Centre for Social Informatics success at the Edinburgh Napier University research conference 2016 #NapRes16

Iris Buunk, Laura Muir, Marwa Salayma, Tom Kane, John Mowbray & Frances Ryan

CSI colleagues Iris Buunk, Dr Laura Muir, Marwa Salayma (Centre for Distributed Computing, Networking and Security), Dr Tom Kane, John Mowbray, Lyndsey Jenkins, & Frances Ryan

The Centre for Social Informatics had a very successful day at Edinburgh Napier University’s 2016 Research Conference last Wednesday.  We presented our work in three of the sessions: Continue reading

Social media for academic profile: a presentation to HATII at the University of Glasgow

HATII signLast Tuesday I was a guest of colleagues at the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow. They invited me over to give a presentation on social media for academic profile building along the lines of previous talks that I have given on the subject. It was Dr Ian Anderson who suggested me as a speaker having attended a training session on this theme that I ran at iDocQ in 2014. Continue reading

Power to the population? The population census under review

Lynn Killick ACTIS 2015 badgeIn November 2015 Lynn Killick, who works with me within the Centre for Social Informatics, presented some preliminary results from her doctoral study at the Asian Conference on Technology, Information and Society (ACTIS) 2015. Lynn’s AHRC-funded PhD is entitled An investigation into the population census as a tool for building the good society: policy, ethics and social informatics. Its focus is the future of the population census, and its role in informing the good society. Continue reading

Deadlines approaching for Edinburgh Napier research studentship opportunities

We are currently offering three different funded research studentship opportunities in the Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation within the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University. All of these have deadlines in the next few days: one on Monday 11th January, and the other two on Friday 15th January. These are summarised in the table below, with links to additional information on each scheme. If you are planning to make an application for one or more of these schemes, please don’t miss the deadline(s)! Continue reading

Who is the ‘typical’ UK information worker? Headline findings of the CILIP/ARA Workforce Mapping Project

Workforce Mapping Project executive summary

The executive summary is available from the CILIP web site

Last week the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the Archives and Records Association (ARA) held a launch event in London. Here an executive summary of the Workforce Mapping Project, with which I have been heavily involved over the past 15 months, was presented. The summary distributed at the launch notes key findings of the study.

These include:

  • The estimated size of the UK workforce in the Library, Archives, Records, Information Management, and Knowledge Management professions is 86,376.
  • Women dominate the workforce (78.1% of the workforce is female, and 21.9% male), yet earn less than men, and are not so well represented in senior management positions.
  • The workforce is highly qualified: 61.4% hold postgraduate academic qualifications.
  • The workforce is ageing: 55.3% of its members are over 45 years of age. (The equivalent figure for the UK workforce as a whole is 41.1%.)
  • There is low ethnic diversity in the workforce: 96.7% identify as ‘white’.

Continue reading

Creating, building and assessing personal reputation using online information sources: study participants sought

Frances Ryan desk

Frances is ready to hear from potential study participants, especially those under 28 or over 55

One of my PhD students, Frances Ryan, is undertaking doctoral research that is concerned with the role of online information in the creation, building, and assessment of personal reputations. She is currently seeking study participants.

Those who volunteer are asked to make some diary entries about their use of online information over the course of a week. The diary entries can be hand-written or electronic. Paper diaries are provided for those wishing to complete by hand. Continue reading

Congratulations Dr Louise Rasmussen and Dr Hannah Rudman

Dr Hannah Rudman and Dr Louise Rasmussen

Dr Hannah Rudman and Dr Louise Rasmussen in their graduation robes

Congratulations to Louise Rasmussen and Hannah Rudman who were awarded their PhDs at the Edinburgh Napier University graduation ceremony at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh today.

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Applications invited for PhD studentship: Enhancing the capacity for workplace learning and innovation in Scotland

We are currently advertising a fully-funded PhD studentship within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. The studentship is advertised on the Edinburgh Napier University vacancies web site, and on jobs.ac.uk. The title of the study is Enhancing the capacity for workplace learning and innovation in Scotland.

  • Applications are due by Monday 20th April 2015.
  • Interviews are planned for Thursday 14th May 2015.
  • The studentship will start on Thursday 1st October 2015.

Continue reading