Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week 2017

A Variety of Guest Lecturers for 

Library and Information Studies Students

            The Masters of Library and Information Studies students have been very lucky, as we have been fortunate enough to have had several important and informative guest lecturers. We have had visitors in every class:

•  Professor Dorothy Williams spoke to us about the impact of libraries and how to measure impact in our Managing Library Services course
• Professor Charles Oppenheim taught us about Bibliometrics in Information Studies
•  Dr. John Scally, the National Librarian of Scotland, visited us in our Managing Library Services class
• Chris Jones spoke to us twice: once in Information Studies to talk to us about Concept Mapping, and once in our Knowledge Organization class to discuss his development of a corporate taxonomy with the Aberdeen Harbor Board

These visitors have all offered valuable insight into the world of librarianship, and in this blog post we will discuss each visit in detail.

Dorothy Williams, Managing Library Services:

        In library and information services, it’s all about impact, and Professor Dorothy Williams gave a thought-provoking Managing Library Services guest lecture on this very topic – Impact: Making a Difference. She began by speaking about the ways in which library and information services might impact a user community or parent organisation, and how this can help demonstrate the value of the service. She then went on to talk about impact assessment being user-focused, rather than provider-focused, and how it is concerned with outcomes that go beyond the traditional performance measures. She explained how we as library and information professionals might go about making these assessments and gave various real-world examples to that affect.
        After the lecture we were split into three workgroups, where we were assigned a particular library and information service scenario and asked to consider how we might measure its impact on the user community. Group One were tasked with deciding how they would effectively assess impact in a school context, Group Two in an academic context, and Group Three in a private sector context. We brainstormed viable options in our groups, with Professor Williams, and in the class as a whole. The lecture and workshop went a long way to enhancing our understand and appreciation of just how important impact is in LIS, whichever industry we might chose to go into in the future.

Charles Oppenheim, Information Studies:

        As one of our guest lecturers, within our Information Studies module, we were visited by Professor Charles Oppenheim – who was speaking on the subject of Bibliometrics. Bibliometrics use statistical scrutiny to study patterns of authorship, publication and literature use. These studies use ‘citation analysis’ on websites such as Web of Science and Scopus to measure the impact and use that an article may have on its audience.
        Professor Oppenheim discussed the various plus points of citation analysis: it can identify experts, it is useful for research and publication strategies, it can be used to check a university’s ‘position’ within the world of academia and it is a useful form of qualitative investigation. However, it should be taken into consideration when using citation analysis that each citation and negative citations are counted, there may be two authors of the same name (which might not be taken into consideration), self citations can distort the citation count and, in largely co-authored publications, each author may be cited equally.
Professor Oppenheim also briefed us on the subject of ‘Altmetrics’ – which is the study of impact from blogposts, tweets and Wikipedia posts (among other things) – which is becoming an increasingly popular way of finding out who is being discussed and measuring the impact of scholars on audiences.
       During the lab session following Professor Oppenheim’s lecture we were asked to use citation analysis when searching on the Web of Science for universities, authors and topics of study. The class then compared our results with each other and paralleled the results on Web of Science to those found on Google Scholar. It was interesting to note that more citations were found on the latter, where results may not be as well refined. Professor Oppenheim provided us with a very interesting glimpse into the subject of Bibliometrics – an introduction which has encouraged us to learn even more.

Here is a link to the extensive list of Professor Oppenheim’s work:
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7103176185

John Scally, Managing Library Services:
        The National Librarian of Scotland, Dr. John Scally, visited RGU to talk to the MSc Library and Information Studies students about the National Library, in the context of our module of study: Managing Library Services. He spoke with positivity and enthusiasm about the history of the National Library of Scotland, his vision for its future, and the current landscape for Library Services throughout Scotland. As the senior manager of a national institution, he also described how he created, introduced, and is implementing the Library Strategy 2015-2020. The National Library is approaching its one hundredth anniversary, so these are exciting times. Dr Scally spent time talking about managing change within an organisation. Although none of us is likely to be leading such change in the next few years, Dr. Scally’s perspective will leave us better able to deal with organisational change as employees.
        Following the presentation, Dr. Scally held a question and answer session, where students could ask about a variety of topics including career planning, our studies, and the role of libraries in society. Each question became a discussion that covered far more than the original query. It was a privilege to have the benefit of his experience in answering our questions.

Watch this video for John Scally’s plan for the National Library of Scotland:
http://www.nls.uk/the-way-forward

Chris Jones, Information Studies:

            Chris visited us with an in-depth look at mind mapping. A few of us had previous experience with the concept, but we wanted to know more, as we had to create one for our assignment. We were unsure of how to create a large map and how to properly connected the nodes, but Chris’ lecture cleared it up for us.

            Chris began by describing what a mind map actually was, and this was a helpful way to lay down the foundation for the class. He stated that they were designed to show the structure of knowledge within an organization, and they were meant to give a brief overview of the organization itself. Additionally, Chris claimed that they are useful for collaboration, and that they help groups to brainstorm and get their ideas together. Chris then went on to detail the features of mind maps, including their nodes, lines, arrowheads and what linking phrases to use. The lecturer also described what made a good concept map: being clear, thematically organized and visually attractive.

            After the lecture, Chris went with us to the computer lab for our activity. During this time, he helped us to create and improve upon our concept maps for our assignment. He showed us different tools to use online and offered us tips. This was an incredibly valuable part of the class, and having an expert show us how best to create a mind map was a great opportunity. Chris’ lecture was very interesting, and his passion for his work was evident. We were all grateful to him for his visit, as he cleared concept maps up for us and prepared us for our assignment.

A sample of a concept map Chris created:

Chris Jones, Knowledge Organization:

              Chris Jones’ guest lecture focused on the subject of corporate taxonomy in relation to his current undertakings at the Aberdeen Harbor.  He began by defining a corporate taxonomy as the classification of all the elements that make up and are specific to an organization and by drawing examples from his time at the harbor about the challenges he had come across in undertaking a corporate taxonomy. 

                These challenges included how to begin, how to persuade your customers why it’s needed and what it is, how to introduce new working practices and the limitations and ‘seduction’ of IT.  He addressed the first challenge of how to begin through giving practical steps one can take, including creating a project plan and Gantt chart, discovering the who, what, where and scope of the organization and then from there gathering data through personal interviews and through examining the company’s literature and documents. 

                For the second challenge of how to detail what a corporate taxonomy is and how to persuade customers of its importance, he suggested using specific examples and documents from within the company, such as a Harbor drawing, breaking it down in a way that the business can understand, and then explaining how the metadata created will help that company better find the document. 

                In order to introduce new working practices Chris suggested a top down approach whereby one needs to get the approval and statement of intent from the CEO, or whomever is closest to the top of the company, and begin initiating it through the leaders.  He also suggests having a ‘champion’ of the corporate taxonomy, someone high up who can monitor and continue to encourage employee participation. 

                Lastly, Chris looks at the corporate taxonomist’s relationship to IT.  He details how IT programs and presentations can seem attractive but since oftentimes they are not specific to the company, can fail to be as detailed and productive as the company needs.   

All of the guest lecturers took time out of their busy schedules for us, and we greatly appreciate it. We learned so much about libraries and knowledge management from all of them, and we will remember their lessons throughout our careers. A huge thank you to all of these informative and fascinating guest lecturers!