November 20th, 2012 - 19:34pm

All Welcome – Monday 8th October 2012 Lecture “Digital Humanities: from geek enclave to global engagement”:
Including wine and canapés!

This year’s ARP will be opened by Claire Warwick, who is Professor of Digital Humanities and Head of the Department of Information Studies at University College London. Claire is also Co-Director of the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities and Vice-Dean for Research for UCL’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Claire’s main research interests are in the use of digital resources in the humanities and cultural heritage, reading in physical and digital environments, and the use of social networking for research.
Claire is lead researcher for the User Experience group of the INKE project, Principal Investigator of the QRator project, associate director of LinkSphere, and co-investigator of the Digital Humanities Open Education Resources Project .

Claire has published widely in the field of Digital Humanities. Her most recent publication Digital Humanities in Practice (2012) is co-edited with Melissa Terras and Julianne Nyhan.

Geoffrey Manton Building, Lecture Theatre 5, Reception from 5 pm (lecture starts at 6 pm).

October 5th, 2012 - 10:09am

Manchester Metropolitan University

HLSS

Institute for Humanities and Social Science Research (IHSSR)

Research Assistant in Information and Communications

Full-time (15 months)

Grade 5: £20,559 – £23,121 per annum

The Institute for Humanities and Social Science Research (IHSSR) is seeking to appoint an enthusiastic and dynamic Research Assistant in Information and Communications for 15 months. The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Professor Jenny Rowley, and in collaboration with other research staff, to undertake data collection and analysis for two existing projects in the area of ‘Experience and interaction in digital spaces’

For an informal discussion regarding the requirements of the role please contact Professor Jenny Rowley (j.rowley@mmu.ac.uk).

For more information and to apply online, visit http://www.mmu.ac.uk/jobs If you do not have access to the internet or require an application in an alternative format please contact Human Resources on 0161 247 3502 quoting reference G2/2238.

Closing date for receipt of applications is 19/10/12. Applications must be submitted by midnight on the closing date.

October 5th, 2012 - 10:04am

March 21st, 2012 - 19:48pm

Returning this year was Louis Georgiou from Code Computer Love who again covered CMS with some current examples. PushOn kindly sent Mark Mayne this year to cover Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Gary Byrne from The Reading Room kindly dropped by to explain the do’s and don’ts of pitching to clients. Gary also volunteered to come back a few weeks later to give some tips on applying for jobs in the industry. This was an excellent, amusing talk that ticked all the right boxes.

MMU’s own developers Dave Scott and Derren Wilson came over to talk about their experiences with web databases and CSS respectively. Derren inspired us all with series of simple, helpful tips for CSS3. Richard Clark of HTML5 Doctor fame gave us the basics of HTML5, again with some nice tips and advice.

A big hit with the students was Andrew Disley, Freelance Front-end Web Developer. Andrew came in to talk about hosting. Again, Andrew provided a wealth of tips, links and career advice. Excellent. Andrew has also helped further by running the Geekup job board which has already led to employment for a couple of students.

This year we have also had the opportunity to attend other events. This includes sessions such as Paul Rouke’s Usability 101 session at MMU’s Business School hosted by our friends David Edmundson-Bird and Brendan Keegan. This later led to us hosting a session on Usability sponsored by our friends at Sigma featuring Paul Rouke once again. We are looking forward to doing more with Sigma in the future. Watch this space.

David and Brendan also ran another successful ProDevDay and the Search and Social School.

We also got the chance to attend Get stylish with CSS3, run at Madlab on Edge Street in Manchester by standards-next. Speakers included our good friend Chris Mills (from Opera), Jake Smith from JP74, Mike Byrne from Fudge, and Patrick Lauke also from Opera.

I was also personally able to attend the New Adventures in Web Design conference in Nottingham. An excellent day out in the company of some great speakers. We’ll be looking forward to the next one, and will be encouraging more students to attend.

We also sneaked in a couple of extra sessions, which included a first hand demonstration from our friend Donal Fitzpatrick on using a screen-reader. Donal, a lecturer at Dublin City University who is blind, took us on a tour of his pet hates by demonstrating some of we will call ‘the more frustrating’ sites that he has to use. An amusing and insightful demonstration.

Finally, in December we hosted a talk by Andy Clarke that heralded the launch of his new book, Hardboiled Web Design. Andy is not only one of the best speakers on the web design conference circuit, but he is also very generous. Walking in with bags full of training and conference DVD’s, and web design books that we have now made available to the students for loan.

A huge thank you to our guest speakers. Thank you all for your continued support. Here’s looking to 2011/12.

June 22nd, 2011 - 08:17am

The Department of Information and Communications’ annual PGR symposium will be held on the 5th May 2011

The event will host 18 speakers from around the UK and Europe presenting original research on public libraries, public information, archives and records, online behaviour, and innovation.

The full programme is available at http://infosymposium.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/programme.pdf.

Please email joanne.d.bates@stu.mmu.ac.uk to register.

April 15th, 2011 - 11:28am

The next issue of ‘Library Management’ includes two contributions from Professor Jennifer Rowley. The first article explores the importance of innovation strategies. The second article, co-authored with Subnum Hariff, Clore Fellow, and Partnership and Access Manager at Bolton Libraries, offers case studies on the branding of UK public libraries.

March 2nd, 2011 - 15:16pm

‘Being an information innovator’, by Professor Jennifer Rowley, has recently been published by Facet Publishing. This book is designed for all information professionals and managers who wish to understand and engage creatively with innovation to achieve success and to realise the professional and social benefits of entrepreneurial action in their organizations.

March 2nd, 2011 - 15:15pm

Olivia Walwyn’s Masters research on ‘The Value of Therapeutic Reading Groups organised by Public Libraries’ has recently been accepted for publication in the international academic journal, ‘Library & Information Science Research’.

March 2nd, 2011 - 15:14pm

Bob Glass recently presented research findings on Information Literacy Audits for Masters students at the recent BOBCATSSS 2011 Conference in Szombathely, Hungary (http://www.bobcatsss2011.com/). His paper, entitled “Are emerging LIS Graduates Information Literate?” was co-written with Jill Griffiths. Bob says. “BOBCATSSS is a really valuable and dynamic student led LIS Confernce with takes place in a different European City every year. This year’s conference was certainly one of the best attended with over 250 delegates from all over the world. The educational and networking possibilities are endless”.

For more information contact Bob at n.r.glass@mmu.ac.uk

February 23rd, 2011 - 08:57am