Acquiring and Maintaining Specialist Knowledge

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Acquiring and Maintaining Specialist Knowledge

• Wendy Buckle, Cranfield University
• e.w.buckle_at_cranfield.ac.uk
• Celia Waters, Dstl, Farnborough
• cjwaters_at_dstl.gov.uk
• Aerospace and Defence Librarians Group

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• Do we need to be subject specialists, or
  specialists in acquiring subject knowledge?

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Being a specialist

• Why is subject-knowledge important?
• Difficult jobs market, guaranteed jobs less
  common
• Rapidly changing and highly competitive
  environment
• To thrive in this situation you must perform
  effectively
• Finding specialist information is a core
  competence
• Having the expertise demonstrates to clients and
  employers that you give value for money and
  contribute to your organisations goals

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Areas covered

• Electronic resources
• Professional links
• Personal contacts

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Subject Portals

• Founded by the Resource Discovery Network
• Arts and Creative Industries
• Engineering, Mathematics Computing
• Geography and Environment
• Health, Medicine Life Sciences
• Hospitality, Leisure, Sport Tourism
• Humanities
• Physical Sciences
• Social Science, Business and Law

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Subject Portals

• Catalogued Internet sites and more
• Hot topics
• Trends
• Newsletters and Newsfeeds
• Conferences, Courses and Events
• Weblogs

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Subject Portals - extras
EEVL Xtra
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Databases

• Newsletters
• Alerts
• Communities (e.g. Emerald)

Industry trends Product releases etc
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Online Journals Information sector

• Managing Information
• Sector based reports
• Discussion Board

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Online Journals Information sector

• Internet Resources Newsletter
• New Web Sites
• Web Log updates
• Press releases

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Online Journals Information sector

• Free Pint
• Information World Review
• Research Information

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Subject-related Journals

• Always worth scanning
• Alert your customers (and increase your
  usefulness to them!)
• Hot topics
• Current research issues
• Book reviews
• etc.

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Online Communities

• Information City
• Build contacts
• Build skills
• Stay Informed
• Learn from other professionals
• Get organised
• Find information quickly

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Mailing Lists

• Use email list management software such as
  LISTSERV or Majordomo. May be moderated and
  controlled.
• JISCmail
• Mailtalk
• Specialist lists
• Are they helpful?
• Yes and no they can be a bit of a distraction
  sometimes! But occasionally some nuggets do
  appear

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Web Logs

• Research Buzz
• ResourceShelf
• Listed on Google Directory

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Professional Bodies

• Librarianship
• CILIP
• Aslib

• Subjectbased
• Royal Statistical Society
• Royal Society of Chemistry
• Maritime Information Association

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Benefits

• Help, advice, consultancy
• Training events, may be subject-based
• Email current awareness bulletins
• Conferences
• Special Interest Groups
• Own journals

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Special Interest Groups

• CILIP
• Education Librarians Group
• Government Libraries and Information Group
• Health Libraries Group
• Industrial and Commercial Libraries Group and
  Aerospace and Defence Librarians Group
• Local Studies Group
• Patent and Trademark Group
• Prison Libraries Group

• Aslib
• Biosciences Group
• Economics and Business Information Group (AEBIG)
• Engineering Group
• Social Sciences Information Group and Network
  (ASSIGN)

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Special Interest Groups

• Social Sciences
• British and Irish Association of Law Librarians
• British Business Schools Librarians Group
• Circle of State Librarians (Government and
  Agencies)
• Committee of Departmental Librarians (Government
  and Agencies)
• National Probation Research and Information
  Exchange

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Special Interest Groups

• Arts
• ARCLIB (Architecture)
• Art Libraries Society (ARLIS)
• Association of UK Media Librarians
• International Association of Music Libraries,
  Archives and Documentation Centres

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Special Interest Groups

• Science and Technology
• University Science and Technology Librarians
  Group
• For a partial international list go to Yahoo
  Directory or Google Directory

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Professional Associations (non-Librarianship)

• More information if you are a member, but worth
  checking anyway

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Regional Co-operatives

• Cross-sectoral co-operation

WILCO
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Conferences and Exhibitions

• Free ones include
• Library information show
• Online Information
• Benefits
• Get nose off grindstone and consider the bigger
  picture
• Talk to others from different backgrounds to
  find out that lots of library problems are not
  only in the special sector!
• Lots of relevant information and good contacts
  made

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Training events

• Increase your knowledge
• Expand your networking
• Free from
• Some exhibitions
• Database suppliers
• In-house lectures or talks specific to your
  subject area

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Networking

• I know a man who can
• Own organisation
• Colleagues in other libraries
• Contact via meetings, conferences etc.
• By email
• Discussion groups

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Because youre worth it!

• Librarianship is the new black

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Useful Reading

• Brine, A. (2004) Continuing professional
  development a guide for information
  professionals. Chapter 5. Oxford Chandos. isbn
  1843340828
• Brophy, P. (2003). The role of the professional
  in the information society. In Hornby, S.
  Clarke, Z. Challenge and change in the
  information society. Chapter 12. London Facet.
  isbn 185604453X
• Corrall, S. and Brewerton, A. (1999) The new
  professionals handbook your guide to information
  services management. Chapter 11. London Library
  Association Publishing. isbn 1856043118.
• Halford, J. (2004) A private matter is CILIP of
  value to corporate information professionals?
  ICLG News no.147, pp. 2-5
• Skelton, V. (2004). Look to the future now self
  managed development. Assignation v.21 pt.2
  pp.16-19