Are you a student based outside Scotland studying for a PhD in Information Science or a related discipline? If so, this is for you!
Apply for a bursary award to support attendance at the ASIST Annual Lecture 2016 and an Information Science Masterclass at Edinburgh Napier University on Wednesday 30th November 2016. Continue reading
Last week UKeIG announced that I am the winner of the 2016 Jason Farradane Award. For me it is a huge honour even to have been nominated for this prize. The news that I am the actual recipient caught me somewhat off-guard last Wednesday – on a day disrupted by a fire at work that resulted in the closure of campus at 2pm. I have since been overwhelmed with congratulatory messages by email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and in person from friends, family, and colleagues. Thank you all! Continue reading
Many congratulations to Centre for Social Informatics research student Alicja Pawluczuk on winning the best poster award at the The Digital Human: Humanities and Social Sciences in the Digital Age conference hosted by Strathclyde University on 12th September.
The conference focused on the challenges and potential of interdisciplinary digital research. Alicja’s poster outlined the proposals for her doctoral study on youth digital participation and measuring the social impact of such work. For further information about the conference and Alicja’s contribution to the day check the post on her blog www.phdadventures.com.
Lyndsey Jenkins
Many congratulations to Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Lyndsey Jenkins on winning a ‘best paper’ award with co-authors Ruoyun Lin and Debora Jeske at the 15th IFIP Conference on e-Business, e-Services and e-Society last week.
The winning paper is entitled ‘Influences and benefits of role models on social media’. On the basis of their empirical work, the authors argue that having a role model is associated with greater perceived support for one’s career aspirations, and access to information. In addition, those who have role models online report that their online profiles give more realistic self-presentations of their values and priorities. These individuals also have higher expectations of reciprocity in online environments. Continue reading
The stage at the Usher Hall
I had the honour this week of delivering the laureation address at the Edinburgh Napier University graduation ceremony on Tuesday 5th July. The laureate was Professor Lesley Yellowlees. Lesley is Vice Principal and Head of the College of Science and Engineering, and Professor of Inorganic ElectroChemistry, at the University of Edinburgh. She has been awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of her major contribution to Chemistry, and her pioneering work to promote the careers of women in science.
The University Chancellor Dr David Eustace conferred Lesley’s award at the Usher Hall at the start of the graduation ceremony for students from the School of Life, Sport and Social Science, and the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Care on Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading
CSI colleagues Iris Buunk, Dr Laura Muir, Marwa Salayma (Centre for Distributed Computing, Networking and Security), Dr Tom Kane, John Mowbray, Lyndsey Jenkins, & Frances Ryan
The Centre for Social Informatics had a very successful day at Edinburgh Napier University’s 2016 Research Conference last Wednesday. We presented our work in three of the sessions: Continue reading
The equivalent body to the UK’s Equality Challenge Unit in Australia is Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE). SAGE is currently running a pilot of Athena SWAN in Australia in which 32 STEMM universities and research organisations are participants. They are all keen to improve the education and career outcomes of all women, and to boost the recognition of under-represented groups such as transgender scientists, indigenous Australian researchers and other minority groups. Following completion of the pilot, the long-term ambition of SAGE is to replicate the UK’s success of Athena SWAN as an evaluation and accreditation programme to enhance gender equity and diversity. Continue reading
The Centre for Social Informatics has won funding to investigate levels of digital and information literacy within Scotland’s Community Council system in a project entitled Information Literacy for Democratic Engagement (IL-DEM). The award has been granted by the CILIP Information Literacy Group.
Peter Cruickshank, Dr Bruce Ryan and I will explore how community councillors develop the skills required to inform and engage with the citizens that they represent, and how libraries support this work. It will build on two established research streams within the Centre for Social Informatics: Cruickshank and Ryan’s work on digital engagement in local democracy (such as our recent DigiCC workshops), and my work with Christine Irving on information literacy and life-long learning. It will also build on our group’s track record in library and information science research. Continue reading
2016 got off to a terrific start for the Centre for Social Informatics with three award-winning ‘performances’ at the 2nd International Data and Information Management Conference (IDIMC), hosted by the Centre for Information Management at Loughborough University on 12th and 13th January.
Following two intensive days of invited papers, contributed papers, workshops, PhD student presentations (delivered as 5 minute madness), and posters (not to mention all the chat between sessions in the breaks and at the conference dinner) we returned to Edinburgh clutching the prizes for: Continue reading
Seven weeks of dissemination
When Leo Appleton presents the slides for our joint-authored paper on the value and impact of public library services on citizenship development at the 11th Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries and Information Services today, this will mark the end of a busy conference season for the staff and research students in the Centre for Social Informatics. Continue reading
Hazel Hall 