Featured - Information Matters

The aim of this special issue (SI) is to encourage readers to think critically about their own professional development and to take time to reflect on it. Are you looking for helpful insights? Or have you ever wondered what others are doing? Then this is the place for you. Ten submissions in this SI on professional development reflected on personal professional development journeys by referring to some aspects of professional development within academia, education and industry. Professional development is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle — it’s made up of lots of different pieces: soft skills, volunteering, networking, career transitioning, navigating work and family responsibilities, among others.

Featured Original

August 14, 2024 Md Anwarul Islam

Disconnected in the Connected World: Internet Blackout

The recent quota-reform movement in Bangladesh has brought the country to a significant historical moment, resulting in the deaths of more than two hundred people, including students and law enforcing agencies. Under the existing quota policy, only 44 percent of government recruitment was based on merit, while the remaining 56 percent was allocated to freedom fighters and their children, district quotas, women, and underprivileged communities. Students opposed this quota system and demanded its reform. Initially, university students across Bangladesh engaged in peaceful protests, rallies, and other activities, calling their efforts the “Anti-Discrimination Students’ Movement.” On July 7, they initiated a nationwide “Bangla Blockade,” obstructing roads and railways with demonstrations in major cities. As the protests escalated, they spread across the entire country, leading to violent incidents. The students’ demand for quota reforms resulted in significant clashes with law enforcement. On Thursday, July 18, around 9 PM, the entire country experienced an internet blackout, with all mobile and broadband services suspended, rendering social media inaccessible. This was followed by a nationwide curfew imposed by the government.

Featured Professional Development

August 13, 2024 Marta Bustillo

Developing Professional Skills for the Workplace: A Student-Staff Partnership to Create University-Wide Learning

Students often find themselves learning and using digital technologies in the course of their studies; however, they may not be similarly prepared for a professional workplace environment. These professional skills, which may range from understanding appropriate communication and digital etiquette to creation and collaboration in the online workplace, form part of digital literacy, though the importance of learning these skills can be overlooked. University College Dublin’s strategic plan includes digital literacy for education and the workplace as a core goal for both staff and students. However, we identified a gap in the university curriculum, that is, the development of professional digital skills.

Featured Professional Development

August 7, 2024 Bhakti Gala

Volunteering with International Professional Associations: Pathway to Professional Development

How do you build your professional career by volunteering with international professional associations? Can volunteering play a role in expanding your professional growth? It is known that joining an international professional association increases the possibilities of interacting with a global community and expanding domain knowledge. There are two aspects to making this work. First, by becoming a member of an international association, and second, by actively volunteering with the association.

Featured InfoFire

July 11, 2024 Shalini Urs

Trends in Health Informatics: Fireside Chat with Dean Javed Mostafa, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

In this episode of InfoFire, I am in conversation with Professor Javed Mostafa, Dean of the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Canada, on the topic “Trends in Health Informatics.” Our conversation covered various issues such as Electronic Health Records (EHR); interoperability; EHR and precision medicine; the personalization-privacy paradox; wearable devices and remote health; unstructured health data and machine learning; data analytics; telemedicine; AI and health informatics; and interdisciplinarity in HI.

Featured INFideos

July 9, 2024 Jenna Hartel

Information Science Workout: Use Your Body to Learn Information Science!

A new video series at INFIDEOS, Information Science Workout, invites people to learn major concepts of Information Science through their bodies. This approach resonates with embodied cognition and multimodal pedagogy, two movements that recognize the important role the body plays in making sense of the world. As the Introduction to the Series declares, “Your body can be your teacher.”

Featured Translation

July 9, 2024 Siyao Cheng

Generative AI and Copyright Laws: Bridging the Divide

One of the concerns is that Generative AI’s output in response to user prompts often draws from copyrighted works, eliciting a question nowadays: Can the content created by Generative AI qualify for copyright protection itself? Here, we strive to extend our insights into the question.

Featured Translation

July 2, 2024 Ola Pilerot

Much of Librarians’ Work Is Invisible, But Do They Want to Conceal What They Do from Us?

Being an expert in information should surely facilitate professional information practices. Librarians are often thought of as experts in searching for information for others, but what about their own ways of finding things out? Given their extensive education in information-related fields, such as information searching and assessment, one might question whether librarians consistently adhere to systematic and planned approaches in their information-seeking, as taught in library schools. Accordingly, we asked 800 Swedish public librarians questions revolving around the kind of information seeking and use they do in their daily work for their own or their work team’s sake.

Featured Translation

July 2, 2024 Niloofar Sohjoo

The Emotional and Informational Lives of More-than-Humans

Living with other species isn’t just about companionship; it involves deep informational connections. Love plays a central role, helping humans and non-human animals understand and care for each other. It helps create meaningful information through daily interactions. Misunderstanding these connections can lead to problems, especially for the animals who have less power in this relationship.