Information and Organisations
Building on over fifty years of research excellence in Library Studies and Information Management at the University of Sheffield, this cluster explores how information and knowledge shape organisations, work, and society.
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About our work
Our research investigates how people share knowledge, how organisations adapt, and how information shapes professional roles.
We examine the relationships between information behaviour, information practices, and wider socio-technical ecosystems, including digital infrastructures, organisational systems, libraries and information services, publishing, science communication, and knowledge networks. We are particularly interested in how individuals engage with information within organisational contexts, including libraries as organisations, and how management, leadership, and digital transformation shape information environments and services. By bringing together behavioural, organisational, and socio-technical perspectives, the cluster advances a critical understanding of how information is created, communicated, sought, shared, managed, and transformed across diverse organisational and societal contexts.
Areas of Research
- Information and knowledge management: examining practices, governance, and strategies for managing information and knowledge within organisational and socio-technical contexts.
- Information behaviour and information worlds: examining how individuals and communities engage with information within social, organisational, and cultural contexts.
- Scholarly communication and publishing: examining the systems, practices, and infrastructures through which research and knowledge are created, communicated, accessed, and shared.
- Library and information services management: examining how leadership, management practices, professional values, and critical librarianship shape the development and transformation of library and information services.
- Organisational adaptation, learning, and digital transformation: examining how organisations respond to change, develop new capabilities, and adapt their practices, systems, and knowledge processes in dynamic digital environments.
Our activities
Our interdisciplinary research is demonstrated through a range of projects and collaborations with local, national, and international partners, including:
- MORPHSS: Openness in the arts, humanities and social sciences – documenting open research practices beyond STEM.
- The Science Communication of Fusion Energy – exploring public understanding and communication of complex emerging technologies.
- Digital Inclusion through Arts, Culture and Creativity – investigating the role of creative and cultural approaches in addressing digital inclusion.
- Prison Library Connect – providing information, resources, and support for prison library staff and strengthening library practice in custodial settings.
- The Challenges and Changing Landscape of Public Library Collections – examining how public library collections in England are impacted by financial, technological and societal change.
Get involved with our work
The Information and Organisations cluster is led by Dr John Israilidis (j.israilidis@sheffield.ac.uk). If you are a member of the School of Information, Journalism and Communication and wish to join the cluster, or you work in a related field and wish to collaborate, please get in touch.
Other cluster members include:
Academic and research staff
- Jenni Adams
- Andrew Cox
- Jayne Finlay
- Jo McKenna-Aspell
- Pam McKinney
- Stephen Pinfield
- Lee Pretlove
- Ana C Vasconcelos
- Sharon Wagg
- Sheila Webber
PhD researchers
- Ivan Atmanagara
- Samuel Forbes-Fairfax
- Lottie Needham
- Nana Musa
- Laura Woods