Dr Sophie Rutter
BA (SOAS, London), MSc (߲ݴý), PhD (߲ݴý), SFHEA
Information School
Senior Lecturer in Information Management
+44 114 222 2659
Full contact details
Information School
Room C223
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
߲ݴý
S10 2AH
- Profile
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I joined the Information School at ߲ݴý in March 2019. I am currently researching hand hygiene at work for both office workers and those who work on the move. I am also working on a project that aims to create an agenda for embedding equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in usability testing. Previously as a research fellow in communication design at the University of Leeds (2018-2019), I worked with children on a co-design project to transform school toilets and motivate hand hygiene.
My PhD (߲ݴý, 2017) focused on children’s use of search technologies and the influence of the school environment. I continue to be interested in using naturalistic methods with children and other user groups.
Prior to academia, I worked in industry for several years as the web and communications manager for the Port of London Authority (2001-2006), a project manager for Futura Interactive (2000-2001), and as an online publication coordinator for Donovan Data Systems (1993-1999).
University Responsibilities
- Deputy Programme Coordinator for MSc Information Management
- Module Coordinator for INF6060 Information Retrieval: Search Engines and Digital Libraries
- Research interests
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I am the principal investigator on the project. This project currently has two strands. Strand one, in collaboration with the University of Leeds and Savortex (an SME specialising in hand hygiene technology), aims to understand how organisations and their employees perceive hand hygiene within the workplace. Strand two investigates the everyday experiences of mobile workers' access to facilities as part of their work.
I am the principal investigator on the project. This project aims to create an agenda that embeds EDI in usability testing.
I am also interested in how the environment influences the way people interact with information, what techniques people use to search for information, and how information use can be evaluated in different environments. My research so far has been broadly focused on school children, workplace settings, search interfaces and health communication.
I am interested in supervising PhD projects in the following areas
- Hand hygiene and more broadly health communication
- Information seeking behaviour
- Human Computer Interaction (HCI) studies
- Inclusive user research
- Publications
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Journal articles
- . BMC Public Health.
- . Health Environments Research & Design Journal.
- . International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(15).
- . International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(7).
- . Visual Communication.
- . Journal of Documentation, 75(6), 1370-1395.
- . Library Hi Tech, 37(3), 418-435.
- . Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 19(3), 485-509.
- . International Journal of Environmental Health Research.
- . Library Management, 40(5), 313-326.
- . Information Processing & Management, 56(3), 919-938.
- . Health Communication.
- Using classroom talk to understand children’s search processes for tasks with different goals. Information Research, 24(1).
- . Journal of Documentation.
- . Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 50(2), 168-185.
- How do children reformulate their search queries?. INFORMATION RESEARCH-AN INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC JOURNAL, 20(1).
- Where can care workers go to the toilet? The right to working conditions that “respect health, safety and dignity”. Perspectives in Public Health.
- Embedding equality, diversity and inclusion in usability testing: recommendations and a research agenda. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.
- Office workers’ views on the uses, concerns and acceptance of hand hygiene data collected from smart sanitisers: an exploratory qualitative interview study. JMIR Formative Research.
- . Design for Health, 1-19.
- Using FaceReader to explore the potential for harnessing emotional reactions to motivate hand hygiene. Journal of Infection Prevention.
Conference proceedings papers
- . Information Science Trends 2022: Untold Stories
- . Information Science Trends 2022: Untold Stories
- . Wiley
- . Information Science Trends - ASIS&T European Chapter Series, 9 June 2021 - 11 June 2021.
- Complex search task: How to make a phone safe for a child. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 1798 (pp 34-36)
- . Proceedings of the 5th Information Interaction in Context Symposium on - IIiX '14, 26 August 2014 - 30 August 2014.
- Shefleld submission to the CHiC interactive task: Exploring digital cultural heritage. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 1179
- Search or browse? Casual information access to a cultural heritage collection. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 1033 (pp 19-22)
- Health information post-encountering behaviours on social media platforms. Information Research. Aalborg, Denmark, 26 August 2024 - 26 August 2024.
- Global perspectives on inclusive curricula: places, practices and pedagogy. 2023 ASIS&T Annual Meeting. London, UK, 27 October 2023 - 27 October 2023.
Reports
- Mapping the future of academic libraries: A report for SCONUL
- Investigating interlending: a scoping study of resource discovery, sharing and cooperation
Preprints
- , JMIR Publications Inc..
- .
- . BMC Public Health.
- Research group
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I am a member of the Information Retrieval research group.
Current PhD students
- Grants
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Embedding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Usability Testing
Research England QR-Policy Support Funding
Principal Investigator
£5,014
1 Jan 2022
3 months
Hand hygiene for mobile workers: developing and disseminating evidence-based policy to support covid recovery
Research England Covid Recovery Fund and Research England QR-Policy Support Funding
Principal Investigator
£35,608
1 Jan 2022
7 months
Workplace smart sanitiser guidance: dissemination and impact
ESRC HEIF / IAA
Principal Investigator
£9,272
19 Jul 2021
12 months
Smart sanitisation: Development and evaluation of a smart hand sanitiser system for use in the office environment
Innovate UK
Principal Investigator
£109,060
1 Dec 2020
15 months
Awarded £109,060 from Innovate UK as part of a £570,562 funded project in collaboration with Savortex (SME) and University of Leeds. The project is to develop and evaluate a smart (IoT) hand sanitiser system for use in the office environment.
- Teaching activities
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INF6060 - Information Retrieval
INF6031 - Public and Youth Library Services
INF6031 - Public and Youth Library Services DL
INF6060 - Information Retrieval: Search Engines and Digital Libraries
INF6000/6555 - Dissertation
INF6430 - User-Centred Design and Human-Computer Interaction
- Professional activities and memberships
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Membership of professional bodies
- Senior Fellow of the HEA
Committee and advisory group membership
- Chair (2022-2023) / Past Chair (2023-2024), ASIS&T European Chapter
- Advisory board member, 123
Journal and conference reviewing
- Journal of Documentation
- CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
- Health care
- Environmental Health Insights
- iFutures
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Journal of Information Management
- Library and Information Research
- Online Information Review
- Pakistan Journal of Information Management & Libraries
Invited presentations
- Rutter, S. (2021). Communicating and evaluating health messages during a pandemic. Keynote. Information Science Trends - ASIS&T European Chapter Series.
- Rutter, S. (2021). Trialling a novel evaluation method to pre-test hand hygiene messages. Cap Gemini.