Joumana Boustany - Bobcatsss

Chair’s Greeting 2023

Greetings to the BOBCATSSS community! I would first like to thank the Board for electing me as the Chair of the Board for 2023-2024. It is my great pleasure to serve the BOBCATSSS community in this way.

Thank you to the outgoing Board Members Paavo Arvola (Tampereen yliopisto, Finland), Carla Colombati (Università degli studi di Teramo, Italy), Jesus Gascón Garcia (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain) and, former Chair, Tania Todorova (University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Bulgaria).
Welcome to the new Board Members Juan-José Boté (Universitat of Barcelona, Spain), Jamie Johnston (OsloMet University, Norway), Alica Kolarić (University of Zadar, Croatia) and Dóra Szabó (University of Debrecen, Hungary). I look forward to working with the 2023-2024 Board to carry forward and build upon the work and initiatives by the previous Board.

Thank you to the organizers of the BOBCATSSS 2023 Conference and to all of you who participated. The diversity and high academic quality of the paper and poster presentations made for a very dynamic and rich scholarly exchange. Many new connections were made during the conference’s sessions and social activities that will be central in growing our LIS community in the years to come. The BOBCATSSS 2023 Proceedings and IFLA Special Issue will be published in the next few months. Currently, BOBCATSSS 2024 is being organized by the University of Coimbra – Portugal with co-organizers the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) in Brazil and the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (ULSIT) in Bulgaria. The conference theme will be the Information Profession and Sustainable Development. We hope to see you in Coimbra!

New initiatives are underway! We are currently working to establish BOBCATSSS as a legal entity. This will allow us to develop and grow our community in ways that will be of greater benefit to community members. The BOBCATSSS Newsletter has two new editors, board members Jamie Johnston and Juan-José Boté. They are currently applying for an ISSN number and will be working to include more reader contributions, such as short articles, opinion pieces and updates. A new column titled Community Spotlight will highlight the current research and professional activities of BOBCATSSS community members. In this issue, we hear from lecturers and students from the Information Management study program at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover, Germany. Check it out!

Warm Regards, Joumana Boustany

Challenge for Students

This year BOBCATSSS is celebrating 30ty years!

30ty years during which BOBCATSSS turned into an experience incomparable to anything else! And here comes the opportunity to share how BOBCATSSS changes your lives!

The essay and photo/poster/collage competition starts and on the conference in 23-25 May 2022 in Debrecen the winners will be announced.

For the essay – 1 page answering the questions “What is BOBCATSSS to you and What is the spirit of BOBCATSSS?”.

For the Photo/Poster/Collage – make a poster/collage of your memories about BOBCATSSS or one photo that represents the spirit of BOBCATSSS!

Share your BOBCATSSS memories in a text or photo/collage/poster!

Send your work to 15th April 2022 to: t.todorova@unibit.bg

Awards: Free entrance to BOBCATSSS 2023 (25-27 January) in OsloMet, Norway!

Text and idea: Svetoslava Dimitrova, University of Library Studies and Information Technology, Sofia, BOBCATSSS participant 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 in progress

BOBCATSSS 2020 Proceedings Book

Bobcatsss 2021 Program

Bobcatsss 2021. Book of abstracts

Bobcatsss 2021. Teasing

BOBCATSSS2021 will be held in Porto, Portugal. It is jointly organized by the Porto Accounting and Business School at Polytechnic of Porto, University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (ULSIT), Sofia, Bulgaria and University of Leon, Spain.

Call for organizers and contributors

The Association invites bids from institutions to organize BOBCATSSS 2023. The call for main organizers takes place during September 2020-February 2021.

The related call for co-organizers and other contributions is continuous.

All decisions will be made by the BOBCATSSS Association board. The main organizer decision for 2023 BOBCATSSS will be made during March 2021 and will be informed to all applicants.

Link to the application form

Bobcatsss 2020 on the Air

30 January 2020. Tania Todorova and Denitsa Krumova presents Bobcatsss2020 in Paris – Information Management, Fake News and Disinformation at Niki Kunchev Show, Darik radio, Sofia.

In the talk, Tania and Denitsa highlights the main Theme of Bobcatsss 2020 “Information Management, Fake News and Disinformation” and the different aspects presented by keynote speakers – M. Fontanin, Vincent Nozick and Rose-Marie Farinella. They underlined the professional collaborative work of the organizing teams from Université Gustave Eiffel, managed by Joumana Boustany, and University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Sofia, Bulgaria on preparation of that 28th edition. They summarized the international scope of the event (more than 230 participants from 20 countries), the hospitality of the Université Gustave Eiffel, and the role of BOBCATSSS Association (A.K.A. EUCLID – European Association of Library and Information Science Education and Research). Tania announced the in-coming BOBCATSSS 2021 in Porto, Portugal. With the main Theme “Digital Transformation”, it will organize by Polytechnic of Porto (ISCAP – Accounting and Business School), University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Sofia and University of Leon, Spain.

Author: Joumana Boustany