Information School News

Congratulations to Dr Andrew Cox: Information Manager of 2021 CILIP Special Interest Groups, the Knowledge and Information Management Group (K&IM) and the UK e-information Group (UKeiG), are delighted to announce that the winner of their prestigious Information Manager of the Year Award, 2021 is Dr Andrew Cox, Senior Lecturer, Information School, Sheffield University. The award will be presented at the  Knowledge & Information Management virtual Awards evening  on Wednesday 10 th  November starting at  5. 30 pm.  Please join us for this free event as we celebrate all the K&IM Award winners for 2021.   Book to attend the awards  here .   The Information Manager of the Year Award is presented to professionals who have raised awareness of, and made a significant contribution to, the value and impact of knowledge and information management in the workplace and across the LIS sector.   The judging pan...

UKeiG announces the winner of the 2020 Jason Farradane Award Professor Emeritus Tom D. Wilson The UK e-information Group (UKeiG) is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2020 Jason Farradane Award is Tom D. Wilson (Professor Emeritus, University of Sheffield, UK). The prestigious award is given in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the library and information profession. Professor David Allen, Professor of Information Management at Leeds University Business School, nominated Professor Wilson, supported by Professor Blaise Cronin (Rudy Professor Emeritus of Information Science at Indiana University), Professor Hazel Hall (Professor of Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University), Dr Anoush Simon (Head of Department, Department of Information Studies, Aberystwyth University), David Streatfield (Principle, Information Management Associates), Professor Charles Oppenheim (Visiting Professor, Robert Gordon University). The judges were impressed that his research fulf...

Award: CrowdCO-OP: Sharing Risks and Rewards in Crowdsourcing Dr Alessandro Checco A joint work between the University of Queensland, the University of Hanover, and the University of Sheffield titled CrowdCO-OP: Sharing Risks and Rewards in Crowdsourcing has received an Honorable Mention Award at the prestigious Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2020). The work focused on paid micro-task crowdsourcing. This type of labour has gained in popularity mainly because of the increasing need for large-scale manually labelled datasets which are often used to train and evaluate Artificial Intelligence systems. Modern paid crowdsourcing platforms use a piecework approach to rewards, meaning that workers are paid for each task they complete, given that their work quality is considered sufficient by the requester or the platform. Such an approach creates risks for workers: their work may be rejected without being rewarded, and they may be working on poorly...

We caught up with some of our talented graduates at our Winter Graduation reception on 10 January to find out how they’ve been getting on since their courses finished. Priya Mehta MA Library and Information Services Management Priya was awarded an Information School prize for best overall performance in modules across the MA Library and Information Services Management (distance learning) programme in 2016/17. “The skills I’ve learned on the course have helped me for my future career” “I did my undergraduate degree here as well - I really like Sheffield. “I studied part time on a distance learning basis for my MA so I’m proud of how I managed to balance everything successfully, like working alongside studying (the MA Library and Information Services Management is geared towards people with information-related practical work experience, so they might already work in the field before starting their course). “It’s been great because actually, my work experience has helped me with m...

Dr Briony Birdi has been awarded a Faculty 'Teaching Excellence in Social Sciences' award for Outstanding Practice in Learning and Teaching. Briony will be presented with her certificate by Professor Gill Valentine on 18th October 2016 at an awards event in the Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences, University of Sheffield.  Congratulations to Briony.

Syeda Batool and Sheila Webber were third place winners in the The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) Special Interest Group on International Information Issues (SIG III) International Paper Contest for their paper (based on Batool's doctoral research): Mapping the information literacy situation in primary schools: A case of Pakistan . Syeda Batool (who is Assistant Professor at the University of the Punjab, Lahore) will be awarded a two-year individual membership to ASIST.

Congratulations to Dr Briony Birdi who has been announced as the runner up of the 2016 iSchools Doctoral Dissertation Award. The iSchools Doctoral Dissertation Award recognises outstanding work in the information field. The nominations are solicited from all members of the iSchools organisation and are judged by a selection committee drawn from leading international schools.     Dr. Birdi’s thesis: ‘We are here because you were there: an investigation of the reading of, and engagement with, minority ethnic fiction in UK public libraries,’ addresses a current social and political issue involving minority ethnic fiction using three empirical studies to survey reading habits,” said Dr. Seadle, Award Co-Chair. “The reviewers also agreed that this dissertation was a serious competitor for the prize and clearly deserved to be the runner up.”      More information about the 2016 Doctoral Dissertation Award honorees, including research abstracts, can ...

Congratulations to Izzy Savage, BSc Informatics with Employment Experience, who has been shortlisted for Best Student Placement Award in the 2016 National Undergraduate Employability Student Awards following a placement year as Technical Specialist at IBM in 2014/15. This is a fantastic achievement. "This Award celebrates the amazing contribution that students make to businesses across the UK and abroad. Our finalists have made a genuine, measurable impact to their business whilst on placement." Izzy was involved in a number of technical and client facing projects at IBM including: Demonstrating the capability of IBM’s Analytical tools to several clients including a leading UK supermarket Successfully developing and demonstrating ‘art of the possible’ applications to allow clients to easily understand how IBM can solve some of their industry pain points Creating an asset for client executives within the Banking and Insurance industry that aids in creating new discussions ...

Congratulations to Dr Alex Peng who has been shortlisted for the Ernest Davies Award for Advancing Parking Knowledge.  This is an industrial award provided by the British Parking Association (BPA).   This shortlisting decision was made based on Alex's news article on London's smart parking service. The results reported in this article were in turn derived from Alex's smart city project funded by the University's IIKE Early Career Researcher Scheme. Alex will be attending the BPA Member Dinner on 3 December 2015 where the final winner of this year's award will be announced.  

Dr. Miguel Nunes has been awarded a High-end Expert National Fellowship at the School of Information Resources Management, Renmin University of China, Beijing (ranked as a top 10 university in China and 1 st in Social Sciences).   This National Fellowship is awarded for the period of January 2015- December 2017 by the Chinese National State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA). Dr Nunes visited Renmin University of China in April and June 2015 and during June 2015 he also attended and chaired a session at the International Conference on Digital Archival Resources organised by the School of Information Resources Management. On a more relaxed and celebratory note, Dr Nunes also attended the 2015 School's graduation and thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with recent graduates and staff. As part of his duties in Renmin, Dr Nunes will continue to support and help develop the areas of qualitative research methods and ...

Dr Paul Reilly, Senior Lecturer at the Information School has been recognised by Jisc as one of the 50 most influential HE professionals using social media .

Dr Barbara Sen  has been awarded one of the Faculty's 2015 Teaching Excellence in Social Sciences (TESS) awards for outstanding learning and teaching. Congratulations to Barbara.

Congratulations to Sheila Webber , Senior Lecturer in the Information School, on being announced the prestigious UKeiG’s 2015 Jason Farradane winner .  The award is in recognition of Sheila’s excellence in education and teaching in information science, and for raising the profile of the information profession.  Her nomination included her deep insight into the library world and understanding of the pressures of a modern information workplace which together make her a fantastic supervisor and mentor who always supports her students, even those who are not on campus. Further information on Sheila’s award can be found here . Many congratulations to Sheila.

Congratulations to Dr Barbara Sen and Dr Gianluca Demartini , both of the Information School, who have won Faculty Awards. Dr Sen has received a Faculty Learning and Teaching Award. Her nomination was based on her extensive and impressive contributions to learning and teaching throughout her time in the Information School, with a focus on bringing real world practice to the classroom and promoting students' professionalism and employability. She will be presented with her award at an Awards event in ICoSS on 7th October. Dr Demartini has received a Faculty Early Career Researcher Award at the recent Faculty Research Conference. The award is in recognition of his recent EPSRC First Grant (BetterCrowd: Human Computation for Big Data) .

The Information School has won the award for Best Student Staff Committee at the Student Union's 2015 Academic Awards. The award recognised the Information School Student Staff Committee's success in: Making a difference to students in the department Ensuring that students' views are communicated the staff and that students are considered when decisions are made Achieving positive change and making improvements for students in the School Congratulations to all involved in the Student Staff Committee.  Pictured below with their award are Dr Peter Stordy, Committee Coordinator, and current undergraduate students Alaa Al Sairafi and Bent Bunge.

Congratulations to Dr Jorge Martins and the Information School's Student Staff Committee, coordinated by Dr Peter Stordy, who have been nominated in the 2015 Student Union Academic Awards. Jorge has been nominated for "The Best Feedback Award" and the School has been nominated for "The Best Student Staff Committee Award". The Academic Awards Ceremony will be held on 21 May 2015 and will be attended by Jorge, Peter and student reps from the Student Staff Committee. Good luck!

Congratulations to Sheila Webber, Senior Lecturer in the Information School, on being awarded a Senate Award for Sustained Excellence. The award is in recognition of continued excellence, and inspiration in teaching and learner support.  It is based on skills and practice demonstrated over a period of six years or more that represent a "model of excellence". Particular highlights have been noted as: The excellent support Sheila provides for her students The innovative assessment methods she has developed Her work on information literacy pedagogy, which has influenced teaching and policy internationally Her innovative use of technology enhanced learning including including her use blogs for over a decade Her pioneering use of virtual worlds Her recent contributions to the Faculty MOOC Many congratulations to Sheila for this very well deserved award!

Congratulations to MA Librarianship student Maria Nagle , who has won a sponsored place at the UK's information literacy conference, LILAC http://www.lilacconference.com/WP/awards/student-sponsored-place-at-lilac

MA Librarianship student Lucy Woolhouse has been awarded a free place at the UK Serials Group Conference , which takes place in Glasgow in April. Congratulations to Lucy!

MA Librarianship student Loukia Drosopoulou has won a full bursary from the Music Libraries Trust to attend the IAML(UK and Irl) (The International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres) Annual Study Weekend (ASW). Loukia is already an active member of IAML, as she is Book Reviews editor of its journal Brio and a member of its Conference Committee.