RESEARCH AT UCL DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION STUDIES

We are the only department in the United Kingdom with programmes in library and information studies, archives and records management and electronic publishing. As well as topics within these specific areas, we can offer unparalleled opportunities for cross-domain work, for example in user studies and usability, metadata, the management of electronic resources, and XML technologies for the humanities.

The School has strong links with organizations such as the National Archives and the Arts and Humanities Data Service, and is close to the British Library and other major research libraries. Our location in central London makes it easy for collaborative work with other institutions and groups. UCL Department of Information Studies is a leading centre for research in librarianship, information science, archives and records management, especially in the areas of health informatics, digital information seeking, web log analysis, research evaluation, scholarly communication, user studies, electronic records, digital technologies for the humanities, preservation management and the history of the book. It also supports research on mathematical logic and knowledge representation, print culture and the Quakers, library support of user groups especially early years, and learning and professional development.

DIS research is organised around five focal points: three research Centres and two research groups. These facilitate interaction between established researchers, and offer research training and career development opportunities for early stage researchers and graduate students. Importantly, they provide coherence and a critical mass of researchers in key areas.

Research Centres

Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research CIBER

An interdisciplinary research group, CIBER (Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research). CIBER’s expertise lies in the mapping, monitoring and evaluating of digital information systems, platforms, services and environments, using robust, `big picture' and innovative research methods that provide strategic data for policy makers. With CIBER's recent focus on publishing and scholarly communication issues, the group has become increasingly embedded and integrated within the UCL Centre for Publishing.

Cultural Informatics Research Centre in the Arts and Humanities CIRCAh

Work in this area concentrates on the interaction of the technology and the needs of users at all levels from scholars to school students to the general public. There is an emphasis on XML markup and the ways in which this can be used to facilitate the management and use of electronic resources. There is also some emphasis on primary source material and the uses of electronic texts for literary, linguistic and historical research.

International Centre for Archives and Records Management Research and User Studies ICARUS

ICARUS was established in 2005 in recognition of the need to develop a significant body of research which seeks to identify, understand and meet the rapid technological and intellectual changes sweeping through the archives and records management discipline.

To this end ICARUS seeks to:

    * Develop knowledge and enhance understanding of the creation, management and use of records and their role in society
    * Map, monitor and evaluate significant changes in the archives and records domain using robust evidence-based methods.

ICARUS operates in a cross-disciplinary context, promoting a fuller understanding of how records relate to and interact with other forms of evidence and information and other types of memory object and material culture. It gives priority to research which incorporates partnership and cross-domain working.

The AHRC-funded ARMReN, the Archives and Records Management Research Network project runs from 2006-2007.

An AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award, to be held jointly with the National Archives, is available from 2007-2010.

Research Groups

Applied Logic Group more

DIS is a founding partner of the Applied Logic Group, an association of researchers from London and elsewhere interested in logic and its applications. Within this area, recent collaborative work involving DIS has concentrated in developing formal languages, theories and computational methods for reasoning about actions, and exploring their potential for application in such areas as automated planning, diagnosis and software requirements engineering.

Knowledge Organisation Group more

DIS staff are involved with ongoing changes to the main cataloguing standards, and to three of the major schemes of classification: the Dewey Decimal Classification, Universal Decimal Classification, and the Bliss Bibliographic Classification Second Edition. Research activity is centred around the creation of new terminologies and syntaxes for these systems, and also on the further advancement of the facet analytical approach to retrieval. DIS also has strong links to research communities within the wider profession, and it provides a home for the UK Classification Research Group, and for ISKO UK, the newly formed chapter of the International Society for Knowledge Organization, the lead research body in this field.