Get it while it’s hot! Issue 3 of our Information Matters newsletter is out with a review of the new iPad, an interview with Phil Bradley and more.
Read it online HERE
Subscribe to future editions HERE
June 25, 2010
Where to focus your social media efforts
Posted by Martin De Saulles under Web 2.0 | Tags: social media |Comments Off
I was alerted to this great graphic from CMO by the iCrossing blog. For any company, small or large, wondering where to begin with their social media marketing strategy this is a great starting point. Breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of different social media sites in terms of how they can help with customer communication, brand exposure, driving site traffic and SEO allows you to think about where to focus your efforts. Very useful for those with small budgets.
You can download the PDF HERE
June 21, 2010
BAILER meeting at City University
Posted by Martin De Saulles under Library Education, Meetings/Events | Tags: BAILER |Comments Off
We had a good BAILER (British Association for Information and Library Education and Research) Heads meeting last Tuesday at City University. As well as usual business the event marked the handover for chairing the group from Professor Sheila Corrall (Head of Department and Professor of Librarianship & Information Management at the University of Sheffield) to Dr Vesna Brujic-Okretic (Head of Department of Information Science at City University). The picture shows the drinks reception organised by Vesna following the meeting where we met with members of staff and students from City. It was in the old swimming pool of the University which is now a computer room (you can still see the old changing rooms around the edge of the room).
May 5, 2010
… is re-connecting with the authentic and passionate parts of your self, and communicating that to others. Advocacy was the theme of this year’s CILIP South East Branch AGM, held jointly with CILIP in the Thames Valley at the Town Hall in Reading on May 4th. About 30 of us, from a very diverse range of libraries, participated in a workshop run by Linda Constable. Linda is Chair of the Judging Panel of CILIP Libraries Change Lives and Vice-Chair of CILIP Community Services Group. She has a wide range of experience in the library and museum sectors at national, regional and local authority level and is an activist working with CILIP to advocate the value of librarians and libraries. Linda provided a user-friendly introduction to advocacy, covering the:
What? campaigning, communicating, championing, marketing
Who? all of us, at whatever level
When? for 2 minutes, for 2 hours
Where? ‘like Martini’ – anywhere, anytime
How? face-to-face, email, twitter – whatever is appropriate to your audience
We then role played an ‘elevator pitch’ – what would you say if you had 2 minutes in the lift or at a work social event to promote yourself and your service to a chief exec, or any kind of colleague (frame your message; what is important to them; how do you contribute to the organisational goals; ask them what they want!). Linda then introduced us to the CILIP Campaigning Toolkit, and flagged up the CILIP Manifesto, and we participated in group discussions by sector on ‘telling the library story’. We had a lively and useful afternoon, finishing up with suggestions as to how the South East Branch can take some of the issues around advocacy further in the work do across our five sub-branches.
April 28, 2010
AOSEC Presentation
Posted by Martin De Saulles under Meetings/Events, Uncategorized, Web 2.0 | Tags: web2 |Comments Off
Slideshare presentation of my talk today at the AOSEC meeting in Winchester.
April 23, 2010
Training the practitioner-researchers of the future
Posted by Juliet Eve under Library Education, ResearchComments Off
… or that’s what I like to think as I embark upon another year teaching my ten week Research Methods module to our students taking the MA Information Studies degree. I always love the first sessions – the beginning of an opportunity to get on my soapbox and be a research methods nerd for the next couple of months or so! This morning we began with some discussion about What is research? and Why do we do it? – followed in the afternoon by an overview from me of the LIS Research Landscape. Here we covered the ‘good old days’ of the BLRIC, Library and Information Commission, (whose reports are still to be found on the UKOLN site – remember Prospects: a strategy for action anyone?), and the current funding landscape. Drawing on research reports such as CIRT’s The LIS research landscape: a review and prognosis, we also attempted to get an overview of the types of research that have characterised our area over the last twenty years. Pictured is our ‘map’ based on an exercise the students did, extracting themes from 3 sources: the 2008 RAE submissions; webpages of a number of LIS research centres; the last 4 issues of the following 4 journals: Library Review, Journal of Documentation, Library and Information Research and Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. Alongside the continued focus on all things ‘e’ (though called rather quaintly, things like ‘Telematics for Libraries’ by the EU in the 1990s), it was interesting to note that value and impact assessment and evaluation have long been around as key areas (Impact and Value was one of the themes identified by the LIC’s 1997 Prospects document). It was nice this year to be able to report that there is now – after a long gap – a body that is responsible for co-ordinating LIS research, the LIS Research Coalition, and that the June conference it is organising is on Evidence, Value and Impact.
April 23, 2010
being a ‘detached’ researcher …
Posted by Juliet Eve under CILIP, Meetings/Events, ResearchComments Off
… this and other related issues were discussed by myself and a group of enthusiatic participants at a CILIP in Sussex event held at University Centre Hastings on Tuesday 20th April. The workshop was on Doing research in your own organisation; as well as covering the basics of getting started on a research project (writing a proposal, selecting methods, putting it in the context of the literature), we discussed the pros and cons of carrying out a research project where you work, the merits of different methods and the need for more creativity in library research (diplomatic speak on my part for my ‘ban the questionnaire’ campaign!!). It was particularly nice for me to see some former students from our MA Information Studies course, as well as one who started my ten week Research Methods module today.
March 31, 2010
Poster People
Posted by Martin De Saulles under Meetings/Events, Research | Tags: SIRU |Comments Off
We’ve just got back from our Faculty poster afternoon where David, Audrey and myself showed colleagues in our new Faculty of Science and Engineering what our Social Informatics Research Unit (SIRU) has been doing over the previous year. It was a good opportunity to see what other research is going on in the Faculty – there was certainly quite a range; from mobile technologies for learning to studying snails for a better understanding of the ageing process.
March 31, 2010
The Social Informatics Research Unit (SIRU) had a very productive offsite meeting yesterday in Lewes. Most of the academic staff that teach on our library and information courses are members of SIRU and yesterday we were joined by colleagues from the School of Applied Social Science (SASS) to discuss our research projects. Dave Harley from SASS presented his PhD research on older people and their use of technology which challenged some of the stereotypical views in this area. The picture shows David Horner outlining his research on ethics and technological forecasting – Juliet Eve has obviously heard it all before.
March 10, 2010
Further to Philip’s success with SLA, two of our MAIS students have also won places at a conference. Jo Bussey and Rachel Westworth are going to the UK Serials Group conference in Edinburgh in April. Well done to Jo and Rachel. I hope they have a great time and I look forward to hearing about it.
