Information School News

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 .

The next meeting of the Departmental staff and research student Book Group is on Monday May 21st, discussing Ursula Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven . The June book will be The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.

Eight members of the Department of Information Studies' Chemoinformatics Research Group ( http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/research/groups/chem ) travel to the UK-QSAR meeting at AstraZeneca, Macclesfield on Tuesday 24th April . Two of our members will be giving presentations, as follows: Eleanor Gardiner : " Representing clusters of molecules using reduced graphs " Dave Wood : " The use of kernel discrimination algorithms in virtual screening " For more information on the Spring 2007 meeting of the UK QSAR & ChemoInformatics Group, please see http://www.iainm.demon.co.uk/spring2007/main.html

On Monday 30 April , Prof Sheila Corrall attends a by-invitation round-table discussion in London, hosted by MLA (the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council) to explore how libraries, archives and museums can contribute to the 2012 Olympic Games, through the development of Information Hubs and Media Centres. This description from the MLA's invitation explains the event in more detail: “ Thousands of people and hundreds of organisations will be seeking information that will be used to document and recount the story of the once in a lifetime experience that is the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is essential that we start planning now in a co-ordinated way to ensure that we can supply a comprehensive information service for 2012 that meets the needs of different users and fully reflects the local distinctiveness of the UK and our cultural relationship to this international sporting occasion. ”

Prof Sheila Corrall travels to Manchester on Tuesday 24th April to chair a meeting of the Management Board of MIMAS (Manchester Information & Associated Services), one of the two main UK National Data Centres, which is run by Manchester Computing at the University of Manchester and funded by JISC and the ESRC. For more information on MIMAS, see http://www.mimas.ac.uk/

On Tuesday 24th April (10:00 to 12.00) Peter Stordy , along with Peter Lord of the University Careers Service, runs a workshop entitled " ePortfolio: Designing an extended WebCT CV that could be seen by prospective employers ". All DIS students are invited to attend, and during the workshop will be given privileged access to WebCT's ePortfolio. Using this, you can create an online portfolio to advertise your skills, experience and qualifications. You can add exemplar work, relevant photographs, your CV etc. When applying for a post, you can give the employer log-in details so they can also see the portfolio. You will be able to keep the ePortfolio after you leave the University. Peter needs to create special WebCT accounts beforehand, so please e-mail him at peter.stordy@sheffield.ac.uk if you would like to attend!

Continuing a busy week, Prof Sheila Corrall travelled straight from Birmingham to Dublin to speak at the Library Association of Ireland Academic & Special Libraries Section Annual Seminar, " Shifting Sands: Experiencing Change in the Library & Information Environment ". http://www2.libraryassociation.ie/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/brochure.pdf Prof Corrall gave the keynote presentation " Achieving Change: Theory and Practice ", and designed and facilitated two workshop sessions of around 70 people each, looking at change situations.

Prof Sheila Corrall 's 18th April presentation at the Library & Information Show in Birmingham mentioned below, " Developing Information Literacy: Our Mission for the 21st Century ," was a great success, with the venue so overfull that latecomers had to stand at the back! Also at the L+I Show, Prof Corrall was Special Guest Speaker for the ISG (CILIP) / BookData Reference Awards Presentation.

On Wednesday 25th April, Juliet Harland will present doctoral research which aims to enhance understanding of the different ways that people with dementia and their carers need, find and use information to make sense of their situation. The background to the study will be explained, particularly exploring the potential of user-centred theories and models from information science to contribute to the practice of patient-centred medicine and improved information provision to this group. Although data collection is ongoing, 18 interviews have been completed and the methodological approach and methods will be discussed. Preliminary findings will be presented, focusing on the variety of ways that participants experience seeking and using information in their everyday lives.

In April, Prof Peter Willett travelled to Paris to visit Sanofi-Aventis, one of the five largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. There he presented his paper “ Searching and clustering of chemical datasets using reduced graphs ”. Also this month, Prof Willett presented “ Virtual Screening in Chemoinformatics: the Role of Data Fusion ” at SWIFT 2007 (Skövde Workshop on Information Fusion Topics), University of Skövde, Sweden.

Today Professor Sheila Corrall is giving a talk Developing Information Literacy: Our Mission for the 21st Century at the Library +Information Show at the NEC in Birmingham . " Information literacy is recognised internationally as an essential competence for participation in a democratic society. Promoting the profession’s role in IL is one of CILIP’s strategic objectives. Discussion about IL usually concentrates on educational settings. This presentation takes a broader perspective in exploring how all information workers can contribute to developing information literate communities."

A staff/student team from DIS is presenting at the CILASS (Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences) one-day Staff-Student Symposium, to held on the 30th April in the new Information Commons. David Toft, Viktor Naryzhny, Karim Jivraj, Kyle Massingham, Pratik Mehta, Dan Grech (BSc IM students) and Dr Andrew Cox & Dr Philippa Levy will be talking about our own Inf106 (Inquiry in Information Management) module. Dr Levy also Chairs the day, as Academic Director of CILASS. There is information about the day at http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/symposium.html

On 30th March the Department hosted a visit from the eminent information literacy researcher, Dr Christine Bruce , Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. Dr Bruce led a seminar in the morning for Sheffield researchers (staff and students), and in the afternoon we held a free seminar which celebrated research at both QUT and here in the Department. Dr Bruce gave a presentation on information literacy models derived from QUT research, and Professor Nigel Ford and Sheila Webber talked about information literacy and information behaviour research in the Department. There were also two presentations focusing on research projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Researcher and educationalist Bill Johnston (Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement, University of Strathclyde) and Sheila Webber talked about UK chemistry academics' conceptions of information literacy. Professor Ford and Dr Andrew Madden (Research Fellow in the Department) di