Registrations open for iDocQ 2013, Monday 24th June, Aberdeen

Posted on by
Reply

Information Science Pathway logoSince 2011 the partner universities of the ESRC Scottish Graduate School of Social Science information science pathway have hosted an annual doctoral colloquium. This is aimed at students studying for PhDs in information science and other related disciplines. This year’s event takes place on Monday 24th June at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, and registrations for the day are now open. The event is suitable for doctoral students at all stages of their studies. Registration is free to UK students. International students can also attend for a small fee: if you are an international student who would like to attend please e-mail me at h.hall@napier.ac.uk for details.

The event will include: (1) a keynote presentation from a guest speaker; (2) an opportunity for students to present their work to one another in 20×20 format, with a prize for best top 1st, 2nd and 3rd year presentations; (3) a choice of 4 breakout sessions; (4) feedback and discussion on all work presented facilitated by Information Science pathway academics from SGS partner institutions.

Outline programme

The outline programme is as follows:

10:00-10:30 Registration and coffee/tea
10:30-10:45 Welcome
10:45-11:00 Speed networking line-up
11:00-11:30 Guest presentation by Dr Annemaree Lloyd, Charles Sturt University, Australia
11:30-12:30 20×20 presentations by students
12:30-13:15 Lunch
13:15-15:15 20×20 presentations by students
15:15-15:30 Tea/coffee
15:30-16:30 Breakout sessions: students attend one session from a choice of (1) Writing (and rewriting) the literature review; (2) Defining and refining research questions; (3) Preparing for fieldwork; (4) Defending your thesis.
16:30-17:00 Plenary and prize-giving

iDocQ programme committee

One of the strengths of iDocQ is that its programme committee comprises students who represent the four Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Information Science pathway institutions. The 2013 reps are: Lynn Killick of Edinburgh Napier University, who is helping me with marketing the event and registrations; Calum Liddle of Strathclyde University, who is co-ordinating arrangements for the students’ 20×20 presentations and breakout session choices; Mazni Md-Yusof of Robert Gordon University, who is managing on-site arrangements in Aberdeen; and Mathews Piri of the University of Glasgow, who is co-ordinating arrangements for the academic staff who are contributing on the day. Mathews is also the iiDocQ programme committee chair. I’m helping the students with their plans as part of my duties as Convener of the information science pathway in 2012/13.

Travel bursaries

A number of travel bursaries will be made available to students from members of the Scottish Graduate School for Social Science member institutions (only) to help support their participation at iDocQ. Details of these will be e-mailed to those who qualify after they have registered their places. (Any students who require accommodation need to book this at their own expense.)

Students from outside the UK

Non-UK students are most welcome to attend iDocQ for a small fee. If you are a non-UK student and would like further information on how to register at iDocQ, please e-mail me at h.hall@napier.ac.uk.

Twitter

Follow iDocQ on Twitter: iDocQ
Event hash tag: #idocq2013

i3 conference

i3 logoThe colloquium takes place the day before the i3 conference (which runs from Tuesday 25th until 28th June 2013 at the same venue as iDocQ). Several participants at iDocQ will be staying on for the conference. If you would like to register for i3, please see the i3 conference web site.

Sharing the DREaM blueprint: lessons in community network building from the DREaM project

Posted on by
Reply

rcahms logoThis afternoon I gave an invited presentation to staff at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). The RCAHMS is Scotland’s national collection of buildings, archaeology and industry. I’d been invited to contribute to the Commission’s research seminar series not for my knowledge of history, but to share my experience of using social media to support community development. My specific remit was to distil key lessons from the AHRC-funded Developing Research Excellence and Methods (DREaM) project completed in 2012, the main aim of which was to develop a formal UK-wide network of Library and Information Science (LIS) researchers. My full presentation is available on SlideShare.

I started off by introducing my work within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University, with a focus on activities related to library and information science research. Then I explained how the DREaM project came about, and its relationship to the Library and Information Science Research Coalition and the two RiLIES projects.

DREaM logoThe main body of the presentation discussed the social and technical infrastructure that we built up around the DREaM project, for example using: the LIS Research Coalition blog and web pages; Spruz; Lanyrd; Twitter; SlideShare; Vimeo; and SoundCloud. I outlined the extent to which these tools supported the five DREaM project events (the launch conference, the concluding conference, and three linked workshops) in 2011/12, and the community of library and information science researchers and practitioners who engaged with the project.

I also discussed the broader impact of the project as a whole, and outlined my hopes that the work in 2011/12 will continue to pay dividends in the future through the work of those who benefited from the AHRC’s investment, in particular the DREaM workshop cadre members. At the end of my 40 minute slot I played a couple of clips from the DREaM concluding conference’s one minute madness session. (One minute madness was a new concept to the members of the audience. If you haven’t come across this before, there’s more information on this conference format and how to run such a session here.)

AHRC logoIn the question and answer session that followed we discussed the value of one minute madness as a conference format (this was in response to the suggestion that this might be perceived simply as a gimmick), the value of Twitter for professional purposes (especially at events), and the reasons why Facebook had not featured in my presentation.

One of the project team’s hopes for the DREaM was that elements of the work completed might be exported to other subject domains. I am hopeful that my visit to the RCAHMS today will have contributed to this goal.

Fingers crossed for Aga and Tracey at the BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium

Posted on by
Reply
Aga's poster

Aga’s poster describes work for the Acquisition for VFX module

Today two Edinburgh Napier computing students are competing for an award at a BCS event at the University of Nottingham.

Two months ago in February 2013 Aga Banach and Tracey Binney responded to a call for students to submit a 250 word abstract for a poster presentation at the BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium.

The colloquium is the UK’s main event for women undergraduate students of computing. Now in its 6th year, the day features talks from industry and academia, a panel-based careers session, stalls from employers, and lots of networking opportunities.

Tracey's poster

Tracey’s poster outlines support for female students in the School of Computing

 

The centrepiece of the event is a poster contest for women students. This gives the delegates a chance to show off their work and to win a prize. Aga and Tracey have already won Google-sponsored places at this event, and are now in for a chance of winning the first year Google Excellence Award.

So today I am keeping my fingers crossed for Aga and Tracey.

Post script: Aga and Tracey weren’t lucky enough to win an award at the colloquium. However, if you read Tracey’s recent blog post, you’ll see that that they very much enjoyed participating at the event.

Training provision for the library, information and knowledge sector: invitation to contribute to research project

Posted on by
Reply

This is a call to fellow library, information and knowledge professionals to contribute to a research project by completing a short survey on training needs. If you work in the library, information and knowledge sector, please read on to learn more about the project and how you can contribute to it.

cilip_logoThe survey is one of the data collection tools for the project Training provision for the library, information and knowledge sector. This work has been commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).

In the first phase of the project we are keen to consult with a range of stakeholders on training needs for the library, information and knowledge sector. The survey results will help determine the training delivery preferences of CILIP’s target audience (individuals, manager and employers), and training, learning and development needs as linked to the newly-developed CILIP Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB).

The project team members – myself, Christine Irving and Peter Cruickshank – of the Centre for Social Informatics within the Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation (IIDI) at Edinburgh Napier University will be delighted if you can spare 10 minutes or so to contribute to this work by completing the short survey this week. (The survey will close on Monday 25th March at 09:00am.) IIDI logo

For more information about the project, please see the project page on the IIDI web site and the press release from CILIP.

Full report of Open Knowledge Foundation Edinburgh fifth evening meet-up

Posted on by
Reply

OKFN logo, Open Knowledge Foundation logoI recently wrote a short report of the fifth evening meet-up of the Open Knowledge Foundation Network (OKFN) Edinburgh.

The meet-up was hosted by the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier Merchiston campus on Tuesday 5th March.

I’m really pleased to see that Nicola Osborne, Social Media Officer at EDINA, has posted a full report of the event to the OKFN Edinburgh web site. Read it here.

Leadership in libraries: tying library and information science research to practice

Posted on by
1

uuheaderThis evening from 18:15-19:15 I will be delivering a paper entitled Leadership in libraries: tying library and information science research to practice at the Institute for Research in Social Sciences, University of Ulster.

The presentation draws on my work with the Library and Information Science Research Research Coalition, and the associated DREaM and RiLIES projects. DREaM was concerned with research methods training for library and information professionals, and the RiLIES projects focussed on (1) research impact and (2) resources to support library and information professionals in the consumption and execution of research. This work was completed over a three year period between 2009 and 2012.

I have posted the slides in advance of the presentation to my SlideShare site, and expect that some people will tweet the event. So if you can’t make it, but are interested in the proceedings, please follow remotely using the hash tag #hhulster.

Open Knowledge Foundation Edinburgh meet-up 5: Edinburgh Napier University, 5th March 2013

Posted on by
Reply

OKFN logo, Open Knowledge Foundation logoLast Tuesday the Centre for Social Informatics hosted the fifth evening meet-up of the Open Knowledge Foundation Network (OKFN) Edinburgh.

Around forty participants came along to the event held in the Apex café on the Edinburgh Napier University Merchiston campus. As is the practice at these events there was plenty of time for networking. We enjoyed the refreshments and chat prior to the first set of presentations, in a break in the middle of the meeting, and at the end of the evening.

After my short welcome presentation nine of the visitors gave lightening talks. This was more than double the number at the last meeting on 24th January 2013. The speakers and their presentation themes were:

For me the highlights of the evening were Leah Lockhart’s enthusiastic presentation on social media surgeries for community groups and her suggestion that the model of surgeons and patients may be applied to disseminating information about open data, and Kate Byrne’s fascinating animated demonstration of the work of the Google Ancient Places project. Ally Tibbitt’s mention of community council websites as a form of “witchcraft” struck a chord following my research centre’s recent review of Scottish community councils’ online presences. It was also interesting to hear Ewan Klein’s ideas for the Edinburgh OKFN group to ensure that it sustains interest and keeps its momentum. These included suggestions such as: additional less formal get-togethers in a pub; bigger events such as a half-day meeting or unconference; the creation of working groups; recruiting more people to help organise meetings.

As is the custom at these events thanks were expressed to those who set it up. Unfortunately on this occasion the main on-site organiser – Peter Cruickshank – was unable to attend. If you are interested in knowing the reason why Peter didn’t make it, check slide 5 here.