The Workforce Mapping Project survey is found at http://bit.ly/workforcemap
The Workforce Mapping Project survey closes at the end of the month on Thursday 30th April. The Edinburgh Napier project team is keen to encourage those who work within the UK in roles associated with libraries, archives, records, information, and knowledge management, and who have not already done so, to make their contributions to the study.
Given that I am currently leading a research project to map the UK workforce in library, archives, records, information and knowledge management sectors, I was interested to come across some results of a recent YouGov survey yesterday. These claim that the job of librarian is the ‘second most desirable’ in Britain. Is this really the case, and (if so) why?
The Workforce Mapping Project survey is live at http://bit.ly/workforcemap
This is a call to workers in the library, archives, records, information, and knowledge management sector to contribute to a research project by completing a short survey. If you work in this sector, please read on to learn more about the project and how you can contribute to it.
Christine Irving
Christine Irving, part-time Research Fellow in the Centre for Social Informatics (CSI) at Edinburgh Napier University, is currently working on a thesis, provisionally entitled The development of a model of information literacy from a lifelong learning perspective, for the award of PhD by Published Works. This work will draw on Christine’s long track record of research and development work on information literacy and lifelong learning undertaken between 2004 and 2010 as part of the Scottish Information Literacy Project (2004-2010), and which continues with the Scottish Information Literacy Community of Practice The right information: information skills for a 21st century Scotland. I am Christine’s Director of Studies, and Dr Alison Brettle of the University of Salford is her second supervisor. Christine is required to submit her 25,000 word thesis by September 2015.
Professor Blaise Cronin
Many congratulations to Blaise Cronin, Visiting Professor to the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University, who has today been named as one of the winners of the 2014 Jason Farradane Award.
Information Science Scotland, the consortium of which my group at Edinburgh Napier University is a member, has partnered with CILIPS to showcase the research carried out by information science researchers in four Scottish Universities. Staff and doctoral students from Edinburgh Napier, Glasgow, Strathclyde, and Robert Gordon will be at a one-day event in Aberdeen on Tuesday 22nd April to discuss a range of research projects and how the findings of this work can help inform practice.
On September 19th I wrote that my colleague Dr Jan Auernhammer and I had just learnt that our article “Organizational culture in knowledge creation, creativity and innovation: towards the Freiraum model” had been accepted for publication by the Journal of Information Science. This work considers established concepts from the domain of knowledge and creativity management, and extends these to deepen understanding of how aspects of organizational culture, including leadership and social conditions, influence organizational performance in terms of (a) improving knowledge creation processes related to creativity, and (b) fostering innovation. It is based on a large empirical study conducted within a large German manufacturing firm.
Today I travelled to Perth to attend the first meeting of Information Science Scotland for this academic year. Information Science Scotland is a consortium of the four Scottish Universities that offer courses and conduct research in Information Science. Representatives from departments of each university meet on a regular basis to plan the group’s activities.
An on-going concern of many professions, such as policing, social work, psychology, nursing, and teaching, is the “research-practice gap”, and the corresponding distance between researchers and practitioners within each community. Much of my work with the Library and Information Science (LIS) Research Coalition, and its associated projects Developing Research Excellence and Methods (DREaM) and the Research in Librarianship Impact Evaluation Study (RiLIES), sought to address the gap within LIS between 2009 and 2012.
This is a call to fellow library, information and knowledge professionals to contribute to a research project by completing a short survey on training needs. If you work in the library, information and knowledge sector, please read on to learn more about the project and how you can contribute to it.
The survey is one of the data collection tools for the project Training provision for the library, information and knowledge sector. This work has been commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).
Hazel Hall 