IASSIST program sponsorship was given to the program Big Data: Cities of the Future (Workshop) held on April 4, 2023 in Buenos Aires, Argentina hosted by the “Martín Del Barco Centenera” Library. The website for the now completed event is available. The IASSIST liaison to the event Noé Nessel offers this reflection. Noé Nessel If you are reading these lines, I’m sure we’ll meet physically at an International Congress at some point.
Welcome to the first issue of IASSIST Quarterly for the year 2023 - (IQ vol. 47(1) 2023) . The last article in this issue has in the title the FAIR acronym that stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. These are the concepts most often focused on by our articles in the IQ and FAIR has an extra emphasis in this issue. The first article introduces and demonstrates a shared vocabulary for data points where the need arose after confusions about data and metadata.
The Black Lives Matter and indigenous rights movements, as well as international migration in recent years, have caused many organisations, including IASSIST, to re-examine their own understanding and knowledge, processes and practices. It also made IASSIST members feel compelled to collect materials that can help everyone recognise, acknowledge, and combat implicit racial bias. The goals of the Anti-Racism Resources Interest Group are to gather these resources and together with IASSIST’s Professional Development Committee organise webinars on related topics.
The Data Literacy Mini-Conference, generously sponsored by the Michigan Academic Library Association Instruction & Information Literacy Interest Group and IASSIST, took place Monday, October 24 at Michigan State University Libraries in East Lansing, Michigan. Forty attendees from a variety of small and large libraries enjoyed a keynote address about a hip-hop epistemology of knowledge in LIS. Next, attendees participated in a speed networking experience that randomly shuffled table groups until participants met just about everyone in the room.
Welcome to the final issue of IASSIST Quarterly for the year 2022 - (IQ vol. 46(4) 2022) , our eagerly-awaited special issue on Systemic Racism in Data Practices. This issue represents more than you might think: the culmination of more than two years of the intellectual hard work of writing, of course, but that in itself is not unusual for any journal issue. However. The global pandemic exploded just after the conception of this special issue and hit all of us hard, wreaking not only physical destruction of lives but also unleashing social upheaval, job insecurity, housing insecurity, and major mental health challenges.
Welcome to the third issue of IASSIST Quarterly for the year 2022 - (IQ vol. 46(3) 2022) . In Denmark we sometimes retrieve an old quote from a member of the Danish Parliament: ‘If those are the facts, then I deny the facts’. We have laughed at that for more than a hundred years, but now fact denial is apparently the new normal in many places. And we are not amused.
Welcome to the second issue of IASSIST Quarterly for the year 2022 - (IQ vol. 46(2) 2022) . At last - a really real conference took place. I am of course referring to the IASSIST 2022 conference in June in Göteborg, Sweden. Many IASSISTers saw each other after a long time. That is typical for yearly conferences, but this was the first since 2019, after delays from Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021.
It is with great sadness that I report the death of Judith S. Rowe at the age of 91 on May 5, 2022. She was a founding member of IASSIST in 1974 and its president from 1985-1988. She received the IASSIST achievement award in 2000. She was the founder of Data and Statistical Services at Princeton University in 1964 and headed the service until her retirement in 1998. She received many other awards during her career including the 1997 William H.
Welcome to the first issue of IASSIST Quarterly for the year 2022 (IQ vol. 46(1) 2022) . IASSIST Quarterly has often published new and further developments in metadata. New submissions in the area are welcome, and the IQ expects to continue presenting a flow of interesting articles on this important topic. Often these developments in metadata directly mention their relatedness to the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI). Many IASSIST members have a primary role in supporting users of data in research and education.
Welcome to the special double issue of IASSIST Quarterly 2021 (IQ vol. 45(3-4) 2021) . IASSIST is an acronym. You may think that the word is the contraction of the two words ‘I assist’. In my mind, you are right! Whether the word IASSIST or the long explanation of seven words came first is the problem of the chicken and the egg. However, it is undisputed that when it is spelled out, the first I in IASSIST is for International.
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