This page holds an archive of Coalition-issued media releases. If you are interested in media coverage of the Coalition, please see the Media Coverage page.
Media release 10th December 2009
Dr Hazel Hall awarded IWR Information Professional of the Year
Dr Hazel Hall, Executive Secretary of the Library and Information Science Research Coalition, has been awarded Information Professional of the Year. The Award was presented to Hazel for her outstanding contribution to the profession in the last 12 months.
Dr Hall was delighted to receive the award, “Winning the Information Professional of the Year award comes at the end of an extraordinary 12 months. I am delighted that my work in my two roles as Director of the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University, and in implementing the Library and Information Science Research Coalition, has been recognised in such a way.”
“All those with whom I have collaborated throughout the year are due a share of this recognition,” said Dr Hall, “particularly my international colleagues in Scandinavia, Canada and the US, and the information and knowledge management practitioner community in the UK, whose work inspires my research and teaching.”
Dr Hall is Director of the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University, and Executive Secretary of the Library and Information Science Research Coalition. She is an internationally recognised information professional, best known for her research and teaching of information and knowledge management. Dr Hall also holds a reputation for her active involvement with information and knowledge management practitioners through work with professional bodies, as well as time spent in industry.
The LIS Research Coalition was founded in March 2009 by the British Library, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and the Research Information Network (RIN).
The award is organised by IWR magazine and Online Information Conference organisers, Incisive Media and sponsored by the American Psychological Association. Nominations are judged by a panel of previous Information Professional of the Year award winners including; Roddy McLeod, Karen Blakeman, Neil Infield, Euan Semple, Brian Kelly, Tony Hirst and Natalie Ceeney.
Media release 7th September 2009
Newly-formed UK Library and Information Science Research Coalition makes its first appointment
Dr Hazel Hall has been appointed to provide strategic leadership of the newly-established Library and Information Science Research Coalition.
The remit of the Coalition is to facilitate a co-ordinated and strategic approach to Library and Information Science (LIS) Research across the UK. It was founded in March this year by the British Library (BL), the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and the Research Information Network (RIN). Dr Hall is the Coalition’s first appointment.
The Coalition aims to bring together information about LIS research opportunities and results; encourage dialogue between research funders; promote LIS practitioner research and the translation of research outcomes into practice; articulate a strategic approach to LIS research; and promote the development of research capacity in LIS. The Coalition will provide a formal structure to improve access to LIS research, and maximise its relevance and impact. The Coalition is governed by a Board of Directors comprising a representative of each member organisation.
Dr Hall has been seconded to the Coalition for two days a week from her role as Reader in Social Informatics in the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University. A well-known researcher, active within both the LIS practitioner and academic communities in the UK and beyond, Dr Hall started her career in academic libraries in the 1980s at the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Polytechnic. Since 1989 she has held research and teaching roles at Queen Margaret and Edinburgh Napier Universities.
As well as holding academic qualifications in LIS, Dr Hall is a Fellow of CILIP. She currently serves on the editorial boards of two major LIS journals (Library and Information Science Research and the Journal of Information Science). She is also on the Executive Committee of the Online Information conference, the largest annual information industry conference and exhibition. She is an Associate Consultant at TFPL, a London-based specialist professional services company focusing on knowledge, information, library, records and web and content management.
Dr Michael Jubb, Chair of the Board of Directors of the LIS Research Coalition, said “We’re pleased that with this new appointment the Coalition’s Board of Directors will now be able to implement its plans to raise the profile and impact of LIS research in the UK.”
Dr Hazel Hall said “Since I first learnt of the proposals for a coalition I have shared the ambition of the LIS research community to come together to address issues that are of strategic importance to the subject domain. These impact the wider population as research outcomes are properly channelled to contribute to policy development and improvements in actual practice in library and information work. My appointment represents a strong commitment by the Coalition member bodies to LIS research in the UK.”
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