Edinburgh Napier University opened its doors again this morning after the Christmas break. This, however, is metaphorical reopening for me. As record numbers of Covid19 cases are reported in Scotland (and the UK as a whole), I will be continuing my research and PhD supervision activities off-campus from home. Continue reading
World War II diarist Lorna Lloyd (left) will be voiced by her great-great niece actor Bethany Ray (right) in a new podcast series, to be released in May 2022
A new project will be hosted by the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University from February until July 2022. Platform to platform: an investigation into audience engagement with digitised archives and its transformative impact across different online formats (P2P) was recently selected as one of the latest projects for support of the AHRC-funded Creative Informatics small research grants scheme. Continue reading
Given that my last in-person research seminar was early last year on 19th February 2020 (when I was the speaker at an event at the University of Glasgow), I was very excited to venture onto campus ten days ago on 17th November 2021 to welcome a visitor to the Centre for Social Informatics. At the invitation of Dr David Brazier, Dr Morgan Harvey, Lecturer in Data Science and Information Retrieval in the Information School at the University of Sheffield, kindly travelled to Edinburgh to present the findings from some research that he conducted when employed at Northumbria University. He also took advantage of the trip north to work with David on revisions to a paper that they have recently co-authored. Continue reading
My Centre for Social Informatics colleague Dr Peter Cruickshank has recently won Interface funding to initiate a new research collaboration. The project partner is Trubshaw Cumberlege, a consulting firm that ‘helps forward thinking companies maximise profits by addressing social challenges at their doorsteps’.
The purpose of the project is to prototype a software-as-a service (SaaS) platform for the automation of risk assessment and management, and associated security alerts. The practical work involves the implementation of a prototype machine learning platform, and the development of underlying infrastructure. Our colleague Dr Dimitra Gkatzia, and PhD student Aleksander Bielinski will be working alongside Peter to deliver the project.
The Edinburgh Napier University Workforce Mapping Project team, 2014/15
In 2014/15 I led an Edinburgh Napier University team on a research project to profile the UK information professions. My colleagues were Christine Irving (now retired) and Dr Bruce Ryan of the Centre for Social Informatics; and Professor Robert Raeside (also retired), Dr Matthew Dutton, and Dr Tao Chen (now at the University of Bradford) of the Employment Research Institute. The output was a 186-page report (inclusive of 20 figures and 97 tables of statistics). Continue reading
Do you work with refugees and/or asylum seekers (forced migrants) as part of your role in a UK public library? Can you assist a PhD student with her study on forced migrants’ use of UK public libraries? Perhaps you have colleagues or other contacts who could help out?
Rachel Salzano of Edinburgh Napier University seeks public library staff (at any level) willing to take part in interviews about their experience of delivering public library services to forced migrants. The interviews last approximately 1 hour and are organised at the interviewee’s convenience. Please contact Rachel on the form at https://librariansanslibrary.weebly.com/contact or email r.salzano@napier.ac.uk to contribute to this important work.
In July 2021 my Centre for Social Informatics colleague Peter Cruickshank was awarded a doctoral degree for his thesis Evaluation of engagement with hyperlocal e-participation systems by citizens and representatives.
The pdf of the thesis is now freely available for download from the Edinburgh Napier University repository. It will be of interest to all who conduct research on information behaviour and use, and particularly those investigating themes such as everyday life information seeking and information literacy in the context of e-participation. Continue reading
Congratulations to Centre for Social Informatics research student Marianne Wilson, winner of the Masters award in the Skills Development (SDS) Scotland Virtual 3MT competition 2021. Continue reading
The European Conference on Information Literacy 2021 (ECIL2021) opens today, running for three days until Thursday 23rd September. The work of the Centre for Social Informatics (CSI) will be represented in two presentations at this online event. Continue reading
Today Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Katherine Stephen starts a 3-month paid internship with Marine Scotland. The internship has been organised through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Scottish Science (SGSSS) internship programme, and is funded by the Scottish Government. Continue reading
Hazel Hall 