Practitioner research: value, impact, and priorities #libresearch17

This Wednesday 8th November I will be the opening speaker at ‘Themes and trends in library and information research‘, a one-day conference hosted by CILIP in Kent at Canterbury Christ Church University. Entitled ‘Practitioner research: value, impact, and priorities’ my presentation covers four mains themes:

  1. The long-identified (and debated) research-practice gap in library and information science research
  2. The case for research-led practice and practitioner-led research
  3. Access to current research in library and information science research in the UK
  4. Means of generating new research ideas

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Social media for academic profile: a presentation to HATII at the University of Glasgow

HATII signLast Tuesday I was a guest of colleagues at the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow. They invited me over to give a presentation on social media for academic profile building along the lines of previous talks that I have given on the subject. It was Dr Ian Anderson who suggested me as a speaker having attended a training session on this theme that I ran at iDocQ in 2014. Continue reading

Strategies for building and assessing the long-term impact of research projects: closing plenary at #QQML2016

Today I am at Senate House in London as an invited speaker at the 8th International Conference on Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries. The conference has a packed programme of over 150 contributions. It started on Tuesday morning and ends with my presentation. Entitled What happens next? Strategies for building and assessing the long-term impact of research projects, the presentation covers four main themes: Continue reading

Research impact from LISResearch.org to LISResearch.org.au #LISRAproject

LIS Research Coalition DREaM RiLIES logosBetween 2009 and 2012 I led the implementation of the UK’s Library and Information Science Research Coalition. The broad mission of the Coalition was to facilitate a coordinated and strategic approach to Library and Information Science (LIS) research across the UK, strengthening links between LIS researchers and LIS practitioners, and between research and practice. This was achieved through the activities of the Coalition as a whole, and its ‘daughter’ projects: Developing Research Excellence and Methods (DREaM), and the two-part Research in Librarianship Impact Evaluation Study. Continue reading

From Ontario to ASIST 2015

Flying from Toronto to St Louis

Flying from Toronto to St Louis

After a busy few days in Ontario, Canada – during which I contributed to a research symposium at McMaster University on UK efforts to build a UK-wide network of library and information science researchers, ran a workshop on promoting research using social media for McMaster PhD students, and delivered a colloquium paper on the work of the UK Library and Information Science Research Coalition and its lasting impact at the University of Toronto – I am now in St Louis, Missouri in the US for ASIST 2015. The conference proper started on Sunday afternoon (following two days of pre-conference seminars and workshops), and runs until Tuesday evening. Continue reading

Incorporating a research-minded approach to professional practice: opening keynote at EAHIL 2015 #researchminded

EAHIL tote bag logoOn 10th June 2015 I had the honour of opening the The European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) conference, held in Edinburgh in collaboration with the International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS) and the International Clinical Librarian Conference (ICLC). This event is one of a series of biennial workshops and other related events designed to support healthcare librarians and information professionals in their work.

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Supporting the ‘research-minded’ librarian

EAHIL/ICAHIS/ICLC conference logoThe European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL) will be holding a workshop in Edinburgh this summer in collaboration with the International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS) and the International Clinical Librarian Conference (ICLC). This event forms one of a series of biennial workshops and other related events designed to support healthcare librarians and information professionals in their work.

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Facilitating collaboration: a doctoral defence in Sweden

An invitation to Borås

Yesterday I served as the opponent at a PhD defence at the University of Borås in Sweden. This was my second Nordic PhD examining experience this year, following my March trip to the Åbo Akademi University in the Finnish city of Turku to examine a thesis on social media and public libraries, as reported here.

Dr Ann-Sophie Axellson, Dr Monica Lassi, and Professor Louise Limberg

Dr Ann-Sophie Axellson, Dr Monica Lassi, and Professor Louise Limberg

The PhD candidate on this occasion was Monica Lassi who, until recently, has been working as a lecturer in the Swedish School of Library and Information Science. Monica’s work was supervised by Professor Louise Limberg and Dr Ann-Sofie Axelsson. The broad theme of Monica’s thesis entitled Facilitating collaboration: exploring a socio-technical approach to the design of a collaboratory for Library and Information Science is collaboration in library and information science (LIS) research. The focus is on the potential of designated online spaces – collaboratories – to facilitate and stimulate collaborative work related to the creating, sharing, use and re-use of data collection instruments such as interview guides, questionnaires and observation protocols.

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Addressing the research-practice gap: Facet publishes Research, evaluation and audit

Research, evaluation and audit An on-going concern of many professions, such as policing, social work, psychology, nursing, and teaching, is the “research-practice gap”, and the corresponding distance between researchers and practitioners within each community. Much of my work with the Library and Information Science (LIS) Research Coalition, and its associated projects Developing Research Excellence and Methods (DREaM) and the Research in Librarianship Impact Evaluation Study (RiLIES), sought to address the gap within LIS between 2009 and 2012.

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New IAESTE summer intern Dushko Stanoeski joins the Connect team

Tracey Binnie, Dushko Stanoeski, Cheryl Cairns

Dushko with his summer 2013 colleagues Tracey Binnie (L) and Cheryl Cairns (R)

Dushko Stanoeski joined us this week at Edinburgh Napier University to help complete a summer project.

Dushko is a final year student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia where he specialises in Informatics and Computer Engineering.

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