Information School News

Dr Briony Birdi chapter in new book: Narrative Expansions: Interpreting Decolonisation in Academic Libraries Dr Briony Birdi, Senior Lecturer at the Information School, has a chapter in a new book edited by Jess Crilly and Regina Everitt.  Narrative Expansions: Interpreting Decolonisation in Academic Libraries , published by Facet Publishing , brings together the theory and practice of an area of critical concern to the academy, this book is an important reference for academic librarians, educators and researchers in LIS, education and sociology.  Dr Birdi's chapter is in Part 2 of the book, titled The Contribution of Library and Information Science Education to Decolonising.  For more information, click here. 

 Dr Andrew Cox at the RLUK Digital Shift Forum - Watch on Demand Dr Andrew Cox spoke at the RLUK Digital Shift Forum recently. The talk, entitled The academic library and artificial intelligence: some possible futures – Andrew Cox, Senior Lecturer, Information School, University of Sheffield is available to watch online.  The term ‘artificial intelligence’ has many meanings, past and present. In its current guise, it has many potential applications in HE. An important aspect of this is the increasing use of data science techniques, such as machine learning, in research across all disciplines: from digital humanities, computational social science through to more obvious applications in the sciences. As data science skills are increasingly in demand in many sectors of the economy so there is an employability driver for it being taught in many disciplines. There are a number of ways academic libraries are already and could in the future be involved in supporting this activity: s...

Launch of Major SCONUL Research Report on the Use of University Library Space Dr Andrew Cox On 5th July 120 representatives of UK and Irish university libraries gathered online for the launch of the report “ Drivers for the Usage of SCONUL Member Libraries ” written by Andrew Cox and Melanie Benson Marshall. The report presents an analysis of what has been driving the growing use of university libraries in the last decade and also reflects on the potential impact of COVID. SCONUL, The Society of College, National and University Libraries , represents all university libraries in the UK and Ireland, irrespective of mission group, as well as national libraries and many libraries with collections of national significance. The report was launched as part of SCONUL’s Libraries after lockdown project. Dr Andrew Cox Senior lecturer Digital Societies Research Group orcid.org/0000-0002-2587-245X

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...

The results of our survey of how academic libraries are supporting student wellbeing, before and during COVID19 are now published. Dr Andrew Cox The paper "Library support for student mental health and well-being in the UK: before and during the COVID19 pandemic" is available via Journal of Academic Librarianship @ DOI . During the pandemic, the emphasis was on alleviating anxiety around accessing online content. The paper proposes a holistic model of library support for student mental health and well-being, with eight aspects: library services impact, well-being as a library service, detection, hosting, signposting, inherent library value, library as a good partner and library staff well-being. Data from the survey was shared in a blog post in June 

The role of the university library in student mental health - survey launched Mental Health Awareness Week In Mental Health Awareness Week, we are launching a survey of how academic libraries are supporting the mental health and well-being of students. University libraries have become increasingly interested in developing services to support student mental health and well-being. Often, these services are physically located in the library space, but in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, this has changed to offering digital support. We are interested in your university library’s response to the shift in demand and the accompanying changes in student concerns and anxieties that are affecting their mental health and well-being.  Our aim is to explore how university libraries understand student mental health and well-being and act to prevent poor mental health. To do this, we will map well-being related activity across the UK in two ways. First, we are interested in what your ...

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 ...

On the 28th of November I had the opportunity to attend the CILIP briefing on ‘Skills for the future academic library’ through a bursary from the Information School and CILIP. The event saw library practitioners and researchers present their findings and experiences of academic libraries, with a focus on what skills and developments they foresaw as particularly important for the future. The day began with Stephen Pinfield’s presentation on the 2017 SCONUL report on ​ ‘ Mapping the Future of Academic Libraries ’ ​ by Stephen Pinfield, Andrew Cox and Sophie Rutter. This presentation introduced the concept of expanding our understanding of skills beyond traditional hard and soft skills, adding ethics and values, mindsets, and contextual knowledge as useful types of skills for LIS professionals to  consider. Values and mindsets As the professional landscape changes, LIS professionals require not only different skills, but changes in mindsets. Regina Everitt from the Unive...

The ‘Mapping the future of academic libraries’ report commissioned by SCONUL was published on 8 December following a conference in London to discuss its findings. The report was produced by a team from the School: Stephen Pinfield, Andrew Cox and Sophie Rutter. Read the report here The report identifies a complex set of interrelated trends impacting on libraries the significance of which is often in the way they combine. In particular, it identifies five nexuses of trends bringing transformational change: 1. ‘Datafied’ scholarship: research increasingly underpinned by large datasets and digital artefacts, involving open, networked, algorithmically-driven systems 2. Connected learning: new pedagogies supported by technology-enabled flexible learning 3. Service-oriented libraries: libraries shifting their strategic emphasis from collections to services 4. Blurred identities: boundaries between professional groups and services b...

Academic librarians are being invited to participate in the survey “Mapping the academic library of the future”. https://survey.shef.ac.uk/limesurvey/index.php?sid=39554 The survey forms part of a research project commissioned by the SCONUL Transformation Group. We are investigating the future academic library for the next 10 to 15 years in the context of the decline in importance of the printed book and its repercussions for use of library space, development of services, and deployment of staff. As part of the project, we have already undertaken interviews with senior library staff and others from education, technology, publishing, estates and heritage sectors, and are now conducting a survey to add to our findings. The results of this research will be used to inform policy and future plans and will be made widely available. We would like to hear a range of views and are inviting all library staff to complete the survey. Because this research focuses on informing the SCONUL community,...

Over 200 information professionals registered for today's webinar entitled "What is Research Data Management and what is the Library's Role in Supporting it?" by Andrew Cox hosted in the UKSG webinar series. Free access to the slides and a recording of the webinar is now available from UKSG website.

RDMRose 's Eddy Verbaan participated in the DigiCurv conference " Framing the digital curation curriculum " in Florence 6-7 May. The project poster explained the project and invited conference attendees to identify directions for the library curriculum on Research Data Management.

What is Research Data Management and why has it become a key agenda in HEIs? How do researchers themselves view data - what is research data? Which arguments for RDM do researchers find most convincing? What is the role of the library and other professional services in supporting RDM? How to support Research Data Management (RDM) has become a big issue in academic libraries. Many professionals will want to get up to speed on the topic. JISC has funded the Sheffield iSchool with the university libraries of Leeds, Sheffield and York to create a set of learning materials on RDM. Version 1 is now available. http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/ research/projects/rdmrose This Open Educational Resource of learning materials can be used for self-supported CPD or reused under an attribution/sharealike licence for staff training within libraries or by other LIS educators. The project team would welcome your feedback and comments!

On 1-2 March, Prof Sheila Corrall participated in a strategy colloquium organised by the CONUL consortium of Irish research libraries in Athlone, where she delivered a keynote presentation on library support for learning and teaching. On 9 March, Prof Sheila Corrall delivered a keynote presentation on the use of balanced scorecards and strategy maps prior to participation in a SCONUL workshop for university librarians on performance measurement in Leeds.

Prof Sheila Corrall travelled to Ireland on Friday 4th April to participate in a one-day seminar organized by the Academic and National Libraries Training Co-operative, where she gave a presentation on aligning skills, abilities and competencies with the changing library environment. This event took place at Trinity College Dublin.

On Tuesday-Wednesday 22nd-23rd May, Sheila Corrall attends a meeting of the Learning and Teaching Committee of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the HE Funding Councils at the University of Warwick. The first part of this extended two-day residential event includes a joint meeting with members of the JISC Organisational Support Committee, to discuss shared interests and concerns. Further details of work of the JISC Learning and Teaching Committee can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/aboutus/committees/sub_committees/jclt_home.aspx .

A new report has been published by the Research Information Network RIN on researchers use of academic libraries and their services. The report can be found at http://www.rin.ac.uk/researchers-use-libraries .