Congratulations Lyndsey Jenkins: awarded a John Campbell Trust travel bursary

Lyndsey Jenkins

Lyndsey Jenkins

Many congratulations to Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Lyndsey Jenkins on the award of a John Campbell Trust travel bursary.

Lyndsey will use the bursary later this year to support a visit to Turku, Finland, where she will gather case study data for her ESRC-funded doctoral study on workplace learning and innovative work behaviours. Professor Gunilla Widén, and other members of the Information Studies group at Åbo Akademi University, will host Lyndsey’s visit. Lyndsey also intends to deliver a seminar presentation on her study while she is with Gunilla’s team.

The John Campbell Trust was established as an independent charitable trust through the bequest of the late Dr John Campbell. Campbell was an early member of the Institute of Information Scientists. The trust is administered by a body of Trustees under the chairmanship of Professor Adrienne Muir (Robert Gordon University). The purpose of the Trust is to further the education and development of information professionals through grants, scholarships, research or travel awards, to enhance the knowledge and experience of the information community as a whole.

A successful CPCI symposium #CPCINapier #ELIS

#CPCINapier bannerResearchers with interests in Everyday Life Information Seeking (ELIS) and information behaviours in online environments gathered at the Edinburgh Napier University Craiglockhart campus for the Connecting People, Connecting Ideas (CPCI) symposium last month on 22nd June 2017. The event was organised by Frances Ryan, with assistance from colleagues in Edinburgh Napier’s Centre for Social Informatics. Continue reading

Skills in sight: how social media affordances increase network awareness #ECKM2017

Iris Buunk

Presenter Iris Buunk

The 18th European Conference on Knowledge Management (#ECKM2017) takes place this year in Barcelona at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC) on 7th and 8th September. ECKM is the longest running academic conference on knowledge management in Europe, attended by academics and practitioners from 40+ countries eager to engage in the packed conference programme.

With my colleagues Iris Buunk and Dr Colin F Smith, I am co-author of one of the papers to be presented at the conference: ‘Skills in sight: how social media affordances increase network awareness’. Continue reading

Centre for Social Informatics at the Edinburgh Napier University research conference 2017 #NapRes17

CSI colleagues Frances Ryan, Hazel Hall, Iris Buunk, Brian Detlor, David Jarman (Business School), Bruce Ryan, Peter Cruickshank, Lyndsey Jenkins and Lynn Killick

Centre for Social Informatics colleagues Frances Ryan, Hazel Hall, Iris Buunk, Brian Detlor, David Jarman (Business School), Bruce Ryan, Peter Cruickshank, Lyndsey Jenkins and Lynn Killick at the Edinburgh Napier Research Conference 2017 (Photo credit Bill Buchanan)

It’s currently conference season in academia and over the past couple of weeks the staff and research students from my research group have participated in a number of events, both in Edinburgh and beyond. Indeed PhD student Alicja Pawluczuk is still on the road this week, flying the flag for the Centre for Social Informatics at the 2017 British HCI Conference, organised by the HCI research groups at the University of Sunderland and Edinburgh Napier University in conjunction with the Interaction Specialist Group of BCS. Continue reading

Looking forward to i3 and iDocQ 2017 #i3rgu #iDocQ2017

i3 logoEvery other year the Information: interactions and impact (i3) conference brings an international community of academic and practitioner researchers together in Aberdeen to explore the quality and effectiveness of the interactions between people and information, and how such interactions can bring about change. In the years in which it takes place, i3 is one of the highlights of the conference season. (For a flavour of the event please see my review from two years ago, and the others to which I link in my 2015 post.) Continue reading

Diversity and equality in libraries: as services, as workplaces

In general, libraries are considered as inclusive institutions, where all users expect to receive the same level of service regardless of personal characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, race, religion, sexual orientation or social class.

Continue reading

Registrations open for free symposium on Everyday Life Information Seeking, and information behaviours in online environments, Edinburgh, Thursday 22 June 2017 #ELIS #CPCINapier

CPCI bannerInformation science researchers with interests in Everyday Life Information Seeking, and information behaviours in online environments, are invited to register for a research symposium to be held in Edinburgh on Thursday 22 June 2017. Registration is free to all (whether established academics, early career researchers or PhD students), with a number of travel bursaries available to support the participation of PhD students (please see below). Continue reading

Information Literacy for Democratic Engagement (IL-DEM) project: findings

Information Literacy group logoPeter Cruickshank, Dr Bruce Ryan and I recently completed the Information Literacy for Democratic Engagement (IL-DEM) project. This work set out to investigate levels of digital and information literacy within Scotland’s Community Council system. It was supported by a grant from the CILIP Information Literacy Group.

We explored how community councillors develop the skills required to inform and engage with the citizens that they represent, and how libraries support this work. In doing so have extended further two established research streams within the Centre for Social Informatics: (1) Cruickshank and Ryan’s work on digital engagement in local democracy (such as our DigiCC workshops), and (2) mine with Christine Irving on information literacy and life-long learning. This work also builds upon our group’s track record in library and information science research. Continue reading

Love your PhD #PhDates

#PhDate logoDo (did/would) you love your PhD? Last week a number of Edinburgh Napier University PhD students celebrated Valentine’s Day by explaining why they are passionate about their doctoral research. Amongst them was one of the students that I supervise: John Mowbray. Continue reading

Applications invited for ESRC Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership studentship competition 2017

Esrc_logoThe Science, Technology, Innovation, Information and Communication Studies pathway of the ESRC Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (SGSSS-DTP) is currently inviting applications for this year’s studentship competition.

Academic staff at each of the pathway member institutions – including those within my group at Edinburgh Napier University – would be pleased to hear from eligible candidates who would like to apply for a PhD place under this scheme. Continue reading