Source: School of Information Management
Written by: Dong Tianshu, Ma Yongxian
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

From November 30th to December 2nd in 2016, the Asia-Pacific Congress on Information Discipline Review (CIDR) was held on Guangzhou South Campus of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), with School of Information Management of SYSU as the sponsor, and Consortium of iSchools Asia Pacific as the co-sponsor. The Congress chairs are Prof. Miguel Nunes, Dean of School of Information Management of SYSU and Prof. Cheng Huanwen, Assistant President of SYSU, Chief Librarian of SYSU Libraries and Professor of School of Information Management of SYSU.

Prof. Yan Guangmei, Vice President of SYSU, and Prof. Tan Xiangjin, former Director of the Department of Information Management, attended and addressed the Congress. The Congress invited Prof. Philippa Levy, Vice-Chancellor of University of Adelaide of Australia; Prof. Sam G. Oh, iSchool Caucus Chair, Dean of Department of Library and Information Science and Chief Librarian of Library of Sungkyunkwan University of South Korea; Prof. Feng Huiling, Convener of the State Council Discipline Consultative Group on Library, Information and Archival Science and former Vice-President of Renmin University of China; and other top academics and leaders from Charles Sturt University of Australia, Universiti Teknologi MARA of Malaysia, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, Wuhan University, Nanjing University, Nankai University, Peking University and so on. More than 50 attendees from home and abroad were present at the Congress.
 

Group photo
 

At the opening ceremony, Prof. Yan Guangmei firstly extended a warm welcome to all participants, and emphasized that this Congress was not only a starting point and platform for the communication of differences among Information Discipline, the promotion of teaching practice and the improvement of the evaluation of subjects, but also a milestone for the development of Information Discipline. Prof. Tan Xiangjin expressed congratulations on the Congress and pointed out its importance to the development of Information Discipline.

The theme of the Congress is the assessment system and future development of Information Discipline. Two keynote speech sessions and four parallel sessions were arranged in the Congress.

The first keynote speech session was held on the morning of December 1st, with Associate Professor Zhang Jing, Executive Vice Dean of School of Information Management of SYSU as the host. Five scholars delivered keynote reports around the theme, including Prof. Feng Huiling, Convener of the State Council Discipline Consultative Group on Library, Information and Archival Science and former Vice-President of Renmin University of China; Prof. Philippa Levy, Vice-Chancellor of University of Adelaide of Australia; Prof. Fang Qing, Dean of School of Information Management of Wuhan University; Prof. Sun Jianjun, Dean of School of Information Management of Nanjing University; and Prof. Ke Ping from Business School of Nankai University.

On the morning of December 2nd, Prof. Chen Dingquan, Vice Dean of School of Information Management of SYSU hosted the second keynote report session. Prof. Sam G. Oh, iSchool Caucus Chair, Dean of Department of Library and Information Science and Chief Librarian of Library of Sungkyunkwan University of South Korea; Prof. Sohaimi Zakaria from Universiti Teknologi MARA of Malaysia, and Prof. Li Yuelin, Associate Dean of Business School of Nankai University, respectively made a keynote speech about the future development of information disciplines in South Korea, Malaysia, Australia and China.

Parallel sessions consisted of four sub-themes: the Road ahead for Information Science within the Development of the LIS discipline, the Road ahead for Librarianship within the Development of the LIS discipline, the Road ahead for Archives and Electronic Record Management within the Development of the LIS discipline, and the Road ahead for Information Systems and Information Management within the Development of the LIS discipline. Participants in each session reported their research on the development of disciplines and had heated discussions on current situation, existing problems and constructive suggestions of each discipline.

At the reporting session, Prof. Fu Rongxiao, Head of Department of Information Resources Management of School of Public Affairs of Zhejiang University; Prof. Deng Hepu from School of Business IT and Logistics of RMIT University of Australia; Prof. Miguel Nunes, Dean of School of Information and Management of SYSU and Prof. Pan Yantao from School of Information and Management of SYSU respectively summarized four parallel sessions, pointed out difficulties and challenges of information disciplines development and education, and described the future prospect. Prof. Miguel Nunes gave the closing speech at the closing ceremony.

The Congress provided scholars with a good platform to communicate and exchange information in the field of library, information and archival science, defined the future development of these disciplines, and promoted discipline education and teaching practice.