
This launch event tookplace online and included presentations by the Dean of Arts and Humanities, Professor Stella Bruzzi, and the Head of the Department, Professor Elizabeth Shepherd, a short introduction and virtual tour of the exhibition with the exhibition Curator, Dr Alda Terracciano, and conversations with project participants, including alumni and students.
During the centenary year, the curator explored archive material held at UCL Special Collections and the British Library and led a group of 11 students in a series of oral history sessions with former members of staff and alumni to explore key issues faced by information professionals in their jobs, including records management and publishing, engagement of different communities of practice, development of digital humanities, and uses of artificial intelligence, to mention just a few. Due to Covid-19 disruptions the exhibition has now been re-designed for the digital space and these areas of critical enquiry have been situated alongside historical documents in a 3D online environment to facilitate the dialogical dimension of the exhibition and link the past to the present in interactive ways.
The UCL Publishers’ Prize, an annual creative writing competition organised by a team of MA Publishing students, was in its sixth year as the Centenary approached. To celebrate this, the anniversary edition was focused around a theme close to book lovers’ hearts – libraries and book spaces. Unfortunately, the events of the global pandemic have delayed its release. This evening Daniel Boswell, former MA Publishing Programme Director and Prize Convenor, will introduce and reflect briefly on the production and finalisation of the Prize and its role in the Department of Information Studies’ Centenary celebrations.
The UCL Department of Information Studies is an international centre for knowledge creation and transfer in the fields of librarianship, archives and records management, publishing, information science and digital humanities. We are the only department in the UK which brings together in one place programmes in library and information studies, information science, archives and records management, publishing, and digital humanities.
Other DIS Centenary news and events can be seen here.