‘Managing and evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social media: a Generation X perspective‘ has been published this week in Information Research. I co-authored this paper with Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Frances Ryan, and colleagues Peter Cruickshank and Alistair Lawson. Continue reading
Tag Archives: research
Information Literacy for Democratic Engagement: project update #IL-DEM
The Centre for Social Informatics is currently undertaking a project entitled Information Literacy for Democratic Engagement (IL-DEM). Supported by a grant from the CILIP Information Literacy Group, our work investigates levels of digital and information literacy within Scotland’s Community Council system.
Specifically Peter Cruickshank, Dr Bruce Ryan and I are exploring 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 we’re extending two established research streams within the Centre for Social Informatics: Cruickshank and Ryan’s work on digital engagement in local democracy (such as our DigiCC workshops), and 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
Call for submissions to #eblip9, Philadelphia, USA, June 2017
The call for paper and poster proposals for the 9th International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP9) conference is now live.The conference takes between June 18th and 21st 2017 in Philadelphia, USA.
Submissions are invited on the broad conference theme of ’embedding and embracing evidence’. 300 word abstracts are invited for two types of contribution: (1) full papers (to be delivered in a 30 minute slot at the conference); and (2) posters. Those whose work is accepted for a paper presentation will also be encouraged to submit a full paper to the journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice following the conference. Continue reading
Congratulations Lyndsey Jenkins: co-author of best paper at #I3E2016
Many congratulations to Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Lyndsey Jenkins on winning a ‘best paper’ award with co-authors Ruoyun Lin and Debora Jeske at the 15th IFIP Conference on e-Business, e-Services and e-Society last week.
The winning paper is entitled ‘Influences and benefits of role models on social media’. On the basis of their empirical work, the authors argue that having a role model is associated with greater perceived support for one’s career aspirations, and access to information. In addition, those who have role models online report that their online profiles give more realistic self-presentations of their values and priorities. These individuals also have higher expectations of reciprocity in online environments. Continue reading
iDocQ Information Science doctoral colloquium 2016 #idocq2016: a review
iDocQ 2016 – the sixth annual Information Science doctoral colloquium – took place on Thursday 23rd June at Strathclyde University in Glasgow. Twenty-eight delegates from Scottish and English universities enjoyed a varied programme on the day. This included: Continue reading
Demographics of the UK information professions: fact sheets published by CILIP and ARA
This week the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the Archives and Records Association (ARA) published a series of 24 fact sheets on the demography of the UK workforce in libraries, archives, records, information management, and knowledge management. The data, presented in the fact sheets by sector and region, derive from the findings of the Workforce Mapping Project.
This project was completed in 2014/15 by an Edinburgh Napier University team that comprised three staff from the Centre for Social Informatics (Hazel Hall, Christine Irving and Bruce Ryan) and three from the Employment Research Institute (Robert Raeside, Tao Chen and Matthew Dutton). In November 2015 CILIP and ARA used data from the final project report to publish the headline findings from the study. Continue reading
Contribution to #CoLIS9, Uppsala, Sweden
Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS) is a series of international conferences that provides a broad forum for the exploration and exchange of ideas in the field of Library and Information Science, Information Studies, and related disciplines. The ninth conference, which opens today and runs until Wednesday 29th June, has been organised by the Department of ALM, Uppsala University and the Division of ALM, Lund University and takes place in Uppsala, Sweden. If you would like to follow the conference remotely over the next three days, the Twitter hashtag is #CoLIS9. Continue reading
Centre for Social Informatics success at the Edinburgh Napier University research conference 2016 #NapRes16

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
Vacancy: Edinburgh Napier Principal’s Research Fellowships – apply by July 1st 2016
Edinburgh Napier University is currently advertising a great opportunity for anyone keen to focus on their research over the next five years with the ambition of promotion to Associate Professor. The University’s Principal’s Research Fellowships offer a five-year contract with a salary in the range of £37,768 to £46,414, and include an attractive support package. Continue reading
School of Computing Research Student Conference 2016
Update post-conference: Four of the CSI students won awards at the conference. Frances Ryan won first prize for the best third year full presentation. John Mowbray won second prize for his second year 20×20 presentation and Iris Buunk third prize for hers. Lyndsey Jenkins won second prize in the first year poster competition.
Two students have blogged about the conference: Lyndsey at http://lyndseyjenkins.org, and Frances at http://justaphd.com.
Today the research students in the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University are hosting their annual conference (hashtag #socphdconf). The event has been organised by a committee of six students, three of whom are from the Centre for Social Informatics: Frances Ryan, Iris Buunk and Lyndsey Jenkins. The other student organisers are Baraq Ghaleb, John McGowan and Andreas Steyven. My colleague Dr Kevin Chalmers, who was previously involved in this series of conferences when a research student in the School himself, has also been helping out with the preparations for the event. Continue reading
