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What next for training and learning?
Jun 8th
CILIP, the UK-based professional body for library and information professionals, has announced the suspension of its public access training programme.
These are difficult economic times, and information roles in all sectors are under threat. Organisations in straitened circumstances have to make difficult decisions and it is unhappily true that staff development is very often considered a ‘nice to have’ rather than critical to organisational success. CILIP had to make a pragmatic decision based on the fact that not enough people were booking training courses.
In a more positive light, a key thread of the LinkedIn discussions initiated by the announcement is the key role played by CILIP’s 27 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) in providing at cost/low cost training and professional support. These events can often be developed and delivered quickly as a direct response to the needs of members.
‘Informal’ or networked learning and training will almost certainly become more important to the profession. We have already witnessed the development of librarians’ TeachMeets; the attendance of conferences ‘by proxy’; keeping up-to date and challenged via trusted Twitterfeeds and blogs; the development of ‘unconferences’ (self organised gatherings with no structured programming. The truth of the matter is that we will need to manage our own professional development even more proactively, and do so very often with a zero budget.
CILIP meanwhile will continue to deliver in-house training and, of course, national conferences. The discussions about the role of CILIP in providing professional development will no doubt continue in Hatfield in July!
The information profession – fragmented or diverse?
Jun 2nd
The defragmentation debate began when Mark Field first expressed his heartfelt concern about the state of ‘the information professions’.
The key question he posed was this – why, despite the fact that we are living in the ‘information/ knowledge/ internet age’, do the information professions continue to lack influence within government and business? And, by extension, what can we do about it? His initial posting created quite a stir.
This debate about the information professions, and the role of the professional bodies that support them, continued this week at the first ‘open’ (and oversubscribed) defragmentation meeting, held at the headquarters of the British Computer Society in London. At round tables a series of key questions were discussed, including some fundamentals – what exactly are the information professions and what is their value to society? Has our profession fragmented because it lost sight of its true ‘core competences’ or is it simply a broad and diverse church?
During a plenary session, attempts were made to identify some practical next steps (and willing volunteers!). These actions focus on improving advocacy and demonstrating value.
Several professional bodies and networking groups have been involved in the debate, including Cilip, NetIKX and the BCS. Is there are need for a new, umbrella organisation that can work to improve the fortunes of the profession for the benefit of society or can a ‘sexy commune’ of the bodies be created through better collaboration?
James Mullan and Nicola Franklin have blogged about the event and the ‘defrag wiki’ has more information on the debate and possible ways forward.
Making the most of SharePoint – 8 lessons from NetIKX
May 19th
The latest meeting of NetIKX, focusing on making the most of SharePoint, was a full-house. Delegates were keen to learn from others who have experienced (and even been responsible for) SharePoint roll-out and survived. The session proved that as a tool, SharePoint is flexible enough to ‘take on the personality’ of the organisation.
Mark Field set the agenda for the afternoon, outlining the ways in which the UK’s Department for Education is using SharePoint to help deliver real behavioural change. Additional case studies were provided by the British Red Cross and Jones Lang LeSalle.
Although being showcased in three very different corporate settings, some key lessons and themes reflect how to deliver a successful SharePoint project.
- Recognise the value of IM as well as IT skills in taking implementation forward. Sound information architectures and information standards as well as customer skills are essential
- Over engineered approaches are high risk
- Do not use SharePoint/Microsoft terminology if that will be a barrier in your organisation
- For one organisation, the tool simply provided ‘workplaces’ for its users
- Obtain high level ‘business’ support (that’s a given) but also identify pilot groups/individuals who will challenge you
- The naysayers will test and push you but will become valuable advocates if you deliver what they need
- Get ‘intimately’ close with your internal clients to understand their work processes/pain points. Focus on the ways real people really work
- Focus on constant improvement and iterations not on one ‘big delivery/rollout’ of a standard implementation. Really understand internal work processes
- One size does not fit all but recognise the dangers of letting a thousand flowers bloom
- Provide the necessary support and training to ensure success
- Be pragmatic, not dictatorial
- Not all documents will require rich metadata
- Be open to learning from other organisations/rollouts but recognise that you will have to adapt for your own circumstances
- For one organisation, extensive customisation is required to ensure access in low bandwidth situations
- User pull is vital
- Under deliver on functionality and then respond to user demands for more ‘stuff’
All of the case study organisations had identified the contribution that collaborative software, interfaces with a good look and feel and well structured document libraries make to team and organisational effectiveness – and to improved compliance with records management policies.
The future of the Eurozone
May 12th
A group of bankers and financiers gathered at a conference in Italy to discuss the Eurozone. The event, co-sponsored by Wharton University, discussed a number of scenarios for the future of the Eurozone and the likeliehood of bailout defaults.
Many of the experts remained unconvinced by the optimistic picture being put forward by EU officials and suggested that defaults on bailout agreements were increasingly likely. The Gold Standard was used as an historical exemplar. When countries using the Gold Standard found themselves in financial trouble, they would simply leave the Standard and sort out their financial troubles before re-entering. Similarly, some of the attendees suggested that if countries found themselves unable to meet the repayment schedules, an exodus from the Eurozone might follow.
Many attendees felt that there was an unwillingness to even acknowledge such scenarios might happen.
“European officials refuse to entertain the thought of any of the 17 eurozone members leaving the currency union, despite the drag on the long-term competitiveness of individual members and the growing unhappiness of their citizens living under the constraints of the euro”.
A full summary of the event is available on the Knowledge Wharton blog.
What is a library?
May 9th
Letters of Note is rapidly becoming my favourite website. The latest entry publishes letters sent by famous childrens’ authors on the opening of a new library in the US in 1971. Here’s what Isaac Asimov told the children of Troy, Michigan. A library is:
… a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the Universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you—and most of all, a gateway, to a better and happier and more useful life.
Meanwhile, EB White told them:
A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people—people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.
Rather wryly, the article goes on to say that this library is now ‘dodging closure’.
Internet Oscar nominees announced
Apr 14th
The 15th Annual Webby Awards nominees have been announced and you can take part in the voting until 28th April.
Catogories include:
- Best home/welcome page
- Best navigation/structure
- Science
- Social media
Notable nominees include Wired.com (best copywriting); TED.com (best use of video); and Mashable (best business blog) and the BBC’s History of the World in 100 objects (best podcast). Groupon has received a nomination in the Retail category, while Lego.com gets a nomination for best home page.
The full list of nominations is well worth a scan.
New service models – some lessons learned
Mar 31st
Outsourcing no longer means ‘sending work to India’. Instead there are as many blended solutions and approaches as there are firms looking to change the way information services are delivered. While early attempts to outsource were focused primarily on cost containment, more recent initiatives have been focusing on value and impact.
If last night’s extremely lively SLA Europe event was anything to go by, the opportunities and challenges presented by new business models for corporate information services are exercising many minds.
The oversubscribed session, chaired by Morgan Stanley’s Stephen Phillips, heard contributions from Liam Brown (Integreon); Greg Simidian (Perfect Information); Kate Stanfield (CMS Cameron McKenna LLP) and Sarah Fahy (Allen & Overy). Each speaker presented their views and experiences of the adoption of new business models, from outsourcing and offshoring to blended approaches and questions and observations were offered by the participants. The reasons behind Allen & Overy’s recent decision to create an onshored, blended support centre in Belfast were outlined, as was CMS Cameron McKenna’s decision to work in partnership with Integreon.
The law firm perspective
Law firms are relationship and reputation businesses. They rely on high quality support services to maintain reputational capital. Quality services and high professional standards are vital to their continued success. The experience of developing new models for information provision provides opportunities for information professionals to raise their profiles – and their game.
Other key pointers from the session
- maintain contact with your users and your senior clients to help you innovate
- be flexible about what works
- ensure you solve a true business problem – and work in consultation
- focus on who has the expertise to do it right irrespective of where they are based/who employs them
- increased use of vendor capability is another form of outsourcing
- outsourcers acknowledge the need to focus on professional development
- any changed model will require significant investment of time and resources in the early stages
- information providers are responding to the high usage of products in offshored locations by providing local customer support
- ask senior level manager what works for them
- when it comes to big change programmes, remember to keep communicating with your staff and your users
Outsourcing, in its many guises, can complement a service and help deliver flexibility and value.
#CIL11
Mar 23rd
Computers in Libraries has been taking place in Washington DC this week. You can of course track events via Twitter, but you may also wish to check out the following for on-the-spot coverage.
Sarah Houghton-Jan (aka The Librarian in Black) is attending the conference as a presenter, delegate and moderator. She spent the first day of the conference in the ‘Information discovery and search’ track and blogged throughout the first day. Her review of the super searcher strategies session is particularly helpful, as is search engine update.
As a co-presenter, Sarah joined David Lee King and Nate Hill to discuss how to use social media to make user interactions ‘rock’. Her blog summary includes a list of 8 tips from David Lee King.
Well worth a read.
Check out the Bicycle Library
Mar 14th
“Imagine a library where instead of books, there are bicycles”.
The Bicycle Library in West London has used a library service model to provide advice and information to potential cyclists. The ‘Library’ offers ’reference bikes’ and ‘loan bikes’. Visitors can call on the expertise of a ‘librarian’ and test out a variety of bikes.
Man vs. machine for $500
Feb 25th
Jeopardy is a long-running US quiz show that gives contestants an ‘answer’ to which they must respond with the appropriate ‘question’. Each round will have a range of questions of increasing difficulty (and of increasing prize money value). It’s enjoyable to play along if you find yourself sitting in a US hotel room at around tea-time with 30 minutes or so to spare, although the US-centric nature of some of the topics might put some of us at a disadvantage. Well, that’s my story at least.
Earlier this month (February 2011) Jeopardy’s greatest champions returned to the studio to take on a new contestant – IBM’s Watson. Over three years in the development, Watson was created for this specific purpose, although the lessons learned from the project go way beyond ‘how to win a quiz show’. Watson needed more than to simply have access to millions of ‘facts’. He needed to be able to master puns, humour, allusions, slang and nuance, and weigh the probability of each potential correct ‘question’ being correct before buzzing in.
This article, published on McKinsey Quarterly, tells the story of the complexities of the development stage. The article takes just one ‘answer and question’ as an example. In a round called ‘Diplomatic Relations’ Watson must dissect and respond to this:
“Of the four countries the United States does not have diplomatic relations with, the one is the farthest north.”
In order to answer this correctly, and more quickly than any other contestant, Watson needs to perform many functions, ranging from identfying the ‘type’ of question (is it a historical fact or a limerick for example?); working out the grammar of the clue (nouns, verbs etc); working out what ‘country’ refers to (country music?!); before going on to identify potential countries and geographic locations.
This YouTube video shows Watson taking on the champions, displays lists of his alternative potential answers (some of which are very entertaining) and shows some footage of the early stages in IBM’s development of Watson.
