Skip to content

ASIS&T Authors Examine the Role of Information During a Global Health Crisis

Contact:  Lydia Middleton, Executive Director
+1-301-495-0900 x1100
lmiddleton@asist.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2020
Silver Spring, Maryland

 

ASIS&T AUTHORS EXAMINE THE ROLE OF INFORMATION DURING A GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS

The Association for Information Science and Technology announces the publication of "Global health crises are also information crises: A call to action" in its Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology.

The opinion paper was authored by Bo Xie, Tim Mercer, Kenneth R. Fleischmann, Yan Zhang, Linda H. Yoder, Keri K. Stephens, Michael Mackert, and Min K. Lee, all from the University of Texas at Austin along with Daqing He, University of Pittsburgh; Youfa Wang, Ball State University; and Dan Wu, Wuhan University.

“Using as an example the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) epidemic, [the authors] (a) examine challenges associated with what [they] term “global information crises”; (b) recommend changes needed for the field of information science to play a leading role in such crises; and (c) propose actionable items for short‐ and long‐term research, education, and practice in information science.

The authors make recommendations on the following topics:

  1. Misinformation/disinformation particularly during global health crises
  2. Health literacy—including eHealth literacy
  3. Information behavior during lock downs
  4. Vulnerable populations—a case for accessible and usable solutions
  5. Information dissemination, sharing, and integration among multiple forms of digital data
  6. eHealth tools
  7. Predictive methods
  8. Digital archiving
  9. Ethical considerations

During this challenging time, ASIS&T and its members stand ready to address the global information crisis through collaboration and research. To facilitate this, a discussion forum has been created on the ASIS&T iConnect site where members can exchange perspectives and research on the topic.

The full text of the article is available at: https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/asi.24357

Founded at the beginning of the information age in 1937, ASIS&T has promoted the development and understanding of information science and documentation. Throughout its 83-year history, the association has been responsive to a rapidly changing landscape, embracing and promoting new advances in technology to improve all aspects of information collection, management, storage, use and communication. ASIS&T members are at the forefront of research in and the practice of information science. From fine arts to health informatics, ASIS&T is a synergistic organization that allows the exchange of ideas to flourish for the benefit of the global information science community.