All change for Dr Bruce Ryan

Posted on November 4, 2025 by Hazel Hall

Dr Bruce Ryan

After 13 years at Edinburgh Napier University, Dr Bruce Ryan’s role as Senior Research Fellow has come to an end. Last Friday, I joined Bruce for a special meal to mark his last day in paid employment at the University. Amongst the other guests were our (former) colleagues Dr Peter Cruickshank, Dr David Haynes, and Dr Rachel Salzano.

I worked closely with Bruce for over a decade when we were colleagues in the Centre for Social Informatics. Of the many projects on which we collaborated, three stand out: Continue reading →

Marking the 80th anniversary of VE day with a contribution to The Conversation

Posted on May 8, 2025 by Hazel Hall

Today is the 80th anniversary of VE Day. On this date in 1945, the Second World War allies formally accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces.

Amongst the articles published in The Conversation this week to mark the 80th anniversary is ‘VE Day: how personal first-hand accounts help keep everyday narratives of wartime Britain alive’. This article highlights the value of audio to bring the words of ordinary people from the Second World War directly into the present. The content of the article draws on the analysis of audience engagement with Lorna Lloyd’s Diary of the war in two online formats: (1) text and images on Blipfoto posted from 1st September 2019; (2) an eight episode podcast series that starts with diary entries from early September 1939. The analysis was first presented in an article that I co-authored with Dr Bruce Ryan, Marianne Wilson and Dr Iain McGregor, published in Archives in December 2024. Continue reading →

March 2025 work highlights

Posted on March 31, 2025 by Hazel Hall

For a retired person, work-wise March 2025 has been a super-busy month for me. I have:

Helped edit a draft journal article manuscript
Provided feedback on documents related to the next Research Excellence Framework in 2029 (REF)
Prepared and delivered a presentation for archives and records professionals with Dr Bruce Ryan on our work on the Lorna Lloyd archive
Joined in the reboot of the Edinburgh Coffee Morning
Attended lectures on a range of topics ranging from radical thinking to dark matter
Written an award nomination for a former student who has achieved great things since graduating from Edinburgh Napier University in 2009
Submitted an abstract for a talk to be delivered in May 2025

Continue reading →

A new postcard to publicise the Platform to Platform project

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Hazel Hall

Dr Bruce Ryan and I are planning a couple of speaking engagements about our work on Lorna Lloyd and her Diary of the war in the near future, so today we worked on an updated version of our publicity postcard. Above is the front of the version that we are sending to be printed today. If anyone would like a copy when it’s ready, please email me.

‘Podcasting the archive: an evaluation of audience engagement with a narrative non-fiction podcast series’ published

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Hazel Hall

cover image Archives: The Journal of the British Records Association ‘Podcasting the archive: An evaluation of audience engagement with a narrative non-fiction podcast series’ is now available in issue 2 of volume 28 of Archives, published last month. I am a co-author of the article alongside Dr Bruce Ryan, Marianne Wilson, and Dr Iain McGregor.

In this work we compare audience engagement with a Second World War archive presented digitally in two formats as: (1) images and text in a Blipfoto journal, and (2) sound in an eight-episode podcast series (which starts with episode 1 here). The main findings reveal differences in levels of engagement for each presentation in respect of entertainment value, learning opportunities, and emotional response. Flexibility of access and authenticity of the archived material were also found to be important to audience engagement, with the nature of contextual information provided alongside the core archive key to the latter. Here we further understanding of facets of audience engagement with digitised archives while opening up new thinking on means of encouraging the general public to interact in more meaningful ways with historical records. Continue reading →

Dr Bruce Ryan wins CILIPS funding to explore school librarians’ roles in tackling misinformation and disinformation

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Hazel Hall

Congratulations to Dr Bruce Ryan, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Computing Engineering and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University, on securing funding for a new research project.

Dr Bruce Ryan

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Scotland (CILIPS) has funded Bruce to undertake research into the ways that school librarians can help pupils understand the implications of misinformation (i.e. incorrect information that has been created and disseminated by mistake) and disinformation (i.e. false information that has been deliberately created and disseminated with intent to mislead).

Bruce will collect qualitative and quantitative data from school librarians by focus group and in interviews on their: (1) efforts to help pupils in navigating challenging information landscapes and handling misinformation and disinformation; (2) training needs in fulfilling this role; and (3) collaborative work with teachers to address pupils’ understanding of misinformation and disinformation. Continue reading →

Article accepted by ‘Archives’ on audience engagement with podcast series

Posted on September 2, 2024 by Hazel Hall

platform, logo, Lorna, Lloyd, war, diary ‘Podcasting the archive: an evaluation of audience engagement with a narrative non-fiction podcast series’ has been accepted for publication by Archives journal in October 2024. This contribution is the main output of the AHRC-Creative Informatics funded Platform to platform project. It is co-authored by Dr Bruce Ryan, Professor Hazel Hall, Marianne Wilson, and Dr Iain McGregor. Continue reading →

Work over winter 2023/24

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Hazel Hall

Marina Milosheva’s draft PhD thesis

I have been a little quiet on this blog over the past five months or so. The main reason for this is that I have taken on a further role in addition to that of Emeritus Professor. I am now Continue reading →