The latest issue of  Information Research published this week includes two papers that draw on research from the Centre for Social Informatics. I was a co-author on both:

Buunk, I., Hall, H., & Smith, C.F. (2017). Tacit knowledge sharing: the determination of a methodological approach to explore the intangible. Information Research, 22(1).

Mowbray, J., Hall, H., Raeside, R., Robertson, P. (2017). The role of networking and social media tools during job search: an information behaviour perspective. Information Research, 22(1).

Buunk, Hall & Smith (2017) was first presented as a conference paper by Iris Buunk at Information Seeking in Context (ISIC) 2016 last September in Zadar, Croatia. In the paper it is argued that research design should take into account both the specific nature of the object under scrutiny, as well as approaches to its study in the past. This is to ensure that informed decisions are made regarding research design in future empirical studies. These factors are discussed with reference to methodological choice for Iris’ doctoral study on tacit knowledge sharing, and the extent to tacit knowledge sharing may be facilitated by online tools.

Other resources related to the newly published article include the presentation slides delivered at ISIC 2016 available from  Iris’ SlideShare account, a blog post by Iris on the theme of the paper, and Iris’ blogged review of the conference entitled That was ISIC.

Three other PhD students from the Centre for Social Informatics also presented their work at ISIC 2016: see the summary of contributions, and the students’ conference reviews.

Mowbray, Hall, Raeside & Robertson (2017) is also related to a conference paper. In this case, the work was first presented by John Mowbray at Conceptions of Library and Information Science 9 in Uppsala, Sweden in June 2016. The paper comprises a critical analysis of the extant literature pertaining to the networking behaviours of young job seekers, and proposes a framework derived from information behaviour theory as a basis for conducting further research in this area.

Three key research themes that emerge from the analysis. These are: (1) social networks, and the use of informal channels of information during job search, (2) the role of networking behaviours in job search, and (3) the adoption of social media tools. Wilson’s general model of information behaviour is identified as a suitable framework to conduct further research to explore the processes whereby young job seekers engage in networking behaviours in both offline and online environments.

As well as the newly-published article in Information Research, the associated slides from the conference paper are also available from John’s SlideShare account.