Information School News

 A new article has been published today in the Journal of Social Media for Learning, authored by PhD student Paul Fenn and Senior Lecturer Dr Paul Reilly. The article, entitled 'Problematising the use of Snapchat in Higher Education Teaching and Learning' can be found here:  https://openjournals.ljmu.ac.uk/index.php/JSML/article/view/383 Abstract: There has been relatively little research exploring how Snapchat can be used within Higher Education teaching to date. In this viewpoint, we draw on extant empirical data to explore the strengths and weaknesses of using the Instant Messaging (IM) app to support student learning and teaching within universities. We conclude by considering whether it is appropriate to fully integrate apps like Snapchat into Higher Education in light of the revelations of data misuse by these platforms. The growth of ‘surveillance realism’, whereby citizens feel increasingly powerless at their personal data being repurposed by these companies for financi

Are you thinking about a degree in Library and Information Studies? Do you want to know more about the different options out there, and about potential funding opportunities? CILIP East are pleased to present "Applying to Library School", which will take place from 6pm – 7.30pm on Tuesday, 8th December via Zoom. Come along and hear Prof. Stephen Pinfield from Sheffield University, and recent graduates from a range of university LIS departments speak. We will be covering full-time, part-time and distance learning options, and there will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions during the evening. Programme: 6.00-6.05pm : Housekeeping 6.05-6.35pm : Programme director talk 6.35-6.55pm : Q and A 6.55-7.00pm: Break 7.00-7.20pm: Student Experiences 7.20-7.30: Questions and close There is a small fee to attend the event which will in part cover costs associated with the event. Any profit made on this event will contribute to the CILIP East Small Grants Fund. CILIP members £3 + VA

BHCC 2020 - 2nd Symposium on Biases in Human Computation and Crowdsourcing Dr Alessandro Checco Human Computation and Crowdsourcing have become ubiquitous in the world of algorithm augmentation and data management. However, humans have various cognitive biases that influence the way they make decisions, remember information, and interact with machines. It is thus important to identify human biases and analyse their effect on complex hybrid systems. On the other hand, the potential interaction with a large pool of human contributors gives the opportunity to detect and handle biases in existing data and systems. The goal of this symposium is to analyse both existing human biases in hybrid systems, and methods to manage bias via crowdsourcing and human computation. We will discuss different types of biases, measures and methods to track bias, as well as methodologies to prevent and solve bias. An interdisciplinary approach is often required to capture the broad effects that these processe

Award: CrowdCO-OP: Sharing Risks and Rewards in Crowdsourcing Dr Alessandro Checco A joint work between the University of Queensland, the University of Hanover, and the University of Sheffield titled CrowdCO-OP: Sharing Risks and Rewards in Crowdsourcing has received an Honorable Mention Award at the prestigious Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2020). The work focused on paid micro-task crowdsourcing. This type of labour has gained in popularity mainly because of the increasing need for large-scale manually labelled datasets which are often used to train and evaluate Artificial Intelligence systems. Modern paid crowdsourcing platforms use a piecework approach to rewards, meaning that workers are paid for each task they complete, given that their work quality is considered sufficient by the requester or the platform. Such an approach creates risks for workers: their work may be rejected without being rewarded, and they may be working on poorly

Celebrate UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy week with the Information school Sheila Webber and Dr Pam McKinney Unesco’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week is an annual event to celebrate and promote Media and Information Literacy worldwide. This year the week of international (virtual!) events is taking place 24th-31st October, with the theme “Resisting Disinfodemic: Media and Information Literacy for everyone and, by everyone”. The Information School has co-organised two key contributions to the week: an expert panel on 28th October , chaired by Sheila Webber, and on 29th October a programme of exciting insights from Media and Information Literacy research . Both these free events are held in collaboration with FOIL: the Forum on Information Literacy. Sheila Webber and Pam McKinney are members of this new national network of information literacy researchers in the UK, FOIL, who aim to discuss and challenge ideas, and engage in critical reflection and enquiry about

Study on research data management in China Dr Andrew Cox The results of an international collaboration between Andrew Cox and Laura Sbaffi at the Information School and Yingshen Huang, from Peking University, have now been published in the prestigious Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (Early view). https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24413 The research, based on web site analysis, a survey and interviews, reveals that the support of research data management by Chinese university libraries remains in its infancy. The full reference is: Huang Y, Cox A & Sbaffi L (2020) Research data management policy and practice in Chinese university libraries. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24413

Why you should never use Microsoft Excel to count coronavirus cases Professor Paul Clough Public Health England has admitted that 16,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK were missed from daily figures being reported between September 25 and October 2. The missing figures were subsequently added to the daily totals, but given the importance of these numbers for monitoring the outbreak and making key decisions, the results of the error are far-reaching. Not only does it lead to underestimating the scale of coronavirus in the UK, but perhaps more important is the subsequent delay in entering the details of positive cases into the NHS Test and Trace system which is used by a team of contact tracers. Although all those who tested positive had been informed of their results, other people in close contact with them and potentially at risk of exposure were not immediately followed up (ideally within 48 hours). This was a serious error. What could have caused it? It emerged later that that

Book on Social Media Research Ethics contracted with SAGE Dr Paul Reilly Doing Ethical Social Media Research, contracted with SAGE, due 2022. Yesterday I received the contract for my next book. ‘Doing Ethical Social Media Research’ will be published by SAGE in 2022. This book will explore the foundations of ethical decision-making, the perspectives of researchers on how to conduct ethical social media research, and how to address these issues when researching high-risk contexts and contentious issues. The book will be a hybrid research methods text aimed at students, researchers and anybody with an interest in social media research. It will include summaries of key issues and exercises for those wanting to learn more about digital research ethics. Many thanks to Michael Ainsley at SAGE for all his help in getting this contract over the line, and for the thoughtful and generous feedback of all the reviewers. I look forward to working on this project with Michael and the team in 2021. I

The results of our survey of how academic libraries are supporting student wellbeing, before and during COVID19 are now published. Dr Andrew Cox The paper "Library support for student mental health and well-being in the UK: before and during the COVID19 pandemic" is available via Journal of Academic Librarianship @ DOI . During the pandemic, the emphasis was on alleviating anxiety around accessing online content. The paper proposes a holistic model of library support for student mental health and well-being, with eight aspects: library services impact, well-being as a library service, detection, hosting, signposting, inherent library value, library as a good partner and library staff well-being. Data from the survey was shared in a blog post in June 

Can robots help tackle loneliness? Dr Dave Cameron It was announced this week that Robots to be used in UK care homes to help reduce loneliness . Dr Dave Cameron gives his thoughts on robots tackling loneliness. Photo by  Alex Knight  from  Pexels What do you make of “companion robots”? Do you think they really could be the solution for curing loneliness in old age? Companion robots have a real potential as a research tool to better understand how people interact with each other and how social interactions progress. Their use in supporting people who are lonely is admirable but a lot of the ground work still needs to be done. I don’t think loneliness in old age could be solved just by using companionship robots. Companion robots may help though: they can provide entertainment, comfort, or distraction from loneliness, similar to other media, but not tackle the issue itself. They can offer a simulation of a relationship but that experience may be closer to the social connection felt when

Blog post: My new role at the Society for Spanish Researchers in the UK Dr Antonio de la Vega de Leon Last week I became the secretary of the  Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK) and I am excited for the role (and a bit overwhelmed). I first met members of the Society shortly after I came to the UK in 2016, thanks to a science outreach event they had organised at the University of Sheffield. Since then, I became more involved with them, helping organise science outreach events throughout Yorkshire and making many friends. Before taking the role of general secretary, I was the secretary of the Yorkshire constituency for two years. The Society has given me much over the years. My first research supervisory experience was with Elisa, an undergraduate student from Madrid that stayed with us at the iSchool for the summer funded through a SRUK mobility programme. I had the chance to visit the Spanish Embassy for the Emerging Talent Award they organise. I have also ga

Blog: My year as a Data Science student Syeda Gulnoor Zahra  Study sessions in The Diamond will be missed Data Scientist has been classified as the ‘sexiest’ job of the 21st century by the Harvard Business Review. This explains its popularity and hype all around the world. MSc Data Science is also one of the most popular courses offered by the Information School (iSchool) and has a higher eligibility criterion than other courses to ensure the quality of the course. The iSchool at The University of Sheffield has been ranked Number 1 in the UK. Choosing to study this course at iSchool has proven to be one of my best decisions. Hence, I would like to take this opportunity to share my experience with you as both an MSc Data Science student and as a Student Ambassador at The University of Sheffield.  The course offers many interesting and technical modules. Out of which, my favourite ones have been Data Visualization, Database Design, Big Data Analytics and Data Mining (Machin

Media: iSchool Video Blog with Professor Peter Bath Professor Peter Bath Interview with Peter Bath, iSchools European Regional Chair, University of Sheffield - #4 from iSchools Inc on Vimeo . iSchools European Regional Chair and Executive Committee Member, Prof. Peter Bath, discusses the effects on working practices for academics during the COVID-19 pandemic and explains how it impacts his research and supervision of his PhD students.

New Book: Open Access in Theory and Practice Professor Stephen Pinfield A new book, By Stephen Pinfield, Simon Wakeling, David Bawden and Lyn Robinson has been published today in hardback and Open Access form.  Professor Stephen Pinfield worked with alum, and former member of staff, Simon Wakeling and colleagues from City, University of London.  Open Access in Theory and Practice investigates the theory-practice relationship in the domain of open access publication and dissemination of research outputs. Drawing on detailed analysis of the literature and current practice in OA, as well as data collected in detailed interviews with practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, the book discusses what constitutes ‘theory’, and how the role of theory is perceived by both theorists and practitioners. Exploring the ways theory and practice have interacted in the development of OA, the authors discuss what this reveals about the nature of the OA phenomenon itself and the theory-practice relat

Press: University support package hailed as 'creative and clever' Professor James Wilsdon A university bailout package announced by the government in the wake of the coronavirus crisis has been welcomed by research policy analysts. Announced on 27 June by business secretary Alok Sharma, the package includes loans to make up for the unexpected loss of a cross-subsidy from international students, plus £180 million to support salaries and laboratory costs. James Wilsdon, a professor of research policy at the University of Sheffield and director of the Research on Research Institute, told Research Professional News the package was “very welcome”. Read the rest of the article on Research Professional News here .

Dr Susan Oman Lecturer in Data, AI & Society Dr Susan Oman has had some of her research highlighted by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.    In partnership with Arts Council England, Dr Oman developed a new process to improve inequality measurement, including class background, in the UK cultural sector. Through funding from AHRC’s Creative Economy Engagement Fellowship scheme, Dr Oman’s research triggered the creation of a new network of arts and culture professionals working in publicly funded institutions which offers support in gathering and analysing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion related data. Read more here.

Blog: My Year as a Library and Information Services Management Student by Rachel Colley Rachel Colley I’ve just finished my first year of my Master’s degree which is a Library and Information Services Management degree. This course has been challenging but in a way that has pushed me further in my academic studies. It has allowed me to write various types of assignments that I have not had experience of writing before in my undergraduate degree. These experiences have shown me that I am capable of more than I thought of when it came to my academic studies and assignments and what I have achieved because of this over the past year.  Two of my favourite modules that I have had so far have been the Libraries, Information and Society as well as Leadership, Strategy and Change modules. These modules have both taught me in detail how the mechanisms of libraries work with the key different aspects along with how the management structure works within the library and information services settin

Tools for Life Research Project Seeking Views on Patient Data Dr Sarah Hargreaves We are inviting members of the public, patients, and health professionals to take part in interviews which aim to explore what people think about sharing patient data/medical records for purposes beyond their individual care, e.g.for research to improve treatments or healthcare service. We are looking for people aged 25-44 or 65 plus and from a range of different backgrounds to take part. Your participation would involve being interviewed to find out your opinions about sharing your patient data/medical record. The expected length of the interview is about an hour. This would take place at a data/time of your choosing, and via the telephone, or skype, or google hangouts. To say thank you for your time, all participants will receive a £30 Amazon voucher which will be emailed to you after the interview. If you have any questions about the study and to receive an information sheet with further details please

Survey Results: University library support to student mental health and well-being during COVID-19 Dr Andrew Cox Andrew Cox and Liz Brewster (Medical School, Lancaster University) undertook a survey of how university libraries are supporting student mental health and well-being during COVID-19.  The survey was open from 18th to 29th May 2020. This is a brief report on some of the main results of the survey. There were a total of 59 valid responses, representing 49 different institutions (some institutions gave more than one answer). Two were from outside the UK. For the purposes of this short initial report we have not de-duplicated responses. Of the responses 17 (29%) were from library directors and 13 (22%) from staff with a particular responsibility for the subject.  We are offering limited interpretation of the data at this stage. Watch this space for a pre-print of the paper using the survey. We would like to thank everyone who participated in the survey, and those who helped dist