Category Archives: research

CILIP accredited courses and Scottish iSchools members AI teaching

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I gathered the following data in late September 2026.

1 CILIP-accredited courses

CILIP – the UK wide organisation – accredits the following courses at UK institutions. (Students from Scotland are treated as home students in the other UK nations.) As far as I can tell, CILIPS (the Scottish part of CILIP) does not undertake its own accreditation.

  • Aberystwyth University (Wales)
    • BA Cultural Heritage Studies: Libraries, Archives and Museums
    • BSc Information and Library Studies
    • MA/PG Dip Archives and Records Management
    • MA/PG Dip Information and Library Studies
    • MSc/PG Dip Digital Information and Media Management
  • Coleg Llandrillo (Wales)
    • FdA Library and Information Management
    • BA (Hons) Library and Information Management
  • Cranfield University (England)
  • Manchester Metropolitan University (England)
    • MA/PG Dip Library and Information Management
  • Robert Gordon University (Scotland)
    • MA/PG Dip Information and Library Studies
  • Ulster University (Northern Ireland)
    • MA/PG Dip Library and Information Science
  • University College London (England)
    • MA/PG Dip Library and Information Studies
  • University of Glasgow
    • MSc/PG Dip in Archives, Records & Information Management 
    • MSc/PG Dip in Museum Studies
    • MSc/PG Dip in Library & Information Studies
    • MA Digital Media and Information Studies
  • University of Manchester (England)
    • MA in Library and Archive Studies
  • University of Sheffield (England)
    • MSc in Data Science
    • MSc in Information Management
    • MSc in Information Systems
    • MA/PG Dip in Librarianship
    • MA/PG Dip in Library and Information Services Management
  • University of Strathclyde (Scotland)
    • MSc/PG Dip in Information and Library Studies
    • MSc/PG Dip in Digital Health Systems
    • MSc/PG Dip in Information Management

2 AI teaching in the Scottish iSchools

2.1 Edinburgh Napier University

Edinburgh Napier University offers the following degree courses with artificial intelligence or AI in their titles or course descriptors. None of them appear to be aimed at LIS students.

The following Edinburgh Napier University modules have ‘AI’ or ‘artificial intelligence’ in their titles. They are taught by the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment and the Business School. Edinburgh Napier has no modules including librar… in the title.

Edinburgh Napier University’s Information Science MSc comprises the following modules, all taught by members of the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. None of the module descriptors mention AI.

2.2 Robert Gordon University

The following Robert Gordon University degree courses include ‘artificial intelligence’ in their titles or were linked to modules with ‘artificial intelligence’ in their titles. None of them appear to be aimed at librarians.

  • 0071 BSc (Hons) Computer Science
  • 0531 BSc (Hons) Cyber Security
  • 0593 MSci Computing Science
  • 0679 BSc (Hons) Data Science with Artificial Intelligence
  • 0689 MSc Artificial Intelligence
  • 0689 MSc Artificial Intelligence
  • 0702 BSc (Hons) Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (IIT)
  • 0713 LLB (Hons) with Artificial Intelligence     
  • 0717 MSc Cyber Security with Artificial Intelligence
  • 0718 GA in BSc (Hons) Data Science with Artificial Intelligence
  • 0721 Beng (Hons) Robotics and Mechatronics
  • 0722 Meng Robotics and Mechatronics
  • 0734 MSc Advanced Computing 
  • 0756 MSc AI Engineering (IIT)

The following Robert Gordon University modules have ‘artificial intelligence’ in their titles:

  • CM4107 Advanced Artificial Intelligence
  • CM2602 Artificial Intelligence
  • CEM004 Artificial Intelligence Evaluation and Governance
  • CEM006 Artificial Intelligence Systems Development
  • CEM005 Artificial Intelligence Workflow Development
  • EN4200 Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Renewable Energy Systems
  • CM3152 Artificial Intelligence for Problem Solving
  • CEM003 Artificial Intelligence in Professional Practice
  • LL4003 Artificial Intelligence: Law and Governance
  • CM2138 Business Intelligence
  • CM3709 Business Intelligence
  • CMM725 Business Intelligence Tools and Applications
  • CM4601 Computational Intelligence
  • CM4607 Computational Intelligence
  • CM1602 Data Structures and Algorithms for Artificial Intelligence
  • CM3603 Edge Artificial Intelligence
  • CM3710 Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
  • CEM729 Principles of Artificial Intelligence
  • CMM546 Trends in Artificial Intelligence

1.3       University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow offers the following modules with ‘artificial intelligence’ in their titles. None of the modules appeared to be specifically aimed at LIS students or librarianship. It was not possible to search for degree courses with ‘artificial intelligence’ in their titles.

  • ENG5337 Advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 5
  • UESTCHN3020 Artificial Intelligence 
  • MED1022E Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: principles and practical application
  • COMPSCI4004 Artificial Intelligence (H)
  • COMPSCI5087 Artificial Intelligence (M)
  • LAW5226 Artificial Intelligence and Law
  • ACCFIN5230 Artificial Intelligence in Finance 
  • UESTC3036 Artificial Intelligence with Engineering Applications
  • UESTCHN3002 Artificial Intelligence with Engineering Applications
  • PHIL4067 Consciousness: Brains, Artificial Intelligence, and Subjective Experience
  • URBAN5161 Data & Artificial Intelligence in Policy and Society
  • LAW5240 Data and Artificial Intelligence in the Creative Economy
  • LAW5239 Digital Creators, Artificial Intelligence and the Law
  • ENG4200 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 4
  • ENG5338 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning M
  • GEOG5137 Introduction to Geospatial Artificial Intelligence
  • PHYS5101P MSc Project in Advanced Microscopy with Artificial Intelligence
  • COMPSCI5100 Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence for Data Scientists (M)
  • LAW5238 Regulating Artificial Intelligence in the Creative Economy
  • POLITIC4196 The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

1.4       University of Strathclyde

The University of Strathclyde offers the following degree courses with ‘artificial intelligence’ in their titles or descriptions.

The university also offers the following modules with ‘artificial intelligence’ in their titles.

  • Undergraduate
    • UG BE433 Biomedical Artificial Intelligence
    • UG CS310 Foundations of Artificial Intelligence
    • UG CS453 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
  • Postgraduate
    • PG BE953 Biomedical Artificial Intelligence
    • PG CS824 Quantitative Methods for Artificial Intelligence
    • PG EE818 Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for Energy Systems
    • PG MK843 Artificial Intelligence in Marketing
    • PG MS856 Artificial Intelligence: Principles and Machine Learning Applications

Creative Content Exchange – call for survey participants

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The Creative Content Exchange (CCE) is a UK government-backed initiative that aims to bring together UK-based creative content owners and businesses looking to use the wealth and range of digital assets the UK’s cultural institutions hold in their collections and archives.

Jennifer Volk, a PhD student at the University of Glasgow, is researching the CCE and its implications at a time when GLAM institutions (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) are experiencing challenges linked with the rise of Generative AI and Large Language Models. 

Jennifer invites professionals who may have an opinion on the CCE to share their views via a short, anonymous survey. To find out more about the research and take part, please visit this link: https://uofg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ePCSmb5dySzd2U6

The anonymous survey will take around 10-15 minutes to complete and can be done on a desktop or mobile device. If you would be interested in providing more detailed insights, you will have the opportunity to sign up to be interviewed at the end of the survey.   

Please contact Jennifer at j.volk.1@research.gla.ac.uk with any questions. 

Don’t close the book on Fife’s school librarians

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During my recent research into how school librarians can help students with mis- and disinformation issues, I learnt that four local authorities (Argyll & Bute, Glasgow, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire) either had, or soon would have, no secondary school librarians. Also, Fife is continuing to cut its school library services. In this case, I’m pleased to learn that the UNISON Union and CILIPS are campaigning against these cuts, and for improvements to school library services.

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Bridging Skills for Working Lives: Exploring Career-Ready Skills Through the Card Game of Bridge

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A call from a former Napier colleague, Marina Milosheva

Calling all students, parents and teachers!

Did you know that playing card games can help you with your career?

Join us on Monday 13th October in Glasgow for a fun, free event as part of the Festival of Social Science: 

Bridging Skills for Working Lives: Exploring Career-Ready Skills Through the Card Game of Bridge

What you’ll do:

• Hear career stories from financial advisers, IT specialists, and science teachers

• Learn to play the card game bridge

• Meet new people and get inspired!

Event details:

📅 Monday 13th October, 3:30–6 pm (first day of half-term week)

📍 Clyde Bridge Centre, Centura Court, 4 Nasmyth Rd, Hillington, Glasgow G52 4PR 

🎫 FREE, including pizza, snacks and travel bursaries

Register today: https://festivalofsocialscience.com/events/bridging-skills-for-working-lives/

‘Tackling misinformation and disinformation for Scottish school librarians’ project report published

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I’m very happy that the project report on ‘Tackling misinformation and disinformation for Scottish school librarians’ is now published on the CILIPS website. It feels like it’s been a long time coming, but very worthwhile. In this work, I researched the ‘how, why and what could/should be’ of Scottish school librarians’ work to help pupils become better able to handle mis- and disinformation.

The report now has a digital object identifier, 10.17869/enu.2025.4736738. Hence it is now also available via the Napier repository at https://napier-repository.worktribe.com/output/4736738, and on my official list of publications.

The headline findings and recommendations from this work are below. While the findings may be somewhat depressing, I think this research can be the basis of making things better, and that’s what I’m all about, in both my academic and non-academic lives. Meanwhile I am very grateful to CILIPS for funding this work, and to the school librarians who took part. Many thanks also to my Napier colleagues who commented on drafts of the report.

Readers might also be interested in my presentation to the CILIPS conference in June this year. Video of this presentation, along with my slides and script, along with the conference programme, videos of other presentations and my live reportage on the conference are available in this post.

I will also make a brief presentation on the work at the next Scottish Media and Information Literacy Community of Practice (MILCoP) meeting (online, 2pm to 4pm on Thursday 23 October). You can register for that meeting on Eventbrite. (Attendance, and membership of MILCoP are entirely free.)

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Published: ‘Community Councils online’ report

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This report (download link) reports the results of a survey, carried out in early 2022, of the public internet presences of potentially over 1300 Scottish community councils. It gives an update a decade after similar surveys in 2012 and 2014 (Ryan & Cruickshank, 2012, 2014). This report focuses on the timeliness and content of community council websites, and the timeliness of community councils’ Facebook and X/Twitter presences.

Searchable maps visualising the findings are available online.

In summary, there has been little positive change since the 2014, except that the number of CCs with public Facebook presences has increased noticeably.

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New project for 2025: ‘Tackling misinformation and disinformation for Scottish school librarians’

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I am delighted that CILIPS has awarded me funding to undertake this new project in the first half of 2025. Matching my growing interest in librarianship[1], and growing from my interests in information, digital and media literacy[2], the project will tackle the following research questions:

  • How involved are school librarians in enabling pupils’ handling of mis/disinformation?
  • What would they like to do to help pupils better prepare to handle mis/disinformation?
  • What training/support do they have and wish for?
  • How can they collaborate with teachers?
  • How can this be used to advocate for school librarians/libraries?

I look forward to presenting the findings at CILIPS annual conference in summer 2025, and then contributing to advocacy for school libraries. Later, I will write an academic article, but the practitioner-facing activities are first and foremost.

[1] I am second supervisor of a PhD by published works looking into the impacts of the post-2012 changes to English school curricular. The thesis will centre on the apparent decline of teaching information and and digital literacy skills, and the concomitant sidelining of school libraries.

[2] Latest IL publications: Information Literacy and Society, Information Literacy Impact Framework. See my publications for more. I am also secretary of the Scottish Media and Information Literacy Community of Practice.

Everything’s coming up LILACs 

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This is a slightly tongue-in-cheek report on the LILAC 2024 conference, held in Leeds Becket University from Monday 25th to Wednesday 27th March 2024.

The seven rules of LILAC

With apologies to Chuck Palahniuk, and thanks to two anonymous posters

  1. You do talk about LILAC.
  2. You do talk about LILAC!
  3. But when the session-chair says stop, you stop.
  4. As many presenters as you want. And any colour you like, so long as it’s LILAC.
  5. At least two parallel sessions at a time – and you’ll want to go to all of them. Put thyself through a 3-D photocopier.
  6. Present with activities (Padlets, Menti, Slido, post-its, sharpies: all that good stuff)
  7. Revere Queen Jane and her court.
  8. If this is your first time at LILAC (even if it’s not), party until it’s pumpkin-time. LILACers don’t get hangovers.

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LILAC materials

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I presented about the Information Literacy and Society report at LILAC 2024. (The acronym stands for Librarian’s Information Literacy Annual Conference.)

Here are my speaking notes, slides and the padlets with audience responses to discussion questions, as images and PDFs.

How do you define ‘impact’ in your work or practice?
PDF		How do you define ‘impact’ in your work or practice?
PDF		How can we increase the impact of IL?

PDF

I clearly have a lot of thinking to do. Watch this space!

A happy ending!

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Peter Cruickshank (very much lead author) and I are delighted that our paper An information literacy lens on community representation for participatory budgeting in Brazil is now published. Check it out on the Journal of Information Literacy’s website or Edinburgh Napier University’s repository[1]. Also check out Peter’s post on the Social Informatics research group blog.

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