AM98 Features

ASIS 1998 Annual Conference
October 26-29, 1998
Pittsburgh Hilton and Towers
Pittsburgh, PA

As the Internet spans the globe, we are seeing a truly global economy fueled by the exchange of information and information-based products. In this new economy there is an ever-increasing and critical need to provide access to information, available to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Information science has provided many of the key elements in making this global information accessible to those who need it. The ASIS 1998 Annual meeting will examine information access and what it means in a global information economy. The topics that will be examined include:

Who will be the information producers of tomorrow? What will be the effects of the lack of quality control exercised by traditional publishers?

What are the social effects of global information access? How will the information economy develop and what is the economic value of information? Will global information access lead to a homogenization of cultures? What new forms of commerce will emerge to support information access and interchange?

What new structures for information organization and access will emerge? How can effective information retrieval methods be applied across the entire range of information resources, including video, images, sounds and multimedia objects as well as texts, in a global network environment?

How will people access and use information? How will users judge the quality, authenticity, and value of information resources? How will teaching and learning change?

Plenary Sessions

Hal R. Varian
Dean of the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley

In general, publishers---even nonprofit publishers---will want to provide different services to different classes of users. In other words: when you add a cool new feature to your digital library software, make sure you have a way to turn it off!
-Hal R. Varian

International Perspectives on Universal Service: Myths, Realties, and Madness
Charles R. McClure, Syracuse University
John C. Bertot, University at Albany, State University of New York

Herbert Simon
Carnegie Mellon University, Richard King Mellon University Professor of Computer Science and Psychology.

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
- Herbert Simon

Conference On The History and Heritage of Science Information Systems

The ASIS Special Interest Group/History and Foundations of Information Science (SIG/HFIS), and the Chemical Heritage Foundation will hold a meeting on the History and Heritage of Science Information Systems Oct. 23-25, 1998 (immediately prior to the ASIS annual meeting) in Pittsburgh, PA. This conference is made possible in part by a grant from the Eugene Garfield Foundation. This conference will explore the history and heritage of the nature, development, and influence of all types of science information systems worldwide. Science information "systems" is broadly interpreted to include not only the history of specific systems and services developed for the sciences but also the ideas, concepts, and historical context affecting their development.

Registration cost: $95.00; registration will be handled separately by the Chemical Heritage Foundation. For further information contact:

Robert V. Williams
College of Library and Info. Science
Univ. of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(803)777-2324
(803)777-7938 fax
bobwill@sc.edu e-mail
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/bobwill.htm


	© 1999, Association for Information Science Last Update:February 22, 1999