We are pleased to announce that the project report Enhancing the impact of LIS research projects is now freely available to download. We will also be blogging here highlights of the RiLIES1 project findings over the coming weeks.

Thanks are due to the librarians and library and information science researchers who contributed to the study in a variety of ways: by completing the initial poll around this time last year, participating in the three focus group discussions, and responding to the final validation survey in summer 2011.

A follow-up project starts this month. For further details of RiLIES2 please see the RiLIES project web page.

DREaM 2 evaluation forms

Professor Nick Moore made a special request for his badge - and we obliged

A couple of short exercises were also included in the programme, and everyone made the most of the opportunities at registration and in the refreshment breaks to network with their DREaM project friends and colleagues.

Twenty-seven delegates returned completed evaluation forms at the end of the day. A review of Twitter activity around the event also gives insight into how the sessions were appreciated by both the delegates on site and those following remotely.

Katie Fraser and Michael Stead

• “Excellent programme and quality of speakers and participant presentations”.
• “The programme was varied and extremely interesting. I have learnt a lot. Thank you very much”.
• “Fab event – diverse and varied”
• “Thank you! Excellent day, inspiring!”
• “The programme has been extremely interesting and the introduction to methodologies will be very useful for my work”.
• “An excellent day – found the content even more helpful that the last one.”
• “Superb[…] mashup of methods which was great!”
• “I am enjoying – and learning a great deal about – the different research methods/approaches”.

Similarly on Twitter one delegate remarked that it was a “Really interesting and useful day”, and another said “Great to meet so many people. Thoroughly interesting day!”

Session evaluations

The most popular rating for all four invited speaker sessions was “Excellent”, as it was for the unconference half hour slot.

Mike Thelwall discusses webometrics

There was also appreciation for Peter Beresford’s presentation on user involvement in research, drawing on practice in a discipline other than LIS. This came through on the evaluation forms and over Twitter: one delegate tweeted that Peter’s presentation was the highlight of her day. It is interesting to note that although LIS researchers put much research effort into observing users, they are less likely to include them in identifying research priorities or research design – something which is becoming more common in other areas such as Peter’s. Had there been time the tricky question of how to access non-users of a service may have led to some further interesting discussion in Peter’s session. This is an issue that could be explored further by the DREaM online community.

Thomas Haigh’s proposal of approaching LIS research projects from a historical perspective (a tall order to cover in 45 minutes) led to some interesting delegate suggestions and comment, as well as a useful overview of the iSchool movement. The exercise that Thomas set for the group gave an opportunity for small groups to apply the concepts from his presentation to a range of research projects currently in progress. Thomas gave thoughtful feedback on the work completed later in the afternoon.

Nick Moore’s “very personal account” of his research career prompted consideration of how to carve out a successful career in research. He cleverly used stories from his own long career in research to pass on advice to the next generation. Nick’s advice on taking time to think is particularly pertinent in the context of some of the comments on the evaluation forms. These showed recognition that each DREaM project event generates lots to think about, and that the value of participation cannot always be assessed immediately after the event has ended. One delegate, for example, believed that having now attended two workshops ideas were beginning to crystalise on the kind of research with which his/her own organisation should be concerned. Another tweeted “#lis_dream3 was excellent. I’m glad I’ve got the rest of the week off: it gives me time to think about what I heard today.”

It is interesting how links can be made between the presentations at this second event and those made at the first. For example, Mike’s contribution echoed elements of Louise Cooke’s session on social network analysis, as well as that of Andy McKinlay on discourse analysis. Similarly Peter and Thomas’ presentations recalled elements of Paul Lynch’s explanation of ethnographic approaches. Ethical and legal issues, also discussed that the first workshop in Charles’ session, are applicable across all.

Evaluation of workshop administration and the venue

Dr Rossitza Atanassova managed all the on-site coordination on the day

The location for the workshop was also rated very highly with the majority of respondents rating its convenience, comfort and facilities, and the refreshments provided all as “excellent”. Specific mention was made of the “good wifi”, and that the British Library is “very handy for major rail stations”. The effort that the catering staff had taken for those with special diets was appreciated: many others were indeed envious of the big slice of gluten-free cake for one person in particular!

Remote delegates

As has been the case at the previous two DREaM project events in October and July 2011 there was interest in the event beyond the venue itself. Remote followers of the 444 tweets assigned the workshop hashtag (#lis_dream3) sent good wishes to participants in the morning, urging them to keep the outside world updated. For example, one said “Godspeed to all the dreamers travelling to #lis_dream3 today. Hope to see lots of tweets”.

The remote followers exhibited varied levels of engagement from one who was “present” all day, asked questions of the speakers and participated in the workshop exercise, to others who dropped in on particular sessions, or appeared to simply retweet links.

Twelve remote delegates were clearly identifiable from their use of the hashtag and/or their interactions with @LIS_DREaM over the course of the day. It is not possible to give the actual figure for all who watched the proceedings remotely, but it is bound to have included more people than the twelve who actively contributed to Twitter and CoverItLive discussions.

Those for whom we do have data appeared to have benefited from participation. One tweeted “Thanks to the @LIS_DREaM team for another good workshop & for enabling me to follow online!”

Stephanie Kenna tweeted as @LISResearch throughout the day

Here we should offer thanks to our top ten tweeters on the day:@LIS_DREaM (mainly Kirsty Pitkin) 95; @LISResearch (Stephanie Kenna) 61; @walkyouhome 49; @katie_fraser 48; @joeyanne 30; @lgbtlibrarian 19 (remote delegate); @lelil 18; @MariaJGrant 17; @hazelh 16; @RossiAtanassova 13. Two of these have already written full blog reports of their experience of the workshop: Katie Fraser and Lauren Smith. These and other reviews of the event will be listed on the reviews page.

One step further to meeting the aims of the DREaM project

The primary aim of the DREaM project is noted on the main project page of the LIS Research Coalition web site as to develop a formal UK-wide network of Library and Information Science (LIS) researchers. As a set of individuals committed to LIS research, it is hoped that the delegates at the three workshops (the “cadre”) will form the backbone of a network that lasts beyond the duration of the DREaM project. To date they have come together at two one-day sessions that provide method overviews. In addition, a subset also participated at the project launch conference in July 2011, and some are expected to come to the concluding event at the British Library on 9th July 2012.

Alice Corble and Sara Wingate Gray in the afternoon tea break

Feedback for action at #lis_dream4

The on-site team for Edinburgh events: Hazel Hall & Christine Irving

Further resources

The resources from the workshop will be added to this web site and the DREaM online community over the next few days. News of resource availability will be tweeted. It is hoped that this job will be complete by the middle of next week. In the meantime thanks to everyone – speakers, organisers and delegates alike – for another great day!

The announcement was made at the DREaM project workshop on 30th January 2012

For further details, please see the media release.

Here is an overview of what will be available…

Resources

From Monday morning you will be able to access resource pages for each session directly from the workshop programme. At each of these you will find the speaker’s slides, handouts, and details about how to get involved with the discussions surrounding the session throughout the day. After the event, these pages will be updated with video recordings and session summaries to help you recap.

The video recordings from the sessions and photos from the event as a whole will also be made available in the LIS DREaM community.

Discussions

Once again, we will be providing a live commentary of the event on Twitter from the @lis_dream account, using the event hash tag #lis_dream3.

If you are tweeting about the event, please include the #lis_dream3 hash tag so that others following the event can engage with you.

If you are not a Twitter user, you will be able to follow both the commentary and associated discussions through our CoverItLive session. Here you can also add your own comments without the need for any form of login or account.

If you are following online, please let us know if you have any questions at all – either about the event or the content of a specific session. If you have a question for a speaker we can relay this for you and let you know the answer that was given either via Twitter or via CoverItLive. Simply post your question in CoverItLive or tweet to @lis_dream and we will respond to you directly.

Workshop Exercise

We are pleased to announce that the workshop exercise, run by Dr Thomas Haigh, will be available for online participants. If you are following the event online and would like to take part, the exercise will be available for you to contribute between 11:30 and 15:00. Details will be released on the day.

Archiving Event Tweets

As many of you will know, the very useful Twitter archiving tool Twapperkeeper is no longer available, so we have been investigating other ways to capture the Twitter discussions surrounding the event. We will be trying out the Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet (TAGS) tool created by Martin Hawksey. If you have any questions about the archived tweets will be used, please let us know.

Support

Our event amplifier, Kirsty Pitkin, will be on hand to support you as you follow the event online, so if you have any problems or questions please do let her know via one of the channels described above, or by commenting on this post.

Homework

There is small “homework” task that Professor Mike Thelwall has set in preparation for his session on webometrics. If you plan to follow this session online, please watch this short YouTube video from the Department of Library and Information Science, Delhi, sign in to YouTube and leave comments, and replies to earlier comments, on the video. This should not take you more than a few minutes. The contributions will form part of the discussion at the end of Mike’s session, and include reference to the self-declared age and gender information from YouTube. The network shows whatever age and gender you enter – so Mike says that you can lie if you want to!

We look forward to welcoming you to the workshop on Monday whether you attend in person or online.

Dr Thomas Haigh

In this interview, Haigh outlines his efforts to raise the profile of information history within the history of technology world and encourage a more interdisciplinary audience to engage with debate in the field. He also explains the value of historical thinking and how this can help LIS researchers think more deeply about the ways in which they conceptualize research problems.

Dr Haigh is an Associate Professor at the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
 

What research issues will you be discussing with the workshop participants in your presentation?

The session is about historical methods for research in library and information science. During the session we’ll begin by looking broadly at what history is and why people study it. Then we’ll look at the broad new concept of “information history” proposed in recent years as a way of bring together formerly separate specialties such as library history, history of information technology, and history of information science.

One important challenge is who undertakes historical research in information history and why – should it be confined to questions and audiences within the library and information science field (the “internalist” approach) or are the opportunities within information history to engage with topics and questions of interest to much broader communities of historical scholars. This leads to another challenge: how to integrate historical insights into LIS research projects conducted by non-historians.

How have these issues affected your own research?

My own career as a researcher focused on the history of information technology has made me very much aware of the issues of disciplinary identity and culture. I began in computer science, earning two degrees from the University of Manchester. For my Ph.D. I shifted to history, earning a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. For eight years I’ve worked in the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee. As a consultant or volunteer I’ve worked on historical issues with the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computer Society, the American Society for Information Science & Technology, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Within the Society for the History of Technology I chair the Special Interest Group on Computers, Information and Society and have worked hard to bring an interdisciplinary audience to the group’s sessions and workshops as well as to raise the profile of information history within the history of technology world. So while my research is published mostly in journals and books aimed at specialist historical audiences I’ve been constantly challenged to explain historical perspectives to non-historians and promote the value of history to technical communities.

How do you think these issues might be relevant to LIS researchers?

Historical thinking helps us to look more critically and creatively at present day issues. One of the most important historical topics is the construction of identity. The information field has never had a stable identity, and incorporates concepts and assumptions derived from different disciplines. Yet it can also be rather insular. Its composition has evolved rapidly in response to a shifting technological and institutional landscape. History teaches us to look at where ideas come from, who promotes them, and how they reflect broader historical shifts. That will help researchers to think more deeply about the ways in which they conceptualize research problems and the unexamined historical assumptions buried in their work.

Much of the presentation will be spent discussing different historical approaches relevant to information researchers, such as intellectual history, social history, and institutional history. During a group exercise, participants will be asked identify a specific historical question relevant to their personal research and work in a small group to select a specific historical approach and set of possible sources to address this question.

Where can people find out more information?

All those interested in the history of information technology are encouraged to join SIGCIS (free of charge) and use its resources at www.sigcis.org. I surveyed the literature on the history of information technology and its questions recently in “History of Information Technology,” Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 45 (2011): 431-487. Like most of my other writing, this is available in preprint form from www.tomandmaria.com/tom.

The case for information history more broadly was made by Alistair Black in Information history, Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 40, 2006, pp. 441-473.

Dr Thomas Haigh will be presenting a session titled: Techniques from history at the third DREaM workshop at the British Library on Monday 30th January. He will also present the workshop game in his session. For full details about the workshop, please see the workshop programme.

An introduction to Hulya's work from the opening session at the DREaM launch conference

The aim of Hulya’s research was to explore the need for interactivity in the content design of meetings and conferences. She was interested in the Generation Y perspective, and to compare this to the needs of the previous generations. She wanted to find out what kind of advanced interactive technologies may be needed in conferences and meetings in order to motivate and attract the Generation Y audience. She suspected that members of this group are less responsive to basic PowerPoint presentations. Thus she hoped to find out whether there was potential at conferences for advanced audiovisual technology such as virtual reality, 3D, hologram projections etc.

The DREaM launch conference was an ideal site for data collection because of the delegate demographic in terms of age, and because the delegates were from a profession that has a tradition of conference participation. Apart from these main factors, the length and the date of the conference were ideally suited to the timing of Hulya’s research, and the venue was within easy reach for her to attend in person.

Hulya was grateful for a very warm welcome from the organisers when she arrived at the British Library mid-afternoon on July 19th. The audience had been notified of her research in the conference opening session in the morning and the delegates shown her picture.

Participation in the research was optional. When Hulya arrived she placed her questionnaires and envelopes near the exit of the auditorium so anyone interested could pick up a copy at the end of the conference. During closing remarks the audience was reminded about the questionnaire.

After the conference Hulya also appreciated help with distributing her questionnaires to a wider audience. She followed advice from the DREaM launch conference organising committee members on how to achieve this. This help was invaluable in generating further interest in the study, and in securing a high response rate to the survey.

The research findings highlight that visuals should be used extensively in meetings and conferences in order to aid the learning process of Generation Y delegates, and to keep them focused. To do this, an appropriate combination of these should be used along with other forms of data presentation such as audio, motion pictures (videos), and texts. The main reason for the necessity of high visual content is that Generation Y has been exposed to images and visual learning since early childhood. This generation is used to playing video games and surfing the Internet.

Hulya also found that Generation Y prefers a high level of interactivity (both technological and personal) and prefers that the entertainment element at meetings and conferences is also emphasised. In addition, serious games as well as interactive learning tools such as touch screen tables with a high level of graphics can be utilised for this purpose. Specialised software tailored specifically according to a meeting’s needs will encourage collaboration: Generation Y generally prefers to collaborate and co-operate. If the right design is employed, this can help bring out Generation Y’s true potential as effective collaborators and motivate the achievement of objectives of the conferences and meetings as educational events. At the same time networking and motivation elements are satisfied.

On the basis of her results Hulya advises conference organisers to understand Generation Y well and tailor their conferences and meetings accordingly. The findings have shown that there is no need for extreme changes. However, left to time, a gap will grow between the generations if attention isn’t paid to this issue now. Hulya’s research, and that of others, has shown that Generation Y is a very productive cohort, provided that it is approached the right way and given the right conditions.

Professor Peter Beresford OBE

He outlines the research approaches he plans to touch upon and explains why he feels user involvement should be important to library and information science researchers.

Professor Peter Beresford OBE is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Centre for Citizen Participation at Brunel University.
 
 

Please tell us about the research approaches that you will be discussing in your presentation.

I shall be discussing research approaches that are concerned with user involvement, user control and collaborative approaches to research. These include emancipatory disability research, survivor research and what is called “user-controlled” research.

How have you used these approaches in your own research?

As a service user and academic researcher I have been involved in the development as well as use of such research approaches, undertaking such research from within a user controlled organisation as well as in academic settings. This includes research projects concerned with mental health, disability, end of life care, welfare reform, social work, social care and social policy.

How do you think the issues that you raise may be of particular interest to library and information science researchers?

I think user involvement approaches raise complex issues around research methodology, values, principles and practice and I am guessing that the people you are asking about want to be in touch with these and have chances to explore them.

Where can people find out more information about the issues that you will be covering?

Check out NIHR Involve’s website.This reference will hopefully also be helpful: Sweeney, A. Beresford, P. Faulkner, A. Nettle, M. Rose, D. (editors), (2009), This Is Survivor Research, Ross-on-Wye, PCSS Books.

Professor Beresford will be presenting a session entitled User Involvement In Research: Making sense of a radical new development (action research) at the third DREaM workshop at the British Library on Monday 30th January. For full details about the workshop, please see the workshop programme.

Professor Mike Thelwall

Mike Thelwall is Professor of Information Science and leader of the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He is also Docent at Åbo Akademi University Department of Information Studies, and a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute.
 
 
 

What research issues will you be discussing with the workshop participants in your presentation?

I will discuss webometrics – quantitative methods for analysing web-based information from an information science perspective. The talk will discuss tools to gather and process data from the web and methods to analyse the data. It will also describe methodological limitations and a number of case studies, including discussions about YouTube videos.

How have these issues affected your own research?

This talk is a survey of some of the research tools and methods developed in my research group and it is core to our research approach.

How do you think these issues might be relevant to LIS researchers?

The techniques have wide potential to be useful in information science research for issues that are either online or have an online component. The methods are particularly useful for pilot and exploratory studies to quickly get an overview of an issue from online data.

Where can people will find more information?

Publications are available on my home page including the book “Introduction to Webometrics” (2009).

Professor Thelwall will be presenting a session introducing webometrics at the third DREaM workshop at the British Library on Monday 30th January. For full details about the workshop, please see the workshop programme.

Professor Nick Moore

Professor Moore is the Managing Partner in Acumen, a research and consultancy company which explores a wide range of issues concerned with the use of information in society.
 
 

What research issues will you be discussing with the workshop participants in your presentation ?

I spent 10 or 12 years exploring the policy issues that were raised by the transition to information- and knowledge-based societies. In so doing, I began to develop a theroetical and practical approach to information policy. In my talk, I plan to describe the main features of the journey that I took, drawing out the lessons that might be applicable to others undertaking policy-related research.

How have these issues affected your own research?

It really was a process of trial and error with, looking back, the emphasis on error. Were I to repeat the exercise now, I would not do many things very differently. Working in a nationally-important policy research institute was a great advantage, although it made me very conscious of the difference between my relatively unsophisticated approach to research, compared with the high level of skills possesed by the other senior researchers. I was also helped enormously by a group of young, enthusiastic researchers.

I guess I ended the process with a much greater awareness of my own limitations.

How do you think these issues might be relevant to LIS researchers?

I hope that others might be able to learn from, and profit by, the mistakes that I made. But everyone needs to find their own way and to make their own errors.

Where can people will find more information?

I have always tried to publish quite widely and people should be able to track down a variety of books, chapters, articles and conference papers, along with 50 or so research reports – all of which will be showing their age. I keep trying to give my archive away to some body, but none seems interested. If any of the DREaM participants feels like becoming the host…

When I was more active, I maintained a website at www.acumenuk.co.uk. It is still there but in great need of updating, but it will give people a flavour of the things we were trying to do.

Professor Moore will be presenting a session entitled Making the bullets for others to fire (research and policy) at the third DREaM workshop at the British Library on Monday 30th January. For full details about the workshop, please see the workshop programme.

We are very much looking forward to being at the Online Information 2011 conference next week in London. Amongst those associated with the LIS Research Coalition who will be at Olympia are Hazel Hall, Stephanie Kenna, Charles Oppenheim and Kirsty Pitkin. Hazel and Charles are chairing sessions in the main conference. Meanwhile Stephanie will be working as an official conference tweeter using the @LISResearch account. Kirsty Pitkin, who is known to all who have attended an LIS Research Coalition organised-event as our regular Event Amplifier, is delivering a paper on the theme of event amplification.

If you have been following the RiLIES project, or have even participated in it, you will be interested to know that RiLIES will be the theme of  Hazel’s presentation on Thursday morning. Hazel will take the opportunity to give the first official account of the project’s findings. We can confirm that the final RiLIES report will be out before Christmas, but in the meantime, here is a preview of her presentation.