Editor's desktop

Abstract

This issue of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology is the first to appear as an electronic-only publication. By dropping the print format, we eliminate a number of constraints under which we have had to operate. These limitations include rigid (and necessarily low) page limits, two-color printing and the necessity for high-resolution images. While the new Bulletin is still very much a work in progress, and we have had to pay much attention to changes in format and production procedures for this issue, we are taking advantage of our newfound liberties. The feature sections of this issue of the Bulletin are about 50% longer than has been possible in the past. On this enhanced Bulletin site you should find both .pdf and .html versions of articles in the current issue as well as supplementary material and an option to download the issue as a single .pdf file. We are gearing up to provide improved indexing in the future, but for now other features, such as links to back files and instructions to authors, will continue. For this introductory all-electronic issue of the Bulletin, it seems quite appropriate to offer a special section on information architecture (IA). Stacy Surla, associate editor for IA, has brought together some excellent presentations from the recent 2007 IA Summit, and we are grateful to her and to the authors for meeting a short deadline. Stacy provides an excellent introduction to the section, noting both the variety of the articles and their range from the philosophical to the very practical. I hope everyone will find something of interest. We also have two other feature articles in this expanded issue of the Bulletin. The first is a shortened version of the paper that won the ASIS&T SIG/III (Special Interest Group/International Information Issues) International Paper Competition in 2006. The paper by Liauw Toong Tjieka (Aditya Nugraha) discusses the role of digital libraries and institutional repositories in preserving indigenous knowledge and the proactive program at Petra Christian University in Surabaya, Indonesia. With our new ability to use full color for art and graphic images, this article is accompanied by an online gallery of pictures from events sponsored by the Desa Informasi Digital Library/Institutional Repository at Petra Christian University in Indonesia and samples of images from their collections. Our thanks to the author for help in acquiring the terrific graphics and to International Information and Library Review, who published the original paper, for allowing us to reprint this shorter version. Our second additional feature is a review by Carol Kuhlthau, recipient of the 2005 ASIS&T Research Award, of her pioneering work as a researcher in information-seeking behavior. This article is part of a continuing series in which we ask Research Award winners to discuss their research careers and the ideas that have driven them. An article by the 2006 recipient, Brenda Dervin, will appear in a later issue. Finally, ASIS&T President Edie Rasmussen reviews the international aspects of ASIS&T on the President's Page. She reminds us of important international efforts undertaken by ASIS&T and its members to make our field more accessible to scholars and practitioners from developing countries, as well as to those from developed nations. European and regional conferences, the ASIS&T website, our Annual Meeting, the SIG/III International Paper Competition, InfoShare — these are just a sampling of the many efforts undertaken each year to expand the scope and influence of ASIS&T and the field of information science and technology to interested parties worldwide.