Candidate for President

Suliman Hawamdeh
Professor and Department Chair
University of North Texas

Candidate's Statement:
It is an honor to be nominated for ALISE President. ALISE has played a pivotal role in the transformation of the library and information science profession over the years. The association served and continues to serve as a platform for faculty, students and practitioners to exchange ideas, share information, and best practices in research, teaching and service. The changing landscape of the library and information science education is creating both opportunities and challenges to the extent that we are preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s jobs. ALISE as an educators and information professionals association must have the capacity to adapt and respond to the emerging challenges and opportunities. It should be able to relate quickly to current affairs and serve the interest of both individual and institutional members.

If elected, my primary goal is to position ALISE as the leading information science association. This includes helping to create an Agile and adaptive association to better serve the members and meet their diverse needs. Work closely with ALISE Board, staff and stakeholders to expand and strengthen both individual and institutional membership. Enhance collaboration with other Library and Information science associations such as ALA, ASIST and iSchools. Support ALISE conference activities and increase the attractiveness of the conference to information science researchers by establishing specific contexts devoted to current issues and emerging areas.

Biography
Dr. Suliman Hawamdeh is a Professor and Department Chair in College of Information, University of North Texas. He is the director of the Information Science PhD program. One of largest interdisciplinary information science PhD program in the country. He is the editor in Chief of the Journal of Information and Knowledge Management (JIKM) and the editor of a book series on Innovation and Knowledge Management published by World Scientific. Dr. Hawamdeh founded and directed a number of academic programs including the first Master of Science in Knowledge Management in Asia in the School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Dr. Hawamdeh has extensive industrial experience. He was the Managing Director of ITC Information Technology Consultant Ltd, a company developed and marketed a line of software development products in imaging, document and record management, engineering drawing management, and library automation. He worked as a consultant to several organizations including NEC, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Petronas, and Shell. Dr. Hawamdeh also worked as a researcher and a project leader at the Institute of System Science in Singapore.

Dr. Hawamdeh has authored and edited several books on knowledge management including Information and Knowledge Society published by McGraw Hill and Knowledge Management: Cultivating the Knowledge Professionals Published by Chandos Publishing as well as a number of edited books published by published by World Scientific. In his professional career, Dr. Hawamdeh has delivered several keynote presentations at various conferences and events around the world, including an invited talk at the United Nations World Summit on Information Society, which took place in Tunis in November of 2005. Dr. Hawamdeh served in the capacity of chair and founding chair of several conferences including the International Conference on Knowledge Management (www.ickm-2010.org) and Knowledge and Project Management Symposium (www.kipanet.org). He was the founding president of the Knowledge and Information Professional Association (KIPA) as well as the Information and Knowledge Management Society.

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