Information School News

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.

In June, the Information School welcomed visitors from the Rutgers University summer school for library and information management. The summer school involves masters students from Rutgers and other partner universities, who are based in the UK for two weeks at Wroxton College near Oxford. The students are involved in lectures and seminars during their time in the UK involving speakers from this country and other parts of Europe. The students visited Sheffield for a day and were involved in classes led by Dr Briony Birdi and Professor Stephen Pinfield. Briony led a class on public libraries and Stephen on academic libraries. There were some really excellent discussions, with students contributing based on their knowledge of good practice and the literature. Students were also given a tour of the Information Commons and the Diamond building at Sheffield as examples of library and learning environments in the UK. Thanks to Helen Dickinson,  Information Se...

Last month University of Sheffield’s Information School was privileged to be the first University in the UK to host the prestigious iConference. Held at the end of March in Sheffield, in collaboration with Northumbria University, the iConference was attended by over 400 delegates from around the world and across the library and information field. This year’s theme focused on ‘Transforming Digital Worlds’ with keynote sessions from eminent figures in the information world including: Dr Lynn Silipigni Connaway (OCLC Research), Dr Susan Dumais, (Microsoft Research) and Professor Luciano Floridi, (Oxford Internet Institute). “The keynotes were real highlights of the iConference”, says Professor Gillet, Conference Chair and Professor of Chemoinformatics at the Information School. “We had three well-known figures in the field summarising their work and giving their perspectives on different aspects of the information field. The iSchools organisation often talks about the triad of in...

We invite contributions for iConference 2018, which will take place March 25-28, 2018 at the University of Sheffield. The iConference is presented by the iSchools organisation, a worldwide consortium of information schools dedicated to advancing the information field, and preparing students to meet the information challenges of the 21st Century. Affiliation with the iSchools is not a prerequisite of participation; and we encourage all information scholars and practitioners to take part in this, the thirteenth iSchools conference and the first to be held in the UK. The theme is “Transforming Digital Worlds” and the aim is to bring together thinkers and leaders from academia, industry and not-for-profit organisations, to discuss emerging challenges and potential solutions for information and data management in our rapidly changing world. The conference is being jointly organised by the iSchools at the University of Sheffield and Northumbria University and will include not only peer-re...

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 .

The 2018 iConference will be hosted by the University of Sheffield Information School and the University of Northumbria Department of Mathematics and Information Science. The conference will be hosted in Sheffield from 25-28 March, 2018. Further information on the conference can be found on the iSchools website here .

Congratulations to Dr Briony Birdi who has been announced as the runner up of the 2016 iSchools Doctoral Dissertation Award. The iSchools Doctoral Dissertation Award recognises outstanding work in the information field. The nominations are solicited from all members of the iSchools organisation and are judged by a selection committee drawn from leading international schools.     Dr. Birdi’s thesis: ‘We are here because you were there: an investigation of the reading of, and engagement with, minority ethnic fiction in UK public libraries,’ addresses a current social and political issue involving minority ethnic fiction using three empirical studies to survey reading habits,” said Dr. Seadle, Award Co-Chair. “The reviewers also agreed that this dissertation was a serious competitor for the prize and clearly deserved to be the runner up.”      More information about the 2016 Doctoral Dissertation Award honorees, including research abstracts, can ...

A number of members of the Information School are attending the iConference 2015 in California between 24 and 27 March 2015. Dr Jonathan Foster will be presenting a paper at the conference on 'Implementing e-Learning at a Vietnamese University: A Configurational Approach'.  He is also chairing a preliminary papers session entitled ' The Other Side of Social Media '. PhD student Paula Goodale is also attending the iConference and has been nominated for the 'Best Poster Award'.  Her 'Mapping Data Journeys: Design for an interactive web site' poster is based on research conducted as part of the Secret Life of a Weather Datum project and was produced with co-authors Dr Jo Bates of the Information School, also attending the iConference, and Yuwei Lin of the University of Creative Arts.  The winner will be announced on 26 March.

Congratulations to Paula Goodale who has been nominated for the 'Best Poster Award' at the 2015 iConference. The iConference is an international gathering of scholars and researchers concerned with critical information issues in contemporary society. The iConference is presented by the iSchools organisation , and hosted each year by a different member school. The 2015 host is the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.  The theme for the 2015 conference is Create-Collaborate-Celebrate.  The Information School at the University of Sheffield was the first UK school to join the iSchools organisation. Paula Goodale's poster is entitled 'Mapping Data Journeys: Design for an interactive web site'.  It is based on research conducted as part of the Secret Life of a Weather Datum project and was produced with co-authors Dr Jo Bates of the Information School and Yuwei Lin of the University of Creative Arts. The w...

The 2014 iConference takes place in Berlin between 4 and 7 March.   2014 is the first year in which the Conference has taken place in Europe and a number of staff members from the Information School will be attending to speak and deliver sessions.   These include a session on research data management in the UK Higher Education sector by librarians, IT professionals and research administrators; and discussions on working in the health information profession and exploring PATHS in the context of user characteristics and construction of cultural heritage narratives.   More information can be found on the iConference website .

Leaders from the European iSchools met in Copenhagen the weekend of November 7-8, 2013 to discuss cooperation and EU initiatives.   European iSchool leaders meet in Copenhagen to discuss cooperation and EU initiatives

The Information School is proud to announce that it has now been accepted into the prestigious iCaucus, the select group of information schools at the centre of the international iSchools organisation. The School's entry into the iCaucus reflects our status as a world leader in the information field, and will enhance our international links and provide greater opportunities to steer the field as a whole. We are also happy to note, as the first European information school to join the iSchools movement, that two further European universities, Northumbria University and NOVA University of Lisbon, have recently joined.