Michael leach 2006 ASIS&T President Director, Physics Research Library, Harvard University Head of Collection Development, Cabot Science Library, Harvard University leachcat>physics.harard.edu; mrleach<at>fas.harvard.edu

etails, details, details. There are so many details to manag- D ing and leading an effective organization, whether it is a library, a professional society, an academic department or even a Cub Scout Pack (I have experience in all four). An old clicht states, “The devil is in the details.” I don’t believe that - rather, “gold is in the details.” Let me explain with a few examples.

On November 30, each ASIS&T member received an email from Dick Hill, executive director, informing him or her about the new Web-enabled membership database. You were asked to visit the new ASIS&T website (I hope you have seen this new site by now), log in and update your member profile, especially two sections - the Web viewable section and the areas of expertise. Alas, as I’m writing this (on the winter sol- stice), few of you have completed this task.

Now, I know we are all busy, but we (I and your fellow ASIS&T colleagues) need you to fill in these two sections of the membership database. The Board of Directors decided not to make any membership information Web-viewable that was not chosen by the individual member. We could have gone the other route - making your directory information viewable and then making you “privatize” this information after-the-fact. Instead, we are relying on you to choose which information to make available to your fellow ASIS&T mem- bers (remember - only members who are logged in can view the Web-enabled information; none of the membership data is publicly viewable).

Secondly, with this new membership database, we will soon be able to “mine” the information for a variety of pur- poses. Chapter and SIG program planners could look for expert presenters on a given topic for an upcoming event. Standing committee chairs could locate expertise in a given field for fulfilling a committee charge. And your Board of Directors and president (that’s me) frequently need advice on various topics, challenges and issues - this database will be one source to tap into for such advice (although, not the only one).

Finally, if you change jobs, phone numbers or even email addresses, you are now able to enter this updated contact infor- mation into the membership database yourself, ensuring timely, accurate information. All of us benefit, including you. So, the gold is really in the details - the details you provide in the membership database.

There is another area where our details could be mined - reporting on our events and programs, especially at the chap- ter level. You and your ASIS&T colleagues spend a great deal of time creating and delivering top-notch programs each year. We hear about these programs through the various electronic discussion lists and the respective chapter websites, but once the events have occurred, there is frequently silence.

Some chapters do a good job of capturing their events - through such means as newsletters, blogs or photographs. We - not the royal “we,” but, rather, your national leaders, such as the Board of Directors - would like to see more of this con- tent mirrored on the ASIS&T website, especially now that we have a prominent news section on the front page. Let col- leagues know what a great event you had. Send along some pictures and a brief write-up to ASIS&T headquarters. Send out your “captured event” information (even if it is just a URL to a website or blog) to Chapter-1, ASIS-I and other relevant lists. For those folks who couldn’t attend, let them know what they missed! And for those who did attend, let your public- ity cement the memories. “Mine” more gold.

My final example focuses on personal news. The ASIS&T Bulletin has a section for members to announce awards received, appointments to prominent boardskommittees, sig- nificant new publications and recent job changes. Our new website also has this capability to publicize personal news. However, both these forums rely on you to provide the content - to provide the gold. Now, I know that this can be a difficult action for many of us, because if we do follow through and pass this news along, it appears as if we are arrogant, perhaps conceited, or just full of ourselves - a state of being that many (but not all) of us would avoid.

However, I would like you to think of this action in a dif- ferent light - akin to updating your email address or provid- ing a new phone number in the membership database. These nuggets of information - your recent award, a job transfer, a new publication - are pieces of information that can be used by your colleagues to enhance programs, conduct business and support research, among other activities. For example, publishing a book is another way of announcing your expert- ise in a given topicldiscipline. An ASIS&T colleague, who

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Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology-FebruorylMarch 2006

Irene 1. Travis, Editor Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Bulletin @ asis.org

n this issue’s Inside ASISaT, you’ll find photo coverage I of the 2005 Annual Meeting and full coverage of the pres- tigious ASIS&T annual awards. Meeting coverage is further supported by feature articles on the two plenary sessions. In the first plenary Matthew Szulik, founder of Red Hat, dis- cusses the philosophy and progress of the open source move- ment, while the second plenary speaker, Pattie Maes of the MIT Media Laboratory’s Ambient Intelligence Group, reviews its work in providing “just-in-time-information.”

Two other feature articles address information policy ques- tions. Lee Strickland makes his recommendations concern- ing the policies and reforms the new director of national intel- ligence should instigate to improve the effectiveness of our intelligence collection and analysis, while Tomas Lipinski continues his discussion of the possible effects of the Grokster decision, focusing on how it might affect entrepreneurs and new products.

Peter Morville, president of Semantic Studios, is our fea-

tured IA columnist in this issue. Where Maes focuses on get- ting relevant information to people in all situations, Morville speculates about another aspect of a future that includes per- vasive computing - umbientfindubility, which “describes a world in which we can find anyone or anything from any- where and anytime.”

As a timely example of applied advanced findability, President Michael Leach urges us all to hasten to the new ASIS&T website to update our personal directory informa- tion, noting particularly which information we are willing to have displayed online. He also urges us to contribute chapter and personal announcements and write-ups to the website (and the Bulletin) to benefit our fellow members planning events or just trying to keep up with what is going on.

Finally, library collections in a networked environment are also the subject of a separate submission by William Walters, who looks at how a book’s being widely held by other mem- bers of a network might influence local acquisition decisions.

(President’s Page, continued from page 2 )

is planning, say, a chapter event, would note this announce- ment on the ASIS&T website and say, “Hey, why don’t we invite so-and-so to present on such-and-such a topic; she just wrote a book about it.” Here’s another possibility: Say you receive an award from a division or section of - oh, let me pick ACM or SLA - and it so happens your Board of Directors is looking for someone to act as a liaison with that division or section. We now know an ASIS&T member who is active in and who has close ties with said division or section. Even more gold.

Let me wrap up by emphasizing the responsibility we all have to fill in the details - to create the gold - in all levels of our Society. I, as your president, have this responsibility, and you, as my colleagues and fellow members, also bear this responsibility. Let’s work together to mine more gold for everyone.

Michael (your “gold-mining president”) Leach

AS Information

SBT 2006 Real i ties

Shaping the Digita Future for AI

November 3-9, 2006 Au s t i n , Texa s

rn FebruorylMorch 2006--Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology