Last summer members of the Centre for Social Informatics delivered nine papers at Information: interactions and impact (i3) 2017. Following the conference, we were given the opportunity to develop this work into submissions for the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (JoLIS). We took up this offer by working seven of the nine conference papers up to full journal article manuscripts. These were all submitted by the deadline of September 30th 2017. Following peer review and revisions all seven were accepted, and they will be published in JoLIS in due course. The manuscripts for all accepted articles have now been added to the Edinburgh Napier repository, and can be downloaded by clicking the article titles below. Continue reading
Category Archives: Projects
Applications invited for fully-funded PhD studentship on workplace skills development within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University

We are currently advertising a fully-funded PhD studentship within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. (See the advertisement on FindAPhD.com and the studentship details on the Edinburgh Napier University careers pages.)
The title of the doctoral study is Meta-skills maturity for future workplaces.
- Applications are due by Friday 30th March 2018.
- Interviews are scheduled for Wednesday 18th April 2018.
- The studentship will start on Thursday 1st October 2018.
The impact of UKRC networking grants: a new publication on the long-term sustainability of the AHRC-funded DREaM network
Amongst the various funding schemes offered, the UK research councils support the development of research communities through schemes such as AHRC networking and EPSRC Digital Economy Network Plus grants. While it is possible to learn about the activities of these networks during their period of funding by reviewing their details on the Gateway to research, it is a more difficult task to discover their long-term impact.
This blog post concerns a new publication that addresses the question of network sustainability within a community of library and information science (LIS) researchers and practitioner researchers. Continue reading
Information sharing, information literacy, and #Finland100
Last week I travelled to Turku to spend some time with colleagues at Åbo Akademi University. This was my first visit to Finland since my appointment last February as Docent in Information Studies within the Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Economics at the University. Continue reading
Practitioner research: value, impact, and priorities #libresearch17
This Wednesday 8th November I will be the opening speaker at ‘Themes and trends in library and information research‘, a one-day conference hosted by CILIP in Kent at Canterbury Christ Church University. Entitled ‘Practitioner research: value, impact, and priorities’ my presentation covers four mains themes:
- The long-identified (and debated) research-practice gap in library and information science research
- The case for research-led practice and practitioner-led research
- Access to current research in library and information science research in the UK
- Means of generating new research ideas
Centre for Social Informatics at the ‘Ways of being in a digital age’ review conference
The Ways of being in a digital age review conference is currently underway at the University of Liverpool. The conference closes the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) project Ways of being in a digital age. The project was commissioned by the ESRC in 2016 to help identify and prioritise future areas and methods for research on the social, economic, political, psychological and cultural impacts of digital media and technologies.
Amongst the delegates at the conference is Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Alicja Pawluczuk. At the conference Alicja is presenting a paper that she has co-authored with the members of her supervision team: Dr Gemma Webster, Dr Colin Smith and myself. The paper is entitled ‘Digital culture co-creation: capturing the social impact of small-scale community projects’. The slides are available on SlideShare and below.
Exploring Information Literacy through the lens of Activity Theory: CSI at ECIL 2017 #ECIL17 #ECIL2017
The 5th European Conference on Information Literacy takes place in St-Malo, France this week between Monday 18th and Thursday 21st September 2017. My colleague Dr Bruce Ryan is travelling to France to join the conference and deliver a presentation on a recent project that he and I completed with our Centre for Social Informatics colleague Peter Cruickshank.
Our paper Exploring information literacy through the lens of Activity Theory will be presented alongside three others in session entitled Information Literacy Research chaired by Dr Jesús Lau on Wednesday 20th September between 11:10 and 11:35 UK time (12:10-12:35 in France). The slides are already available on SlideShare and below.
Defining the UK information worker: the CILIP/ARA Workforce Mapping Project #lib_research17
Yesterday I delivered a presentation about social media research undertaken by staff and students within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University (slides available on SildeShare) at McMaster University.
Today I am returning to campus to contribute to the McMaster Library Research Symposium 2017.
At this event I will be relating the main findings of the CILIP/ARA Workforce Mapping Project completed in 2014/15, and the impact of the work to date. The slides for my presentation are available on SlideShare, and below. Continue reading
Research into social media practices and social media practices for research
I’m currently working in Canada, where I am a guest of McMaster University, hosted by Dr Brian Detlor.
This week, amongst other activities at McMaster, I am delivering two invited papers. The first paper, which I am presenting twice to two different audiences on Monday 14th August, is about social media research undertaken by staff and students within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. The slides for this presentation are available on SildeShare and below.
Information: interactions and impact (i3) 2017 review #i3rgu

Centre for Social Informatics colleagues Peter Cruickshank, Dr Laura Muir, Professor Hazel Hall & Visiting Professor Brian Detlor gather at #i3RGU
This blog post was updated in March 2018 to include links to the full text of seven manuscripts of articles developed from nine of the papers presented by CSI staff at i3 2017. These articles will be published in the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (JoLIS) later in 2018.
Information: interactions and impact (i3) 2017 took place at Robert Gordon University at the end of last month from Tuesday June 27th until Friday June 30th 2017, with a packed programme for delegates who had travelled to Aberdeen from across the world. As in previous years, staff and research students from the Centre for Social Informatics (who didn’t have too far to travel) enjoyed participating at the event. We delivered a total of nine papers, as summarised in the table below. Continue reading



