Candidate for President
 Suzie
Allard is associate professor and assistant director at the University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences. Suzie has served on the ASIST Board of Directors and on a variety of standing and ad hoc committees (e.g. membership, leadership, information science education, etc.) and has received ASIS&T’s James M. Cretsos Leadership award. She co-founded SIG-DL and has served on task forces for marketing, digital library development, and website redesign. Suzie teaches in the areas of science information and digital libraries. Her research focuses on how scientists use and communicate information, particularly within the life-cycle of electronic data. Agencies that are funding Suzie’s research include the National Science Foundation, IEEE, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Statement
I joined ASIS&T as a master’s student because it was the primary venue for the top people in the field, and it encouraged students to become involved. Now, well into my career, it is an honor to have the opportunity to give back to the Society’s members, and to reach out to the next generation of information professionals and researchers. Since completing my term on the Board last year I have contemplated our Society’s future, and have identified the following items as priorities for moving forward:
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Continuing the focus on membership development to grow the Society. This has been a priority of our past three presidents, and it is imperative that there is continuity in the strategies used to address this. Having recently been on the Board provides me with the insight to do this.
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Increasing international participation in the Society. The information environment is increasingly interconnected on a global basis and a strong international contingent will keep ASIS&T at the forefront of information research and the information professions. If elected, I will work to strengthen our international ties through members’ connections and through initiatives establishing stronger partnerships in meetings overseas.
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Focusing on our strengths as the Society for professionals in interdisciplinary work. ASIS&T membership is unique in the diverse range of disciplines we represent and serve, and how we provide a vital link in today’s dynamic information milieu. ASIS&T is well situated to be a leader in providing support for information professionals and researchers working in interdisciplinary environments and I feel this is an area that we should address.
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Facilitating greater dialog with practitioners. Practitioners engage the information environment in unique ways and we need to find how ASIS&T can best meet their needs. For example, I would continue the work ASIS&T has done on professional certification.
I want to hear from all of you and I invite you to contact me through email me or Facebook. I look forward to working with all of you and ASIS&T leadership to keep our society serving information professionals well into the future.
Candidate for President
 Linda
C. Smith, is Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1977. She holds a Ph.D. from the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University; master’s degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology (information and computer science) and the University of Illinois (library science); and a B.S. in mathematics and physics from Allegheny College. She has spent sabbatical leaves at Linköping University in Sweden and Tilburg University in the Netherlands. With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, she has worked with colleagues to enhance curricular offerings in digital libraries and data curation and to build a collaborative distance education model through initiatives of the WISE (Web-based Information Science Education) consortium. She has mentored numerous doctoral students as advisor and dissertation committee member. She received the ASIS Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award in 1987 and has served ASIS&T in many capacities since joining in 1972: SIG officer, award jury member and chair, conference program committee member and chair, student chapter advisor, member of various standing committees,
JASIS editorial board member, and ARIST bibliographic editor and advisory committee member.
Statement
The future of ASIS&T depends on recruitment, retention, and engagement of members. A special strength of ASIS&T is the openness to contributions by its newest members. In my own case, I presented my first conference paper as a doctoral student and served on my first committee (at the encouragement of Jim Cretsos) as a junior faculty member. In that spirit, the James M. Cretsos Leadership Award now acknowledges the importance of recognizing newer members for service to the organization. Retention depends on ensuring that members judge benefits of ASIS&T membership to be of continuing value over the course of their careers. In this regard the interdisciplinary character and connections among research, education, and practice are valuable attributes of ASIS&T.
If elected, my priorities would be to work with members of the Board and others in ASIS&T to:
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expand participation by more members in the volunteer opportunities provided by committees, awards juries, chapters, and
SIGs;
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encourage more members to present at conferences and contribute to publications;
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explore forms of online participation, extending the virtual SIG model to other activities such as access to continuing education opportunities;
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pursue mutually beneficial collaborations with other organizations, including internationally.
Candidate for Director at Large
 Caryn
Anderson is the Integration Research Manager for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security, operating at The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. She contributes to the emerging discipline of Integration and Implementation Sciences which focuses on developing theory and methods for cross-disciplinary research in the areas of integrating and synthesizing disciplinary and stakeholder knowledge, managing what we don’t know, and translating research into policy and practice change. Caryn was previously Doctoral Studies Program Manager at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science, where she received her master’s degree. She came to information science from public policy analysis and non-profit management.
Caryn has held many leadership roles in the American Society for Information Science & Technology. She has served as Chair of the Membership Committee, InfoShare Officer in SIG-III, Chair of the New England chapter, and Chair of the Simmons College student chapter. She’s been a member of the International Relations Committee, where she is currently working on building the Global Alliance of Information Sciences, Technologies and Services Societies. She received the Chapter Member of the Year Award in 2007 and the James M. Cretsos Leadership Award in 2006. She received special recognition from the ASIS&T President in 2005 for her work with Michel Menou in founding the International Calendar of Information Science Conferences, which today lists over 500 events annually in over 75 countries and receives 17,000 visits monthly from over 90 countries. As Chair of the Membership Committee she supervised the development of an ASIS&T information sheet and its translation into thirteen languages. She contributes regularly to the
Bulletin and in 2008 edited a special issue entitled “Information Professionals in a Globalized World” with contributed articles from Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kosovo and Nigeria.
Statement
Why ASIS&T? In recent years I’ve found it necessary to jettison memberships in a number of professional organizations. But I have maintained my allegiance to ASIS&T. Why?
I contribute to strategies for solving complex, multi-disciplinary social problems, and ASIS&T operates at the intersection of many domains. We are boundary spanners. We work across academia and practice, between librarianship and computer science, across disciplines and markets, and between the generation and the application of knowledge. ASIS&T members have a key set of skills to apply to the growing complexity of the grand challenges that face our society. I want to help us build on this strength and engage ourselves more actively with those working on these challenges. In particular, I’d like to develop an “experts database” and promote it to government and to potential partner academics working in other fields on these same problems.
ASIS&T is small. This means financial challenges, but it also enables direct and immediate access to leaders in the field and provides terrific opportunities to “stretch your legs” if you want to explore new initiatives and ideas. Within two years of joining ASIS&T, I was developing the International Calendar of Information Science Conferences, preparing information sheets in multiple languages, and planning strategies for a global alliance of “sister” societies around the world. Nobody said “No, you can’t do that.” but rather, as we say in Australia, “Give it a go.” We can use this feature to our advantage in attracting and retaining dynamic members. I also believe we can develop innovative revenue streams by tapping existing creative thinking in our members.
Tribal identity is the intangible reason why I stay with ASIS&T. In short, you are my “peeps”, my “homeys”, my family, my tribe. You are brilliant, funny, creative, friendly and not a little nerdy. Librarians who can code. Programmers who understand people. Information junkies with an obsession for efficiency. Knowledge brokers with techno-lust. I love you for this, but we have run the risk of becoming too isolated and self-referential. By expanding our alliances, we can increase the diversity of ideas and perspectives coming into the society and enrich our discourse and scientific creativity. To paraphrase the 2nd law of thermodynamics, a system needs external energy sources or it will succumb to entropy. The relationship with the information architecture community has been a great example of an infusion of new perspectives enriching our discourse. I look forward to expanding our relations with professional societies in other countries, cutting edge information enterprises and especially with the open source and open access communities.
I look forward to contributing my energy, enthusiasm, intelligence, experience and good humour to the future of ASIS&T on your behalf. Thank you.
Candidate for Director at Large
 France
Bouthillier is Associate Professor and Director of the School of Information Studies, McGill University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, her master in library and information sciences from the Université de Montréal, and graduated from the University of Quebec in Education and Business Administration.
Her teaching areas are related to the management of information services, business information, and competitive intelligence. Her recent publications and conference presentations deal with the information needs of small businesses, knowledge management, management of information services, training of information professionals and competitive intelligence. She was involved in the Program Committee of the ASIS&T Annual Meeting in 2006 as Chair of the Poster Track, is Co-Chair of the Contributed Paper Track for the 2009 Annual Meeting, and has been a reviewer for
JASIST for a number of years.
Statement
The field of information is broadening and there is a growing number of scholarly and professional associations that are competing for membership. I believe that there is a need to rethink the way ASIS&T can position itself to be the association that will attract both scholars and professionals and that will play a critical role in defining the field and its research agenda at the national and international levels. Strategies for disseminating research and for lifelong education are evolving and affect all associations including ASIS&T. I would like to contribute to the identification and implementation of new strategic directions for ASIS&T with consultation of its membership and competitive intelligence approaches. While bringing new members is crucial, encouraging their active participation is also essential to build a strong association. Therefore, examining ways for involving more members and for recognizing their contribution is also critical for the future of ASIS&T. I wish to work with the Board to address these important issues.
Candidate for Director at Large
 Prudence
Dalrymple, PhD., M.S. (Informatics) is on the faculty of the College of Information Science and Technology at Drexel University where she also directs the Institute for Healthcare Informatics, a joint venture IST of the College of Nursing and Health Professions, the College of Medicine and the School of Public Health. She received a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and most recently, a master’s degree in health sciences informatics from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has also been on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was the Director of Accreditation at the American Library Association and served as Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University.
Pru attended her first ASIS&T meeting in 1976 as a student and has been an active participant in conferences, committees and SIG FIS, chairing it in 1991-92. She served on the juries for the
JASIST Best Paper Award (1992, 2008); the ISI Dissertation Award (1994); and the Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award (2007). She has served on the Education and Research Committees, chairing the Education Committee for the past two years. She is a member of the ASIST Task Force on the Information Professional where she is a key participant in the task force’s activities
(http://www.asis.org/news.html).
Statement
I view the Association from a vantage point that sees and values its role as an essential node in a spectrum of related organizations. I believe that this view can help
ASIS&T extend its reach by articulating its vision and character to appeal to a wide audience of potential members and stakeholders.
My career as an educator has given me opportunities to see information science education from a variety of perspectives—as a faculty member, an academic administrator, an association president, an accreditation program executive, and quite recently, a post-doctoral fellow. Each of these experiences has enriched my understanding of the information professions and their unique contribution to society. Even as a graduate student in the 1970s, I recognized information science as the intellectual foundation for what we now call the information professions—and I began attending
ASIS&T meetings to meet the people who were the thought leaders in the field. This is a central role and responsibility for
ASIS&T and as a Board member; I will work to provide good stewardship of that role. Because of my commitment to education for the information professions, I will strive to advance the Association’s position as a key player in the recognition and quality assurance of educational programs that prepare the information professionals of the future. I am honored to stand for election as a Board Member at Large and I am committed to maintaining and enhancing the capacity of
ASIS&T as an organization that serves the needs of its members while contributing to society as a whole.
Candidate for Director at Large
Karen
Fisher
Statement
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