  on Information Professionals and carried out in partnership        that will join us at an invitational meeting in September to
                                                                                                                                                                  with the Council on Library and Information Resources.             consider the establishment of a new accreditation process
                                                                                                                                                                  We commissioned a data collection and analysis project to          for the range of master's degree programs that educate
                                                                                                                                                                  obtain background information, and two graduate students           information professionals ­ over 50 invitations have gone
                                                                                                                                                                  at the University of Washington's I-School, Samantha               out, and responses are flowing in.
                                                                                                                                                                  Becker and Bo Kinney, provided us with a fascinating                   These are significant accomplishments in three quite
                                                                                                                                                                  report describing the existence of about 900 distinct              distinct areas, but at the same time they are linked. Each
                                                                                                                                                                  information-related master's programs spread across 468            serves a role in sharpening our vision of the very broad
                                                                                                                                                                  institutions. Disciplinary domains in which these programs         field of information science and technology, and each helps
                                                                                                                                                                  are located include business, engineering, computer                in communicating that vision to the world. I
                                                                                                                                                                  science, information science, applied information
                                                                                                                                                                  science/informatics, biological and health sciences, library       Nancy K. Roderer is director of the Welch Medical Library,
                                                                                                                                                                  science, public administration, communications and                 Johns Hopkins University, and current president of the American
                                                                                                                                                                  education. Sixty percent of the programs have majors or            Society for Information Science and Technology. She can be
                                                                                                                                                                  concentrations in at least one of the following categories:        reached by email at nrodererjhmi.edu.


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