The Edinburgh festivals are now well underway in Scotland’s capital city. I love this time of year, and try to fit in as many shows as possible around my work commitments. One week into the Fringe I have already seen ten shows, and I have plenty of tickets for several more between now and 25th August. I am particularly looking forward to two performances, both of which are highly relevant to my work at Edinburgh Napier University.
Author Archives: Hazel Hall
Hyperlocal government-citizen engagement: a new project for the Centre for Social Informatics
The Centre for Social Informatics has been awarded a new research grant by the Communities and Culture Network+.
My colleagues Peter Cruickshank and Dr Bruce Ryan have won funding for a study into hyperlocal government-citizen engagement. They will investigate the efforts of three neighbouring Scottish community councils in improving engagement with their citizens in both online and offline conversations. This work follows on from recent and ongoing investigations into the use of online communication by community councils: (1) a project to visualise community council locations; (2) a study of public online presences of community councils.
iDocQ Information Science doctoral colloquium 2014 #idocq2014: a review
iDocQ, the annual doctoral colloquium for students studying for PhDs in information science and other related disciplines, took place this year on 27th June at the University of Glasgow. It attracted participants at all stages of doctoral study, with students travelling to Glasgow from as far away as Aberystwyth to join in the activities on the day.
Congratulations Dr Nicole van Deursen!
Many congratulations to Dr Nicole van Deursen of the Centre for Social Informatics, who graduates with her PhD from Edinburgh Napier University at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh today.
Nicole’s thesis is entitled HI-risk: a socio-technical method to identify and monitor healthcare information security risks in the information society. The doctoral work was supervised by Professor Alistair Duff and Professor Bill Buchanan.
Women in science: the challenge – an evening with Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock
After an afternoon spent training PhD students in Glasgow last Wednesday I was popped along to an evening presentation by space scientist and The sky at night presenter Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock. This was last event of Strathclyde University’s Researcher Development Programme in 2013/14. The talk was entitled “Women in science: the challenge”. Its main theme was public engagement work related to attracting greater numbers, particularly of women, into science careers. This theme is of particular interest to me as Edinburgh Napier University’s Academic Champion for the Athena SWAN charter.
Blaise Cronin to deliver guest lecture at Edinburgh Napier University, 24 June 2014
Dr Blaise Cronin, Rudy Professor of Information Science, Indiana University is Visiting Professor to the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. Next week he will be on our Merchiston campus to deliver a presentation entitled “Beethoven vs. Bieber: On the meaningfulness of (alt)metrics” (abstract below) as part of the School of Computing/Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation Tech Talk series.
Google+ and library and information professionals: findings
Back in March I put out a call from this blog to fellow library and information professionals to contribute to a research project on the use of Google+. Grant Charters, one of my final year project students in 2013/14, had designed a survey to collect data for a project entitled Social platforms as business tools: An investigation into the use of Google+ by librarians for their professional development and in library and information services delivery. Grant was keen to consult with a range of professionals who work in libraries and information services to find out about their use on Google+ to support services delivery and/or for their own professional development.
Facilitating collaboration: a doctoral defence in Sweden
An invitation to Borås
Yesterday I served as the opponent at a PhD defence at the University of Borås in Sweden. This was my second Nordic PhD examining experience this year, following my March trip to the Åbo Akademi University in the Finnish city of Turku to examine a thesis on social media and public libraries, as reported here.

Dr Ann-Sophie Axellson, Dr Monica Lassi, and Professor Louise Limberg
The PhD candidate on this occasion was Monica Lassi who, until recently, has been working as a lecturer in the Swedish School of Library and Information Science. Monica’s work was supervised by Professor Louise Limberg and Dr Ann-Sofie Axelsson. The broad theme of Monica’s thesis entitled Facilitating collaboration: exploring a socio-technical approach to the design of a collaboratory for Library and Information Science is collaboration in library and information science (LIS) research. The focus is on the potential of designated online spaces – collaboratories – to facilitate and stimulate collaborative work related to the creating, sharing, use and re-use of data collection instruments such as interview guides, questionnaires and observation protocols.
Applications invited for PhD studentship: The evolution of social networking and its impact on career management skills
We are currently advertising a fully-funded PhD studentship hosted by the Centre for Social Informatics, (my research centre within the Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation) at Edinburgh Napier University. (The actual advert can be found on jobs.ac.uk and the Edinburgh Napier University vacancies web site.)
Two events for research students in Information Science: research methods training, and iDocQ 2014
From Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th June the Information Science pathway of ESRC Scottish Graduate School of Social Science information science pathway is hosting three days of activities offered free of charge to PhD students in Information Science and related disciplines (with travel bursaries available to students registered at Scottish universities that are members of the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science).



