At WiLS, we want to bring valuable information to our library partners, including information about the missions and big ideas of the vendors they may already do business with. Each month, WiLS interviews a vendor partner in order to bridge the gap and open the door to valuable collaborations. This month, we are delighted to share insights from Joshua Horowitz, Digital Library & Advertising Sales Director for the Association for Computing Machinery and a WiLSWorld sponsor!
Tell us about your company’s background.
ACM is the world’s oldest scientific society for the study of computing. We are a membership organization made up of roughly 100,000 students, faculty, practitioners, and scientists worldwide. In partnership with 37 Special Interest Groups (SIGs), we organize more than 200 conferences around the world each year where new research is presented to the public. This research is published by ACM in conference proceedings, along with journals, magazines, technical newsletters, and more. All of ACM’s publications from 1951 to the current day are hosted in the ACM Digital Library (dl.acm.org) and used by more than 2,700 institutions worldwide.
Why do you, personally, choose to work with libraries?
I am an avid reader, and I appreciate the role of the library as the custodian and facilitator of knowledge and discovery. I consider myself fortunate to be part of an organization also dedicated to these aims.
What do you like to know about the libraries you work with? What helps you better understand their needs?
I like to foster a dialogue with the library to share challenges and goals, and to build a sense of partnership. From my side, I am interested in learning about what the library’s constituents are asking for and how the library is serving its community’s needs. Trending content areas, new programs, challenges, views on the scholarly communication landscape, and feedback about ACM’s content and services are also important.
What big ideas are being worked on at your company? What problems are being solved?
We’re excited to announce a new ACM Digital Library platform, expected towards the end of 2018! The new platform will reimagine a research space for the computing field, and will include enhanced search, recommendation systems, interactivity, and collaboration spaces.
Beyond this, ACM prides itself on publishing only the highest-quality, cutting-edge research in all areas of computing. We are also interested in exploring new models.
How can librarians become partners in product or training development?
Please contact me at jhorowitz@hq.acm.org!
Do you have anything else you’d like to share?
Thanks for your invitation to reach out to the WiLS member libraries. I look forward to our continued partnership!
This interview is part of a series of interviews with both WiLS library and vendor partners. Your feedback is appreciated. If you have any to offer on this article or suggestions for upcoming interviews, contact Andrea Coffin at acoffin@wils.org.