Information School News

Wasim Ahmed , PhD researcher, at the Information School, recently delivered a workshop titled “insights into social media” at Media City, Salford, which is the home to the BBC and ITV. The workshop was a part of the Creative Entrepreneur event, which aims to foster collaboration between academia and industry, and which was attended by over 500 delegates. The workshop focused on how it is possible to gather customer insights from social media using Social Network Analysis (SNA), and data analytics. The workshop was very well attended with delegates from academia, the media, and industry Wasim’s talk also touched on some of the ethical challenges of social media data, and why it is important for academics and those within industry to respect the privacy of social media users. The event was organised by Salford Business School , at the University of Salford, Manchester.

It is always exciting to be invited to speak at a conference, especially when it is on a continent you have never visited! This month I was fortunate enough to have the chance to talk at the  Stellenbosch University 14th Annual Library Symposium  in South Africa.  Stellenbosch is a very beautiful town in the hills above Cape Town, famous for its vineyards. The programme of talks was amazingly good and stimulating. It was framed around OCLC’s report  Shaping the academic library of the future: adapt, empower, partner, engage . You can see the programme and download slides here:  http://conferences.sun.ac.za/ index.php/sulis_symp14/index/ pages/view/prog   This includes a recorded video link to a fascinating presentation by Lorcan Dempsey, from OCLC.  I was particularly impressed by the way that the first and last keynotes were drawn from beyond the library sector to discuss how we can respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing world.  Altogether, it was a very forw

Information and the body The study of information behaviour [1] has traditionally focussed on documentary sources of information and to some degree information that is shared through interaction. Such an emphasis reflects the origins of the whole field  in the study of information behaviours of users of libraries and other institutions that provide access to encoded forms of knowledge. Yet the centrality of embodied experience in all aspects of human life makes the relative neglect of the body in information behaviour studies surprising and potentially problematic, as a number of authors have suggested (Cox, Griffin and Hartel, in press; Lueg 2014, 2015; Lloyd 2009,2010,2014; Olsson, 2010, 2016). This special issue of Library Trends on “Information and the Body” seeks to bring together researchers interested in embodied information, including how we receive information through the senses and the way the body is used as a sign that can be interpreted by others. Several inters

This week, the second edition of the University's Engaged Learning book, 'Facing Outwards', was made available, and it features a piece by our own lecturer Dr Briony Birdi entitled 'The problems of scale: five reasons why small is beautiful, too'. Led by Professor Brendan Stone of the School of English, the publication follows on from a 2015 book  and contains articles from people across the University, as well as external contributors, relcting on the ideas of 'engaged learning'. Themes in the book include social accountability in universities and researching inequality and the book also shows case studies of particular new projects. A PDF of the book can be downloaded here .

Senior Lecturer in Social Media and the Digital Society Dr Paul Reilly has written an article for the LSE British Politics and Policy blog, which examines how social media was used to share footage of alleged Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) brutality against loyalists in Northern Ireland. This post highlights some of the findings from Paul's British Academy funded project ‘YouTube, sousveillance and the policing of union flag protests in Northern Ireland, British Academy’ (Grant reference: SG132416). It can be accessed here .

Dr Paul Reilly is looking for a full-time Research Associate to join the EC FP7-funded project ‘CascEff: Modelling of dependencies and cascading effects for emergency management in crisis situations’. The position is fixed term for 7 months beginning in January, and the closing date for applications is 1 st December 2016. View the job advert and apply here: http://bit.ly/2fXalx1 For any queries, contact Paul directly at p.j.reilly@sheffield.ac.uk .

Dr. Briony Birdi was awarded a Faculty of Social Science prize for, "Outstanding Practice in Learning and Teaching" on Tuesday, 18th October. Presented by Professor Paul Latreille, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Learning and Teaching, the nomination read, "Briony is an outstanding, inspiring teacher who is highly respected by both staff and students. She consistently attracts glowing comments in student module evaluations and motivates students to produce exemplary work. Briony’s commitment and determination to provide the highest quality teaching interventions enthuses her colleagues. Her conviction to providing meaningful opportunities for 'engaged learning' underpins Briony's teaching and facilitation of co-curriculum activities that develop students' interpersonal skills, empathy and cultural awareness." In response to receiving this award, Briony had this to say: 'I'm so pleased to have been given this award, and I want to thank a