All Outputs (15)

Social Media by Proxy: how older adults work within their ‘social networks’ to engage with social media (2023)
Journal Article
Webster, G., & Ryan, F. (2023). Social Media by Proxy: how older adults work within their ‘social networks’ to engage with social media. Information Research, 28(1), 50-77

Introduction. Social media use is at an all-time high, and the adoption of online tools by older adults is increasing. This paper reports an exploratory qualitative study investigating the ways in which older adults are supported by social media prox... Read More about Social Media by Proxy: how older adults work within their ‘social networks’ to engage with social media.

Is the public library included? An analysis of local government documentation on the integration of forced migrants in Scotland (2022)
Journal Article
Salzano, R., Hall, H., Webster, G., & Brazier, D. (2022). Is the public library included? An analysis of local government documentation on the integration of forced migrants in Scotland. Information Research, 27, https://doi.org/10.47989/colis2218

Introduction - Library and information science researchers identify public library roles in the integration of forced migrants into local communities. Here an analysis of formal documentation issued by local authorities allowed for an exploration of... Read More about Is the public library included? An analysis of local government documentation on the integration of forced migrants in Scotland.

What are public libraries for? Culture as a determinant of conceptualizations of public library services for forced migrants (2022)
Journal Article
Salzano, R., Brazier, D., Hall, H., & Webster, G. (2022). What are public libraries for? Culture as a determinant of conceptualizations of public library services for forced migrants. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 59(1), 276-286. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.752

Public libraries offer important services for newcomer populations, including forced migrants. They help facilitate the integration of forced migrants into the host country, increase their levels of trust within new communities, and build social capi... Read More about What are public libraries for? Culture as a determinant of conceptualizations of public library services for forced migrants.

Investigating the ‘why’ rather than the ‘how’: current research priorities on the influence of culture on new-comer populations’ use of public libraries (2020)
Journal Article
Salzano, R., Hall, H., & Webster, G. (2020). Investigating the ‘why’ rather than the ‘how’: current research priorities on the influence of culture on new-comer populations’ use of public libraries. Information Research, 25(4), https://doi.org/10.47989/irisic2032

Introduction - Library researchers are often concerned with the factors that affect individual use of public library resources. To date, culture as a determinant of public library use has not been fully explored across all public library populations.... Read More about Investigating the ‘why’ rather than the ‘how’: current research priorities on the influence of culture on new-comer populations’ use of public libraries.

Assisting Information Practice: From Information Intermediary To Social Proxy (2020)
Journal Article
Cruickshank, P., Webster, G., & Ryan, F. (2020). Assisting Information Practice: From Information Intermediary To Social Proxy. Information Research, 25(4 (supplement)), https://doi.org/10.47989/irisic2017

The increasing dependence on social media and other online systems as part of everyday life has grown considerably over the years. At the same time, the complexity and security of online systems has also been increasing, making it more challenging fo... Read More about Assisting Information Practice: From Information Intermediary To Social Proxy.

The relationship between culture and public library use: non-Western students in Scotland (2020)
Journal Article
Salzano, R., Hall, H., & Webster, G. (2020). The relationship between culture and public library use: non-Western students in Scotland. Information Research, 25(4 (supplement)), https://doi.org/10.47989/irisic2035

Introduction - Individuals’ cultural backgrounds influence their use of societal resources, including those offered in public libraries. Well-established in library research are explorations of the benefits of public library use to new-comer communit... Read More about The relationship between culture and public library use: non-Western students in Scotland.

On the merits and pitfalls of introducing a digital platform to aid conservation management: Volunteer data submission and the mediating role of volunteer coordinators (2020)
Journal Article
Arts, A., Melero, Y., Webster, G., Sharma, N., Tintarev, N., Tait, E., …Van der Wal, R. (2020). On the merits and pitfalls of introducing a digital platform to aid conservation management: Volunteer data submission and the mediating role of volunteer coordinators. Journal of Environmental Management, 265, Article 110497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110497

Against a backdrop of accelerating digital innovation in nature conservation and environmental management, a real-world experiment was conducted with the research aims of assessing: 1) the effects of introducing a digital data-entry platform on volun... Read More about On the merits and pitfalls of introducing a digital platform to aid conservation management: Volunteer data submission and the mediating role of volunteer coordinators.

The Social Impact of Digital Youth Work: What Are We Looking For? (2019)
Journal Article
Pawluczuk, A., Webster, G., Smith, C., & Hall, H. (2019). The Social Impact of Digital Youth Work: What Are We Looking For?. Media and Communication, 7(2), 59-68. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i2.1907

Digital youth work is an emerging field of research and practice which seeks to investigate and support youth-centred digital literacy initiatives. Whilst digital youth work projects have become prominent in Europe in recent years, it has also become... Read More about The Social Impact of Digital Youth Work: What Are We Looking For?.

'Digital youth work: youth workers' balancing act between digital innovation and digital literacy insecurity. (2019)
Journal Article
Pawluczuk, A., Hall, H., Webster, G., & Smith, C. (2019). 'Digital youth work: youth workers' balancing act between digital innovation and digital literacy insecurity. Information Research, 24(1),

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present empirical research which examines the ways youth workers in the United Kingdom perceive their work in the context of digital literacy project facilitation. There is currently limited research focusing on d... Read More about 'Digital youth work: youth workers' balancing act between digital innovation and digital literacy insecurity..

The impact of work placement on graduate employment in computing: outcomes from a UK-based study (2018)
Journal Article
Smith, S., Taylor-Smith, E., Smith, C., & Webster, G. (2018). The impact of work placement on graduate employment in computing: outcomes from a UK-based study. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 19(4), 359-369

This study followed recent computing graduates into the workplace and explored their undergraduate experiences of work placements and subsequent impact on graduate employment. Whilst studying at one of 14 Scottish universities, participants (n=99) ha... Read More about The impact of work placement on graduate employment in computing: outcomes from a UK-based study.

Youth digital participation: Measuring social impact (2018)
Journal Article
Pawluczuk, A., Webster, G., Hall, H., & Smith, C. (2020). Youth digital participation: Measuring social impact. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 52(1), 3-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000618769975

Current scholarly debate around digital participatory youth projects and approaches to their evaluation are examined in this article. The analysis of the literature presented here reveals (1) an over-reliance on traditional evaluation techniques for... Read More about Youth digital participation: Measuring social impact.

Supporting student transitions to placement and work: developing a new self-identity (2016)
Journal Article
Webster, G., Smith, S., & Smith, C. (2016). Supporting student transitions to placement and work: developing a new self-identity. New Directions in the Teaching of Physical Sciences, 11(1),

Moves towards the marketisation of higher education together with concerns over the challenges of graduate employment have led to an increased prioritisation of students undertaking relevant work experience while they study. Recognising a strong stud... Read More about Supporting student transitions to placement and work: developing a new self-identity.

Cultural resilience: The production of rural community heritage, digital archives and the role of volunteers. (2015)
Journal Article
Beel, D. E., Wallace, C. D., Webster, G., Nguyen, H., Tait, E., Macleod, M., & Mellish, C. (2017). Cultural resilience: The production of rural community heritage, digital archives and the role of volunteers. Journal of Rural Studies, 54, 459-468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.05.002

The following paper addresses a lacuna in the literature relating to the concept of resilience. To date, cultural activity in relation to resilient communities has been given little attention and this paper will highlight how the lens of community he... Read More about Cultural resilience: The production of rural community heritage, digital archives and the role of volunteers..

The geographies of community history digital archives in rural Scotland (2015)
Journal Article
Beel, D., Wallace, C., Webster, G., & Nguyen, H. (2015). The geographies of community history digital archives in rural Scotland. Scottish Geographical Journal, 131(3-4), 201-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2014.980839

The CURIOS (Cultural Repositories and Information Systems) project has been working with community heritage groups to co-produce sustainable solutions for the production of heritage archives in digital form. This process has produced an opportunity f... Read More about The geographies of community history digital archives in rural Scotland.

Technology for supporting care staff in residential homes. (2014)
Journal Article
Webster, G., & Hanson, V. L. (2014). Technology for supporting care staff in residential homes. ACM transactions on accessible computing, 5, 8. https://doi.org/10.1145/2543577

Care staff, those who attend to the day-to-day needs of people in residential facilities, represent an important segment of the health-care provision of those entrusted to their care. The potential use of technology by care staff has not been a focus... Read More about Technology for supporting care staff in residential homes..