Tuesday 26 January 2016

Have We Got Reviews For You? A bite-size guide to finding review articles for scoping purposes.

Louise Preston and Mark Clowes were invited to deliver a session on "finding reviews" as part of the "BiteSize" staff training series at ScHARR.   

Our target audience was the busy researcher who wants to do a quick search for scoping purposes; not the systematic reviewer who needs a more rigorous and replicable method (we might need more than 20 minutes to do that justice!)

After dealing with the thorny question of "what is a review?" and highlighting Andrew Booth's excellent typology, we went on to highlight a few of our favourite specialist sites for finding reviews & evidence syntheses; then offered some tips on searching more general sources.    Finally, the session gave us an opportunity to promote the support available from the Information Resources team at ScHARR.


Have We Got Reviews For You? How to do a quick scoping search to find review articles. 
from scharrlib

P.S. We know some readers of this blog are librarians/information specialists - which resources would you highlight if you were asked to present to this audience?


Monday 18 January 2016

Top 10 Articles Featuring Information Resources in 2015 According to Altmetric.com




Andy Tattersall
2015 was a busy year for HEDS researchers, Andy Tattersall looks at the top 10 publications featuring Information Resources staff according to their altmetric score.


Altmetrics are alternative indicators for scholarly reach and creates an altmetric score based on Tweets, Mendeley saves, blog posts, media coverage and Facebook Shares among other indicators. 122 articles were included in the data, which are HEDS publications mentioned in the last year, but not exclusive to 2015. According to the altmetric data IR-related publications were covered in 10 blogs, 22 policy documents, 11 Wikipedia entries, was subject to 1253 Tweets and 27 Facebook shares. The data was gartered between 18th January 2015 to 18th January 2016.

Below is the table to the top 10 with Andrew Booth taking top spot with a paper he co-authored in PLOS. The paper was Tweeted 290 times, saved to Mendeley 49 times, CiteUlike 4 times and blogged once. Not all publications covered in the complete list was published in 2015, but were still communicated and shared in 2015, thus showing the long tail of our research.
The full list of research included in the 2015 export can be viewed here:


IR Altmetrics Chart 2015

Top 10 Articles According to Altmetric.com Featuring IR staff



We can also see from the data the publications IR staff published the most in with HTA Reports taking top spot. As for the journals, Health Information & Libraries Journals published 10 articles.

Top Publications for IR and supported research


Finally we can see the reach of our research on Twitter with 51% of Tweets happening outside of the UK, with 163 North American Tweeters sharing our research, making up for 20% of all IR-related research Tweets in 2015.

Tweets by location for IR-related research








Tuesday 12 January 2016

Cilip MmIT talks on Digital Citizenship

Andy Tattersall
Last week I delivered my yearly talk as part of the Cilip Multimedia Information Technology Committee (MmiT) AGM at Cilip. I say yearly as I have delivered a talk at each of the MmIT AGMs as the secretary of the committee, but also I don't think anyone dare not tell me I can't do it any more ;-)

I was lucky to be speaking alongside two esteemed speakers who are both very active in the area of digital citizenship. Firstly Helen Milner OBE, the Chief Executive of the Tinder Foundation which sets out to improve digital inclusion and tackle social challenges through digital solutions. We were also very lucky to have Ian Clark who is a librarian from the University of East London and no stranger to the issues facing society and digital citizenship, especially when it comes down to issues relating to privacy and the web. 


The theme of the talks were about digital citizenship and was well attended by about 50 library and information professionals from across the various sectors. All the presentation abstracts and slides can be viewed below.



Helen Milner - Chief Executive of the Tinder Foundation.
'Why libraries are vital to closing the digital divide'
 Abstract: There are 12.6 million people in the UK without basic digital skills, who are missing out on opportunities to save money, connect with friends and family, learn more about their hobbies and much more. Not only that, but they’re also becoming excluded from accessing basic services - like being able to apply for jobs, find health information, or access other government services.
 The Tinder Foundation are great believers in the huge benefits of the Internet and the social value of the Internet for someone with low digital skills. Through its network of community partners the Tinder Foundation has supported over 1.6 million people to improve their digital skills since 2010, and learners have gone on to realise a range of benefits, from ordering prescriptions online, applying for and securing jobs, and setting up their own businesses. Helen's talk will cover much of this work and what part libraries can play in aiding it.



Ian Clark - Radical Librarians Collective
 The digital divide in the post-Snowden era
 Abstract: In 2013, Edward Snowden exposed a range of revelations that have provided us with a welcome opportunity to re-evaluate our relationship with the Internet. Traditionally conceived as a place to seek information, the Internet has increasingly become a place where personal data is harvested by both government agencies and corporate entities. The revelations resulted in IFLA releasing a Statement on Privacy in the Library Environment that recommends that library and information services should respect and advance privacy both at the level of practice and as a principle. Previously, the digital divide has been seen in terms of access and general skills, but the Snowden revelations have revealed another aspect of the digital divide: the privacy divide. Ian’s talk seeks to understand the nature of this divide, who it affects, how the divide manifests itself and how it is being tackled.


 Andy Tattersall - Information Specialist - The University of Sheffield 
Is it the responsibility of the academy to teach social media to students and academics?
 Abstract: There are over two million students in higher education and the majority are actively engaged in digital technology from social media to mobile technologies. Whilst being adept at using these technologies little consideration is given to how they can be leveraged to shape a professional career after graduating. Whilst issues around ethics, privacy and security are rarely considered, they are increasingly relevant. Is it the duty of the academy to help students manage a better professional online persona, or do we risk teaching them to suck eggs?



Links
Ian Clark
The Tinder Foundation