Information School News

We are inviting those working in academic libraries to participate in a survey about the role of the university library in mental health and well-being. https://limesurvey.shef.ac.uk/ limesurvey/index.php/159686? lang=en The questionnaire asks about the services your library provides to support mental health and well-being, the philosophy behind them and how success of these services is measured. It also asks about the impact of COVID. We estimate it takes 15 minutes to complete. This follows up on a similar survey conducted in the first months of the pandemic (the results of which were published in this paper: Cox, A. and Brewster, L. Library support for student mental health and well-being in the UK: Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46 (6)  https://doi.org/10.1016/j. acalib.2020.102256 .) The survey will be open until 12th April. Some of the results of the 2021 survey will be posted on the Information School's blog ( http://info...

MSc Information Systems Management graduate Haijuan Li studied with us 2019-20. She now works as a Product Operation Engineer for AISHU Information Technology Co Ltd . Below, Haijuan shares her experiences. I was working in banking as a software test engineer before my postgraduate course in Sheffield. I decided to study a master's programme mainly because I would like to change position. I also thought a new learning programme would give me new skills for my future career. I was being interested in improving productivity for organisations via computer technologies since starting my first career. Also, I wanted to gain some knowledge of general management. So, I decided to study the MSc Information Systems Management at the University of Sheffield. Now, I am employed by the AISHU IT corporate in Shanghai as a product operation engineer. The product I operate is a kind of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform/service. Being this role, I need to know as much as possible about ...

When it comes to chatbots and humanoid robots, women appear regularly. They have names like Alexa and Siri – chatbots gendered as women, but designed by male dominated teams.  Chatbot technology and robotics are evolving rapidly, and women are there but not as makers. Instead, men are responsible for re-coding women's identity within technology – amplifying gendered issues from the past – and without inclusion of real women's voices.  The Information School is working with feminist network Women Reclaiming AI to create a platform for women to reclaim their voices in AI. The team will design a collaborative statement on how women in AI wish to be (or not be) represented in a technology-driven present and future.  The project will bring together women from across the globe to assert their own needs, wants and desires within technological development.  Dr Caitlin Bentley , Lecturer within the Information School, is helping to create the statement. She said, “we want...

“There’s an imposter syndrome for anyone starting in a new area of work, and the MA helped me to gain the confidence to know I wasn’t just guessing at what I was doing because it was something I’d actually studied”, says Roisin Cassidy, an alum of the Information School currently working as Head of Internal Communications for Education at University College London. Both during her studies and after graduating from our MA Librarianship course in 2014, Roisin has held several information related roles both within Higher Education and outside it, with a career that took her in more directions than she ever even knew existed when she started out. Originally from Ireland, Roisin moved to Yorkshire in 2010 to undertake a graduate traineeship at Leeds University Library. It was after this role concluded that she applied to the Information School, studying the MA Librarianship part-time over two years. “One of the things I really liked about studying the Librarianship course was that it was a ...

We are Number One in the World for Library and Information Management We are thrilled to announce that we are Number One in the World for Library and Information Management in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021 .  The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021 cover a total of 51 disciplines, grouped into five broad subject areas. The QS World University Rankings by Subject are compiled annually to help prospective students identify the leading universities in a particular subject. Research citations, along with the results of major global surveys of employers and academics are used to rank universities.  Professor Val Gillet, Head of School, said: "It's a real honour to be back at the Number One position in the World Rankings for Library and Information Management. As a School, we have worked so hard to provide the best teaching and research environment for our students and colleagues, and I am thrilled to see this recognised. The last year has been a real cha...

In the ‘Public and School Libraries’ module a group of Librarianship and Library & Information Services Management (LISM) Masters students have started to read from a range of different titles for children and young people. Each of the books we have selected has won either the CILIP Carnegie prize for fiction, or the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration, and many are also included in the World Book Day ‘ 100 stories to share ’ list.  The students are asked to record their thoughts on the books they have been reading, to consider any emerging patterns/themes, and to think about the extent to which the winning titles reflect the judging criteria for the Carnegie prize . We will continue reading throughout the semester, but as this is World Book Day here are a few examples of our thoughts after the first couple of weeks of the module. -Dr Briony Birdi, Module Coordinator The Poet X – Elizabeth Acevedo (Carnegie Medal winner, 2019) Wow! This is one of those sorts of books t...

For World Book Day 2021, Information School Lecturer Dr Pam McKinney shares her thoughts. As a parent I have spent the last 8 years participating in world book day, making costumes for my children to wear to primary school based on their favourite characters. But WBD is far more that a glorified dressing up competition (although I won’t lie about the competitive aspect of making a good costume!). WBD encourages children to engage in reading for pleasure, and numerous studies have shown that reading for pleasure is directly related to academic success, through increasing vocabulary and confidence in reading, and affecting performance across all subjects, not just English. As my kids get older and are at secondary school I can see the importance placed on reading in this context, with tests of reading age informing assessments of progress and ability, and the central role that a school library, staffed by a qualified librarian in supporting reading for pleasure. So I will continue to get...