Member Spotlight, November 2022
In each issue of Inside ASIS&T, we ask a different member questions about their perspectives, advice, and experiences in the field of information science and technology. If you would like to be a featured member, email Pamela Yonker at pyonker@asist.org.
Dr. Timothy J. Dickey
Columbus Metropolitan Library; Kent State University; San José State University
How long have you been an ASIS&T member?
I have been a member since 2006.
Why did you decide to join ASIS&T?
I joined ASIS&T as a student, and was first attracted by the great colleagues in my local Chapter, who came from a diversity of professional backgrounds but who shared an interest in exploring and promoting all of the ways that technology continues to change how we do our work as information professionals.
How have you benefitted from being an ASIS&T member?
Throughout my time in ASIS&T, my membership has brought a wide and constant variety of opportunities for professional service: SIGS and Chapters, committee work, webinars, conference planning and presentation, both locally and at the Association-level. ASIS&T welcomes our volunteer contributions, and values them.
In addition, ASIS&T membership has provided a strong and consistent source of professional learning content, through the Journal and other publications, more recently through webinars, and always through conversations and conference content at the Annual Meeting.
And this brings me to the greatest benefit, which has been the people in ASIS&T. Across my career, I have attended conferences and meetings of a large number of professional organizations, but ASIS&T was the first where individuals (even past Presidents) came up to me and said, “I don’t know you yet, but I should.” As Naresh said in his closing remarks in Pittsburgh, ASIS&T has been a welcoming group of both “lots of very smart people, but also lots of good people.”
Do you have any advice for new ASIS&T members?
My advice starts with “Get involved!” Look for opportunities in your Chapter or SIG, volunteer to be added to a committee, and by all means make the investment to attend the Annual Meeting. You will gain experience, keep the ASIS&T content in the forefront, and be able to make the most of meeting colleagues at all stages of their careers.
Who has inspired you in your career?
Among many of the “good people” who have inspired and encouraged me, I would specifically offer thanks to Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Sandy Hirsch, Abebe Rorissa, and Marcia Zeng.
What parts of information science give you the most joy and motivate you to continue your work?
Just as it is people who inspire me and welcome us all to the Association, it is connections to, and help for, human beings that drives my work day to day: serving library patrons and researchers of all stripes, and developing more students in their own careers and understanding. So anywhere LIS research touches people, it touches me more deeply – user information studies, information literacy, library service to diverse populations (including for me most recently persons with dementia and their caregivers), even historical topics and history of the book where we can gain context through historical people and information and institutions – all of these give me hope and motivation for all of our impact on human beings and human society.