Information School News

New Paper: Integrating FATE/Critical Data Studies into Data Science Curricula: Where are we going and how do we get there? A number of Information School academics have published a new paper for the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency.
The paper (published by Dr Jo Bates, Dr David Cameron, Dr Alessandro Checco, Professor Paul Clough, Dr Frank Hopfgartner, Dr Suvodeep Mazumdar, Dr Laura Sbaffi, Dr Peter Stordy, and Dr Antonio de la Vega de León) reflects on the ethical and practical aspects of teaching critical data science to inform future data practices & make them fair. 
Abstract:  There have been multiple calls for integrating topics related to fairness, accountability, transparency, ethics (FATE) and social justice into Data Science curricula, but little exploration of how this might work in practice. This paper presents the findings of a collaborative autoethnography (CAE) engaged in by a MSc Data Science teaching team based at University of Sheffield …

Services for Student Well-Being in Academic Libraries: Three Challenges
Our Director of Research and Senior Lecturer, Dr Andrew Cox, has published a new article alongside Dr Liz Brewster at Lancaster University.

There has been a wave of interest in UK academic libraries in developing services to support student well-being. This paper identifies three fundamental and interrelated issues that need to be addressed to make such initiatives effective and sustainable. Firstly, well-being has to be defined and the impacts of
interventions must be measured in appropriate ways. Secondly, there is a need to identify the true nature of the underlying social problem around well-being. Thirdly, relevant approaches to the issue need to be located within the professional knowledge base of librarianship.
To read the article, click here.

European Union Librarians on the Move? An Exploration of Potential Impacts of Brexit on Workforce Diversity.
Our Director of Research and Senior Lecturer, Dr Andrew Cox, has published a new article alongside Josefine Blunk and Melanie Benson Marshall. 

The study investigated whether the academic library sector in the United Kingdom (UK) could be in danger of experiencing a decline in workforce diversity following the Brexit vote. A web survey was distributed to academic libraries and library information science (LIS) departments across the UK. Follow-up e-mail interviews were conducted with twelve individuals. Participants were very worried about effects of Brexit on their right to reside in the UK. Two years after the referendum they still felt a high degree of uncertainty about their future. Most participants wanted to stay in the UK. While about a third considered leaving due to Brexit, 21% were undecided and 14% had made concrete plans to leave. However, the reasons for leaving ulti…

Studying at the University of Sheffield

February 2019, I was still in my undergraduate studies. February 2020, I am halfway through the Librarianship programme at the University of Sheffield, getting ready for the next semester. Everything happened so quickly. Sometimes I feel like I am still the Linguistics student who analysed word particles, corrected people’s grammar, made the same grammar mistakes myself and got away by saying that language is descriptive, not prescriptive. But sometimes it also feels like that was a long time ago. I am now a Librarianship student. I love it and my teachers and coursemates never fail to remind me that I am one of them. Everyone in the course is passionate about libraries in one way or another. It feels magical that you get to talk about the gorgeous architecture of a library, the cuteness in the children’s section, the bold selections in materials, the cutting edge technology and the here-we-go-again library politics all the time without anyone i…

New Article: Entitled ‘PSNIRA vs. peaceful protesters? YouTube, ‘sousveillance’ and the policing of the union flag protests' by Dr Paul Reilly
Dr Paul Reilly, Senior Lecturer in Social Media & Digital Society, has a new article in the journal First Monday out today. Entitled ‘PSNIRA vs. peaceful protesters? YouTube, ‘sousveillance’ and the policing of the union flag protests,’ it explores how Youtubers responded to footage of alleged police brutality during the union flag protests in Northern Ireland between December 2012 and March 2013.

Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 1,586 comments posted under 36 ‘sousveillance’ videos, Dr Reilly argues that responses to these videos were shaped by competing narratives on the legitimacy of police actions during the flag protests. This footage focussed attention on the anti-social behaviour of the protesters rather than the alleged police brutality referred to in the video descriptions. The paper concludes by considering the problematic …

I just want to preface this blog post by stating that I understand that everyone’s week is different. Especially if you are a distance learner. In this blog post I am going to outline my average week with what my other commitments are along with the periods during the day with which I study. The days that I am busy regularly are Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The commitments I have beside university work is my volunteer work which is twelve hours a week, my university ambassador job, any appointments I might have and any hobbies that I may have such as reading, writing and making YouTube videos.


This blog post is to give tips that I’ve learnt from both my undergraduate degree and the first term of my postgraduate about how I’ve been able to manage my time as well as being able to have time to look after myself and to relax. I hope you’re able to take something away from this and for it to help you in managing your studies.

Here are a few tips that you can pick an…