Dear teachers, students, alumni and alumnae, friends:

At a time to ring out the old year and ring in the new, on behalf of the Party Committee and the administration of our school, I would like to send my sincere thanks to the leaderships of all levels, specialists inside and outside the School of Information Management (SIM), alumni and alumnae at home and abroad as well as friends of all circles who have been caring about and supporting the development of our school! I would also like to extend my New Year greetings and best wishes to the faculty who has been working conscientiously for the school and the retired old comrades who concern themselves with the development of our school, and my cordial greetings to all the students who love our school and keep working hard for knowledge!

In 2017, all the faculty and students further learned and implemented the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, centered on the Double Top University Plan and worked hard. We have achieved a lot in each aspect of SIM’s development.

The development of all disciplines has been lifted to a new height. Library and Information Studies and Data Science has been successfully listed as one of the world-class disciplines initiated by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The fourth-round discipline evaluation of our school was A+. The authorized Master’s and Doctor’s degree of Data Science and the authorized Master’s degree of Secrecy Management which had developed for long have been formally included in the admission plan. Data and Information Management, the English journal which is jointly published with well-known international publishers, has been formally available. The Spatio-temporal Big Data Joint Laboratory has been in operation.

The training of all types of personnel and talents has also achieved a lot. 

We have made a new breakthrough in scientific research. Nine programs of the National Social Science Fund of China have been approved, in which 5 were major programs, 1 was key program. Six Programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China have been approved, in which 1 was major program. The number of the MOE programs reached 7, among which 1 was the National Key Technologies R & D Program of China, 2 were key programs of Key Research Institute. The number of key and major programs of national level and of the MOE was more than ever, with a new increase in the number of high-level international academic papers.

The training of talents was highlighted. One person in our school won the first prize of provincial-level Teaching Achievement Award. Three persons were awarded the Teaching Performance Prizes, and two the special awards of Wuhan University’s Excellent Research Paper of Teaching (three in total within our university). The undergraduate education evaluation was A, and we had 1 national-level excellent open online course. One teacher won the title of The Good Teacher in My Heart. The number of students’ published papers and the high-level scholarships for graduates they have obtained reaches a new high. One class in SIM was listed as the model of advanced classes, and the SIM Graduate Student Union ranked first of the Ten Best Graduate Student Union at Wuhan University. SIM won the first prize of Autumn Art Festival of our university, and the first prize of China’s Micro Film Competition of Ideological and Political Course as well as the first prize of the Debate Contest of Cyber Security for Chinese University Students. The progress made by the faculty and students of SIM has been the best view of our school.

The oversea communications were unusually brilliant. We successfully held the iConference 2017 and ISSI2017 in March and October respectively. The iConference 2017 attracted 535 specialists and scholars from 28 countries and areas of five continents, which was praised as the most successful annual meeting of iSchool in history. The international communication of our school became frequent, and we invited and welcomed tens of well-known international specialists and scholars to SIM to pay a visit and make a speech. Simultaneously, we had tens of teachers and students take part in the academic meetings as well as academic research and pay academic visits. The SIM’s international academic influence and credit have been increasingly improved.

The social service work has achieved remarkable success. The faculty of SIM actively partook in the evaluation and rating of national public libraries organized by the Ministry of Culture, the technological support for the State Archives Administration of China and local archives departments, as well as the talent training of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television and local departments of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television. In 2017, the SIM totally held 40 all kinds of training courses related to national secrecy system, library and archives system, as well as trades of press, publication, radio, film, and television, which realized great social and economic benefits.

The environment and condition to operate our school have been largely improved. Xin Qi Construction Group Co., Ltd contributed 5 million RMB to our school for development. And SIM set up Wenhua Talent Plan and Self-research Fund and so on to help the personalized development of teachers, self-research and oversea academic communications. The Building of Hubei Secrecy Education Platform has been completed, and the Center for Studies of Information Resources, the Laboratory Center, the Journal Publishing Center, as well as some research sites for teachers have been reconstructed and renovated, making the office environment a completely new look with a sound teaching and researching environment.

The achievements above originate from the strong support of our school and all walks of life, from hard work of the faculty and students. I again show my sincere thanks to all walks of life that provide our school with tremendous support and the faculty who devote themselves to their posts and all the students of our school.

We can take advantage of all the benefits we have reaped to do a great job. All the faculty and students, as you know, 2018 is the beginning year to comprehensively promote the construction of world-class discipline, that is, Library and Information Studies and Data Science. In the new year, we should remain true to our original aspiration, keep firmly in mind our missions, and center on the goal of constructing world-class Library and Information Studies and Data Science. We should also foster our confidence in victory, strive to go ahead, and overcome all the difficulties and make progress in the course of making Library and Information Studies and Data Science a world-class discipline with higher morale, greater enterprise, and greater courage.

I wish you a happy new year and all the very best!

Dean of SIM: Fang Qing

December 29th, 2017