Information School News

There is the first Centre for Information Literacy Research research seminar on 4th September at 13.00. Maryam Nazari talks about A Case study in spatial information literacy development . It takes place in Regent Court Room 204 (2nd Floor). "In this presentation I will share my learning of the process of formation of, and some findings from, an inductive case study. My research aims at exploring concepts of geospatial information, Geographic Information Science/systems(GIS), and competencies GIS learners need to be able to find, evaluate, and use geospatial information and solve problems with GIS. The ability to understand a problem / task and to find, evaluate, and use information is a vital provision for problem solving. Information literacy has been proposed as enabler of this ability. However to enable people in different disciplines to solve problems requires understanding of that discipline, and of the nature and characteristics of information used in the discipline. Al

Professor Nigel Ford is presenting a keynote speech at the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Information and Computer Science's 2007 Annual Conference in Southampton this week. "This session will discuss some emerging technologies and trends in educational informatics of relevance to computing and information sciences, and their implications for helping us to enhance the effectiveness of learning - or not, depending on your point of view. Tensions between such points of view relating to a range of pedagogic issues including assessment, teaching and research, creativity and constraint, will be explored."

Dr Mark Sanderson, Reader in Information Retrieval gave a talk at the European Summer School for Information Retrieval, in Glasgow, today.

Dr Kendra Albright is giving an invited talk on AIDS information and libraries in Sub-Saharan Africa, at the World Library and Information Congress organised by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions . This conference takes place in Durban, South Africa, this week.

Obituary Wilfred Leonard Saunders CBE, Professor Emeritus of the University of Sheffield and the first Director of this Department, died on 27th July 2007 after a short illness, aged 87. Wilf was born and brought up in Birmingham and began his career as a library assistant in the Birmingham Reference Library in 1936. Following service in France, North Africa and Italy during the Second World War, he became the Deputy Librarian at the Institute of Bankers in London and then the founding Librarian of the Institute of Education at the University of Birmingham. He spent seven years there, during which time he developed a strong interest in library cooperation activities, before moving to the University of Sheffield in 1956 as Deputy Librarian, the start of a 26-year association with the University that continued until his retirement in 1982. In 1963 he assumed the Directorship of the new Postgraduate School of Librarianship that was then being created in Sheffield; it subsequently changed

This week’s Times Higher includes a feature on university league tables (p4) which compares the tables published in The Times , Telegraph and Guardian . Miguel Nunes and Department of Information Studies are mentioned by name in the accompanying information about who compiles the data for each table, see http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2037901 .

Three events are planned so far for the Information Literacy Group in Second Life, the virtual world. All will be held in the Centre for Information Literacy Research Office (coordinates: Eduserv Island 200 240 43 – the SLURL is http://tinyurl.com/28ef2t ). They will be informal discussions, with virtual refreshments available ;-) In each case there is a discussion leader to get things started. Mon 13 Aug: 04.00-05.00 Second Life time (12-13.00 UK time) “The information literacy research map” Mon 20 Aug: 13.00-14.00 SL time (21-22.00 UK time) “Search within Second Life: challenge or disaster?” (both these first 2 led by me) Tues 4 Sept: 08.00-09.00 SL time (16-17.00 UK time) “How should librarians present themselves in SL, Facebook etc., with a professional or personal face?" (led by Lyn Parker, Sheffield University Library)

The Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, UK, has launched the Centre for Information Literacy Research (CILR), with Sheila Webber as Director of the Centre. The Centre’s mission is to explore, illuminate and develop the field of information literacy through the conduct and stimulation of research and related activities. CILR has a website at http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/cilr/ with details of goals and partners, together with information on the Department’s track record in information literacy and information behaviour research. Through the Eduserv Foundation’s generosity, CILR also has office space in the virtual world Second Life (coordinates: Eduserv Island 200 240 43 – the SLURL is http://tinyurl.com/28ef2t ). There is a copy of the full news release, including photos of the launch in Second Life, at http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/CILRlaunch-pics.pdf

Professor Sheila Corrall is leading a strategic planning workshop on strategy development for Trinity College Library, Dublin, this week.

Dr Miguel Nunes gives a keynote speech on IS Research Issues at the ICM 2007 Conference in Wuhan, China. Knowledge and Information Management PHd student Nick Zhou will also present a full paper at this same conference; his old University and home city. This paper on IS Risk Management is co-authored by Miguel Nunes and Ana Cristina Vasconcelos .

Prof Peter Willett gives a talk entitled "Similarity & machine-learning methods for ligand-based virtual screening" on 30th July at the Gordon Research Conference on Computer Aided Drug Design in Tilton, New Hampshire.

George Papadatos (a PhD student in the Chemoinformatics Research Group and former MSc Chemoinformatics student) has been awarded the Onassis Foundation Scholarship for doctoral studies ( http://www.onassis.gr/english/main/index.php ). The scholarship is one of the most prestigious and sought-after among young Greek researchers.

At 2pm today Professor Ben Bates of the College of Communication and Information, University of Tennessee will give a talk on Intellectual Property, information value and Copyright .