Technical Program
ASIS 95 Annual Meeting

Monday, October 9

Newcomer's Breakfast
7:00am - 8:30am

All newcomers (either new ASIS members or first time conference goers) are invited to a free Continental Breakfast and orientation program. During the program you will get acquainted with other newcomers, talk about ASIS with members, meet leaders in the field, and find out how ASIS is organized. This is an excellent way to jump right in and "Be a part of it all," so be sure to arrive by 7am.

The Life (and death?) of Print (SIG LAN, LITA)
8:45am Delivery

Projections of complete electronic access and the death of print pose clear and present dangers to our libraries. Projections of complete electronic access in the near term also pose present dangers to our libraries. But can these dangers be avoided? Is the severe problem of scientific, technical, and medical journals (and the admitted reliance of top scientific scholars on electronic means for much of their information) the first sign that print is dying? The speakers will debate this point, pulling in issues relating to print, electronic communications, economics and libraries.

Walt Crawford, Research Libraries Group
Greg Newby, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Merri Beth Lavagnino, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Moderator

A Federated Approach to Information Resource Organization: New Roles and Models for Managing Information on Campus
8:45am Access

Non-traditional learners and students as well as faculty expect information and instruction on demand--at any time and at any place. Panelists will provide case studies illustrating the variety of skills and configurations information and instructional technology can take on campus. Information technology organizations not only coordinate a host of systems, services, and technologies of tenuous compatibility, but also focus the efforts of personnel who have different education, training, and cultures. Each panelist plays a leadership role campus-wide in this changing field and directs an information science education program and faculty. Participants will outline and analyze various strategies, and the panel will discuss how various approaches can achieve similar ends.

Raymond F. Vondran, University of North Texas
Philip M. Turner, University of Alabama
Ann E. Prentice, University of Maryland
Jose-Marie Griffiths, University of Tennessee

Community Health Information Networks (SIG MED)
8:45am Delivery

The Community Health Information Network (CHIN) is a rapidly emerging development made possible by advances in electronic technology. The basic vision of a CHIN is a seamless electronic communication system that allows for the electronic exchange of clinical and financial information between hospitals, physicians, insurers and other providers, with the goal of improving healthcare quality and reducing costs. The goal of this session is to provide an understanding of what CHIN's are intended to do, how they're going to achieve their goals, and what the practical problems are.

Diane Conrath, First Consulting Group, "Overview of Community Health Information Networks (CHIN's): the variety, the potential, the reality"
Jane Grad, Ingalls Memorial Hospital, "The Chicago Community Health Information Network: The vision and the process"
J. Roger Guard, University of Cincinnati, "The Ohio Valley Community Health Information Network: a tri-state consumer health information network"
Elaine Martin, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, Moderator

Contributed Papers -- Images
8:45am Navigation

Current Applied Research in Natural Language Processing (SIG ALP)
8:45am Navigation

What opportunities and challenges do converging technologies offer for the field of automated language processing? The panel session will explore this question by describing and evaluating the integration of natural language processing facilities into systems encompassing a variety of technologies: image retrieval in multimedia databases, information extraction from free text documents, online assistance, and computer-assisted language instruction. Some presentations will focus on research findings; others, on demonstration systems and work in progress.

P. Bryan Heidorn, University of Pittsburgh, "Shape Language Processing and Visual Feedback for Image Indexing and Retrieval"
Patrick Jost, U.S. Department of the Treasury, "Multilingual Document Processing in Financial Crimes Law Enforcement"
Paul Buchheit, Harold Washington College, "A Natural Language Interface for File Management"
Noriko Nagata, University of San Francisco, "The Instructional Effectiveness of Natural Language Processing"

Technology and Policy Developments
10:30am - 12:30am

The potential of high capacity telecommunications networks, digital compression, electronic publications, dissemination technologies, encryption and voice recognition capabilities can dramatically alter traditional patterns and the very concept of information access, how we live and work. Is access to information threatened by deals between the content providers and carriers? Our industry experts on this provocative panel will address three aspects of the impact of technological developments and joint ventures on widespread access to information:

Robert Lucky, Corporate Vice President, Applied Research, Bellcore
Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center
Vinton Cerf, Vice President, MCI Corp. (invited)

Lunch Break and Committee Meetings
12:30pm - 2:00pm

Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval: Findings from the CNI White Paper
2:00pm Access

Clifford Lynch, Avra Michelson, Craig Summerhill and Cecilia Preston are collaborating on a Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) initiative to prepare a white paper that examines some of the problems associated with identifying, selecting, and retrieving information in a widely distributed heterogeneous environment. This special session will explore their findings with the members of ASIS and seek recommendations for further research.

This paper will provide a grounding of the issues currently facing the networked information community and provide recommendations for further research. Therefore, we hope to stimulate those in a position to advance research to explore new topics that can further the development of tools for networked discovery and retrieval.

For additional information on the project see the Call for Input: Coalition NIDR Initiative available from CNI at
FTP Site at CNI
Gopher Site at CNI
WWW Site at CNI

Avra Michelson, The MITRE Corporation, "Why a CNI white paper? Framing the problem"
Clifford Lynch, University of California, Office of the President, " Identifiable issues and the remaining research questions"
Craig Summerhill, Coalition for Networked Information
Cecilia Preston, Emeryville, CA, "The metadata study"

Contributed Papers: Libraries
2:00pm Delivery

End-Users' Models of Database Searching and Database Structures- Part I and II (SIG CR, SRT)
2:00pm Navigation

Technological advances and the widespread use of CD-ROM databases, OPACs and Campus Wide Information Systems (CWIS) have resulted in an explosion of "end-user searching". How effective are the end-users in their searching? Since "end-users" do not have the formal training that "intermediaries" have, it is important to study their searching behavior in order to identify patterns, styles, and especially problems. The knowledge gained from such studies can then be used to suggest methods for improving the existing systems and, therefore, make the end-user searching process less frustrating to the end-user during the interaction, as well as more efficient in terms of retrieval. The research presented in this two-part session reports on the user searching behavior of children, elementary and high school students (k-12), undergraduate and graduate university students and researchers in different end-user searching environments. Methodological issues and emerging models are discussed.

Efthimis N. Efthimiadis, University of California at Los Angeles, "End-User Understanding and Use of Knowledge Structures in Database Searching"
Raya Fidel, University of Washington, "Is Protocol Analysis Sufficient?"
Carol A. Hert, Indiana University, "User Knowledge and Uncertainty in Online Public Access Catalog Searching"
Delia Neuman, University of Maryland, "High School Students' Use of Online and CD-ROM Databases: Competing Conceptual Structures"
Paul Solomon, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "Children, an OPAC, and time marches on: How can the results of user-based research inform design and institutional policy?"
Virginia Walter, University of California, Los Angeles , "Metaphors and Mice: Designing Information Retrieval Systems for Children to Search"

Overview and Update on the NSF Digital Library Initiative (SIG LAN, VIS) Part I
2:00pm

The Digital Library Initiative (DLI) is jointly funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The four year projects, granted in the Fall of 1994, are taking place at six sites. Representatives from all six sites will talk about the scope of their projects, their progress to date and future plans.

Bruce Schatz, Research Scientist, National Center for Supercomputer Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, "Building the Interspace: Digital Library Infrastructure for a University Engineering Community"
Dr. Michael L. Mauldin , Carnegie Mellon University, "Informedia: Integrated Speech, Image, and Language Understanding for Creation and Exploration of Digital Video Libraries"
Ray R. Larson, University of California, Berkeley, "An Electronic Environmental Library Project"
Vicky Reich,Stanford University, "The Stanford Integrated Digital Libraries Project"
Karen Drabenstott or Amy Warner, University of Michigan, "The University of Michigan Digital Libraries Research Proposal"
Larry Carver , University of California at Santa Barbara, "The Alexandria Project: Towards a Distributed Digital Library with Comprehensive Services for Images and Spatially Referenced Information"
Merri Beth Lavagnino, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Moderator

SIG/Chapters Officers Workshop Publishing Styles: Practical Hints for Creating Your Own Publications
2:00pm

Do you need to create a print or electronic newsletter, report, or Mosaic home page? Topics to be covered in this tutorial session include: known principles of legibility and readability, "the rules" and when to break them, relating design to intended use and audience, and graphic appeal vs. readability. Design aspects to be discussed include typefaces, the page and the spread, publication integrity and headings, white space, consistency, and diversity. Examples of "good" and "bad" print and electronic designs will be shown and discussed. (This tutorial will not be oriented to any particular machine or software program.)

Walt Crawford is a senior analyst at The Research Libraries Group, Inc., and was president of the Library and Information Technology Association in 1992/93. He has published a dozen books and hundreds of articles and columns on various aspects of current and future libraries and technology. He is the 1995 recipient of the LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Outstanding Communication for Continuing Education in Library and Information Technology.

Case Study: Automatic Indexing of a Large Document Collection (SIG ALP)
4:00pm Navigation

West Publishing evaluated a number of automatic indexing programs and the output from a rule-based, thesaurus-driven automated indexing program was evaluated in detail. The investigator concluded that rule-based programs would be unable to produce useable output in their environment. The focus of the session will not be on the specific automatic indexing programs at West but rather on the conclusion that the results obtained point to generalized difficulties in ruled-based automatic indexing that makes it problematic when used for large document collections. Panel respondents will consider questions about problem identification, problems endemic to a class of automatic indexing strategies, workarounds; areas in which further research and development are needed; and other indexing technologies which might obviate difficulties.

Tom Curran, West Publishing Company, "Automatic Indexing Machines: The Failure of Rule-Based Programs in Large Document Environments"
Dan Dabney, West Publishing Company, respondent
Martin Dillon, OCLC, respondent
Jessica Milstead, The JELEM Company, respondent

Convergence or Divergence in Education for the Information Professions? A Dialogue Between Educators and Consumers (SIG ED)
4:00pm Access

Some educators and practitioners advocate highly differentiated academic programs, often leading to distinctive credentials (such as Master of Archival Studies or Master of Telecommunications). Others urge unification under such broadly inclusive degree programs as the generic Master of Information Studies. The latter find support for the multi-purpose curriculum in the convergence of technologies, which is breaking down barriers among specializations in the information field. Underlying this tension are such issues as striking the optimal balance between theory and application in professional curricula; the appropriate place, if any, in the curriculum for skills training in such areas as programming or bibliographic description; and whether the most important obligation of the professional school is to give its students the practical skills needed for their first, entry-level jobs or to provide a theoretical base for lifelong career development. This program will offer a lively dialogue between educators and practitioners holding different points of view on these fundamental issues of curriculum design.

Miriam A. Drake, Georgia Institute of Technology
Timothy L. Ericson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Thomas J. Galvin, University at Albany--SUNY
F. William Summers, Florida State University
James G. Williams, University of Pittsburgh
Samantha Hastings, University of North Texas, Moderator

Career Outlook for New Information Professionals (FID, Career Development Committee)
4:00pm

The International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID) is creating links between new information professionals (those anticipating or entering any branch of information work) and opportunities in the present and future. Panelists will discuss results of an international baseline survey on the Modern Information Professional (MIP) sponsored by FID, and ways information workers may prepare for challenges of the market.

Bed G. Goedegebuure, FID, "A Global Role in Reaching Out to New Information Professionals"
Molly Wolfe Hayes, Knowledgeware Systems, "The Modern Information Professional: Report on an International Survey"
Anthony Debons, University of Pittsburgh, "Future Implications of the FID Survey and Global Role for New Information professionals"
Jian Qin, Wuhan University (China), "International Cooperation of New Professionals: A Personal View."
Adeyemi Adekoya, Virginia State University, "New Roles for Information Scientists in the International Business Environment
Marta Dosa, Syracuse University, Moderator

End-Users' Models of Database Searching and Database Structures - Part II (SIG CR, SRT)
4:00pm

Overview and Update on the NSF Digital Library Initiative (SIG LAN, VIS) Part II
4:00pm


Alumni Reception
7:00pm

Academic institutions share the sponsorship of this informal opportunity to renew relationships with faculty, colleagues, classmates, staff and others.


Tuesday, October 10

Content and Conduits: Is There a Public Interest in Competition?
8:30am - 9:30am

Exciting but controversial partnerships, particularly among media magnates, have dominated the airwaves, the net bandwidth, and even the printed page. Policy makers are re-thinking what might previously have been considered unfair advantage in the communications marketplace. Current ideas about privacy, entertainment and personal security are fast being challenged. New technologies are creating tremendous opportunities for enhanced information transport and interpersonal communication capabilities. Will vertical integration and intercorporate alliances create efficiencies that stimulate these developments? Or will they retard competition, consequently raising costs and lowering innovation and quality? What role should public policy play in promoting competition? Will the increasing convergence of technologies ensure competition regardless of the choices made by business and government decision makers?

Michael Katz, Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission, is on detail from the University of California at Berkeley, where he is Professor of Economics and Business.

Advanced Tools for the Navigation and Use of Information Across the Internet (SIG CR, HCI, ALP)
9:45am Navigation

This session will focus on current and future tools for the access and use of information over the internet. What do users need in order to help them navigate the internet, retrieve and use needed information? The speakers will present an outline of tools to support those needs, based on specifications implementing such a tool set. Details provided on specific approaches available to help meet these needs will include: a) a description of the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) technology in terms of its history, indexing/ relevance ranking, and natural language processing capabilities, and its potential to approach natural language processing capabilities; b) a discussion of the issues associated with using the World Wide Web to search various types of collections (a prototype system will be presented that organizes WWW pointers to reference tool like WWW documents); c) an overview of the process and challenges of designing search tools for the Internet.

Philip J. Smith, The Ohio State University, "Functional Specifications for an Advanced Toolset for the Access and Use of Information"
George H. Brett II, Center for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval, "Internet Tools and Natural Language Processing: Current State of the Art"
Maurice Leatherbury, University of North Texas, "Using WWW Browsers for Information Exploration"
Robert France, Virginia Tech, "Designing Navigation Tools for the Internet"
Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Catholic University of America, Moderator

Establishing Common Ground: Technologically Focused Relationships in Context (SIG CRS)
9:45am Access

Technological advances linking previously disparate activities are forcing cooperative efforts in every sphere. This panel will present three relationships resulting from the convergence of technology. First, image modeling experiments could yield maps to future technological links and highlights the relationship between converging and emerging technologies. Second, the combination of different technologies requires team management; how does this affect the developing technology and management; who will drive, the technology or the team? Third, territories must be surrendered to the necessity of integrating multiple technologies into the classroom and the administration, is delivery still limited by territorial imperatives?

Teresa O. Grose, University of North Texas
Deborah Barnes, University of North Texas
Melanie J. Norton, University of Southern Mississippi
Vivian Hay, California Institute of Technology, Moderator

Partnerships Between Academic and Business Worlds: What Works (SIG ED, BSS)
9:45am Delivery

This forum will look at partnerships between academic and business worlds from an internal perspective (within Academe) and across academe and business. The "What works" approach will include discussion of types of relationships, expectations, administrative attitudes, fiscal arrangements, and results.

Bill Snyder, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, "Getting and Keeping Business Partnerships"
Jose-Marie Griffiths, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, "Schools and Partnerships: The Winning Combination"
Raya Fidel, University of Washington, "Finding the Right Combination of Business Interests and Academic Programs"

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Computer Interaction: Present and Future (SIG HCI)
9:45am Navigation

This session aims to stimulate discussion on interdisciplinary research and its contribution to our understanding of human computer interaction. Its time for us to reflect on the types of interdisciplinary research that have been conducted, assess the progress we have made, and identify directions for future HCI research. Four established researchers who have conducted interdisciplinary research will share their experiences. The panel will present perspectives from information science, cognitive psychology, and communication. Dr. Ingwersen will present a response to the first three speakers. The speakers will describe how theories and models in a particular field have been applied to the study of HCI, the challenges in conducting the type of research they did, and explore new directions of human computer interaction research.

Tefko Saracevic, Rutgers University
Gary Marchionini, University of Maryland
Michael Nilan, Syracuse University
Peter Ingwersen, Royal School of Librarianship, Denmark

Contributed Papers: Indexing
9:45am Navigation

Lunch Break and Committee Meetings
11:45am - 1:00pm

NISO Standards Session
1:00pm

Mark Needleman, University of California
Pat Harris, National Information Standards Organization

Scientific Collaboratories : Technological and Sociological Issues - Part 1 (SIG STI)
1:00pm Access

To build systems which support sharing of scientific resources on a large scale, it is necessary to combine the interests of the scientific community with those of computer scientists, information specialists and engineers. The word collaboratory (a blend of the words collaboration and laboratory) has been used to describe emerging information systems which interconnect scientists, data, and other resources to each other. This session, which is planned as a double session, proposes to discuss the scientific, technical and sociological aspects of Collaboratories. In this first session, three specific projects which provide access to diverse and distributed data will be described.

Bruce Schatz, University of Illinois, "The Worm Community System"
Roberta Rand, National Agricultural Library, USDA, "A Joint Venture with the Government and Commercial Sector: The Global Change Data and Information System: Assisted Search for Knowledge (GCDIS-ASK)"
Kerryn Brandt, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Welch Medical Library, "Distributed Data Access in the Human Genome Project: The Genome Data Base and a Federation of Biological Databases"
Katherine W. McCain, Drexel university, Moderator

Re-Inventing Information Services -- Linking IS to Business Strategies (I) (FID)
1:00pm Delivery

Many Information Services departments (ISs) are being eliminated or dismembered while others are strengthened and their activities expanded. Information managers who were successful in shifting the orbit of IS in their organization will discuss the issues involved and share their experiences. What steps have ISs taken to be active participants in the change process? What kind of working relationships must be developed? What kind of partnering is taking place in the new corporate environment?

Kristin Oberst, 3M Corporation, "Revitalizing Information Services to Better Meet Client Initiatives"
Bibi Patel, Bell-Northern Research, Ltd., "Synchronicity Re- Visited: BNR's Next Generation of Information Services"
Corinne Campbell, The Boeing Company, "Product strategies for information services"
Zdravka Pejova, International Center for Public Enterprises in Developing Countries (ICPE), "Information management problems and challenges in transitional economies"
Irene Farkas-Conn, Arthur L. Conn & Associates; Irmgard Fischli, Moderators

Advanced Information Retrieval Systems: System Design and Significance of Interfaces (SIG HCI)
1:00 pm Navigation

This session aims to present sophisticated information retrieval systems and examine the significance of their interfaces for exploration and retrieval of various types of data. Ron Larson will describe an online catalog that uses probabilistic retrieval and graphic user interface. Robert France will present the interfaces of MARIAN which uses weighted retrieval and ENVISION which uses graphs and clusters to report retrieval results. Sam Oh will introduce a system that allows users to search information by empirical variables and their associated statistical values. William Mischo will present an NSF Digital Library project and the interfaces they design for full-text and graphic databases. Bob Korfhage will introduce an array-based display and a vector-based interfaces to discuss how visual interfaces can enhance information exploration and retrieval.

Ray Larson, UC Berkeley, "Cheshire II: The Next-generation Online Catalog"
Robert France, Virginia Tech, "MARIAN and ENVISION: Graphic Interfaces for Weighted Retrieval"
Sam Oh, U. of Washington, "Graphic Interface for an Empirical Fact Retrieval System"
William Mischo, U. of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, "Full-text Retrieval at Digital Library"
Robert Korfhage, U. of Pittsburgh, "Visualizing the Relationships Among Documents"
Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Catholic University of America, Moderator

Contributed Papers: Information Needs of End Users
1:00pm Navigation

Re-Inventing Information Services -- Linking IS to Business Strategies (II) (FID)
3:00pm Navigation

Partnerships in navigation and interfaces affect information services deeply. How can ISs best interface with outside organizations and with information technologies? As standalone information utilities are being replaced with interconnected sources a new work environment must be established. What are the major technical, management and political challenges? How can we measure the success of the implementation?

Irmgard Fischli, Sandoz Pharma, "Outsourcing--a New Management Tool or Just a Trend?"
David Anderson, Abbott Laboratories, "Integration of Internet Information into the Corporation"
Sandra Tice, MIP Corp, "Management Information Warehouse Client-Server Environment"
Irene Farkas-Conn, Arthur L. Conn & Associates; Irmgard Fischli, Moderators

Scientific Collaboratories : Technological and Sociological Issues - Part II (STI)
3:00pm Access

In the second session on Collaboratories, a panel of social scientists who have studied the creation of Collaboratories will address the process of collaboration itself and the issues which arise when people from different research communities come together to attack a problem.

S. Leigh Star, University of Illinois, and Karen Ruhleder, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, "Work and Infrastructure: Pragmatic and Theoretical Issues in Information Modelling"
Judy Weedman, University of Illinois, "Incentive Structures and Multidisciplinary Research: The Sequoia 2000 Project"
Natalie Schoch, University of Maryland ,Moderator

Systems for Information Exploration and Retrieval: Demonstration of Research Prototypes (SIG HCI) 3:00pm Navigation

Nine information system prototypes with advanced retrieval methods and interfaces will be demonstrated at this session. Prototypes include online catalogs, databases, Web pages, and interfaces for Internet resources. Design and testing of these products are covered in separate sessions ("Advanced Information Retrieval Systems: System Designs and Significance of Interfaces").

Ray Larson, UC Berkeley, Cheshire II
Robert France, Virginia Tech, MARIAN and ENVISION
Sam Oh, U. of Washington, An Empirical Fact Retrieval System
William Mischo, U. of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Interfaces for full-text (+ graphics) databases on the Internet
Robert Korfhage, U. of Pittsburgh, GUIDO, BIRD, VIBE
Maurice Leatherbury, U. of North Texas, WWW for a reference collection

Classification and Technology: New Roles for Maps of Knowledge (SIG CR)
3:00pm Navigation

This session addresses new roles for classificatory techniques and classification systems in the age of converging technologies. As we learn to use classification as an electronic technique, we become increasingly aware of the potential power of classification in creating and communicating information and in expediting its efficient transfer and retrieval. This session views these new capacities of classification from three perspectives: 1) as a research technique in our pursuit of information about information, its processing, management, and application; 2) combined with verbal access to create sophisticated, flexible, structured analytic systems for all media; and 3) re-engineered for the new technologies to revitalize them for expanded roles in information analysis, organization, and retrieval.

Barbara Kwasnik, Syracuse University, "Classification as an Information Research Technology"
Pauline Cochrane, Univ. of Illinois, "Convergence in Access Vocabularies for Information Retrieval: Thesauri and Classification Systems Combine"
Nancy Williamson, Univ. of Toronto, "Traditional Classification Systems and Their Role in Converging Technologies"
Clare Beghtol, Univ. of Toronto, Moderator

Accessing the Internet: Chaos or Complexity (SIG CR)
3:00pm Access/Navigation

Increased use of electronic information via the Internet has generated unexpected challenges. Current methods for accessing these resources make little use of principles of information organization and retrieval, relying instead on informal and ad hoc approaches. This presents problems in terms of the volume of information retrieved and with respect to the precision with which those materials meet user needs. This panel discussion focuses on the results of several research projects undertaken to organize Internet resources.

Martin Dillon, OCLC, "Building a Catalog of Internet Resources"
Lynn Silipigni Connaway, University of Missouri - Columbia, and Danny P. Wallace, Louisiana State University, "Organized Access to Engineering Internet Resources Using Indexing Principles"
Timothy B. Patrick, University of Missouri - Columbia, "From Subject Heading to Server Class Identifier to Network Address: Organizing Internet Access to Biomedical Information Sources"
Peter R. Young, U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, "Internet Resource Access and Retrieval: In Search of the New Digital Library Paradigm"
Philip J. Smith, Ohio State University, Moderator


ASIS Annual Business Meeting
5:00pm - 6:30pm

Presiding: James E. Rush, ASIS President

All ASIS members are encouraged to attend. All motions to be presented to the membership at the Annual Business Meeting must be in writing and be presented to the ASIS President or Executive Director before or during the meeting. The name of the individual seconding a motion must be stipulated and recorded by the presiding officer.

Agenda:

  • Reports by Officers of the Society
  • Inaugural Address by Clifford Lynch, 1996 ASIS President
  • Open forum for the membership -at-large

Converging Universes:Forging Users into Relevant Submission (SIG CON)
8:00pm

Wednesday, October 11

Plenary Session: The Trouble with Groupware
8:45am Navigation

This presentation will discuss, particularly from an information science point of view, some of the benefits and problems with groupware. One of the principal benefits of groupware is that it enables the members of a group to electronically create, distribute, and manage information for other members of the group. Most groupware products allow individuals with no information science background to create information systems. This leads to many problems, some of which will be discussed and illustrated.

Where there are problems, there are also opportunities; and groupware provides some opportunities for information science professionals. The proliferation of groupware provides a need for cross-discipline information science education. In addition, compared to many professionally- managed information systems, most groupware products are very immature and would greatly benefit from the experience and knowledge of information scientists.

Len Kawell has been designing and developing what is now called groupware for the last 19 years. He received his B.S. in Computer Science at University of Illinois where he worked on the Plato project. Len designed and developed VMS Mail and the original versions of VAX Notes at Digital Equipment. Len has been working on the design and implementation of Lotus Notes for the last 10 years at Iris, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of IBM Corp, where he is the founder and Vice President.

Doctoral Forum
10:30am

Participants from the ISI Doctoral Dissertation Scholarship and Doctoral Forum competitions will present and discuss their research.

Barbara Kwasnik, Syracuse University, Moderator

Global Networks & Transborder Information Exchange (FID & SIG III)
10:30am Access

This session will review legal, trade, tariff and other barriers to scientific enhancement and business development in the context of transborder information interchanges. The session features corporate and public sector speakers with both national and international credentials. They will discuss the increasing interdependence of the scientific community in addressing emerging intellectual, legal, trade and tariff barriers to efficiently and cost effectively interchanging information transglobally.

Margarita Almada de Ascensio, VP of FID (Mexico)
Mike Nelson, Executive Office of the President (U.S.)
Carol Collins, CARICOM Secretariat (Guyana)
Patricia Harris, National Information Standards Organization (NISO) (U.S.)
Frank Mellis, GII Staff, AT&T Europe (The Netherlands)
Rahman Khan, National Technical Information Service, Moderator

International Information Sector R&D Initiatives (FID & SIG III)
10:30am Access

This session will review selected information sector ongoing and planned R&D programs and projects, worldwide, with an emphasis on current political, economic and social impacts on such initiatives. Speakers will address specific problems and barriers being encountered within their respective geographic domains, including governmental, legal, technical, administrative, policy and other areas. Opportunities for multi-donor and multi- sponsor R&D initiatives will be identified, with special emphasis on North American institutional participation.

Brian Perry, R&D Dept., British Library (UK)
Martha Stone, IDRC (Canada)
Maury Brown, Agency for International Development
Anna Maria Prat Trabal, Council for Scientific and Technical Information, (Chile)
Kaoru Yonetani, Corporate Planning and Research Center, SUMIKA Technical Information Service (Japan)
Michel Menou, CIDEGI (France), Moderator

Innovative Electronic Information Pricing: Seeking a Win-Win-Win Model for Users, Vendors, and Providers (SIG LAN)
10:30am Delivery

This session will discuss how information providers are (or are not) working to redesign current pricing models for electronic distribution. Vendors will explain how they make pricing more flexible for users in both large and small organizations and still make their bottom line. Attendees will become more savvy about how providers make pricing decisions and how users can influence decisions so that both sides are winners in negotiations for information redistribution, multiple usage, just-in-time database searching, real-time news feeds, pre-filtered information.

Steve Brand, Lotus Development Corp.
Jackie Stepek, Knight Ridder Information, Inc.
Josie Ottman, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Kris Liberman, Lotus Development Corp., Moderator

Contributed Papers: IR Research
10:30am Navigation

Lunch Break and Committee Meetings
Noon - 2:00

"Help Desk" Software: Usage and Avoidance in Libraries and Information Centers (SIG PC)
2:00pm Navigation

"Help Desk" software has made supporting technical problems for companies considerably easier. Why haven't more libraries/information centers/resource centers made use of this technology. In this session presenters will speak about why (or why not) they utilize this software.

Corinne Jorgensen, University of Buffalo, "HyperRef" Software; a standalone application designed to answer questions at the reference desk.
Peter Jorgensen, University of Buffalo, Call tracking software for help desks developed at Colgate
Kathleen Dykstra, North Carolina State University Libraries, "InControl" and "CustomerQ" software designed to work with technical support and help desk operations.
Tom Kinney, Amigos Bibliographic Council, "Help Desk"
Richard M. Page, University of Pittsburgh, Moderator

Electronic Resources in Support of Scientific and Technical R & D (SIG STI)
2:00pm Access

It has long been recognized in the sciences that rapid and convenient access to current information is crucial for successful R&D. Recent advances in computer technologies have resulted in better and less expensive tools for storing, accessing and manipulating data and information. Using new technologies, scientific publications can contain or provide pointers to information routinely used by scientists (e.g., graphics, satellite images, large data sets, computer simulations) and allow data to be manipulated. Much of this information has been formerly sacrificed because of the constraints of the printed page. This session will present and discuss three innovative projects that are currently providing electronic information to scientists.

Keith L. Seitter, American Meteorological Society, "An all-electronic, peer-reviewed, scientific journal published as a collaboration of five societies and delivered via the Internet"
William B.F. Ryan and Benno Blumenthal, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, "WWW Data Libraries Serving Oceanographers and Climate Modelers: Design, Implementation, Demonstration and User Feedback"
Ann Bishop, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, "Evaluating User Needs for a Digital Library for Engineers"
Natalie Schoch, University of Maryland, Moderator

Global Information Infrastructures - Chaos or Coordination? (FID & SIG III)
2:00pm Delivery

This session will review international efforts to put in place global information infrastructures. Speakers will address efforts on all six continents to develop key regional national and global information superhighways, and discuss both the risks and opportunities already being confronted or anticipated. A special report will be made on the U.S. NII efforts to date, including the work of the Vice President's National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council. Another special report on the status of the so-called "Tokyo Resolution" or "Global Information Alliance" of international NGOs will also be presented."

Ben Goedegebuure, Executive Director of FID (The Netherlands) Margarita Almada de Acensio, VP of FID (Mexico)
Michael Middleton, Queensland University of Technology
Carol Collins, CARICOM Secretariat, (Guyana)
Karl Kalseth, FID Councillor (Norway)
Wendy White, National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Brian Perry, British Library, Moderator

Contributed Papers -- Bibliometrics
2:00pm Navigation

Contributed Papers: Information Technology
4:00pm Access

Partnerships Through Global Multimedia Networking (FID)
4:00pm Delivery

Based on historical insights and worldwide experience, the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID) is facilitating the formation of electronic and traditional networks in numerous domains of information transfer. The use of multimedia is deemed especially applicable to international cooperation where different cultures and ways of visual perception are at work. Panelists report on research and experience of recent projects and discuss future directions of FID.

Ritva Launo, FID President, ALKO, Finland
Ann P. Bishop, University of Illinois
Joseph Squier, University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
Makiko Miwa, Epoch Research Corporation, Japan
Marta Dosa, Moderator

Contributed Papers: Information Seeking
4:00pm Navigation

Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere: Health Information in the Fourth Dimension (SIG MED)
4:00pm Access

For many areas of the nation, adequate access to a reliable source of biomedical information does not exist. With advances in telecommunications technology comes the ability to offer services, such as continuing education and patient consultations over distance. It enables the exchange of biomedical information previously unavailable in remote areas of the country. Medical consumers also benefit from this boon in technology which results in better informed practitioners who are able to offer state of the art care and a readily accessible method of getting second opinions.

The presenters will discuss: the current state of biomedical information access in rural America; Opportunities that distance learning will provide to the practitioner as well as the consumer; Patient health information and the leading-edge technology utilizing the full range of a multimedia environment to provide an individuals healthcare data; and the virtual hospital.

E. Sonny Butler, University of North Texas, "The Virtual Health Care Record"
Sharon Jenkins, University of North Texas, "Rural Health Information Systems "
Tim Stettheimer, Childrens Hospital, "The Virtual Hospital"
Lyle Vance, Irving Public Library, "Rural and Home Health Care"
Sharon D. Jenkins, University of North Texas, Moderator


Annual Reception & Awards Banquet
6:30 pm

Visit with friends--old and new-- at this gala reception. Then celebrate the major accomplishments in the field of information science as ASIS bestows its prestigious annual awards at the banquet. (Note: One ticket to the banquet is included with a full conference registration fee; tickets may be purchased at the registration desk.)


Thursday, October 12

Internet Interfaces to Harness Health Sciences Sources (SIG MED)
8:30am Delivery

This session will focus on tools under development to provide efficient access to important health sciences resources on the Internet. On the one hand the burgeoning number, variety and uneven quality of Internet accessible resources daunt many users. On the other hand Internet has become the desirable universally available route through which to provide access to as many useful resources as possible. The three projects address both concerns.

Jim Fullton, Clearinghouse for Networked Info. Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR), "Sourcer and Apprentice:Tools for a Mosaic-based Information Sources Map"
James Shedlock, Northwestern University, "A multi-institutional cooperative effort to provide efficient Internet access to evaluated health sciences sources"
William Hersh, Oregon Health Sciences University, "Issues in Adapting the World Wide Web for Clinicians"
Nina Dougherty, University of Utah, Moderator

Virtual Information Maps (SIG STI)
8:30am Navigation

While access (information retrieval) tools are widely available, browsing (navigation) tools are still in their infancy. Several efforts underway combine principles from information retrieval scientometrics, and interface design to create two-dimensional maps of the concepts in a document or database of documents. The maps display the spatial relationships between concepts and allow the user to navigate between the map and the database contents. These tools work on large numbers of documents and typically use words to generate layouts of relatedness on a computer screen. It is also possible to simultaneously examine a word used in several databases and analyze concepts.

The potential for such tools is not only to quickly summarize concepts in document collections and allow the user to navigate in them but also to add a time element to these analyses and a new dimension to bibliometric and scientometric investigations. This session brings together the authors of the three most developed tools to describe the characteristics of their information maps and provide demonstrations.

Robert Korfhage, University of Pittsburgh, "VIBE, A Visual Information Browsing Environment"
Matthew Chalmers, Union Bank of Switzerland, "BEAD: An Information Visualization System"
Xavier Polanco, SDOC: Mapping Knowledge for Infometric Means
Albert Tabah, Moderator

Distance Education for Information Science (SIG ED) 8:30am Access

Distance education, using technologies including video teleconferencing, electronic mail, and digital libraries with remote online access, is becoming an important part of education in many fields. This session will examine distance education for Information Science and how it is being implemented in an number of universities. Discussion will include examination of the changes in educational philosophy, pedagogical methods, and problems of administration, as well as descriptions of current and future support technologies for distance education.

Stuart Sutton, San Jose State University
Charlie Hurt, University of Arizona
Dan Barron, University of South Carolina
Ray R. Larson, University of California, Berkeley, Moderator

Intelligent Information Filtering: Oxymoron or Off-the-Shelf? (SIG LAN, MGT)
8:30am Navigation

Along with new information products, many new information systems and services have arisen that promise to tame the firehose of uncontrolled information. Some systems employ sophisticated retrieval algorithms to achieve a tight fit with user profiles while others cast a broad net with simple Boolean queries. This panel session will look at the theory and practice of information filtering. The theoretical questions to be discussed include what do we know from research in information retrieval, what are the likely avenues for systems development, what are the trade-offs between traditional approaches (e.g., online searching, SDI services) and newer developments (e.g., intelligent agents, user profiles running on local systems), how automated systems compare with human collaborative filtering, Boolean retrieval engines vs. probabalistic engines in filtering systems, etc. The underlying question is whether these systems eliminate the need for human intermediaries to scan and filter information for other users.

Kate Ehrlich, Lotus Development Corp., "Active Collaborative Filtering"
Steve Gant, UNC-Chapel Hill, "Results of a Research Project Investigating User Behaviors with an Internet Filtering System"
Janet Reed, Bank of America Illinois.
Janet Vratny, Apple Computer (tentative)
Walter Stine, Lotus Development Corp., Moderator

Contributed Papers: Communication Technology
10:30am Delivery

Contributed Papers: System Design
10:30am Navigation

Theories of Information Science (SIG FIS)
10:30am

There are intermittent complaints that Information Science lacks theory. The purpose of this session is to provide a forum and showcase for theoretical work within Information Science. Three theoretical papers will be presented: on composition studies and information science; on exactness in speech, writing and computing; and on the inherent deficiencies of a cognitive approach to IR.

Birger Hjorland, Royal School of Librarianship, Denmark
Julian Warner, Queens University, Northern Ireland
Soren Brier, Royal School of Librarianship, Denmark

Converging Technologies: The Mexican Experience
10:30am

This panel of leading information specialists from Mexico will discuss their experiences related to the convergence of information technologies in Mexico and Latin America. The panel will specifically discuss the social, professional and political changes brought by the convergence of new technologies to the demand for information and information specialists in Mexico.

Margarita Almada de Ascencio, University Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, "A General Panorama of the Evolution, Application and Future of Information Technology in Mexico After NAFTA"
Julio Zetter Leal, University Nacional Autonoma de Mexico - CICH, "Mexican Information Policies: Government Incentives in Relation to Information Technologies"
Rosalba Cruz-Ramos, University Nacional Autonoma de Mexico - CICH, "Converging Technologies for Education and Training Information Specialists in Mexico "
Frederico Turnbull Munoz, Asesores Especializados, "The Impact of Access to Worldwide Information Services on the Mexican End-User"
Tefko Saracevic, Rutgers University, Moderator


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