What can you do with a PhD? Ten answers from graduates who completed their doctoral studies between 2015 and 2023

Posted on May 13, 2024 by Hazel Hall

One of the questions most often asked of doctoral students is What are you going to do when you finish your PhD? For some students it is also one of the most dreaded, especially when it comes from family members or friends who barely understand the title of the doctoral research in question. An obvious, and truthful, answer is ‘No longer work on my thesis’. However, this isn’t really a suitable response. The questioner is interested in hearing about ‘proper’ job ambitions, and the value of these to a successful future career. Continue reading →

Congratulations Dr Rachel Salzano!

Posted on July 13, 2023 by Hazel Hall

Rachel Salzano at the Usher Hall just before the start of the graduation ceremony

Congratulations to Dr Rachel Salzano, who was awarded her PhD at the Edinburgh Napier graduation ceremony at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh last Friday 7th July.

I supervised Rachel’s doctoral work alongside Dr Gemma Webster and Dr David Brazier. Given that Rachel was only five and a half months into her doctoral study when the UK went into the first of the COVID19 lockdowns* in March 2020, we consider it a real achievement that she managed to complete her empirical work, write it up, and submit her thesis in October 2022, exactly three years after joining our research group.

Rachel’s doctoral study is entitled The influence of culture on perceived use of public libraries by forced migrants in Scotland and England. Continue reading →

An afternoon of advice on studying part-time for a PhD

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Hazel Hall

Last month on 18th November 2022, I was delighted to take part in an event deigned for those interested in undertaking part-time doctoral studies.

The speakers at Routes and experiences of doing an LIS PhD were brought together by the committee of the Library and Information Research Group (LIRG) of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) to provide insight into the experience of undertaking a PhD while working, as well as provide practical information on topics such as making an application for a PhD place, and the different routes to earning the title of ‘Doctor‘. Continue reading →

The public library as public sphere: a longitudinal analysis – full article available as EarlyCite

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Hazel Hall

The public library and pubic sphere: a longitudinal analysis is now available as a full paper (HTML or PDF) from the Journal of Documentation as an EarlyCite publication. This is the final output from Dr Leo Appleton‘s part-time doctoral study, completed in 2020 within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. Continue reading →

Data collection by multi-location, longitudinal focus group: an application in library and information science research

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Hazel Hall

Dr Leo Appleton

I have recently published a new paper on research methods in Library and Information Science (LIS) research with Dr Leo Appleton of the Information School at Sheffield University.

This work is concerned with the data collection phase of Leo‘s part-time doctoral study completed in 2020 within the Centre for Social Informatics. For this, Leo deployed a novel multi-location longitudinal focus group method. Fifty-three participants took part in three rounds of focus group meetings in eight public library authorities in England and Scotland over a period of three years. Continue reading →

The public library as public sphere: new article accepted for publication in the Journal of Documentation

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Hazel Hall

The public library as public sphere: a longitudinal analysis has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Documentation. I recently co-authored this article with Dr Leo Appleton (Senior University Teacher at the University of Sheffield).

In the article, Leo and I discuss the role of the UK public library as a public sphere, and the ways in which this role relates to the epistemic, community, and political functions of public libraries. The article is a major output from Leo‘s doctoral research, which he completed part-time in the Centre for Social Informatics. The findings presented in the article derive from the analysis of empirical data that Leo collected in 24 focus groups with active public library users over a period of four years. Continue reading →

Goodbye 2021, hello 2022

Posted on January 5, 2022 by Hazel Hall

Edinburgh Napier University opened its doors again this morning after the Christmas break. This, however, is metaphorical reopening for me. As record numbers of Covid19 cases are reported in Scotland (and the UK as a whole), I will be continuing my research and PhD supervision activities off-campus from home. Continue reading →

Using a multi-location, longitudinal focus group method to conduct qualitative research into the role of public libraries #QQML2021

Posted on May 24, 2021 by Hazel Hall

Dr Leo Appleton

The 13th Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries International Conference (QQML2021) takes place this week from Tuesday 25th until Friday 28th May. At the conference, Dr Leo Appleton, who completed his doctoral study within the Centre for Social Informatics last year, is presenting a paper that he and I have co-authored.

Entitled ‘Using a multi-location, longitudinal focus group method to conduct qualitative research into the role of public libraries‘, the theme of our paper is the novel multi–location longitudinal focus group method that Leo adopted for the empirical phase of his PhD research on the role of UK public libraries. In his presentation slot on Tuesday, Leo will discuss the value of data collection from fifty–three participants in three rounds of focus group meetings in eight UK public library authorities. He will explain that this approach generated a rich data set for qualitative analysis. In particular, he will draw attention to the increasing level of sophistication and depth of discussion amongst the study participants over the course of the three rounds of focus group meetings. Leo will also acknowledge participant attrition as the main drawback of this approach. Continue reading →

Farewell 2020

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Hazel Hall

Social Informatcis staff and students all centre meeting December 2019

The way we were, December 2019. L to R: John Marshall, Peter Cruickshank, Lyndsey Middleton (now graduated with PhD), Katherine Stephen, Rachel Salzano, Marina Milosheva, Laura Muir (now retired), Hazel Hall, Leo Appleton (now graduated with PhD), Ella Taylor-Smith, David Haynes, David Brazier, Frances Ryan (now Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen), Colin Smith, Wegene Demeke, and Bruce Ryan.

Just over a year ago, on 22nd December 2019, I summarised the the previous six months of activities of the members of the Centre for Social Informatics. I illustrated this account with a jolly photograph of us all bunched closely together around the table a few days earlier in room C34a of Edinburgh Napier University’s Merchiston campus. Continue reading →

Research group highlights of 2020, and hopes for 2021

Posted on December 17, 2020 by Hazel Hall

This time last year on 18th December 2019, following our usual tradition, the Centre for Social Informatics staff and students marked the end of the year with an ‘All centre’ celebration of their achievements of the previous six months. This kind of get-together is completely impossible under the current pandemic restrictions. So, instead of the usual hilarity in room C34a of Napier’s Merchiston campus, during which I use my enormous egg timer to time five minute updates from everyone around the table over the course of two hours (glass of wine in hand), yesterday afternoon we gathered online for just 30 minutes of social fun. Continue reading →

Hazel Hall

Emeritus Professor, Edinburgh Napier University

Tag Archives: Leo Appleton

What can you do with a PhD? Ten answers from graduates who completed their doctoral studies between 2015 and 2023