Transformational Technologies

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Transformational Technologies
New Roles for Information Professionals
Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services http//www
.rba.co.uk/ karen.blakeman_at_rba.co.uk
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Information Professionals?

• Librarians?
• Information Scientists?
• People who search, identify, assess and manage
  information as part of their job?
• Sales, marketing, HR, business development etc.?
• Web site managers?
• Scientists?
• Journalists?
• Writers/authors?

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New roles.. or rolls?

• Information and the way it is presented and
  accessed has always been changing
• Online
• telex, EPSS experimental switch stream, PSS,
  IPSS
• the dreaded telnet!
• Internet, Web 2.0
• Technologies are not always totally intuitive
• Introducing the book
• http//tinyurl.com/yvzy7u (Youtube)

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Advisory and consulting role

• Understand how the existing technologies and
  services work and the impact on information
  discovery and management
• Explore the new and developing technologies and
  how they impact on ways of working, not just on
  information
• How can these services improve your
  departments/organisations performance and
  services?
• Intellectual property issues
• FoI, Data Protection

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Training CPD

• Not just you your users as well!
• Need to be aware and discover areas in which you,
  your colleagues and most importantly your users
  need assistance
• Workshops and seminars
• from information providers and vendors
• professional bodies
• in-house
• but calling it training it may be a mistake
  call it product/service familiarisation, update
  whatever!
• Develop how to crib sheets, fact sheets
• UKeiG Factsheets
• http//www.ukeig.org.uk/factsheets/index.html
  (but members only ?)
• UKOLN Briefings
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conference
  s/ili-2007/masterclass/

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Explore new technologies

• Online was revolutionary in the 1970s
• The Internet was rejected by many when it become
  generally available in 1992
• Netscape Mosaic browser launched in 1994 made it
  more accessible
• acceptance as a means of providing and accessing
  information took longer
• M.A.I.D was one of the first major information
  providers to attempt a web based interface
• Keep up with the serious geek literature

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Gartner hype curve
http//www.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.8795.s.8
.jsp
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Take the initiative yourself

• Experiment with stuff like Pageflakes, Ning,
  Facebook, Del.icio.us, Furl, Library Thing, RSS,
  Blogs, Wikis etc
• Try out Second Life!
• CILIP Members group on Facebook set up not by
  CILIP but by Suzanne Hollywood, network Glasgow
• UK Law Librarians For Publishers' RSS Feeds on
  Facebook set up by Lo-fi librarian

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Facebook
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Facebook Groups
Industry/Professional Groups
Essential , Must-Have groups
Personal interest
Industry/Professional Groups
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Pageflakes http//www.pageflakes.com/ukeig1
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Social bookmarking

• Social Bookmarking as a Knowledge Management
  Strategy, Robert Berkman, The Information Advisor
  Vol 11, No 1, March 2007, Knowledge Management
  Supplement
• http//www.informationadvisor.com/IA_KM_March07.pd
  f
• Furl
• http//www.furl.net
• Del.icio.us
• http//del.icio.us/
• Connotea
• http//www.connotea.org/
• Diigo
• http//www.diigo.com/

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Blogs, RSS and Wikis

• The big 3 technologies
• Get to know how they work, how they can be used
• not just as a means of acquiring or providing
  information
• a way of collaborating within your organisation
• Microsoft has now incorporated these in their
  desktop and server platforms
• You need to know how they can benefit your users
  and organisation

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Strategic planning

• Looking to the future
• Look at how the business and services have
  evolved, developed, succeeded or festered in the
  past
• Look at current needs and how those may change in
  the future
• Look at how and if the new technologies can
  service those needs
• Experimenting with new technologies is essential

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Strategies for using RSS to deliver content

• Online Information Conference 2006, London,
• http//blog.iwr.co.uk/2006/12/strategies_for_.html
  
• Blogs, wikis and feeds Creating a vital
  electronic resource for a government department
• Peter Griffiths, Karen George, Rachel Robbins,
  Marilyn Saklatvala Home Office, London, UK
• http//blog.iwr.co.uk/files/20061129_blogs_wikis_a
  nd_feeds_slides_only.ppt
• 3,000 RSS feeds (multiple posts per day) 600
  email alerts per day
• 400 current awareness Bulletin items per
  fortnight, 40 alerts per day to press Office,
  alerts to other Home Office staff
• We are unlikely ever to go back to providing
  just the conventional awareness services

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Advocacy

• Not just for the profession as a whole
• For your users and clients
• We are supposed to monitor our competitors in
  the toiletries market and need to see what ads
  are appearing where and when but our IT bods
  have blocked every video site and video search
  engine!
• Identify champions who will support you
• Look outside the organisation to raise your
  profile as someone in the know
• Locate high-profile best practice and
  guidelines documents

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Risk analysis

• Trialling or using external services to host your
  web 2 stuff?
• Need to identify what could wrong and its impact
  on your service or organisation
• Confidentiality
• What if the service disappears?
• you will have a back up, wont you !?
• Management find out and complain that the
  Wordpress blog doesnt have the company logo and
  is not in the company colours!
• Have a proposal ready and waiting to bring it
  in-house
• Risk Assessment For Use Of Third Party Web 2.0
  Services
• http//ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2006/11/17/risk-as
  sessment-for-use-of-third-party-web-20-services/

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What can go wrong?
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What can go wrong?
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But a lot can go right!

• You are the person who knows how to use the new
  stuff
• You know the pros and cons of the technologies
• You can advise on privacy, confidentiality
  issues, FoI and legal issues
• You know when and how to use blogs
• You can show people how to customise and set up
  RSS feeds
• You can encourage people to use the in-house wiki
• You know which Facebook groups your organisation
  should be looking at and monitoring

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Job spec for the info pro of the future

• Whatever it takes
• Even it means behaving like a thunderbird puppet