ASIS&T in Europe: The Lida‐ASIS&T connection

InsideASIS&T T he Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) conference, held annually in Croatia, represents not only a core European meeting for library and information science, but also specifically a focal point for participation by ASIS&T members in Europe. conference, which has been co-chaired by them since that time, has included ASIS&T members as part of the program committee, featured and keynote speakers and guests of honor. Tefko, who left Croatia in 1957, was honored at LIDA in 2006 with a book entitled Contributions to the Creation of a Theory of Information Science, which contained Croatian translations of nine of his highly cited articles. ASIS&T President Gary Marchionini, the keynote speaker at the 2010 conference held in Zadar, Croatia, May 24-28, expressed surprise at the involvement of ASIS&T membership in the meeting, which prompted me to ensure wider knowledge about LIDA among ASIS&T members worldwide. Typical Conference Themes According to Saracevic, " Since its inception in 2000, LIDA has emphasized the examination of contemporary problems, intriguing advances, innovative approaches and solutions related to digital libraries. Each year a different and hot theme was addressed, divided in two parts, the first part covering research and development and the second part addressing advances in applications and practice. " Further, Saracevic explained, " Rather than analyze each of the 20 themes covered over 10 years, six overreaching and recurring subjects are chosen for discussion of changes and trends: 1. Networked environment: digital libraries and the web – positions, retrieval, diversity 2. Development: building digital libraries 3. Services: variety of services provided 4. Users & use: using digital libraries; human information behavior & information seeking in digital libraries 5. Professional: education for digital librarians, competencies needed; ethical concerns 6. Social: digital libraries and social, cultural, and institutional effects. " ASIS&T Participation ASIS&T notables who have attended LIDA conferences as keynote speakers and guests of honor include past presidents The ASIS&T European Chapter provides support for LIDA in the form of social events (wine and cheese parties), which are used to explain ASIS&T and recruit membership. (Tatjana Aparac-Jelusic served until recently as chairperson of the chapter, succeeding Emil Levine, who revived the chapter in the late 1990s. The chapter was originally organized by Michel Menou.) A 2003 panel entitled the " The Role of Professional Organizations in Career Development " consisted of ASIS&T members giving examples of how participation in ASIS&T impacted and influenced their …