Last month, on May 25th 2023, I enjoyed the novelty of participating at a RIVAL network event not as an organiser, but as an invited speaker. Expertly coordinated by Dr Bruce Ryan and Professor Diane Pennington, the event was funded by Edinburgh Napier University with additional sponsorship from McMaster University, Canada (the keynote speaker was Professor Brian Detlor), CILIPS, and SLIC. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Edinburgh Napier University
HOPSS project presentation at ‘Shaking the archive’

HOPSS project speaker Marianne Wilson
Over the past weekend, between 23rd and 25th June, Queen Margaret University hosted a conference entitled Shaking the archive: reconsidering the role of archives in contemporary society.
Yesterday, on the last morning of the conference, Marianne Wilson represented the whole Heritage organisations and podcasts scoping study (HOPSS) project team* when she delivered a presentation entitled The power of audio: presenting archives via podcasts. Continue reading
Information literacy competencies for career transitions in the digital age: book chapter now published
Information literacy and the digitalisation of the workplace has recently been published by Facet. I picked up my copy of the book this morning when I was on campus for a meeting with my fellow co-authors of Chapter 6: Marina Milosheva, Pete Robertson, and Peter Cruickshank (pictured above). Continue reading
An afternoon of Social Informatics lightning talks
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. Continue reading
An evening at Lambeth Palace for the 2022 Janette Harley Award ceremony and the 2023 Maurice Bond Memorial Lecture

Lord Salisbury congratulates Bethany Ray on her performance as Lorna Lloyd in the Diary of the war podcast series.
Last Wednesday I was delighted to travel to Lambeth Palace to attend the 2022 Janette Harley Award ceremony, and to hear the 2023 Maurice Bond Memorial Lecture. Continue reading
Community-led digital literacy training: presentation open to all at Edinburgh Napier University, Monday 22nd May 2023
Dr Brian Detlor, Professor and Area Chair (Information Systems) at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Canada, and Visiting Professor to the Social Informatics Research Group at Edinburgh Napier University, will be in Scotland next month. Continue reading
Developing the Young Workforce evaluation: evidence synthesis by Marina Milosheva now available
Last autumn, Social Informatics Research Group PhD student Marina Milosheva completed a 13-week internship administered through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Scottish Science (SGSSS) internship scheme.
In this period, Marina worked in the Advanced Learning and Skills Analysis Unit of the Scottish Government. With a remit to improve the lives of children and young people in Scotland through raising educational standards, this Unit is a part of the Scottish Government’s Learning Directorate. Continue reading
Narrowing the research-practice gap: a newly published paper and the forthcoming RIVAL Reunion
‘From a network model to a model network: strategies for network development to narrow the LIS research–practice gap’ has just been published. This paper, which I co-authored with my Edinburgh Napier University colleagues Dr Bruce Ryan, Rachel Salzano, and Katherine Stephen, can be found in issue 3 of volume 79 of the Journal of Documentation, and is available as a full-text download from the publisher.
Continue reading
Applications invited for a fully-funded PhD studentship on digital literacy skills

The successful candidate will be based at Edinburgh Napier University’s Merchiston campus
Applications are invited for a fully-funded PhD studentship within the Social Informatics Research Group at Edinburgh Napier University. The successful candidate will work with Director of Studies Dr David Haynes on a project entitled Digital literacy skill requirements for new employees and its relation to productivity in the Scottish economy. Continue reading
Information literacy and the digitalization of the workplace: new book to be published on 13th April 2023
Along with my co-authors Marina Milosheva, Pete Robertson, and Peter Cruickshank, I am excited to see that the details of Information literacy and the digitalization of the workplace are now available in Facet’s publishing catalogue.
The anticipated publication of the book next month on 13th April comes just over two years since its first editor Gunilla Widén (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) initially approached me about the possibility of contributing to this new work. The conversation ultimately led to the preparation of a chapter that draws primarily on some of the research that PhD student Marina Milosheva has undertaken for her ESRC/Skills Development Scotland funded doctoral study on career information literacy and career decision-making, and team discussions in Marina’s supervision meetings. In it we focus on the importance of employability information literacy and career information literacy to sustainable employment in largely digitised work environments. Continue reading


