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News from the Department of Information Science (formerly SIM)

Category: Research

MLIS Student Published in Journal of Cleaner Production

News_Maggie Neilson (200w)Maggie Neilson, 2nd year MLIS student, co-authored an article with Kathleen Kevany (Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University) which was published in the Journal of Cleaner Production. The article, titled: “Water and women project: notes from the field,” discusses technical approaches to solving global water-access struggles, and the organizations dedicated to cultivating these innovations .You can read Maggie’s article online. Visit SIM’s blog to leave a comment about the article.

Request for interest for a potential MLIS reading course: Development of a SIM taxonomy

The collections of theses and reading courses taken by students in the Master of Library and Information Studies and Master of Information Management programs are organized according to the following taxonomy of research areas. This taxonomy was developed originally by the Association of Library and Information Science Education a number of years ago. While this taxonomy is valid in its own right, it may not fully reflect the areas of interest of the two SIM programs. The goal of this reading course is to develop a SIM taxonomy by which to organize the School’s collection of reading courses and theses. The student will:

  • Conduct a literature review on existing taxonomies or vocabularies that reflect the information management field
  • Conduct an analysis of the titles and abstracts of the collection of SIM reading courses and theses to extract key concepts and areas of study
  • Analyse the existing taxonomy in light of steps (a) and (b) above
  • Interview SIM faculty and staff about concepts to be included in the taxonomy
  • Create a final taxonomy to be reviewed by SIM for official use.

This reading course will contribute to student learning and experience related to:

  • Literature search skills
  • Structure and development of taxonomies and controlled vocabularies
  • Client engagement

Term: Winter, 2014

Interested students should contact Dr. Louise Spiteri


SIM Social Media Lab Summer Talks

Please join us on Tuesday, July 23, 1-2pm at the Social Media Lab (Faculty of Management, ROWE, Suite 2010, Room 2021) for two great talks at Dal this week. The speakers are Dr, Nesrine Zemirli from King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) and Elizabeth Dubois from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford (UK). Both scholars are in Halifax this summer as guests of the Social Media Lab at the School of Information Management.

  • Dr. Nesrine Zemirli is an Assistant Professor at the Information Systems Department at King Saud University (Saudi Arabia). Her talk will focus on Personalized Big Data (PBD) and application-driven approaches to personalized recommendation system (P-RecoSys).

Dr. Zemirli holds a PhD in Computer Science from IRIT at Paul Sabatier University Toulouse III, France, specializing in the personalization of information access. She worked as a Lecturer and Researcher at various French Universities (ISEP, Paul Sabatier University Toulouse III, School of Engineering the INSA of Toulouse, Sciences Socials University Toulouse I and the University Center for Training and Research Jean-François Champollion of Albi, France). She also worked as a Research Engineer and project web manager in a French and international business company (Amadeus SAS, Auditek SAS, Solimobile, Milestone SAS).

  • Elizabeth Dubois is a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford (UK), a member of Balliol College and a current Clarendon Scholar. Her talk will focus on the role of Internet enabled citizens in governance, and more specifically on the ways in which digitally enabled individuals are using personal influence to transmit political messages in a hybrid media environment.

Before joining the OII in 2011 as an MSc student, she completed a BA, Hons. Specialization in Communication at the University of Ottawa, Canada. As a Killam Fellow through the Fulbright Foundation (Canada) in 2010 she studied at American University in Washington, DC. In September, Ms. Dubois will also be presenting her paper (with Devin Gaffney) entitled “Identifying the opinion leader: Influence, Twitter, and Canadian Politics” at the 2013 Social Media & Society Conference.

Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd awarded Major SSHRC Insight Grant

The School of Information Management is pleased to announce that Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd and co-applicant Caroline Haythornthwaite of the University of British Columbia, have been awarded a $478,622 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight grant for their new research initiative “Learning Analytics for the Social Media Age.” This grant will directly benefit graduate students at SIM and is a reflection of the growing research strength at SIM and the Faculty of Management. Read more on the Social Media Lab website.

Call for expressions of interest: Directed reading class

This is an opportunity for a directed reading class focusing on the “One Book Nova Scotia” reading program. The reading class will consist of a research study with the following components:

1. Review of the research literature related to mass reading events;
2. Creation and analysis of an online survey of One Book Nova Scotia participants;
3. Analysis of social media posts related to One Book Nova Scotia;
4. Preparation of a report summarizing all findings;
5. Preparation of a poster summarizing the study.

This independent study project should be completed in the fall term. Interested students should read the INFO 6700 Reading Course information on the MLIS website.

If you are interested in being considered for this project, please reply to
Vivian Howard (howardv@dal.ca) by April 30 indicating your interest and
qualifications, particularly your prior experience creating and analyzing online surveys.

Congratulations on a successful launch of DJIM Volume 9(1)

Just a quick note from the Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management launch to congratulate everyone involved in putting together the latest volume.  Managing a peer-reviewed publication requires a great deal of hard work, collaboration, and collegiality, qualities that are admirably demonstrated by our Faculty of Management students.  My congratulations also to the authors, and I look forward to reading their papers.

Getting Social: Social Media Research Takes Flight at Dalhousie

SIM researcher studying social media and online social networks receives a boost with the state-of-the-art laboratory – Dalhousie’s Social Media Lab – the first of its kind in Canada.

First Row (left-right): Nathan LaPierre, Anatoliy Gruzd (Director), Madeline Driscoll. Second Row: Catherine McGoveran, Naureen Nizam, Ryan Dyck, Philip Mai (Research Manager), Brittany White, Samantha Fritz.. (Absent from the pic: Sreejata Chatterjee, Tomasz Niewiarowski, Shali Liu, Thomas Robbins and Regina Collins)

After two years of planning and construction, the Dalhousie Social Media Lab has officially opened its physical door to the public on Friday, March 22, 2013. The lab was founded in 2010 by Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd and is located at the School of Information Management in the Faculty of Management.

Read more at http://socialmedialab.ca/?p=8112

SharePoint 2010 Information Search Service Log Redesign for measurable indicators and service outcomes: Request for interest for a potential MLIS reading course

An opportunity to further develop systematic information search skills, SharePoint design skills and information analysis and reporting skills.

Library, Knowledge and Research Services for Annapolis Valley Health, South Shore Health and South West Health has a log to track services in the form of a SharePoint List with records back to 2002.  Log fields capture client demographics, details on the information need or information management need including subject and purpose (patient care, service planning, education, etc.), resources used (staff time, databases, etc.), search results and searcher satisfaction level.

At this time Searchers wish a review of related research to inform redesign of the log to more effectively link services to outcomes (patient outcomes and health service outcomes).

The student will prepare a syllabus and then take a stepwise planned approach to:

  1. Self-directed reading maintaining an annotated list of completed readings
  2. Conducting a systematic search of the research literature related to mediated information search services and service outcomes.  The search will follow methods as described in Booth et al. (2012). Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review.  These will include
  3. Examine up to four existing commercial search/service log programs to see whether they address service outcomes
  4. Revise the service log to meet client needs based on search results
  5. Summarize reading course work as an academic poster.
  • the framed search question
  • the mapped concept(s) associated with the search questions
  • a scoping search report to include charts describing publication timeline and size of the literature by subject domain
  • Searches of up to four sources, including commercial databases and grey literature resources
  • Documentation of search methods
  • Search results organized within a Refworks Refshare folder

 

This reading course will allow a student to apply and further develop skills gained in INFO 5515 Organization of Information and INFO 5530 Information Sources and Retrieval.  These include

  • Client engagement
  • Service planning, delivery, logging and reporting
  • SharePoint 2010 and Reference management software
  • Health databases, library and information science databases, grey literature

Please refer to MLIS Reading Courses: Policy and Procedures (INFO 6700/6710) http://sim.management.dal.ca/Courses/MLIS%20Courses%20Offered/Reading_Courses.php, then contact Dr. Jacqueline MacDonald: jacqueline.macdonald@dal.ca for more information.

 

Workplace e-Learning Standards and Outcomes: development of a learning management system evaluation framework: Request for interest for a potential MLIS reading course for the 2013 fall term.

An opportunity to further develop systematic information search skills, information analysis and reporting skills, and program evaluation knowledge.

Western Nova Scotia’s District Health Authorities have taken a centralized approach to e-learning module development since 2002.  The Library, Knowledge and Research Services Department’s work as presented in September 2006 led to the provincial health Medworxx learning management system (LMS) https://elearning.nshealth.ca/ being established.  Although the Department has one of the few especially trained e-learning technicians on staff in Nova Scotia’s health system, and our modules are in use throughout the province, the service currently lacks an evaluation plan.

 

At this time, we need a review of research related to workplace e-learning outcomes and LMS management standards to inform design of a service evaluation framework.

The student will prepare a syllabus and then take a stepwise planned approach to:

  1. Self-directed reading maintaining an annotated list of completed readings
  2. Conducting a systematic search of the research literature related to workplace e-learning and learning management systems. The search will follow methods as described in Booth et al. (2012). Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review.  These will include:
  3. Examine search results to identify outcomes and standards.
  4. Use SharePoint 2010 to prepare information for framework synthesis by extracting data to a SharePoint List or Library so that it can be viewed as a side-by-side comparison table.
  5. Summarize reading course work as an academic poster.
  • The framed search question
  • The mapped concept(s) associated with the search questions
  • A scoping search report to include charts describing publication timeline and size of the literature by subject domain
  • Searches of up to four sources, including commercial databases and grey literature resources
  • Documentation of search methods
  • Search results organized within a Refworks Refshare folder

 

This reading course will allow a student to apply and further develop skills gained in INFO 5515 Organization of Information, INFO 5530 Information Sources and Retrieval and INFO 6730 Records Management.  These include:

  • Client engagement
  • SharePoint 2010 and reference management software
  • Health databases, library and information science databases, grey literature.

 

Please refer to MLIS Reading Courses: Policy and Procedures (INFO 6700/6710) http://sim.management.dal.ca/Courses/MLIS%20Courses%20Offered/Reading_Courses.php, then contact Dr. Jacqueline MacDonald: jacqueline.macdonald@dal.ca for more information

Design of a Research Data Management Centre using SharePoint 2010: Request for interest for a potential MLIS reading course for the 2013 fall term.

An opportunity to further develop systematic information search skills, records management skills, SharePoint design skills and information analysis and reporting skills.

The University of Leicester’s Data to Knowledge (D2K) Research team requires a centralized approach to managing research records (data and documents) created by and for its various projects.  The team currently holds several medium to large grants in support of harmonizing the use of data held by international biobanks and cohort studies. The transdisciplinary research encompasses topics including genetic epidemiology, software/middleware technologies, data access and privacy, and the communities of scientific knowledge.  The D2K projects are overseen by Dr Joel Minion, Senior Research Manager.

This work will explore whether records and information management principles applied to SharePoint 2010 records centre and in place records management features might provide structure for a solution.

The student will prepare a syllabus and then take a stepwise planned approach to:

  1. Self-directed reading maintaining an annotated list of completed readings
  2. Conducting a systematic search of the research literature related to research team records management.  The search will follow methods as described in Booth et al. (2012). Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review.  These will include:
  3. Examine up to four existing commercial research data/records management systems to see whether they address service outcomes
  4. Design an approach to records management for the Data to Knowledge (D2K) Research Group using SharePoint records centre and in place records management function
  5. Summarize reading course work as an academic poster.
  • the framed search question
  • the mapped concept(s) associated with the search questions
  • a scoping search report to include charts describing publication timeline and size of the literature by subject domain
  • Searches of up to four sources, including commercial databases and grey literature resources
  • Documentation of search methods
  • Search results organized within a Refworks Refshare folder

 

This reading course will allow a student to apply and further develop skills gained in INFO5515 Organization of Information, INFO 5530 Information Sources and Retrieval and INFO 6730 Records Management.  These include:

  • Client engagement
  • Records management
  • SharePoint 2010 and Reference management software
  • Health databases, library and information science databases, grey literature.

 

Please refer to MLIS Reading Courses: Policy and Procedures (INFO 6700/6710) http://sim.management.dal.ca/Courses/MLIS%20Courses%20Offered/Reading_Courses.php, then contact Dr. Jacqueline MacDonald: jacqueline.macdonald@dal.ca for more information.

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