9:00am

10:30am

 9:00 am

The Frontiers of Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine
(SIG MED)

Overview

By the end of this decade cancer patients may be able to wear miniscule "smart bombs" that will find cancer cells, kill them with the help of lasers and report the kills. Diabetics may have sensors implanted that will monitor their blood sugar levels and release insulin as needed. These are just two of the developments that may be possible because of nanotechnology—the fabrication of objects and devices on a miniscule scale so that they can be used to manipulate the biomolecules that regulate life and death. In this session three pioneers in the field will discuss their research and its implications for medical care in the future.

You Will Learn About

What nanotechnology is and what its impact will be on medicine; 

Specific applications of nanotechnology, including nanodevices for drug delivery that could be used to release anything from painkillers to antibiotics into the body.

How nanotechnology will create safer and more effective ways to repair genes.

Presenters
Dr. Maruo Ferrari, Ohio State University
Nanoporous Membranes for Cell Transplants and Drug Delivery
Viola Vogel, University of Washington
Nanoscale Devices in Medicine
Dr. James Baker Jr., University of Michigan
Dedrimers for Gene Therapy and Anticancer Drug Delivery

Knowledge Management in Theory
(SIG KM)

Overview

Knowledge management is currently a "hot topic" in the corporate world, academia, and many other fields. Much of the discussion, though, concentrates solely on the practical applications of KM. In this session speakers will look instead at KM's theoretical underpinnings, exploring, expanding upon and critiquing some of the current assumptions about KM, in order to help participants gain a critical understanding of its role from social, cultural, technical, epistemological and economic perspectives.

You Will Learn About

The relation of KM to issues of identity, social agency, ethical obligation and even to everyday senses of time.

The theoretical problems of representing "intellectual content" from the aspect of the philosophy of language;

KM from the aspects of work and learning;

The relation of language and knowledge to management and information systems;

Presenters
David Blair, University of Michigan Business School
Michael Chumer , Rutgers University
Ronald E. Day, Wayne State University

Successive Searching: User Searches Histories During Information Seeking
(SIG USE)

Overview

Examining successive or related searches by users during an information seeking process can yield important clues about their search habits and assist information specialists in designing better and more effective search systems. In this session, speakers will present the latest developments in this important field of research. 

You Will Learn About

Results of a study of mediated successive searches;

Different approaches to modeling users' successive searches

The design of information retrieval systems/interfaces to support users' searches, building on search histories.

An analysis of successive searches that examines search tactics and relevance judgements over time by end-users;

Presenters
Dr. Amanda Spink, Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Pertti Vakkari, Tampere University, Finland
Anita Komlodi, University of Maryland
Shin-Jeng Lin, Rutgers University

Information Policy and Research Issues
(SIGs IFP, III)

Overview

In the new global community, information policies formulated in one country can have an impact on information professionals and users worldwide. Today, a wide array of governments and international, national, and regional institutions are involved in formulating such policies. In this session speakers will explore several case studies to provide participants with a feel for the dimensions of these policy discussions.

You Will Learn About

The results of a recent workshop held to gather input from scientists about the potential renewal in 2001 of the European Union's Database Directive on anti-piracy;

Efforts to ensure that communities disadvantaged by their income level and location are not left out of the Internet revolution.

Presenters
Michel Menou, CIDEGI. Connecting the Disconnected: Telecentres and Other Ways Toward Empowerment
John Rumble, International Committee on Data and US National Institute for Standards and Technology. The EU Database Directive: The Response of the International Scientific Community
Shelly Warwick, Queens College, City University of New York. Copyright in the Americas: A Conference Report

Moderators
James Rush, Palinet (retired)
Gail Hodge, Information International

Information Architecture
(SIG/IA)

This session will be an open discussion of some of the many issues raised by practicing information architects on the sigia-l list serve. Information Architecture (IA) is a new but increasingly recognized profession involving many of the traditional skills ASIST members possess, normally in a Web context but often with greater ramifications.  The sigia-l list has blossomed and has more rich content than some can stand. It has grown from 350 subscribers in May to over 1100 today (almost 300 subscribe to the digest version).  The list discussants include backgrounds in anthropology, interface design, architecture, English and many more disciplines, but all the discussion is related to the architecture of Information.

Topics discussed will include, but are not limited to 

• IA Education: How to break into the biz, and resources to help you get started. 
• Notation:  Towards a common notation for IA. 
• In House IA: Making IA work on internal projects. 
• Splitting Info?tainment: Separating Information and Entertainment. 
• User Experience Architecture: The convergence and inter?operability of Usability and IA.

Moderator
Adam Polansky, raremedium

 10:30 am

Teaching Knowledge Management
(SIG KM)

Overview

Knowledge management (KM) is playing an increasingly important role in business, education, health care, government, law, finance and a host of other industries. Ironically, though, information professionals are in danger of being left on the sidelines of the KM revolution, in part because of their traditional focus on a narrow range of information products and processes. In this session several well-known KM educators will discuss the importance of giving KM a prominent role in information science curriculums.

You Will Learn About

Approaches to teaching knowledge management for information professionals;

The differences between teaching knowledge management in a library information sciences program and in a business school;

Knowledge annealing, ontologies, boundary objects and communities of practice

Presenters
Dr. T. Kanti Srikantaiah, Dominican University, Illinois
Dr. Michael Koenig, Long Island University
Denham Grey, consultant
Gray Southon, Ross Todd , University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

Exploring Convergence: Digitized Multimedia Collections Among Museums, Archives and Libraries
(SIGs CR, VIS)

Overview

Traditionally, museums, libraries and archives have had very different missions and functions. Today, though, the differences among these three types of institutions are becoming less clear as they begin to address issues associated with taking care of and providing access to a growing array of digital multimedia objects that cut across the boundaries of each institution's traditional focus. In this session speakers will discuss digital multimedia objects and their impact on these institutions.

You Will Learn About

How libraries, archives and museums are dealing with the wide range of issues associated with digital multimedia, including digital object representation schemes, information organization structures, and information system design;

Issues associated with integrated intellectual access, resource discovery, finding aids and cross domain metadata as they relate to digital multimedia objects.

Presenters
Anne Gilliland-Swetland , University of California, Los Angeles
Abby Goodrum, Drexel University
Constance Mayer, Indiana University School of Music
Leah Prescott , The Museum of America and the Sea, Mystic, CN

Moderator
Caroline Beebe, North Carolina State University Libraries

User Studies and System Design: Bridging the Gap
(SIG USE)

Overview

For the past two decades research on information retrieval (IR) systems has largely been undertaken on two separate tracks: studies of IR system users and their behaviors while interacting with information systems; and research on the algorithms that constitute the means by which information systems themselves process queries and rank output. Rarely have these two tracks converged. Researchers on each track tend to stay in their own focus area and don't trade data or ideas with those on the other track. In this session speakers will discuss why it is important to break down these barriers and to encourage user- and system-centered researchers to work together to achieve a more comprehensive picture of IR performance and to avoid dangerous blind spots (e.g. ala expert systems).

You Will Learn About

Approaches to better coordinating user-based and system-based research;

Identifying methodological approaches to understanding user behavior that benefit IR system design;

Presenters
Michael Twidale, University of Illinois
Myke Gluck, Florida State University
Nick Belkin, Rutgers University
Dania Bilal, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Moderator
David Robins, Louisiana State University

Poised on the Brink: The Electronic Book

Overview

In this session speakers will examine the past, present and future of the e-book and explore the impact this new technology will have on the work of information specialists.

You Will Learn About

The development of the analog book down to its digital incarnation;

Current implementations of e-books in the academic library.

Presenters
Martin Jamison, Ohio State University
The Handheld Electronic Book In Historical Perspective
James Neal , Johns Hopkins University
Musing on the Future
Additional speaker(s) TBA