Information School News

Alongside Sergej Lugovic from the Zagreb University of Applied Sciences, PhD student Wasim Ahmed helped run and deliver a 3-day Summer School on social media research in June, which took place in Vodice, Croatia. The summer school connected concepts of Information Theory in relation to social media research, and examined practical methods of obtaining and analysing data. Wasim delivered the keynote talk titled Theoretical and Practical Foundations of Social Media Research. The event was picked up by a number of local media outlets including Info Vodice , and 100posto . A representative from the local mayor’s office opened the event, and highlighted the benefits of the collaboration. The event was attended by delegates across UK, and European institutions as well as a by a number those from local universities. Wasim noted that the event had been a great success with positive feedback, and was amazed by the impact it had generated.

Did you know you have a voice on the CILIP Board of Trustees? They say you only have a few seconds to grab someones attention, did it work? Are you now intrigued as to how you can have your say? Perhaps you are wondering what CILIP is and why it matters? Well here it goes. Being a New Professional can be difficult, you've just finished your course (or are about to) and are thinking about how to get on to that professional career ladder. When you need advice, training and a really good job board, you can turn to The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). You may have heard about CILIP and been told about the benefits of being a member already. Great! Once you start using the services provided and get involved with what is on offer (remember you get out what you put in), you may want to feedback a few suggestions. I'd like to encourage you to feed them back to me. My name is Chloe Menown, I am the co-opted New Professional on the Board of Trustees.

At the Engaged Learning Conference 2017 , hosted by the University of Sheffield 6-7 July 2017, Senior Lecturer Dr Briony Birdi gave a paper on 'Engaged learning and the development of cultural awareness and social responsibility in students', as part of a session on 'Active citizenship and social change'. It has been argued that universities will become socially irrelevant unless they develop and maintain strong links with the local communities in which they are based, and unless their research is perceived by those communities as related to their real-world concerns. Although many of our degree programmes provide students with a set of vital tools to function effectively within an organisation in a particular field, are we failing to fully equip them with the skills they need to operate effectively within a broader public, societal context? What are these skills, and how can they be developed within a higher education degree programme? Firstly, Briony made

I was fortunate enough to receive a student bursary from the University of Sheffield to attend the CILIP Conference 2017 in Manchester. As a distance-learner I was excited to finally meet some iSchool staff and fellow students in person! It didn’t disappoint, and I really enjoyed talking to attendees on the iSchool stand, sharing my experiences of managing full-time work with intensive study. The conference was crammed with interesting keynotes, my favourites were: Dr Carla Hayden (Librarian of Congress) addressed us as her ‘British Peeps’ and described her job interview with Barack Obama. She was passionate about engaging the public with library services, particularly ones that are traditionally research institutions, and heralded the British Library as an example of getting this right. Dr Hayden called upon the younger and older generations of librarians to work together, bridge the gap and benefit from each other’s skillsets.  Luciano Floridi (Professor of Philosophy and Ethic

The CILIP Conference 2017 was held last week, in Manchester. This is one of the most important events for the library and information professionals across the UK, it provides a great opportunity for collaboration, debate and networking. This year the programme included interesting sessions on topics such as managing information, literacy and learning and copyright and ethics and the presentation of three keynote speakers: Dr Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, Professor Luciano Floridi, and Neil MacInnes, Strategic Lead for Libraries, Galleries and Culture at Manchester City Council. I found the sessions on Information Governance and Ethics very useful as they addressed topics that are relevant for my PhD research. Furthermore, I met some information professionals and students from different backgrounds and was really interesting to share ideas an experiences with them. One of the highlights of the conference was, without doubt, the keynote delivered by Professor Luciano Floridi: Fo

Last week, I represented the Information School at the annual CILIP conference in Manchester. This was a huge deal for two reasons; it was my first major library conference and as a ‘southerner’, I got the chance to explore a bit more of the north. My first port of call on arrival was to man the Information School stall. This was an excellent opportunity to interact with distance learners and talk about my own experiences on the MA Librarianship course to potential students. I even got the chance to meet someone from the area that I’m moving to; networking has its advantages. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress opened up the conference with an incredible speech on the importance and diversity of the librarian profession. She reminded all of us that ‘Librarians are the original search engines’ and I plan on buying a t-shirt with that phrase asap. The fact that such a superstar librarian applauded library students showed just what an inspiration she is. Dr Konstantina Martzoukou, a senio

For the opening keynote of the CILIP conference I was careful to take an aisle seat in the lecture theatre as I knew I would have to leave early for a telephone interview. This had an unexpected benefit. To my surprise and delight Dr Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, was making her way up the steps, chatting with delegates as she went. When was near me, she called out “Any students here?” My hand went up! She came over and asked me what I was going to do – I told her I had a telephone interview that morning. She smiled warmly and told me “You’ll be fine!” and not to worry about slipping out. Keynote speakers are supposed to set the tone for the rest of the conference, and Carla Hayden did this in her walk up those lecture theatre steps. Her warmth and supportive attitude were shared by all people I talked with over the two days of the conference. In my previous career as an academic I have attended many conferences. They are usually a mixed bag – some people are friendly an

The conference started off with an uplifting keynote speech by Dr. Carla Hayden, the current Librarian of Congress. One of the comments she made towards the start of her talk was that ‘the colleagues you meet now will be with you for the rest of your career’. This resonated strongly with me as the conference proved to be an opportunity to connect, and re-connect, with a number of peers I don’t often get to see. I found myself connecting with professionals from around the country, including current and former work colleagues, fellow students, and those I’ve come across ‘in the profession’, particularly through my volunteer work with CILIP. If these are the peers I will be working with for the rest of my career, then I am truly fortunate as they are all intelligent, motivational, and hard-working! During the 'Using Data and Information' seminar, Caroline Carruthers raised the interesting concept of data hoarding, saying how we have 'forgotten the value of the information wi

Despite the impressive range of fascinating keynotes and innovative sessions on offer, this Day 1 session instantly appealed to me on first reading the CILIP 2017 programme. Having attended this session I certainly was not disappointed. Delivered by CILIP development officers Juanita Foster Jones and Jo Cornish, and with input from CILIP Assistant Director of Workforce Development Mandy Powell, the session was engaging, informative and practical, with a range of career stage appropriate advice for all participants. My only regret would be that I hadn’t attended this session at a slightly earlier point in my library course. Nevertheless, there was a wealth of advice available on a diverse range of topics and CPD opportunities, as well as several genuine and sincere offers of future help and support post-conference. The session consisted of three main group activities which involved: a brief SWOT analysis of personal skills and skills gaps  an overview of the CILIP PKSB and the

PhD student Wasim Ahmed has been featured in the European Student Chapter of Associate for Information Science and Technology which is now in its 10th edition. Wasim reflected on the 2017 edition of the conference which took place in Wuhan, China and raised awareness of the 2018 conference which takes place in Sheffield March 2018. The link to the full newsletter can be found here . The call for papers for the conference is now open and can be found here .

Pamela McKinney, Sheila Webber and Peter Holdridge represented the iSchool at Sheffield University's annual celebration of Technology Enhanced Learning: TELfest .   McKinney and Webber gave a presentation Comparing use of TEL in an on campus class and a distance learning class , reporting on ways in which Technology Enhanced Learning is used in the on-campus and distance versions of the core Information Literacy module. The presentation is available here: https://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/comparing-use-of-technology-enhanced-learning-in-an-oncampus-class-and-a-distance-learning-class Sheila Webber (one of the educators on the University of Sheffield Exploring Play MOOC ) contributed to a panel on Learning Through Play . She talked about Dr Peter Stordy's innovative use of Lego in the Information Organisation module, and about learning playfully in the 3D virtual world, Second Life (including learning through virtual dance! ) Peter Holdridge was a panel membe

We are delighted to say that Professor Peter Willett has been awarded honorary membership of the Molecular Graphics and Modelling Society (MGMS), an international society for the application of computer techniques for the discovery of novel drugs. Honorary membership is bestowed on people who have made an excellent and lasting contribution to the MGMS's area of science, with Peter's award reflecting his significant contributions to the development of chemoinformatics over the last forty years. There are 8 current honorary members ,one of whom, Martin Karplus, is a Nobel Prize winner!

Earlier this month, Professor Paul Clough was interviewed on the first episode of Machine Minds, a podcast about the influence of technology in modern life. The episode, entitled 'Search Engine and Bias', looked at bias in search engines and Paul's input was based on work he undertook with Dr Jo Bates from the Information School and Jahna Otterbacher from Open University Cyprus. You can listen to the podcast here.

Current MA Library and Information Services Management student Billie Coxhead is cycling from London to Sheffield to raise money for Sheffield Hospitals Charity, along with her friend Gracey Power. The three day ride begins tomorrow, Wednesday 12th July. The Sheffield Princess Royal Spinal Unit looked after Billie's brother Keir after a car crash, so the funds from this trip are both a thank you to them and a help in continuing this work for others. You can read about Billie's ride and cause, as well as donate money, on her JustGiving page here .

At the i3 (information interactions and impact) conference held in Aberdeen, Scotland, there were two presentations from the iSchool. Sheila Webber presented a paper coauthored with Professor Nigel Ford, Dr Andrew Madden and Mary Crowder , reporting on quantitative findings from a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) on Deep critical Information Behaviour . The paper was entitled Mapping the development of critical information behaviour through school and university and the slides are at https://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/mapping-the-development-of-critical-information-behaviour-through-school-and-university Jessica Elmore , who had ealier received the Mark Hepworth Award for Best paper at i3, presented on Information sharing in the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classroom: a case study . Sheila Webber (who co-supervises Jessica's PhD with Dr Peter Stordy) liveblogged her talk at http://information-literacy.blogspot.co.uk/2017

Researchers from the Universities of Sheffield (Dr Paul Reilly from the Information School) and Leicester, in collaboration with Kansai University in Japan, have received a prestigious funding award from Kansai University in order to develop a Future Leader programme for disaster risk management. In attendance at the project launch(from Left): Dr Paul Reilly, Professor Peter Jackson, Dr Nibedita Ray-Bennett, Dr Hideyuki Shiroshita, Professor Kenji Koshiyama, Dr John Atibila, Dr Kaori Kitagawa and Mrs Denise Corsel. This collaborative research project will capture feedback from educators, governmental and non-governmental organisations, United Nations and students who have completed university courses relating to risk, crisis, disaster and development management to develop a bespoke programme for practitioners in Japan and the UK. You can read more about the project in this press release .

Research Associate Dr Giuliana Tiripelli is attending the British Society of Criminology annual conference at Sheffield Hallam University between 4-7 July 2017. Dr Tiripelli will be presenting her book Media and Peace in the Middle East as part of a panel entitled 'Compromise after Conflict: The role of political prisoners in Northern Ireland, (re)presenting peace and the transformations of resistance'.