RIVAL paper accepted for publication

The final paper from the RIVAL project has been accepted for publication. In this paper, Hazel Hall, Rachel Salzano, Katherine Stephen and I examine whether strategies shown to work well in one model of network development for Library and Information Science (LIS) practitioners and researchers can be applied successfully in the development of a new network. The first model was centred the DREaM network, while the second was RIVAL.

We show that the model was indeed transferrable, and that it can be successfully adapted for online delivery of network events and activities. (I’m sure you remember all those moves to online as lockdown kicked in!) We believe that the strategies we tested can be used by yet further networking programmes, especially those aiming to bring together researchers and practitioners.

The paper can be downloaded from Edinburgh Napier University’s repository, via the outputs on my Napier web-page, or via the link on my publications and outputs page in this blog. There’s a personal/chatty description of the network model in my post about presenting at CILIPS conference 2021.

Time to be honest: while I did most of the grunt work in organising the RIVAL events, gathering the data reported in this paper and then analysing it (oh the joys of UCInet!), Hazel was the leader who made RIVAL happen and wrote the paper.

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I’ve been CILIPSing!

CILIPS Autumn regathering

A few weeks ago, I was at CILIP Scotland‘s Autumn Regathering, the first such in-person event for a couple of years. You can read about it on CILIPS’ website, and you can read about two of the presentations on the Centre for Social Informatics blog. In that piece, Rachel Salzano and I write about the session on ‘AI and the information professional’ and ‘Climate Action, Inequalities and Knowledge’.

The Power of Three: Scotland’s library strategies in the post-Covid world

Last week, I was virtually at CILIP Scotland East Branch‘s AGM. Following the brief formalities, there was an in-conversation discussion of synergies between the strategies below, and the need to prioritise actions for the post-Covid world.

As CILIPS wrote:

Three important new library strategies have recently been launched that will set the scene in Scotland for years to come: The National Library of Scotland’s Reaching PeopleSLIC’s Forward – Scotland’s Public Library Strategy, and Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools – A National Strategy for School Libraries in Scotland. These continue the work over recent years to place libraries at the heart of Scottish civic, cultural, and educational life.

(from EventBrite)

Panellists National Librarian Amina Shah, SLIC CEO Pamela Tullochand Chair of the Public Library Strategy Advisory Group Jeanette Castle discussed the synergies between the strategies, and the need to prioritise actions for the post-Covid world.

You can watch the panel session, and you can check out live-tweets with hashtag #PowerOfThree. Lots to learn and enthuse about!

Call to UK public library staff (any level) to contribute to study on services for refugees and asylum seekers

Do you work with refugees and/or asylum seekers (forced migrants) as part of your role in a UK public library? Can you assist a PhD student with her study on forced migrants’ use of UK public libraries? Perhaps you have colleagues or other contacts who could help out?

Rachel Salzano of Edinburgh Napier University seeks public library staff (at any level) willing to take part in interviews about their experience of delivering public library services to forced migrants. The interviews last approximately 1 hour and are organised at the interviewee’s convenience. Please contact Rachel on the contact form at https://librariansanslibrary.weebly.com/contact or email r.salzano@napier.ac.uk.

(Text and image shamelessly copied from Hazel Hall’s post.)

Published! @hazelh @spartakan @bruce_research @gemmaducat @librarygryphon @MetaskillsPhD @ilauramuir @FrancesRyanPhD

Tuesday 15 December was a bumper day for the Centre for Social Informatics (CSI), with the publication of six articles in Information Research. These were conference articles presented at ISIC2020 and a paper on ‘imagined citizens’. Together these showcase some of the work we undertake.  Continue reading