Transformational Technologies 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services

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? 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

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’Introducing the book – (Youtube) 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

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 department’s/organisation’s performance and services?  Intellectual property issues  FoI, Data Protection 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

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 (but members only  ) – UKOLN Briefings /masterclass/ 2007/masterclass/ 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

Explore new technologies  ‘Online’ was revolutionary in the 1970’s  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 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

Gartner hype curve 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

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’ 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

Facebook 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

Facebook Groups 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman Industry/Professional Groups ‘Essential’, ‘Must- Have’ groups Personal interest Industry/Professional Groups

Pageflakes – 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

Social bookmarking  Social Bookmarking as a Knowledge Management Strategy, Robert Berkman, The Information Advisor Vol 11, No 1, March 2007, Knowledge Management Supplement –  Furl –  Del.icio.us –  Connotea –  Diigo – 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

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 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

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 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

Strategies for using RSS to deliver content  Online Information Conference 2006, London,   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 – s_only.ppthttp://blog.iwr.co.uk/files/ _blogs_wikis_and_feeds_slide s_only.ppt –3,000 RSS feeds (multiple posts per day) 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” 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

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 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

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, won’t you !?  ‘Management’ find out and complain that the Wordpress blog doesn’t 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 – for-use-of-third-party-web-20-services/ for-use-of-third-party-web-20-services/ 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

What can go wrong? 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

What can go wrong? 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

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 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman

Job spec for the info pro of the future  Whatever it takes Even it means behaving like a thunderbird puppet 11 October 2015Karen Blakeman