All set for #asist20

ASIST2020 logoFollowing three days of virtual pre-conference workshops and the annual doctoral colloquium, the annual meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology 2020 ‘proper’ opens today.  The opening keynote speaker is Houman Haddad, Head of Emerging Technologies, United Nations World Food Programme (Nobel Peace Prize winner). He will present to the online audience on blockchain technology for humanitarian assistance at 09:00 EDT (13:00 GMT in the UK).

Several members of the Centre for Social Informatics are making co-authored contributions to ASIST 2020: Continue reading

SFC COVID-19 funding for two new projects in the Centre for Social Informatics

Scottish Funding Council logoOn 6th May 2020, the Scottish Government announced a ‘£75 million boost for Scottish university research’ to contribute to the mitigation of effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Scottish university research base. This recognised the wide range of impacts to both the income and activity of university research in the short, medium and longer term. The Scottish Funding Council then announced the allocation of this funding to the Scottish universities  on 12th June, and in recent months each institution has considered the best use this investment to meet the objectives of: Continue reading

RIVAL goes virtual on 19th November 2020

RIVAL logoAfter two unsuccessful attempts to postpone the third of our RSE-funded RIVAL network events, Dr Bruce Ryan and I have admitted defeat. With the support of the RIVAL project board members, we have decided to keep Thursday 19th November 2020 as the date for RIVAL event 3 and run it as a virtual meeting that afternoon. Continue reading

Rachel Salzano to present poster on culture as a concept in LIS research at #ASIST2020

ASIST2020 logo Congratulations to Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Rachel Salzano on the acceptance of her poster submission for presentation at the (virtual) 83rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIST2020) next month. The submission, which Rachel prepared with two supervisors (myself and Dr Gemma Webster), is entitled ‘Coralling culture as a concept in library and information science research’. The abstract for Rachel’s poster reads: Continue reading

Congratulations Dr Lyndsey Middleton and Dr Leo Appleton!

Congratulations to our Centre for Social Informatics colleagues Dr Lyndsey Middleton (née Jenkins) and Dr Leo Appleton, both of whom graduated with their PhDs last week. Sadly, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we were unable to celebrate with them in person in the usual way at the Edinburgh Napier University graduation ceremony at the Usher Hall. However, the University was able to mark the day in other ways, including this video.

Lyndsey’s PhD thesis is entitled Exploring the development of innovative work behaviour of employees in multiple workplace contexts. Continue reading

Centre for Social Informatics contributions to Information Seeking in Context 2020 #isic2020

ISIC 2020 banner logo

Hosted by the Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria, Information Seeking in Context 2020 (#isic2020) takes place as a virtual conference between 28th September and 2nd October 2020. As has been the case in the past (e.g. 2018 in Kraków, Poland, 2016 in Zadar, Croatia), colleagues from the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University are looking forward to the opportunity of presenting some of their research at the ISIC conference. Continue reading

A new role for Iris Buunk at LIBER

Iris Buunk

Iris Buunk

Congratulations to (almost Dr) Iris Buunk on her appointment as a Community Engagement and Communications Officer at the Ligue des bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche/Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER). This good news comes within days of Iris’ submission of the corrected version of her PhD thesis, which was examined at the end of March this year.

LIBER was founded in the Hague in 1971 to help university, national and special libraries support world-class research. It is a partner organisation in many European projects that promote open science. The main focus of Iris‘ new role at LIBER is responsibility for activities related to European projects and general LIBER communications. Continue reading

Rachel Salzano contributes to the work of the Alan Turing Institute

Rachel Salzano

Rachel Salzano

The Alan Turing Institute is the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence. It was established in 2015 with headquarters at the British Library in London. The work of the Institute is achieved through collaborations between universities, businesses, and public and third sector organisations to address some of the biggest challenges in science, society and the economy.

Currently Rachel Salzano, a PhD student within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University, is contributing to the institute’s research on detecting and understanding harmful content online. She has been employed by the Institute in two roles. Continue reading

How useful are social media for job hunting? Publication in press with the Journal of Information Science

journal of information science coverUsing social media during job search: the case of 16-24 year olds in Scotland‘ is about the the value of social media in providing information opportunities to young people seeking employment. This co-authored paper has recently been accepted for inclusion in the Journal of Information Science.

Based on an analysis of interview and focus group data, Dr John Mowbray (University of Glasgow) and I reveal that: Continue reading

A month in coronavirus captivity

I rarely write personally on this blog. That said, I have used this medium to relay some very personal news in the past, and it currently feels like the right place to reflect on these first few weeks of coronavirus lockdown. I also thought that it would be interesting to share some of the photographs that I have been taking in the limited amount of time that I have been out of my house during this period, one of which has been selected by the BBC as one of its series Your pictures of Scotland for 24th April to 1st May 2020. Continue reading