Masters graduation day for Social Informatics PhD students John Marshall and Marianne Wilson

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Hazel Hall

Congratulations to Centre for Social Informatics PhD students John Marshall and Marianne Wilson, who will be awarded their MSc(R) degrees by the University of Edinburgh today. John and Marianne undertook this degree as the first funded year of their 1+3 ESRC/Skills Development Scotland doctoral programmes, awarded by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science.

Study for the MSc(R) degree at the University of Edinburgh comprises core training in social science research methods with modules on research design, data collection, and data analysis, and elective specialist modules specific to individuals’ research interests and needs. Continue reading →

A presentation by Dr Morgan Harvey on egovernment services and the digital divide

Posted on November 27, 2021 by Hazel Hall

Given that my last in-person research seminar was early last year on 19th February 2020 (when I was the speaker at an event at the University of Glasgow), I was very excited to venture onto campus ten days ago on 17th November 2021 to welcome a visitor to the Centre for Social Informatics. At the invitation of Dr David Brazier, Dr Morgan Harvey, Lecturer in Data Science and Information Retrieval in the Information School at the University of Sheffield, kindly travelled to Edinburgh to present the findings from some research that he conducted when employed at Northumbria University. He also took advantage of the trip north to work with David on revisions to a paper that they have recently co-authored. Continue reading →

European Conference on Information Literacy 2021 (#ECIL2021) videos available

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Hazel Hall

Although we have sorely missed opportunities to travel and hear in person about the research of our colleagues from across the world due to the pandemic restrictions, one advantage of the move to online delivery is that much conference presentation material of recent months has been captured as video.

A case in point is the European Conference on Information Literacy 2021 (ECIL2021), hosted by the University of Bamberg in September 2021. The ECIL YouTube channel now holds 113 video-recorded presentations from the conference, including those presented by two Centre for Social Informatics colleagues. Continue reading →

A warm welcome to ‘new’ staff and student colleagues to the Centre for Social Informatics

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Hazel Hall

New Centre for Social Informatics colleagues, autumn 2021

Today the Centre for Social Informatics welcomes its newest member of staff: Dr Frances Ryan has taken up a lecturing post with us. This is a return to our group at Edinburgh Napier University for Frances: she graduated from Napier with a PhD in July 2019. In the intervening time, Frances has been engaged in postdoctoral research, first here at Napier and then at the Universities of Dundee and Aberdeen. Continue reading →

The role of information in career development: latest output from Marina Milosheva’s doctoral study

Posted on November 16, 2021 by Hazel Hall

Marina Milosheva

The latest output from Marina Milosheva‘s ESRC/SDS funded doctoral study on career information literacy has recently been published in the Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (NICEC Journal). Marina is the lead author of ‘The role of information in career development‘ with her supervision team co-authors: Professor Pete Robertson, Dr Peter Cruickshank, and Professor Hazel Hall.

To date the theme of information in career development has received relatively little research attention. This new paper addresses this gap in the literature by reviewing publications from three domains – Career Studies, Organisational Studies, and Education – produced between 2000 and 2021. Continue reading →

Workforce Data Consortium issues invitation to tender for Workforce Mapping Survey 2021/22

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Hazel Hall

The Edinburgh Napier University Workforce Mapping Project team, 2014/15

In 2014/15 I led an Edinburgh Napier University team on a research project to profile the UK information professions. My colleagues were Christine Irving (now retired) and Dr Bruce Ryan of the Centre for Social Informatics; and Professor Robert Raeside (also retired), Dr Matthew Dutton, and Dr Tao Chen (now at the University of Bradford) of the Employment Research Institute. The output was a 186-page report (inclusive of 20 figures and 97 tables of statistics). Continue reading →

Call to UK public library staff (any level) to contribute to study on services for refugees and asylum seekers

Posted on October 5, 2021 by Hazel Hall

Do you work with refugees and/or asylum seekers (forced migrants) as part of your role in a UK public library? Can you assist a PhD student with her study on forced migrants’ use of UK public libraries? Perhaps you have colleagues or other contacts who could help out?

Rachel Salzano of Edinburgh Napier University seeks public library staff (at any level) willing to take part in interviews about their experience of delivering public library services to forced migrants. The interviews last approximately 1 hour and are organised at the interviewee’s convenience. Please contact Rachel on the form at https://librariansanslibrary.weebly.com/contact or email r.salzano@napier.ac.uk to contribute to this important work.

Evaluation of engagement with hyperlocal e-participation systems by citizens and representatives: thesis PDF now available

Posted on September 30, 2021 by Hazel Hall

In July 2021 my Centre for Social Informatics colleague Peter Cruickshank was awarded a doctoral degree for his thesis Evaluation of engagement with hyperlocal e-participation systems by citizens and representatives.

The pdf of the thesis is now freely available for download from the Edinburgh Napier University repository. It will be of interest to all who conduct research on information behaviour and use, and particularly those investigating themes such as everyday life information seeking and information literacy in the context of e-participation. Continue reading →