ESSIS 2019 – European Summer School on Information Science 2019, Osijek, Croatia
The European Summer School on Information Science 2019 was held September 1–6 at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Osijek, Croatia. The European Summer School on Information Science (ESSIS) is an intensive one-week teaching event for BA students who intend to enroll in a MA program in the field of Information Science. The lectures covered topics within LIS, e.g. Advances in Information Science; Research methodology in Information Science; Information Seeking and Retrieval; and Programming.
Morning sessions included interactive lectures while the afternoons were reserved for workshops and students’ group assignments. During the five days, six professors gave lectures on different compelling topics that encompassed all the challenges, nuances and specificities of LIS. Thomas Mandl from University of Hildesheim (Germany) gave lecture about Information Retrieval systems and organization of information. Anna Gruzova from St. Petersburg State University of Culture (Russia) presented themes on Human information interaction and information barriers. Mario Pérez-Montoro from University of Barcelona (Spain) focused on Information visualization – storytelling with data. Simona Turbanti from University of Pisa (Italy) talked about Altmetrics and Vittore Casarosa from the same university introduced students into the issues related to Semantic web and linked data. Mario Hibert, from University of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) offered his personal views on challenges and dilemmas of the digital age focusing on epistemic disruption and postdigital condition and how LIS fits in.
Besides invited foreign lecturers, talks and presentations were also given by teachers from the Department of information sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Osijek (Croatia): Boris Badurina, Anita Papić, Milijana Mičunović, Kristina Feldvari, Snježana Stanarević Katavić and Tomislav Jakopec. Two lectures were held by business professionals from Osijek Software City Association – Mihael Tomić from the company Mono d.o.o. and Luka Horvat from the company Toptal, LLC. Aforementioned lectures, talks and presentations covered topics such as Python programming language, UX (User Experience), Social Engineering from Information Science Perspective, Exercises on Information Retrieval, and scientific research in information science and issues regarding Informetrics and Scientometrics.
During the five days of intensive scientific and professional program of ESSIS 2019, participants also had a chance to relax and participate in different social activities, such as going on an Osijek city sightseeing tour, visiting Museum of Slavonia Osijek which is one of the largest general-type museum in Croatia, and learning about the interesting maritime history of Osijek area in the Museum of Water Life which has one of the largest collections of seashells and marine and freshwater life in the Eastern Europe. Participants also visited famous regional IT company Inchoo, d.o.o., which is one the most successful Croatian companies in the field of eCommerce. ESSIS 2019 participants were especially thrilled with two trips: visit to the Nature park Kopački Rit, a wetland home to thousands of species, and visit to Vučedol Culture Museum that holds one of the most significant archaeological collections dedicated to Vučedol culture (3,000–2,500 B.C.).
ESSIS 2019 was organized as a part of the sustainability plan of the EINFOSE project Information Science Education: Encouraging mobility and learning outcomes harmonization (Coordinator: Tatjana Aparac Jelušić which was funded by Erasmus
The main organizer of the ESSIS 2019 was Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Osijek, with the support of some EINFOSE partners (University of Graz, University of Hildesheim, Hacettepe University Ankara, University of Barcelona and University of Pisa) and a generous support of ACM/SIGIR.
The total of 24 students from Italy, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia participated in ESSIS 2019.
More information about the organization and programme of ESSIS 2019 can be found at:
