Sparking Synergies in Charlotte: The Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050610653887 |
| Published date | 01 January 2006 |
| Pages | 4-5 |
| Author | Penny O’Connor |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Sparking Synergies in Charlotte:
The Annual Meeting of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology
Penny O'Connor
4LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 1 2006, pp. 4-5, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050610653887
The Annual Meeting of the
American Society for Information
Science and Technology (ASIST) titled
``Sparking synergies in Charlotte'' was
held October 29-November 2, 2005,
Charlotte, NC. The theme of the
conference was ``Sparking synergies,
bringing research and practice
together.'' The plenary speakers are two
true innovators whose daring ideas have
become real products. Matthew Szulik
is chairman, CEO, and president of Red
Hat, a company which makes money by
giving away its open-source product.
Pattie Maes demonstrated the work of
the Media Lab Ambient Intelligence
Research Group, at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ambient intelligence envisions a world
where people are surrounded by
intelligent and intuitive interfaces
embedded in the everyday objects
around them. These interfaces
recognize and respond in a personalized
and relevant way (see http://interact.
media.mit.edu/research.html). Maes
has a vision that ambient intelligence
can dramatically improve our lives.
Bluetooth devices available now are
capable of exchanging huge amounts of
personal data and preferences. This
information would allow a customized
world, the Amazon environment in
three dimensions. On the other hand,
many in the audience felt that the toll on
privacy is too high.
For the first time this year, ASIST
set up its own blogs and wikis so that
conference participants could share
ideas and pictures. In fact collaboration
of all types was an unstated but
pervasive theme of the conference. The
Leadership Development Program, a
first-day free educational offering for
conference-goers, revolved around
ways for groups to keep on the same
page and work together productively
and effectively. Anita Coleman, of the
University of Arizona, Tucson, showed
in this and in other sessions how social
software such as blogs and wikis can be
used for practical purposes in by
organizations, research groups and
mentors. Yin Zhang of Kent State
University used the practical example
of the International Information Issues
Special Interest Group (SIG III). The
group's projects include an
international paper competition with
support for winners to attend the annual
meeting, sponsorship of multiple
conference sessions, and a Global
Information Village Plaza at the annual
conference. A team spread across the
globe puts all of this together. Both
presentations are available at DLIST,
the open-access Digital Library for
Information Science and Technology
(see http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/956/ and
http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/961/).
Continuing in the collaboration vein,
Deborah Swain of North Carolina
Central University moderated the panel
``Collaboration in digital libraries.''
Panelist Sue Cody related the
experience of forging a digital library of
learning objects for undergraduate
science education for the National
Science Digital Library (www.ndsl.
org). The project involved librarians,
science faculty, student programmers
and catalogers. To bring the project
together, the skills and cultures of all
groups had to harmonize. Librarians
brought precision, knowledge of
bibliographic standards and metadata.
Cody found that the librarians needed to
be more willing to experiment. Faculty
brought their course materials and
expertise. While librarians have a
culture of sharing, faculty tended to
have a more individualized and
competitive culture. On the same panel,
Anita Coleman described the use of
collaboration tools in the building of the
Geotechnical, Rock and Water
Resources Library at www.grow.
arizona.edu/ A Wiki, social software
which allows all users to edit while
tracking versions of a document,
provided the framework for project
management.
Two panel sessions and a poster
reported research on virtual reference.
Joanne Silverstein of Syracuse
University and Virginia Walter of
UCLA focused on use of virtual
reference by children and teens.
Silverstein's study examined the role
virtual reference plays in children's
self-directed learning in contrast to
imposed questions such as class
assignments. Silverstein looked at
questions for which users picked ``just
curious'' as their reason for using an
online chat reference service. This
category accounted for 32 percent in
elementary grades, 52 percent in middle
school to 20 percent at high school
level. The content of the questions
revealed a different focus in each age
group. Middle-schoolers showed the
most interest in career planning.
Silverstein noted that a number of
questions asked for personal health
information or emotional support. This
raises the idea of linking to counselors
or support organizations. Virginia
Walter presented work soon to appear
in Library Trends under the title ``Teens
are from Neptune, librarians are from
Pluto.'' Her study of virtual reference
transcripts revealed a real disconnect
between teens and librarians during
these transactions. Teens seem to need
more direction and more personal
interaction to make use of the
information presented. Walter would
like virtual reference services to adopt
standards of young adult librarianship,
based on developmental needs of
adolescents. Although many users are
teens, most virtual reference librarians
do not see themselves as young adult
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