DREaM Again project launch

DREaM again bannerIn 2011/12 I was Principal Investigator (PI) on the AHRC-funded DREaM project. The aim of this work was to develop a formal UK-wide network of Library and Information Science (LIS) researchers. The project ran from January 2011 to August 2012, and was supported by the Library and Information Science Research Coalition. We reported the initial successes of the DREaM project in a paper that I co-authored with Alison Brettle and Charles Oppenheim and presented at QQML 2012. Three years later, we are interested in any further lasting impacts of the project.

To this end I am working with my colleague Dr Bruce Ryan on a follow-up study that investigates any longer-term impact of DREaM, and the forms that such impact (if it exists) has taken. I mentioned these plans earlier in the month in a presentation at the Third International Seminar on LIS Education and Research, and then during my recent opening keynote paper at the 2015 EAHIL conference (the format of which was inspired by the DREaM project, and the event masterminded by Marshall Dozier, who was a member of the DREaM cadre).

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The future of library and information science education and research: a view from Barcelona #liser2015

Third Seminar on LIS Education and Research logo

I spent Thursday 4th and Friday 5th June 2015 in Spain as a guest of the Faculty of Library and Information Science at the University of Barcelona. Here I was one of many academics from across the world invited to join the Faculty in the celebrations of its one hundredth anniversary. These were organised around an event billed as the Third International Seminar on Library and Information Science (LIS) Education and Research (LIS-ER).

Blaise Cronin keynote speaker

Blaise Cronin keynote speaker

The main theme of the meeting was education and research in library and information science. The opening keynote presentation was delivered by Dr Blaise Cronin, Emeritus Professor at Indiana University, and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. There then followed a series of sessions on: LIS education in Europe; LIS education in America; LIS research in general; LIS academic journals; and research data. There was also an opportunity for those who contributed to a poster display to introduce their work in plenary. In this session the speakers invited delegates to visit an exhibition that displayed work on themes that ranged from open science to beach libraries for summer tourists.
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All set for LIS-ER 2015

Third Seminar on LIS Education and Research logo The Third International Seminar on LIS Education and Research (LIS-ER), organised by the Faculty of Library and Information Science at the University of Barcelona, takes place this week on Thursday 4th and Friday 5 June 2015.

The meeting’s theme of education and research in library and information science will be covered in conference presentations, panels, and a poster session. On Friday morning I’m speaking on the theme of challenges in LIS research, drawing on my experience of leading the implementation of the UK Library and Information Science Research Coalition between 2009 and 2012. For a preview of my presentation Meeting the challenges of LIS research: a national coalition approach, please see the slides below.
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