Caidi to Receive Watson Davis Award for Service

The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that Dr. Nadia Caidi of the University of Toronto is the 2020 recipient of the Watson Davis Award for Service. The award’s purpose is to recognize an individual member of the Association who has shown continuous dedicated leadership in and service to ASIS&T and made substantial and lasting contributions to ASIS&T governance, chapters, SIGs, committees, and publications. Candidates are assessed based on 3 criteria: dedicated service to ASIS&T as evidenced by the amount and length of participation in, leadership of, and support to ASIS&T programs, chapters, SIGs, committees, publications, etc.; sustained, active involvement in ASIS&T; and engagement in activities that create a meaningful impact on ASIS&T communities, such as in high attendance numbers for events, attracting significant news coverage of a publication or event, attraction of new members, and/or positive financial impact for the Association, SIG or Chapter.

Nadia Caidi is Associate Professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information (iSchool). She joined the Association for Information Science & Technology in 1995 as a student, and remained actively involved in it, eventually becoming the President of the Association in 2016. Dr. Caidi was also the 2011 President of the Canadian Association for Information Science (CAIS). Her research and scholarship have focused on novel conceptualizations in our understanding of human information behavior, and on expanding the meaning and values of diversity and inclusion in LIS education and practice. She is the co-author (with Keren Dali) of the forthcoming book “Humanizing LIS Education and Practice: Diversity by Design” (Routledge). She has received several research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for her work on information control and the public’s right to know in times of crisis. She has also researched on, and consulted for various government agencies, about engaging with marginalized communities such as migrants and refugees, or aboriginal communities in remote and isolated regions. She has published extensively on these topics in top refereed journals. Her current research is situated in the context of accessibility and discoverability of multilingual content online and the role that information resources, institutions, and technologies play in creating just and equitable societies. In 2019, Dr. Caidi was awarded the ALISE/Pratt-Severn Faculty Innovation Award. To find out more about Dr. Caidi, visit: caidi.ischool.utoronto.ca

In her nomination of Dr. Caidi for the award, Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway, from OCLC and past President of ASIS&T, said: “[Dr. Caidi] is professional, thoughtful, innovative, and dedicated to the Association. She is well deserving of the Watson Davis Award for Service. Nadia has been a prolific researcher and has engaged in many activities that created a meaningful impact on ASIS&T communities. She has brought tremendous energy and new ideas for promoting ASIS&T and involving members.”

Dr. Iris Xie of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, wrote, “Dr. Caidi’s excellent service record, especially in communication and outreach has made a huge impact within and outside of ASIS&T communities.” For her part, Dr. Yin Zhang of Kent State University referred to Dr. Caidi’s “significant contributions to the society, demonstrating extraordinary leadership in expanding ASIS&T membership, organizing various ASIS&T programs for annual meetings, serving in officer positions in SIG III and being a very active member in SIGs, and providing continuous services to ensure the success of ASIS&T, SIGs, and Chapters.”

Upon learning of her selection as the 2020 Watson Davis Award for Service winner, Dr. Caidi said, “It is a great honor to receive this award. I joined ASIS&T a long time ago, as a student, but I still believe in ASIS&T as a space where we can have important conversations about our societies' most pressing issues (as we have witnessed over the past few months, with the pandemic and the anti-Black racism movements). We have a collective responsibility as information scholars and professionals to raise to the challenge and effect meaningful change through our sustained research, teaching and professional work.”

Dr. Caidi will receive her award at the 2020 meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) which will be held (virtually) on October 25-29, 2020.