G. Arthur Mihram

The AAAS 2007 Annual Meeting: Science and Technology for Sustainable Well Being

Purpose – To provide coverage and insights about the annual meeting of the AAAS where this years theme was “Science and Technology for Sustainable Well‐Being.”Design/methodology/approach – Environmental scan of annual national meeting. Of particular interest due to the range of backgrounds different attendees from all avenues of the scientific community.Findings – Sustainable well being has wide applications in different arenas but the informatics component was not as strong as at past conferences.Practical Implications – Much of the conference focused on intersections of theory and application and new ways of responding to sustainability. Particularly strong in the physical sciences.Originality value – Provides information of value to information professionals.

ALA and ACRL at the National Library Legislative Day 2007

Purpose: – To report on the annual ALA sponsored National Library Legislative Day.Design/methodology/approach – Report.Findings: – Six major topics were discussed: appropriations, telecommunications/internet, advocacy, government information, privacy and surveillance, and, copyright.Originaility/value – Offers insights into the National Library Legislative Day 2007.

Report on AAAS 2010: on bridging science and society

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the 2010 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), its 176th meeting, held February 18‐22, 2010 in San Diego.Design/methodology/approach – Provides an overview of nine presentations as well as internet links (or bibliographic citations) of pertinent research, on each topic covered, for further understanding of the subject matter.Findings – There is plenty of research on which to report.Originality/value – The paper provides information on the latest research on: current technological advances relating to connectivity to the internet; key questions relating to the voluminous amount of data generated annually; and, how computational science, and its enabling cyberinfrastructure, is tackling some of the “grand challenges” facing science and society today.

AAAS Forum on Science & Technology Policy: Largest Attendance Ever in 2009

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)s 34th Annual Forum on Science and Technology Policy, held at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC on 30 April and l May 2009.Design/methodology/approach – This is a descriptive report.Findings – The attendance this year was the largest ever. The thrust was money – government expenditures for science and technology/project/subjects. Other topics in the program included: grant‐seeking processes, trust in science, science journalism and scientific literacy.Originality/value – The Forum on Science and Technology Policy is of particular interest to those involved in public policy issues facing the science, engineering and higher education communities.

AAAS 2009 annual meeting: our planet and its life: origins and future

Purpose – The aim is to report on the 175th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held in February 2009 in Chicago.Design/methodology/approach – Provides a concise review of the conference, whose theme was Our Planet and Its Life: Origins and Futures.Findings – Not surprisingly, because of the primary focus on Darwin and the ecology of the earth, there were few symposia that concentrated on the application of technology outside of the Life Sciences and of the Earth Sciences. However, in view of the current evolution of “cloud computing” and the formation of “mega grids,” there were two symposia devoted to these topics.Originality/value – The paper is a useful summary of a conference of interest to library and information management professionals.

The AAAS 2008 annual meeting: science and technology from a global perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the 174th annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held 14‐18 February 2008 in Boston, MA, USA.Design/methodology/approach – Conference report.Findings – The conference theme was science and technology from a global perspective, which emphasized the power of science and technology as well as education to assist less‐developed segments of the world society, to improve partnerships among already developed countries and to spur knowledge‐driven transformations across a host of fields.Originality/value – Overviews of six conference symposia are presented, which will be of interest to this journals readers.

Two 2008 Meetings: the AAAS's Forum on Science and Technology Policy and the ALA's National Library Legislative Day

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on The AAASs Forum on Science and Technology Policy, and The ALAs National Library Legislative Day, held in May 2008 in Washington, DC, USA. Design/methodology/report.–.Conference report. Findings – The underlying (single) theme of the two meetings was governmental funding. Each meeting was devoted to advising participants about the present status of budgetary allocations and appropriations of Federal funds for the current or subsequent years.Originality/value – Notes that four issues from the AAAs Forum would be of particular interest: “Cognition enhancement: promise or threat?”; “A skeptical view of advocacy [conducted by] by scientists”; “Ensuring the best presidential science appointments [after the 2008 elections]” and “Science and the new media”.

High Technology: Its Impacts and Effects in Science and Technology Research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the annual Forum on Science and Technology Policy. This is an update on federal commitments to science and scientific research and policy.Design/Methodology/approach – The focus this year on High Technology reinforces the role of funding and awards of research grants to contribute to the political agenda of the current administration.Findings – One gains an overview about the current state of affairs in science and technology research, trends in scientific communication, and the resulting public policy that follows.Research limitations/implications – Political consequences and trends of recent directives cause one to pause and be concerned about the state of federally sponsored research in the USA.Originality/valve – The paper highlights the efforts and impacts of high technology in science and technology research.

AAAS 2006: Grand Challenges, Great Opportunities

Purpose – To report on the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in St Louis, Missouri in February 2006.Design/methodology/approach – An overview of the seminars, symposia, workshops and presentations at the conference.Findings – The theme of the meeting was Grand Challenges, Great Opportunities. The meeting was attended by 4,000 registrants, 105 exhibitors; and 900 members of the press. The meeting highlighted the academic role and infrastructure of technology in different science applications, including publishing, and national policy.Originality/value – A report of interest to library and information management professionals.

ALA’s Legislative Day 2005

Purpose – To report on the 31st Annual National Library Legislative Day held on May 3, 2005.Design/methodology/approach – Provides a concise review of the conference/Findings – Topics covered were congressional appropriations, copyright, the USA Patriot Act, key issues: honing the message, school libraries, tele‐communications: the E‐rate, government information and Library Services and Technology Act [LSTA].Originality/value – This paper is a useful summary of a conference of interest to library and information management professionals.