Poster presentation in Copenhagen: Mapping the UK Information Workforce at #asist2016

Heering Copenhagen

Some colour under a cold grey sky in Copenhagen

I’ve been in Copenhagen since the end of last week, participating at the 79th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology. I’ve been enjoying the presentations – from Greg Welch‘s keynote on telepresence to Debbie Rabina‘s account of research of prisoners’ information needs examined through discourse analysis – and catching up with colleagues from around the world.

There’s some really interesting work being conducted in Information Science across the globe, and I’ve learnt about some tempting job opportunities too. For example, if you’re functionally bilingual in English and French, and looking for a tenure-track position in North America, the University of Ottawa’s School of Information Studies – l’École des sciences de l’information (ÉSIS) – is hoping to recruit an Associate Professor who can make contributions to teaching and research in  library and information management. Do contact Mary Cavanagh (mary.cavanagh@uottawa.ca,@mfcavanagh) if this is of interest to you. I’ve also managed to play tourist a little with a short visit the city (in the cold and grey) on Sunday morning with my Finnish colleague Gunilla Widen. Continue reading

Demographics of the UK information professions: fact sheets published by CILIP and ARA

This week the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the Archives and Records Association (ARA) published a series of 24 fact sheets on the demography of the UK workforce in libraries, archives, records, information management, and knowledge management. The data, presented in the fact sheets by sector and region, derive from the findings of the Workforce Mapping Project.

This project was completed in 2014/15 by an Edinburgh Napier University team that comprised three staff from the Centre for Social Informatics (Hazel Hall, Christine Irving and Bruce Ryan) and three from the Employment Research Institute (Robert Raeside, Tao Chen and Matthew Dutton). In November 2015 CILIP and ARA used data from the final project report to publish the headline findings from the study. Continue reading

Tackling gender inequality from the classroom to the boardroom #ERIgender

Today I’m taking part in a workshop entitled ‘Tackling gender inequality from the classroom to the boardroom’ hosted by the Employment Research Institute (ERI) at Edinburgh Napier University. My presentation draws on my experience of leading Athena SWAN work at Edinburgh Napier. Amongst the other expert speakers are: Continue reading

Tackling gender inequality from the classroom to the boardroom: workshop preview

Pirate or princess?

A pirate princess gender stereotype compromise?

  • Why do we continue to see gender stereotyping in education?
  • What is the impact of such gender stereotyping on the labour market?
  • How does gender stereotyping limit career opportunities for individuals?
  • What are the wider impacts of gender stereotyping on society at large?
  • Which approaches work best in achieving sustained change with respect to gender imbalance in educational settings and the workplace?

These questions will be addressed at a half-day workshop on tackling gender inequality, hosted by the Employment Research Institute (ERI) at Edinburgh Napier University from 10:00-13:00 on Tuesday 10th May 2016. The discussions will take into account recent research on gender imbalances in education and key sectors of the economy undertaken at the ERI. Continue reading