Ruth Rikowski Updates

Twenty-Third News Update

PART TWO

2. RUTH RIKOWSKI NOW ON EDITORIAL BOARD OF POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION

I am delighted to inform you that I am now (as from mid January 2008) on the Editorial Board of Policy Futures in Education. See:

http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/editorialboard.asp

3. 'ELECTRONIC THESES AND DISSERTATIONS: PRAGMATIC ISSUES AND PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS’ by SUSAN COPELAND, GAIL McMILLAN AND SIDDHARTHA SHAKYA, CHANDOS PUBLISHING: OXFORD, 2008, £57.00 ISBN 1 84334 342 8(hdbk);  £39.95, ISBN 1 84334 341 X (pbk)

Susan Copeland, one of the contributors to the ‘Digital Libraries’ issue has a book coming out about e-theses, which she has co-authored with Gail McMillan and Siddhartha Shakya. This is to be published with Chandos Publishing. Susan has led various projects to promote the development of theses and dissertations in electronic format. This book provides a practical guide, as well as an overview of recent developments in the field. It covers many topics, including information about why it is useful to make this research output available on the Web, practical advice on how to include e-theses in institutional repositories and related training issues. I wish Susan, Gail and Siddhartha all the very best with their book.

4. E-THESES CONFERENCE AT THE ROBERT GORDON UNIVERSITY, ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND, 4th-7th JUNE 2008

Susan Copeland also informed me about an E-Theses Conference, which is taking place this summer where she works, that she is involved with. This is the:

11th International Symposium on ‘Electronic Theses and Dissertations’, to be held at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, 4th-7th June 2008.

For further details see: http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/library_edocs/etd08/home.htm .

As it says on the website,

“The purpose of "ETD 2008: Spreading the Light" will not only be to present research outcomes and demonstrate new developments and initiatives in the field of electronic theses and dissertations, but also to encourage even more universities around the world to become a part of the NDLTD [The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations]and to promote free, open and long-term access to online scholarship.”

If anyone would like to submit a proposal to speak or would like to attend, I am sure that the organisers would be more than pleased to hear from you.

5. LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY (LSBU) STRATEGY: A CRITIQUE by RUTH RIKOWSKI

As part of the portfolio for my teaching certificate (CLTHE) I had to read and consider some of the London South Bank University (LSBU) strategies and write a critique of them. I examined the following strategies: the Faculty of Business, Computing and Information Management Learning and Teaching Plan (2005/6 – 08/09); the LSBU Learning and Teaching Strategy (2005/06 – 2007/08); the LSBU Centre for Learning Support and Development – Development Plan (2006/07 – 2008/9) and the LSBU People Development Strategy and Corporate Learning and Development Plan (2006/07 – 2008/09).

This was not something that immediately appealed to me, but the deeper I got into the subject, the more fascinating it became! Alison Britton, the leader of the CLTHE course, thought it was an important and neglected topic, I think, which is one of the reasons why she asked us to look at it all. The result of which was that I wrote a detailed piece, which I think could prove to be useful to others! So, for this reason, I decided to make it available on our website, and it is now at: 

http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=LSBU%20Strategy.

If any of you have any thoughts and comments in regard to it, then I would be very interested to hear from you!

6. ‘COMPUTERS/INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THE INFORMATION PROFESSION AND THE GENDER DIVIDE: WHERE ARE WE GOING?’ by RUTH RIKOWSKI, TO BE PUBLISHED IN POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION,

MID 2008

This article of mine, which considers the topic of females and computing, with a particular focus on the information profession, is to be published in Policy Futures in Education, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2008, in a special issue on the theme of ‘Commercialisation, Internationalisation and the Internet’, edited by Chris Armbruster.

Females suffer much discrimination in this I.T. age, and this is a very important topic, which urgently needs to be considered further and addressed, in my view. I became acutely aware of this when I worked in the I.T. field (working closely with computer programmers, I.T. technicians etc and implementing and upgrading systems) and felt very impassioned about it and driven to write this long piece. Issues covered include topics such as the isolation which females can suffer from when working alongside male computer experts; the undermining of female confidence in computing; gender socialisation processes; women in computing academia; computer software, screen designs and layouts (which is largely designed by men) and the type of I.T. work (which tends to be more passive) that often falls to females. As we all largely have no option other than to moveinto this fast-changing, all-be-it exciting I.T. age, I would suggest that females need to be taking a much more pro-active role in it.

This issue of PFIE is currently in production. See:

http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/content/pdfs/6/issue6_4.asp

7. FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT MY I.T. WORK EXPERIENCE

In my News Update No. 21, I included a section about my I.T./library work. However, I omitted to refer to the period when I worked for a library software supplier (Dynix) in 1995-6. I worked on the support desk there, and had to deal with many complicated problems from Dynix clients (mainly by telephone). I learnt a lot from it, and it was a very interesting and useful experience – working alongside computer programmers, technicians, librarians and information professionals.

The Rikowski web site, The Flow of Ideas is at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

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