The UK electronic information Group (UKeiG), is pleased to announce that the winner of the prestigious international Jason Farradane and Tony Kent Strix Memorial Awards for 2023 is Martin White FBCS FRSC, HonFCLIP, Principal Analyst at SearchReseach Online.

The Jason Farradane Award is presented in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the library and information science profession.

The Tony Kent Strix Memorial Award is given in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the field of search and information retrieval.

Martin celebrated both of his awards in a special Zoom lecture on the afternoon of Tuesday 5th December 2023. We hope to release a video of the event shortly. 

Martin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the British Computer Society and an Honorary Fellow of CILIP – the library and information association. He recently retired from his prominent information consultancy role.

Starting out as an Information Officer in the metallurgical industry in 1970 his subsequent career has involved electronic publishing, high-technology market research and information and knowledge management consulting before setting up Intranet Focus Ltd. in 1999. He is a pioneer of the business-critical importance of effective enterprise solutions for information and knowledge search and discoverability.

The judging panels for both awards would like to congratulate Martin on his prolific and significant leadership and contribution to the profession on multiple fronts.

• International information management, intranet and enterprise search consultant for over fifty organisations with complex corporate challenges, including the International Money Fund, World Bank, NATO, United Nations, European Commission and a number of major pharmaceutical companies
• Presentations and workshops at conferences in fifteen countries
• Author of ten books on intranets, enterprise search and information management
• A Visiting Professor at the iSchool, University of Sheffield since 2002 and close links with City, University of London since 1977
• Dedication to the development and growth of the UK’s information profession through his energetic contribution to the Institute of Information Scientists – a predecessor to CILIP.
  

Martin was shocked but delighted to receive the news:

‘After a career of over fifty years in information science, receiving two awards reflecting the work of Tony Kent and Jason Farradane in the same year is a great honour. Kent and Farradane both played a crucial role in the development of my career. I am immensely proud.’

Udo Kruschwitz, Professor of Information Science, University of Regensburg writes:

'Martin has demonstrated major, sustained and influential achievements in the information retrieval and information science community, bridging the gap between industry and academia with a continuous, longstanding effort in forming and shaping a community of practitioners and academics in the field of search.'

Dr Sandra Ward BSc PhD Cert Ed Hon FCLIP concurs:

'Martin has dedicated his career to information science, information management and promoting the necessity for organisations to use these skills to deliver organisational benefits through well-constructed Intranets and Internets completely aligned with business objectives. He is the only person I know to use Information Scientist as the profession on his passport.'

Professor Charles Oppenheim BSc, PhD, PG Diploma in Information Science, Cert. Ed., DSc, Hon FCLIP, AUMIST, FRPSL applauds the news:

'Martin has an international reputation. He has authored many notable books on information consultancy and related topics and is co-author of a highly regarded history of the Institute of Information Scientists.  As a result of his numerous professional activities, talks, conference presentations and writings he has become one of the best known and most relied upon senior members of the library and information science profession.'

The UKeiG awards judging panels would like to thank colleagues who submitted nominations, and we look forward to your submissions later in 2024. The excellence and quality of the entries is proof positive that the information retrieval community is thriving.

The Tony Kent Strix Award was inaugurated in 1998 by the Institute of Information Scientists. It is now presented by UKeiG in partnership with the International Society for Knowledge Organisation UK (ISKO UK), the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Information and Computer Applications Group (RSC CICAG) and the British Computer Society Information Retrieval Specialist Group (BCS IRSG).

The Jason Farradane Award is presented in recognition of an outstanding, creative and enterprising contribution to the wider library and information profession. It honours Jason Farradane, who first made an impact on the LIS community with a paper on the ‘scientific approach to documentation’ presented at a Royal Society Scientific Information Conference in 1948. He was instrumental in establishing the Institute of Information Scientists in 1958, alongside the first academic information science courses in 1963 at the precursor to City University, London, where he became Director of the Centre for Information Science in 1966.

UKeiG (the UK e-information Group) is committed to encouraging and championing excellence and innovation across the profession. The Group sponsors prestigious awards and supports the continuing professional development of library and information students and early career professionals with a range of bursaries to encourage research, information exchange and best practice.

Are you an aspiring information professional struggling under the weight of the cost-of-living crisis but keen to pursue professional development activities?

UKeiG is delighted to announce that we are sponsoring two full bursary places (including travel and one night’s hotel accommodation) at CILIP’s 2023 Conference - the UK’s leading event for the library, information and knowledge community - in Birmingham on the 12^th and 13^th of July. This generous bursary offer will provide CILIP members - unwaged, studying, new to the profession or without the financial means to attend – with an exciting career development and networking opportunity.

The CILIP Conference 2023 programme is designed to upskill, connect and develop established, emerging and aspiring leaders. UKeiG hopes that attendance will encourage an aspiring or emerging leader in the profession, empowering them to take their next career steps. We are particularly interested in hearing from people who have never been to the CILIP Conference before, and who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to go.

Bursary Criteria

These two bursaries will be offered to CILIP members who are also members of UKeiG and who fall into at least one of the following categories:

Ø  Unwaged

Ø  Students

Ø  Early career professionals (having joined the profession in the last 1-5 years)

Successful bursary recipients will be expected to produce a written report (circa 1,200 words) of their experiences of and learning outcomes from the event. It will be published in UKeiG’s journal eLucidate and shared with the CILIP team. The deadline for receipt of reports is 14^th August 2023. You will also be expected to actively document your time at the conference on social media.

To Apply

Please email:

Richard Bridgen – Hon. Secretary UKeiG secretary.ukeig@cilip.org.uk

copied to:

Gary Horrocks - UKeiG administrator info.ukeig@cilip.org.uk

and

Sue Silcocks – Hon. Treasurer UKeiG treasurer.ukeig@cilip.org.uk

with a succinct statement of no more one side of A4 outlining your interest in attending Conference 2023 and how this bursary place will support your professional

development.

Please also confirm the following information:

Ø  First name

Ø  Surname

Ø  Email

Ø  Phone 

Ø  CILIP membership number

Ø  Role/job title or unwaged/student status.

Please confirm that you fulfil the bursary criteria and are currently without the financial means to attend Conference 2023.

Applications must be received by 6 pm on Friday 5^th May 2023.

We are pleased to announce a half-day online CPD workshop on ‘Making your research stand out from the crowd using video, animation, infographics and podcasts’ from 1 pm to 4 pm on Thursday 9th March 2023.

Book Now: https://www.cilip.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1695737&group=201314

Overview

Opportunities to communicate research to specialist and wide audiences have never been better. Inexpensive and effective technologies alongside social media and blogging platforms means impactful scholarly communications do not have to take much time and effort if used properly. Platforms for communicating research such as Twitter, YouTube, traditional media and blogs, give academics and their project teams greater visibility than ever before.

Infographics, data visualisation, podcasts and animation provide quick and simple ways to disseminate research and ideas if you find your voice, audience and the time. Many of these tools are free and can work in tandem to create a visual identity for any academic regardless of their field of work. In addition, researchers will be empowered to reach diverse new audiences that are not just academic peers, but publishers, editors, fund holders and the public.

The focus of the course is to deliver an overview of the many tools you can use to help you communicate research and work smarter. The objective is to help attendees go back to their workplace with a digital toolset and skills they can utilise to help communicate and share their work.

Attendees will learn the basics of social media and digital communication tools in an academic and professional setting and the course leader will demystify some of the barriers that may have put attendees off from using these tools in a professional setting.

Who should attend?

This course will be of interest to wide group of professionals and academics that includes researchers, masters and PhD students, research support staff and managers, library and information professionals, communications and marketing professionals.

Topics covered include:

- Getting visual - tools to help you turn a piece of research into a video presentation, screencast or animation

- Creating research communication podcasts

- Creating infographics and eye-catching posters.

Social media is a great way to communicate your research but are you making the most of it? Videos, animations, infographics and podcasts can help your research catch the attention of wide audiences and help showcase it in ways that traditional forms of research dissemination activities cannot. There is good evidence that shows you can increase the impact of your research by creating eye-catching materials. This may put many academics and professionals off if they feel they do not have the creative and technical skills to do this. This workshop will demystify many of the issues that may have put you off making your first digital communication materials. We will explore a set of affordable and free online tools you can use to enhance your research communications. The session will include live demos as well as provide you with several hacks and shortcuts which means creating your first video or podcast need not be laborious or cost the Earth. Attendees of this workshop will go away inspired and equipped to take their research communications to the next level.

Course leader - Andy Tattersall is an information professional with 20 years’ experience within academia and a background in journalism. He writes, teaches and gives talks about digital academia, technology, scholarly communications, open research, web and information science, apps, altmetrics and social media. Andy received a Senate Award from The University of Sheffield’ for his pioneering work on Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) in 2013 and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Andy was named in Jisc’s Top 10 Social Media Superstars. He was a member of the CILIP Multimedia and Information Technology Committee (MmIT) for ten years (two as Chair) and is a member of the UKSG Events and Education Committee. Andy edited a book on Altmetrics for Facet Publishing which is aimed at researchers and librarians. 

Twitter @Andy_Tattersall

Please also note Andy Tattersall’s complementary UKeiG workshop -  Communicating and tracking research using social media, blogging and altmetrics – on Wednesday 29th March 2023.

For more information, and to book online, go to: https://www.cilip.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1695737&group=201314

All UKeiG’s upcoming CPD events for 2023 are regularly updated at: https://www.cilip.org.uk/events/event_list.asp?show=&group=201314

We are delighted to announce UKeiG's online CPD course programme for the first quarter of 2023. 

For full booking details, including course content, learning outcomes and pricing, please see the events calendar. 

The courses (including presentation slides and documentation) cost £50 + VAT for UKeiG/CILIP members. 

Topics include:

• Artificial intelligence for information professionals
• Natural Language Processing
• Better social media for libraries
• Research Data Management for information professionals
• Open Data and Open Peer Review: Transforming Scholarly Communication
• Making your research stand out from the crowd using video, animation and infographics
• Interactive tools for presentations and teaching
• Video Marketing for Libraries: How to Create, Promote and Evaluate
• Communicating and tracking research using social media, blogging and altmetrics

with more courses, workshops and events to follow.