UKeiG (the UK electronic information Group) is pleased to announce that Volume 15, issue 3 2019 of its journal eLucidate is now available on the web site. Many thanks to the information professionals and experts who’ve contributed a diverse range of absorbing and informative topics.

You can access the PDF at: http://tinyurl.com/yyle4nc6

or visit: http://www.ukeig.org.uk and choose eLucidate from the Group Pages drop down menu.

Contents include:  
     
The Evolution of UKeiG/Ultra Information Management – an enigma 
Managing Director of Intranet Focus Ltd, Martin White, excavates the origins of UKeiG against the backdrop of two World Wars and the explosive increase in scientific research and scholarly publications that led to the formation of the Institute of Information Scientists in 1958. His second article, “Ultra Information Management” pays homage to sophisticated, meticulous wartime codebreaking projects which were, in essence, the precursor to information management as we know it today.

Open Access, Open Monographs, Open Data, Open Peer Review
Last year’s UKeiG professional development programme was a huge success attracting delegates from all sectors and disciplines of the library and information profession. UKeiG Chair David Ball’s workshop – “Open Access, Open Monographs, Open Data, Open Peer Review” – provided food for thought and a state-of-the-art overview of the complex issues around the open access, open science agenda. The preamble for the day stated: “The concept of Open Access to research outputs has been common currency for many years. The rapid growth of the Internet has made different publication models easily available. More recent thinking has expanded the concept of openness even further, to Open Science, which aims to transform science by making research more open, global, collaborative, creative and closer to society. This approach is being embraced by all academic disciplines. The shift is extremely important for the development and exploitation of research, and hence for the professionals who support it.” One of the delegates, Ruth Wells, New Product Development Manager for CABI, but then representing the academic journals and publishing service Veruscript, was inspired to blog about the day and we have included her observations in this issue.

Rethinking Advanced Search
Tony Russell-Rose, founder of UXLabs, explores a fascinating data visualisation approach to advanced search strategy formulation “in which concepts are expressed as objects on a two-dimensional canvas and relationships are articulated using direct manipulation. This eliminates many sources of syntactic error, makes the query semantics more transparent, and offers new ways to validate, share and reproduce search strategies.” He invites eLucidate readers to test drive and evaluate it for him.

Reflections from Brighton: CILIP Conference 2018
Sarah Prowse, Librarian and Analyst at the NIHR Innovation Observatory, and recipient of last year’s UKeiG CILIP Conference bursary, reflects on the key themes arising from the event. The conference, she writes, “offered the opportunity to reflect on the collaborative nature of the profession including the underlying mandate to strive for excellence and lead equitable change through the provision of high-quality information knowledge, skills, and services.”

Mindful Technology: Banishing Digital Distractions
Claire Carter, Academic Library Liaison at the University of Bedfordshire, reports back on a recent Multimedia Information and Technology Group event addressing the issues around mindfulness and technology - #MindfulTech19. Are you at the beck and call of mobile? How many times a day do you check for updates and alerts? MMiT’s event was a rally cry to information professionals to take back control of technology and develop handling strategies to ensure that it doesn’t rule your life and diminish your impact and productivity in the workplace. Claire Carter’s report explores the interface between technology and wellbeing. Can mindfulness be utilised to ensure that we are in control of our digital destinies?

Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things
Dion Lindsay, Managing Director of Real Knowledge Management, reports back on UKeiG’s Members’ Day on the 26th June 2018, exploring the brave new world of “Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things.” He concludes that with imagination and vision there are even bigger opportunities for information professionals to shape the future and stake a claim to these major shifts in the paradigm of information management and delivery.

Other features in this issue include a celebration of the winner of last year’s prestigious Tony Kent Strix Award that recognises major contributions to the field of information retrieval. Joy Cadwallader, Aberystwyth University, gives an update on some new online resources and services and UKeiG announces its support for Internet Librarian International 2019, encouraging you to speak at the event. The world is your oyster in terms of topics for presentation, and the broad themes for this year’s conference are articulated in the article.

eLucidate is published three times per volume: spring, summer and winter. We endeavour to feature contributions from experts in the field, keeping members up to date with developments and innovations in the digital information industry, considering the impact on information professionals and consumers of e-information. Core topics for consideration include digital literacy, effective information retrieval and search technologies, intranets, social media, open access, e-publishing and e-industry research and development. UKeiG encourages the submission of articles and reports about any of the topics covered by the journal, and contributions and suggestions for content can be emailed to:

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Please refer to Notes for Contributors for further information.

Access the PDF at: http://tinyurl.com/yyle4nc6

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 UKeiG is a Special Interest Group of CILIP: the library and information association
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