From the backroom to the frontline and back again Library current awareness services to the Home Office

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From the backroom to the frontline and back
againLibrary current awareness services to the
Home Office

• Karen George
• Rachel Robbins

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Overview

• How the service developed
• How the service is delivered
• Email alerts and newsletters
• Feeds
• Blogs
• Products
• Professional skills and development
• Benefits

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How the service developed

• 2003 - Fortnightly alerting bulletin begins to
  include electronic resources as items are gleaned
  from subject specific web searches
• 2004 - Links to web resources grow based on email
  alerts and growth of e-library
• 2005 - Links to blogs and items from RSS feeds
  are added
• any of these may lead to searches for specific
  reports

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How the service developed

• 2003 - Fortnightly alerting bulletin begins to
  include electronic resources as items are gleaned
  from subject specific web searches
• 2004 - Links to web resources grow based on email
  alerts and growth of e-library
• 2005 - Links to blogs and items from RSS feeds
  are added
• any of these may lead to searches for specific
  reports

Policy focus develops on multiple issues (ID
cards, foreign prisoners, etc)
Policy issues highlighted by media focus on
Home Secretary
Home Secretary departs
Machinery of Government changes
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How the service is delivered
600 incoming e-mail alerts per day
3,000 RSS feeds (multiple posts per day)
24/7 operation
INFORMATION
Feedback
Intellectual and professional analysis Identify
themes, repetition, and relative importance
INTELLIGENCE
450 current awareness Bulletin items per
fortnight 40 alerts per day to Press
Office Alerts to other Home Office staff
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Email alerts and newsletters

• Google mail
• http//www.gmail.com

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Feeds (RSS, XML, etc)

• Bloglines
• http//www.bloglines.com/myblogs

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Blogs

• Google Blog search
• http//www.google.co.uk/blogsearch?hlen

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Products

• Blog
• http//alertinfo.blogspot.com/
• Library Bulletin
• Monitoring (tailored) current awareness service
• Current awareness service for the Library Enquiry
  Desk

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Challenges

• Managing resources
• Information technology
• Changing customer needs caused by
• New issues and projects
• Home Secretary / manifesto priorities
• Organisational change
• Internal Home Office restructuring
• External Restructuring of departments to
  concentrate on the governments priorities
  (Machinery of Government changes)
• NB. You dont lose the subject coverage just
  because youve lost the lead responsibility for
  the subject
• Impartiality
• Evolution of the web

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Skills

• Knowing your customers and your potential
  customers
• Reactive and proactive
• Capturing and exploiting new technologies
• Searching and evaluating
• Cataloguing/indexing
• Teamwork
• Political knowledge (with a small p)
• Knowledge of the Home Office (then and now)
• Spotting issues before they are big stories

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Benefits

• To the Library
• To the customer
• To the Home Office
• To the public
• To you

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• Any questions?