Information School News

Last September, I have joined the University of Sheffield, and specifically, the Information School as a student of MSc Information Management. I’m an international student but I have done my undergraduate studies in the UK, so luckily coming to Sheffield wasn’t as frightening as when I moved out from home for the first time. Moving to a new city by myself was still difficult, however I was able to settle down pretty easily. From what I have experienced so far, Sheffield is a very vibrant and multicultural city. I like that the University of Sheffield is a city university as previously I was studying at a campus university. I enjoy that the city centre is within a walking distance, and I can get a coffee or walk through shops in between my classes or just hang around Students Union. Moreover, Peak District is “just around the corner” and I can’t wait to go for a hike with friends since I haven’t had the time yet. The first semester at the Information School was, for me, very enjoyable ...

The Information Literacy Award recognises an outstanding UK-based practitioner or researcher. There was a hiatus for the award in 2021 and we presented the Leading Light Award to align with our online event: FestivIL by LILAC. For 2022 we are running a single award, due to the increase of digital activities in our working lives, which combines criteria from the Digital Award for IL. The CILIP Information Literacy Group and the Information School at the University of Sheffield are proud to offer an award for achievement in the field of information literacy (IL). IL “is the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully in society”. IL applies within a number of contexts, including: Everyday – when people find information online Citizenship – helping people to understand the world around us Education – developing critical thinking skills at all stages of edu...

 Data is the lifeblood of our digital society, but how our personal information is stored and shared is an understandably contentious issue. ‘ Tools for Life: Data Sharing and Public Health ’, a 20-month public engagement project which concluded in March 2021 and was headed by Information School Lecturer Dr Jonathan Foster, looked into the issues surrounding this idea in the context of patient data, with consideration of this issue being particularly important against the backdrop of the current NHS opt-out system for consent. Dr Jonathan Foster Alongside Dr Foster, the project involved fellow Information School Lecturer and expert in Health Informatics Dr Laura Sbaffi, and Professor Suzanne Mason, a clinician academic and Professor of Emergency Medicine based at the University’s School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR). With Jonathan’s expertise being in Information Management, the project had a broad knowledge base from both the health and the data side of the equation. The...

  We’ve had several good news stories in the School recently, showing off the strength of our staff’s research! Lecturer Dr Mengdie Zhuang was published in the Conversation, discussing the varying degrees to which the public obeyed COVID lockdown rules Her piece, ‘Household mixing during COVID-19: our research suggests adherence to lockdowns in England declined over time’ can be read here . Lecturer Dr Susan Oman has an exhibit on Understanding Well-being Data in the Festival of the Mind The exhibit is based on her current research on well-being data, recently published as a book, and includes her recently produced videos. You can view the exhibit here . Drs Sara Vannini, Efpraxia Zamani, Caitlin Bentley and Suvodeep Mazumdar have all successfully attained Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) funding for their research projects Lecturer Dr Sara Vannini and Senior Lecturer Dr Efpraxia Zamani have received funding for their work on digital poverty with the Sheffield Mayoral Combin...

Levels of COVID-19 research data sharing have remained low during the pandemic, and preprinting of research on the virus has been lower than two initiatives tried to ensure it would be. This is according to a new report that examines the effectiveness of initiatives taken by players in the research ecosystem to promote sharing of COVID-19 research by stepping up open science approaches. While the efforts of scientific publishers and the research community have speeded up publication times for COVID-19 research, and made much of it freely accessible, more effort is needed if society is to truly benefit from open science, the Scholarly Communication in Times of Crisis: The response of the scholarly communication system to the COVID-19 pandemic report says.   The sharing of the SARS-CoV-2 genome is seen as the poster child for open science, and the pandemic held up as a turning point for open science. Yet the report finds this has only partly been realised. It makes a series of key r...

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. 

Senior Lecturer Dr Andrew Cox has a piece in the LSE Impact Blog entitled 'Higher Education Science Fictions – How fictional narratives can shape AI futures in the academy'. The piece follows his work on AI in Higher Education, descibing how he uses fictional narratives to explore scenarios in this field. Read the post here:  https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2021/11/05/higher-education-science-fictions-how-fictional-narratives-can-shape-ai-futures-in-the-academy/