Information School News

University of Sheffield part of new £3.4 million health data initiative to address major health challenges News Academics from the University of Sheffield will help to lead a new initiative which will benefit patients across the north of England The Better Care North Partnership aims to improve care and services for patients, in particular, some of the most vulnerable patient groups The partnership is a collaboration between 15 universities and hospital trusts across the north of England Academics from the University of Sheffield will help lead a new innovative health data analytics initiative in the North of England that will benefit patients across the UK and address some of the most challenging health issues facing patients and the NHS. Health Data Research (HDR) UK has announced today (29 April 2020) £3.4 million of funding for the Better Care North Partnership (HDR UK North), which includes a £1.2 million investment from HDR UK and £2.2 million from the partner ...

Decolonising the LIS curriculum: starting the conversation Dr Briony Birdi Our Senior Lecturer in Librarianship, Dr Briony Birdi, has written a guest blog post for the New Librarians Professional Network.  Decolonisation has become a key aspect my work as an LIS [Library and Information Science] academic and as the Co-Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Sheffield. I hear librarians and academics talking about decolonising both universities and library collections, but I rarely hear anyone from the information professions bringing in LIS education to these conversations. This seems a little odd to me, so in this post I’m focusing on the intersection between the two, using three steps we can go through in order to find that space we need to talk through the context in which our universities and libraries are based, and to think about how others might experience the same space quite differently. Yo...

Faced with an ‘infodemic’ of fake news about Covid-19, most people are checking their facts – but we mustn’t be complacent Dr Paul Reilly Photo by  Hello I'm Nik 🎞  on  Unsplash As fake news spreads about Covid-19, early evidence suggest that most people are responding sensibly, and double-checking the information they receive. However, given trust in journalism remains low, it remains vital, argues Paul Reilly, that we all act responsibility, and verify what we read and watch. Read Dr Reilly's article in the Democratic Audit here.

Long live local journalism: the 'first responders' in the fight against COVID-19 fake news  Dr Paul Reilly There has been much ‘fake news’ about COVID-19 over the past month. This has included disinformation about the virus being ‘manufactured’ in the US, as well as false claims that drinking methanol and bleach cures its victims. While there is certainly some evidence to suggest that social media are turbocharging the sharing of this false information amongst citizens across the globe, politicians have also contributed to misinformation about the pandemic through their media appearances. Most notably, President Donald Trump has repeatedly misled US citizens about the availability of vaccines and the effectiveness of new treatments in his daily televised news briefings. Closer to home, Cabinet Ministers have also made a number of false or misleading statements to the press. In the past week, Michael Gove erroneously claimed that efforts to ramp up COVID-19 testing ...

7 Top tips for working from home!! #workfromhome #stayhomesavelives  By Sheila Webber Our Senior Lecturer, Sheila Webber, has written a blog about working from home during the current pandemic. It's full of some great tips... and a little giggle!  "I am working from home. I would rather not be. I have never, ever, fantasised about delivering online lessons in althleisurewear from my kitchen table or from under a duvet." To raise a much-needed smile at this time, you can read more on Sheila's Information Literacy blog here. 

Digital Data Flows and the COVID-19 Pandemic - should we be paying more attention?  As a third of the global population experiences some form of lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world are adapting to new ways of living and working, and looking for radical solutions to live with the virus until some form of immunity develops. Digital technologies and the data they process have been central to this response. The production and circulation of digital data is constrained by a complex web of deeply politicised social, cultural, legal, economic and technical factors. These constraints – or, “data frictions” - can be beneficial or problematic, and whether a particular friction is one or the other is often subject to significant debate. Shifts in the nature of data frictions have the potential to influence how societies function at the most fundamental level – they shape the relationship between state and citizens, the management of worker...

Loneliness and Covid-19: Social Distancing Versus Social Isolation Professor of Health Informatics, Peter Bath, was asked to write a piece for Inside Government, on loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article draws on research Professor Bath has undertaken for the Space for Sharing project  on online sharing for people in extreme circumstances, a portion of which was on loneliness amongst older people. You can read the full blog post here:  https://blog.insidegovernment.co.uk/loneliness-covid-19-pandemic-social-distancing-versus-social-isolation

Now Wash Your Hands Good hand hygiene is necessary to control and prevent infection, but how do we get our children to adequately wash their hands? Dr Sophie Rutter, Lecturer in Information Management at The University of Sheffield has worked alongside colleagues from the University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett and Glasgow School of Arts to determine whether persuasive graphics are the answer to encouraging children to better wash their hands. You can read the full post here on the Social Sciences blog.