Professors Brian Detlor & Hazel Hall

Dr Brian Detlor, Visiting Professor to the Social Informatics Research Group at Edinburgh Napier University, has been in the Edinburgh for the past week. Last Friday I was pleased to participate in one of the events organised to mark Brian’s visit: a lightening talk showcase of some the excellent research undertaken by researchers in the Social Informatics Research Group.

My own presentation was about the AHRC/Creative Informatics funded Platform to Platform project that I completed last year with Dr Bruce Ryan (PI) and Dr Iain McGregor (Co-I). This work involved the creation of a podcast series based on Lorna Lloyd’s Diary of the war, and an assessment audience engagement with archives in two different digital formats – (1) a Blipfoto journal of text and images, and (2) sound in podcast episodes. The slides for my presentation are available on SlideShare.

Please click on the image to access the SlideShare deck

The other speakers and topics were:

• Aleksander Bielinski – his doctoral research entitled ‘Enhancing labour market intelligence using machine learning.
• Dr David Brazier – the impact of digitisation on people, and his four on-going PhD supervisions
• Maria Cecil – her doctoral research entitled ‘Gendered information landscapes and their impact on routes into and through apprenticeships’.
• Dr Peter Cruickshank – community councils’ online presences, the information literacy of community representatives, the ways in which staff in frontline public services help individuals manage their online identities, and links with the Library and Information Science department at the Universiti Malaya.
• Drew Feeney – his doctoral research entitled ‘User-led approaches to digital literacies in older adults’.
• Professor Diane Pennington – ethical metadata.
• Dr Frances Ryan – human information behaviour in digital environments as this relates to everyday life, and her current project Librarians as proxies.
• Rachel Salzano – public library soundscapes, building on her recently doctoral study ‘The influence of culture on perceived use of public libraries by forced migrants in Scotland and England’. (Rachel will be awarded her PhD at graduation on 7th July 2023.)
• Tomasz Stupnicki – his doctoral research entitled ‘Multi-modal ubiquitous quantum self monitoring: a driver of mental health improvements in the prison environment‘.

After our very convivial and entertaining afternoon, the research chat continued at McLarens on the Corner in Merchiston over drinks. What an excellent way to start the weekend!

Session presenters: Dr Bruce Ryan, Professor Diane Pennington, Drew Feeney, Maria Cecil, Professor Hazel Hall, Tomasz Stupnicki, Aleksander Bielinski, Dr Peter Cruickshank, Rachel Salzano, & Dr David Brazier.