The latest newsletter (Volume 33, Number 2, June 2016) is now available. It contains pictures and images which may take a while to print out so readers may want to print the issue in black and white only or use a lower print quality setting.
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In recent years, Dylan has worked tirelessly to make the vision of a single nationally procured library management system a reality in Wales. This has been a very challenging and time-consuming project that required a range of skills and personal attributes, not least tenacity, to pull off. The legacy that his leadership of this project will give the Welsh public library network is significant.
His support not only to his own service but to others through his involvement with SCL Wales and other organisations have led to changes within the Welsh Public Library Standards, various library strategies and the growth and professionalism around the marketing of library services.
He is a passionate committed library professional who on retirement will be sorely missed, both in Wrexham and across the wider nation.
Collecting his award, Dylan thanked CILIP Cymru Wales and sponsors SirsiDynix and applauded the work of his fellow nominees. Dylan said that he saw the award , not as an individual achievement, but as a collective achievement on behalf of all the librarians he has worked with over his 35 year career.
Award criteria
Nominations for Welsh Librarian of the Year should demonstrate achievements in the following areas:
• Positive impact on community or sector
• Improving library services
• Commitment to the profession
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Facet Publishing have announced the publication of The Innovative School Librarian, 2nd edition
Written by current leaders in the field, each chapter in this new book addresses the practical issues facing school librarians. This new edition has been fully updated to incorporate curriculum revisions, resource changes, developments in the use and integration of technology and new routes into the profession.
The Innovative School Librarian raises important questions about the functions of the school librarian and sets out to encourage the reader to think outside the box for new approaches to traditional challenges. It aims to inspire and enable school librarians to think creatively about their work and the community in which they operate.
Key topics covered include:
This is an essential, thought-provoking book for all school librarians, practitioners in schools library services, and students of librarianship globally. It also has plenty to interest school leadership, headteachers, educational thinkers, public library managers and local government officers.
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Press and review copies contact:
James Williams, Marketing & Sales Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk
Notes:
The Innovative School Librarian, 2nd edition | May 2016 | 224pp | Paperback; 9781783300556; £54.95
About the authors:
Sharon Markless (the editor) is Senior Lecture in Higher Education within King's Learning Institute where she draws on many years of experience in both teaching and research. She initially taught in secondary schools and further education before moving into H.E. in 1990 as a Senior Lecturer in Professional Development at Canterbury Christ Church University College.
Elizabeth Bentley is Librarian and Learning Resource Centre Manager at Addey and Stanhope School.
Sarah Pavey is an Independent Consultant and Trainer for school libraries. Visit her website at www.sp4il.co.uk.
Sally Todd is School Archivist at St John’s School.
Sue Shaper is Director of Library Resources at The Broxbourne School.
Dr Carol Webb is Head Librarian at Portsmouth Grammar School.
The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.
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Today, UKeiG has published the call for nominations for the prestigious Tony Kent Strix Award, given in recognition of outstanding practical innovations or achievements in the field of information retrieval in its widest sense. The nomination could highlight achievements in an application or service, or an overall appreciation of past works from which significant advances have emanated. Nominations should reach UKeiG no later than Friday August 26th.
Full details of where to send your nomination and of the information which you should include in the nomination are given in the full call, which call can be found at:
http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-einformation-group/awards-bursaries/tony-kent-strix-award/2016-call-tony-kent-strix-nominations
and further details of the award and a list of previous winners is also available at
http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-einformation-group/awards-and-bursaries/tony-kent-strix-award.
The Tony Kent Strix Award is sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Information & Computer Applications Group.
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The programme and booking form for our AGM and Members Day in London on June 16th can be found at http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-ein...
The day takes place at No. 11 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN and starts at 10:30. There is a small charge for those who are not members of UKeiG, but members can attend free.
Looking at new trends and challenges emerging in the world of e-information and how we, as information professionals, can ensure that we keep our services at the leading edge, our speakers from the information industry present insights from their own perspectives. Our Future Cafe, introduced by Sue Silcocks and John Wickenden, will give delegates the opportunity to discuss some of the key challenges facing information professionals in the workplace.
Speakers include CILIP CEO, Nick Poole, speaking on the future of the profession, David Milward of Linguamatics on search and text mining, and Lin Lin of EBSCO on the search experience. After the short AGM the afternoon will be taken up by our Future Cafe and some time for networking, with drinks sponsored by Manzama.
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A one day workshop provided on behalf of the CILIP Yorkshire and Humberside Member Network – FREE to members of CILIP.
The purpose of this course is to provide participants with a background to mentoring, a basic framework for conducting mentoring both long and short term. The focus of the event is to enable participants to develop effectively as mentors in the context of the CILIP professional development scheme.
Mentor Training is a requisite for becoming a CILIP Mentor and this course is suitable for all CILIP members who have recently registered as CILIP mentors or are thinking of registering. Do come along and find out more about the mentoring scheme.
By the end of the day participants will:
The morning session will focus on generic mentoring skills whilst the afternoon will focus on the CILIP regulations.
Members who have previously attended a course on mentoring skills may attend the afternoon only (14.00-16.30) to join in the elements relating to the CILIP scheme.
Facilitator
Maureen Pinder (CILIP Y&H Mentor Support Officer).
For any questions, and to book a place, please email Maureen Pinder at m.j.pinder@bradford.ac.uk.
Cost
FREE to currently registered members of CILIP.
Non-CILIP members: £50 (inc. VAT) for the morning session on an introduction to mentoring skills.
Non-CILIP members: £50 (inc. VAT) for for full day on mentoring skills and CILIP mentoring scheme for people who intend to become a CILIP member.
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Jisc has announced that three of its development projects to help institutions meet their open access (OA) needs will move to full service status from August 2016.
Publications Router, Monitor Local and Monitor UK will join Jisc's suite of OA support services, following a decision by Jisc's management board in April 2016.
The move to service will enable institutions to rely on these services in their OA workflows and processes, confident in their ability to realise and monitor progress towards their OA obligations and aspirations.
More details can be found on the Jisc Scholarly Communications blog: https://scholarlycommunications.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2016/05/18/publications-router-monitor-local-and-monitor-uk-to-move-to-full-service-status/
Kind regards
The Jisc Open Access Team
Hannah DeGroff
Open access support co-ordinator
078234 164 93
+44 (0)203 697 (5864)
Twitter hannah_degroff
Skype hannah.degroff.jisc
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The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) have commissioned the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex to undertake a short on-line survey on "Barriers to and incentives for interdisciplinary research in the UK". The survey has been designed for staff that manage the allocation of research funding in the UK.
The survey should take 10-15 minutes and responses will be anonymous.
Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:
https://universityofsussex.eu.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_bQQpiMQUN3v26DH&RID=MLRP_d5txWIqVHh2Fp0p&Q_CHL=email
Please find here a letter of support from HEFCE and MRC, encouraging your participation.
Kind Regards,
Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex,
Higher Education Funding Council for England,
Medical Research Council
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PERICLES FP7 is a four-year Project (2013-2017) funded by the European Union, which aims to address the challenge of ensuring that digital content remains accessible in an environment that is subject to continual change.
For more information please visit our website, http://pericles-project.eu or follow us on twitter on @PericlesFP7
The May edition of the PERICLES FP7 newsletter is out now: http://eepurl.com/b1xddP
In this issue we ask you to complete a small survey that we have prepared under request of the EU following the recent review. The survey will help us identifying needs in long-term preservation both for a free information portal and a white paper. We kindly ask you to respond to a brief set of questions (10-15 min) by 1 June: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OScbcLmL4GkkhIIvRDMdWs904xFkBzEmmDCbkNW_Znk/viewform
Linda Ligios
EU Communications Coordinator, PERICLES
King's College London
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Discovery is a hot topic in libraries and has come to be all-encompassing. Everything is a “discovery interface.” But what do we mean by discovery, anyway? Exploring Discovery: The Front Door to Your Library’s Licensed and Digitized Content contains case studies and investigatory chapters examining the breadth of discovery, organized into four main areas: vendor systems, custom systems, interfaces, and the data that make them work.
The most common path to a discovery service is through a vended system -- a licensed tool from one of our partners. Tools such as Summon, Primo Central, and EBSCO Discovery Service are the biggest players in this market. There are challenges and opportunities in implementing discovery services, and migrating between them. The impact on internal operations must also be considered when outsourcing this suite of tools. Moving to a discovery platform can expose complicated or inefficient workflow processes and highlight the importance of consistent metadata to enhance the findability of locally-managed items. Ensuring the system can properly handle contrasting metadata and item types while providing researchers with relevant results becomes an attainable challenge when institutions with different types of collections share their resources.
For some libraries, vendor solutions do not it the need or are not fiscally prudent. There are a number of different approaches to customizing the discovery experience, from Stanford University’s work to expose geospatial resources, to Grinnell College’s “shoestring budget” approach to a fully functional discovery tool through APIs [application program interfaces] that provide access to already-licensed collections.
While these individual implementations are quite distinct, they share common elements: tailoring the tool, and the interface, to the specific needs of the institution in order to provide a user experience that exactly matches the content and the users. This type of approach can be successful even when the “out of the box” solution does not meet those needs.
Discovery services have a significant role in the way libraries serve their users. This user experience is central to the success of the service. There are certain characteristics common to discovery interfaces: the methods for and value of applying a “Bento Box” design paradigm (in which each kind of content is displayed separately) to a discovery layer, improving the ubiquitous facets that allow users to narrow their results, and making improvements to interfaces and content selection based on local user needs.
Given the large resources most libraries have invested in their discovery tools, it makes sense to ensure that users get the optimal experience - that their research is not impeded by the very tool the library provides to expedite the research process.
The crux of discovery is the data and metadata that make discovery possible. “Garbage in, garbage out” is a clichéd phrase, but true nonetheless -- particularly when any discovery tool that looks beyond the local institution is by its very nature a collective tool. Making sure that the descriptive metadata about resources is accurate, thorough, and consistent is critical.
Exploring Discovery: The front door to your library’s licensed and digitized content, edited by Kenneth J Varnum, examines the range of discovery-focused tools and technologies being deployed by libraries and provides a series of case studies illustrating the interfaces and technologies that can be used by libraries today.
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Every day people rely on Google for answers to their most personal, important or trivial questions. How do you know if the information is reliable? A good place to start is with an information expert. We ask SCONUL Graduate Trainee Rebecca Oliva to investigate whether your smartphone could be listening to you.
When ordering a takeaway or navigating my way around a new city, I am always glad to have my all-knowing smartphone in my pocket. But when adverts started appearing on it for services I had talked about using, but could not remember searching for, my phones omniscience seemed more like clairvoyance. After mentioning I’d like to learn to speak Spanish to a friend, several adverts appeared on my phone for Spanish lessons. When I told a co-worker I was going to visit somebody in another town, I saw adverts about the price of train tickets the next day. Was this coincidence, or was my phone listening to me? I loaded the terms and condition of my phone, hoping I would find an answer, but interpreting the technology jargon and legalese was difficult.
It can also be difficult to investigate questions about digital rights through traditional print or electronic sources, because of ever-evolving terms and conditions and privacy policies. So using Google or a similar search engine seemed like the best place to start. But if Google seems inevitable, it’s even more important to compare and corroborate sources to make sure you get the whole picture.
A combination of technology jargon and legalese can make terms and conditions and privacy policies difficult for the average person to understand. In 2008, Lorrie Faith Cranor and Aleecia McDonald, then researchers at Carnegie Mellon, published a paper in which they stated it would take 76 work days for the average person to read the privacy policies of all the websites and applications they use online in a year [1].
I needed to find a source I could trust to interpret the terms and conditions of my phone. But how do you investigate a topic where traditional print and even traditional electronic sources might come up short? The brief shelf-life of terms and conditions and privacy policies can mean that by the time relevant books and papers are published, they are out of date. In this case, most of us would turn to Google or a similar search engine.
The question ‘is my phone listening to me?’ has about 113,000,000 results on Google. Many of us would be happy to browse the top five results, assuming that they are the most relevant and recent. However, it is worth bearing in mind that there have been criticisms of how Google ranks search results [2] and you should be sceptical of any single source of information. If using Google seems inevitable, it’s important to be extra cautious when evaluating sources of information.
The number of results suggested that other people also suspected they were being recorded by their phones. A thread on Reddit, a user-driven news website, confirmed this. My question had been posed to the online community by a user who suspected his phone of eavesdropping after music he heard at work was suggested to him by iTunes [3]. After trawling through Reddit’s own search engine, I found that this wasn’t the only time a user had posed this question. The comments on the threads were mixed. Some users vehemently asserted that their conversations had influenced the advertising they saw online, whilst others argued that if such technology were possible, it would have a noticeable effect on battery life and data usage.
I was tempted to ignore those users who dismissed my concerns, and accept other users’ concerns as proof that my phone was eavesdropping on me. But this is known as confirmation bias, and on-line, where websites like Facebook show users content they are more likely to agree with, an “echo-chamber” effect can help misinformation spread like “digital wildfire”, named by the World Economic Forum as “one of the main threats to global society.” [4]
For a question such as this, the wisdom of the crowd seemed unreliable. Although I felt my question was legitimised by the large numbers of people concerned about the same thing, it was difficult to avoid an echo-chamber effect, and the anecdotal and mixed responses left me without an answer.
I decided to look for the opinion of an expert, instead of the wisdom of a crowd. I returned to my Google results and selected an article from a trusted source, BBC News, entitled ‘Is your smartphone listening to you?’ [5] It was easy to see why this source is trusted: a search on the BBC News website revealed that the journalist, Zoe Kleinman, is a dedicated technology reporter, and in the article, she asked two cybersecurity experts, Ken Munro and David Lodge, to check whether it was possible for your phone to record you, and whether that would have noticeable effects on the phone battery and data. They found that the technology was possible, and did not have noticeable effects on the user’s phone battery or data allowance.
Kleinman had also done a better job of interpreting complicated terms and conditions than I had: “Google also states in its content policy for app developers that apps must not collect information without the user's knowledge. Apps found to be breaking this are removed from the Google Play store … Other big tech companies have also denied using the technique.” It seemed that whilst the technology was possible, tech companies denied that our phones were listening to us.
After reading the opinion of experts, I was satisfied that I was on the right track. But as with any enquiry, it is important to compare and corroborate the information I had handled.
Kaveh Waddell claimed in a recent article for The Atlantic that “audio beacons”, inaudible to humans, are broadcast with television adverts [6]. The title of the article --‘Your Phone is Listening – Literally Listening – to Your TV’ – was misleading: further reading revealed that the company responsible for the technology, SilverPush, claimed that this technology only currently operates in India, not worldwide. However, by searching for Kaveh Waddell on The Atlantic’s webpage, I saw that like Kleinman, Waddell is a dedicated technology reporter. And the article cites the Center for Democracy and Technology, a non-profit organisation and self-described “champion of global online civil liberties and human rights”, who have filed lawsuits in the United States based on their concerns about “audio beacon” technology. A visit to their webpage confirmed that Waddell’s article was factual. [7]
This article seemed to corroborate the article on the BBC News website. Both articles stated that whilst the technology was available, here in the UK at least, tech companies denied that they were listening in to any of my conversations. I felt satisfied, but wasn’t sure if I could trust the statements from the technology companies. A post called “Is My Phone Eavesdropping on Me?” on the blog of technology podcast Note to Self [8] included a link to another non-profit agency called Ranking Digital Rights [9]. Authors of the Corporate Accountability Index, Ranking Digital Rights score large technology companies based on their commitment to their policies, freedom of expression, and privacy for users. The results were disappointing: Google scored the highest in total, but with a lowly 65%.
I felt now that I had my answer. By looking on a forum, I could see that lots of people worry that their phone might be recording them without their permission. But this response was anecdotal. By looking for the opinion of an expert, I learned that whilst the technology exists for technology companies to be listening in to our conversations, they deny that they are. However, my suspicions might not be unwarranted: the overall low scores on the Corporate Accountability Index published by advocacy group Ranking Digital Rights demonstrates that technology companies don’t always stick to their privacy policies.
Other blogs in the #AskALibrarian series include:
Image source: image from Gratisography.com under a Creative Commons Zero license / image modified
Endnotes
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Stephen Fry actor, comedian and writer has given his support to libraries by appearing in a new poster campaign from the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP). The poster is available to download for free.
“Libraries are where minds flourish and grow. They are like a kind of water supply. Without libraries a country can become a kind of desert.” Stephen Fry
Nick Poole, CILIP Chief Executive, said:
“I’m delighted that the country’s most erudite national treasure Stephen Fry is supporting our campaign. We want as many people as possible to print and display this free poster in their library or workplace. Our society and economy are powered by access to knowledge and information. We are powered by librarians.”
Describing public libraries as “a source of learning and nourishment for young and old and everyone else” Stephen Fry was interviewed for a new documentary Safe House about the UK’s public libraries which premiered on Monday 23 May.
At the Safe House premiere CILIP’s My Library By Right campaign and new Library Fund featured. My Library By Right stands up for our legal rights to quality public library services. Campaign supporters are being encouraged to contact their MP to pledge their support for libraries. The CILIP Library Fund a new initiative to support UK libraries and information services, and a crowdfunding campaign has been kick-started by a £10,000 investment by CILIP.
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Media and fundraising contact:
Mark Taylor, Director of External Relations, CILIP
Tel: 020 7255 0654
Mobile: 07792 635 305
Email: mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk
Notes to editors:
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading voice for the information, knowledge management and library profession. Our goal is to put information and library skills at the heart of an equal, democratic and prosperous society by 2020. Registered charity no. 313014. www.cilip.org.uk
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On Monday 23 May, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) launched the CILIP Library Fund, a new initiative to support UK libraries and information services.
The Library Fund, which will not replace or duplicate core public funding for libraries, has been kick-started with a £10,000 investment. During 2016 and 2017, CILIP will implement a UK-wide crowdfunding campaign for individuals and companies to build up the Fund with the aim of creating a new Grants Programme from 2018.
The intention is to support a range of projects and activities that improve access to information and knowledge, literacy, health, digital inclusion and life chances.
Nick Poole, CILIP Chief Executive, said:
“I’m thrilled to launch the CILIP Library Fund. There is so much support amongst the public, creative industries and businesses for the transformative services our sector provides. Until now there hasn’t been a way for our supporters to help libraries provide additional services and activities that improve life chances and create a better society.
“Libraries and information services in the public, private and third sectors make communities stronger, support research and innovation, and help businesses grow. Now our supporters can be part of the difference that we make.”
The CILIP Library Fund will be open to applications from all parts of the information, knowledge and library sector. Applications will open in early 2018. The Fund will not be used to replace core funding for public libraries or other statutory services.
CILIP will fundraise through crowdfunding, encouraging legacies and corporate giving. Supporters will be able to plan and implement their own fundraising activities to contribute to the Library Fund.
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Media and fundraising contact:
Mark Taylor, Director of External Relations, CILIP
Tel: 020 7255 0654
Mobile: 07792 635 305
Email: mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk
Notes to editors:
1. Applications to the CILIP Library Fund we be welcomed for a range of activities and projects that develop, modernise and improve library services. As well as funding for project costs applications will be able to include traditionally hard to fund costs such as equipment, salaries and training; speculative costs such as new product development; and match-funding from sources such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England.
2. CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading voice for the information, knowledge management and library profession. Our goal is to put information and library skills at the heart of an equal, democratic and prosperous society by 2020. Registered charity no. 313014. www.cilip.org.uk
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Please see flyer for full details.
In the morning, some of the authors of the new version of "The Innovative School Librarian' will be talking about the book, including the topical subject of measuring impact. This topic is becoming more and more central to the role we play, and the seminar on this at the recent Conference proved one of the most popular and influential seminars. In the afternoon two authors from The Edge will be joining us to talk about the publication of their new colloborative anthology.
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Facet Publishing have announced the release of Visual Literacy for Libraries: A practical, standards-based guide.
The importance of images and visual media in today’s culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and produce visual content.
This book provides you with the tools, strategies, and confidence to apply visual literacy in a library context. You will learn ways to develop students’ visual literacy and how to use visual materials to make your own teaching more engaging.
Ideal for the busy librarian who needs ideas, activities, and teaching strategies that are ready to implement, this book:
With this book’s guidance, you can help students master visual literacy, a key competency in today’s media-saturated world, while also enlivening your teaching with visual materials.
Visual Literacy for Libraries will be essential reading for librarians, information professionals and managers in all sectors, students of library and information science, school and higher education teachers and researchers.
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Press and review copies contact:
James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk
Notes:
Visual Literacy for Libraries: A practical, standards-based guide | April 2016 | 208pp | Paperback; 9781783301447; £54.95
About the authors:
Nicole E Brown is the Multidisciplinary Instruction Librarian at New York University, where she teaches research workshops to a variety of user groups and works to expand and strengthen the teaching role of librarians.
Kaila Bussert is the Foundational Experiences Librarian at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where she leads a foundational information literacy program.
Denise Hattwig is Curator of Digital Collections at the University of Washington Bothell Library, where she collaborates with faculty and students on digital scholarship projects, facilitates digital collection and repository development, and teaches archiving and interdisciplinary image use.
Ann Medaille is the Assessment Librarian at the University of Nevada in Reno where she coordinates library assessment efforts, teaches information literacy and research skills, and serves as the library liaison for education, art, anthropology, theatre, and dance.
The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.
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The Lib Tech Meet Up will be an informal chance to share good practice in tech. Participants are asked to do a mini or micro presentation (7 or 3 min) on a web tool or technology they have used and implemented in their service successfully. This is an excellent opportunity to polish your presentation skills, network and share your experience with other librarians.
CILIP London Member Network evening meetings are open to all with a professional interest in the topic. Please note: due to the format of this event presenters get priority- limited spaces are available for non-presenters.
This event will be of particular value to anyone registered for CILIP Chartership and can contribute towards CPD requirements. The event is free, but booking is essential. If you have problems with the booking form or need to cancel your attendance please contact us on cilipinlondon@gmail.com as space is limited.
Programme
5.45-6.00pm: Arrival
6.00-6.20pm: Mini and Micro presentations
6.20-6.30pm: Informal discussion and Q&A
6.30-6.50pm: Mini and Micro presentations
6.50-7.00pm: Informal discussion and Q&A
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The Seminar on the History of Libraries invites you to spend a summer evening exploring some of London’s early eighteenth century libraries.
This new walk will follow in the footsteps of bookseller and antiquary John Bagford, whose An account of several libraries in and about London, for the satisfaction of the curious, both natives and foreigners was published in 1708. John Bagford was at the centre of London’s book trade, selling collections and helping form new ones. In the process he created a unique record of the libraries that operated in the city he loved.
Alice Ford-Smith (Bernard Quaritch Ltd) will guide you through the streets and alleyways of John Bagford’s London, introducing this book history pioneer and the libraries he knew so well.
The walk will commence from the courtyard of Stationers' Hall at 5.30 pm and finish approximately 90 minutes later near Barbican and St Paul’s underground stations. Please be ready for occasional steps, and no breaks. Stationers’ Hall is located in Ave Maria Lane, London EC4M 7DD, opposite the front of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Numbers are limited to 25 people, and pre-booking is essential. Tickets, which are non-refundable, are £10 each. This event is open to all, so early booking is recommended. To book, please register through the following link: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-1708-a-walk-into-library-history-tickets-25348269356.
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Businesses today cannot be successful without having access to information, so why can’t they see the need for information experts, asks Jinfo’s Robin Neidorf, as she tells Rob Mackinlay that the information profession may be dealing with a whole generation of commercial decision-makers with skewed ideas about the value of information.
You might not expect an adviser to corporate IM professionals to say there’s an opportunity to learn with and from public and academic professional librarians. But Robin Neidorf, Director of Research at industry analyst company Jinfo (formerly FreePint) says that commercial information professionals coping with corporate decision-makers need to understand where and how their stakeholders were taught to value information years before they ever had a job.
‘Workers aren’t just created in their 20s,’ she said. ‘They come to that period in their lives with a whole lot of experience. I think that most of the professional organisations that touch this industry struggle with the same questions: how do we make decision-makers and policy-makers understand the importance of knowledge and research? It is one of the big disconnects. Why can’t businesses see how important this is? If you can’t be a successful business today without having access to the information, why can’t you see the need for information experts?’
Jinfo should have a pretty good view of these issues. Founded in 1997 under the moniker FreePint, it has deep ties to several sectors (and some government agencies in Europe, the UK and US) and these ties are based on granular technical knowledge that has to be useful to its clients in each sector. Robin said: ‘Our focus is on supporting the people who are responsible for strategy, managing internal and purchased information and making it as visible and valuable as possible in their organisations.
‘The three main areas we cover are information sources, information technology and information value, and our clients are the professionals who are responsible for managing that expertise in their organisations. We look at what sources they want to use and where they come from, how to make sure people know how to use them and find out how people do use them.
The question then is how do you measure the value, based on a range of variables including hard costs, soft costs, and the time involved, among others.’
But alongside these strategic questions, there is a more basic need to close up the disconnects between the prevailing consumer culture of information and the practical realities inside a corporate setting.
One of the ways this disconnect is created is through the fact that internet-based information services are perceived as ‘free’. Another is that users have become accustomed to thinking they can do all information work themselves.
Robin said:
‘Google is doing a great job of educating users to use them, but we always have to keep in mind that Google is not a corporate tool; it’s a for-profit company that carefully designs its user experience to meet its business goals. Furthermore, most people have no idea how much expertise, research and money go into creating valuable information, making it available and making it usable. I know one large company that has six members of staff in its information centre who each spend two hours a day on compiling news for internal newsletters. And you know what? Most of the recipients think it’s an automated service. They think it’s just like setting up an alert with Google. We have to close the gap between that perception and the reality.’
Within commercial organisations themselves, as well as public libraries and academia, there is negative spiral. Robin said:
‘Part of the challenge is that IM is so under resourced. It makes the problem very chicken and egg. Professionals are too busy to think strategically. We know our customers don’t have time to think about the big picture things that can be turned into practical values. They don’t have time to scan the industry and decide what the biggest issues are.’
Even if they could, she believes that the fundamental solution lies beyond any individual professional. This certainly doesn’t mean that professionals are helpless, it means that services that bring them together to share knowledge are vital.
The profession is changing: ‘Issues have multiplied. As a researcher, I couldn’t have picked a better industry to look at,’ says Robin. ‘The pace of change is not slowing down at all. It is very exciting but it can be stressful, there’s way more to research than you can possibly cover and there’s always something interesting coming up.’
Referring to the pressures and problems coming from outside business, she said that professional bodies and organisations lobbying on behalf of professionals have an important role. It is not something that Jinfo gets involved in but Robin said that the industry has ‘to use every arrow in the quiver to address policy makers’. She says the profession needs to invest in its external relations, adding: ‘We need to do as good a job and put as much into IM as a for-profit company should. You have to see it in that scale.’
Despite the constantly changing issues IM professionals face, Robin pointed out some relatively consistent theme changes: ‘It’s still seen as a very transactional role by some but it needs to move into a consultative expert role.’ This means moving away from a relationship focused on the short-term delivery of information and goals that a client has defined themselves. In a consultative relationship, the deal is more complex, long-term and collaborative.
Similarly Robin said that information professionals should not necessarily measure their value by what parts of the business they ‘own’. She said:
‘Intranet might come under IT or the communications department. The key isn’t for information services to own the intranet but to collaborate well and to be consultative so their knowledge doesn’t get lost in the effort to create a successful intranet.’ She said that, at the moment, it is common to hear information professionals complain that ‘by the time they find out about something it’s already a done deal’. She said: ‘The trick is to embed awareness of their role as information experts into other parts of the business, so that they’re brought in earlier in the process.’
A well-attended Resource Discovery Tools conference was held in Coventry last September, which scoped out the existing landscape of discovery services, and an audit is taking place of the tools which are being used across the NHS in England. We are aware that if the procurement of a national discovery service is to be actively explored (in addition to our existing link resolver) new funding will be required – a key issue in the challenging financial environment with which the NHS is faced.
As an example, Robin said:
‘There’s such a porous boundary between content and technology. But we think that one of the biggest challenges facing business today is the need to align IT and IM, there’s an enormous barrier between these two parts of the organisation. There’s an essential difference in orientation. IT is all about locking down the information, making sure risk is minimised. IM is all about disseminating information. So they are going at it from very different directions. We have documented where that relationship is successful. It can take many different forms. Where IM reports into IT, sometimes that’s successful; sometimes it’s dreadful. So we have to go deeper than the surface – what are the characteristics that make this configuration successful?’ Other problems arise when businesses have outsourced IT: ‘In these cases the question is how do you build this relationship to push projects forward?’
The changing face of the IM profession hasn’t changed the perennial question: how to value work and communicate this value. On its website, Jinfo says that there are no best practices when it comes to assessing the value of IM and reporting it back to decision makers and budget setters. And this is not likely to change. Robin said:
‘It is going to depend on what your goals are. For some organisations the goal will be increased revenue, for others it will be increasing efficiency. Often for our pharma customers, the goal is innovation or research volume. Your organisation’s goal is going to define what your value will look like. Being maximally efficient is not going to be compatible with being the cheapest.’
These kinds of questions are addressed in Jinfo’s research and in its Communities of Practice (CoP) sessions, where IM professionals from a range of companies come together for facilitated discussion on research-based topics.
Asked if staff from competitive companies are comfortable in these sessions, she said:
‘Some sectors or businesses within sectors are less comfortable sharing experience with the competition in the form of IM professionals in their sectors. Some people are more relaxed about sharing than others, there’s always a boundary and you have to watch that and enforce a strong culture of confidentiality.’
Jinfo has a quarterly cycle for its research, a recent focus, which has been a consistent theme through different variations for several years, was ‘News, and other Commodities’. Robin said:
‘A really common conversation that we get is about senior decision-makers asking “why do we pay thousands on a news database when I get more than I can handle on my smartphone?” Helping them to understand that the news has to be integrated into systems so that it’s efficient and available to the people that need it – that’s a challenging discussion to have for which you will need the right strategy and the right values proposition and the right metrics.’
However, the battles are not all internal. Neither is research the only route to understanding. One longstanding problem is a standoff with the companies that sell information who can appear to be in direct opposition to IM professionals.
Robin said:
‘A tension we feel in many organisations is that vendors are trying to get directly into the workflow of the users. We spend a lot of time talking to vendors and vendors are as confused as everyone else is at the moment about what’s the best way to move this forward. They’re also really struggling with what they should be focusing on, especially with businesses cutting their budgets. To help all parts of the business better understand each other’s perspective, we occasionally host CoPs that bring buyers and sellers together.’
Author: Rob Mackinlay (robmackinlay@hotmail.com) is a freelance reporter, and was formerly Senior Reporter at CILIP Update.
This article was originally published in CILIP Update Magazine, April 2016.
There are lots of ways for CILIP members to access the full range of articles published in Update, including
Non-CILIP members can subscribe to the digital version of the magazine or join CILIP to get access to the full range of benefits.
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Co-published by Facet Publishing, ALA and CLA, RDA Essentials is the new concise guide to cataloguing with RDA (Resource Description and Access) and is essential reading for those seeking a simplified path to creating basic RDA records.
Useful as a quick reference source, author Thomas Brenndorfer describes the key RDA concepts and vocabulary and distils RDA instructions, matching them to cataloguing practice in easy-to-follow language. The guide is fully up-to-date with the latest revisions to RDA, making it an excellent introduction whilst also serving as a bridge to more complex cataloguing.
RDA Essentials is an ideal resource for:
A handy access point for solo and part-time cataloguers, Brenndorfer’s guide also supports training and classroom use in any size institution. It will be useful reading for cataloguers and metadata specialists, systems librarians, user services managers, electronic resources librarians, and digital library project managers and students on cataloguing, information management and digital library courses.
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Press and review copies contact:
James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk
Notes:
RDA Essentials | April 2016 | 256pp | Paperback; 9781783300563; £69.95
Thomas Brenndorfer began his career in cataloguing at the National Library of Canada in 1990. While working at the Guelph Public Library in 1997 he learned about FRBR, which had been presented at a conference on the future of AACR2 in nearby Toronto. He followed the development of FRBR to its full incorporation into a draft of RDA ten years later in 2007. Having seen the importance of FRBR for the future of catalogs he began giving presentations introducing FRBR and RDA concepts to cataloguers (and others eager to learn) at conferences hosted by the Ontario Library Association and Canadian Library Association.
The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.
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Claire Sewell, Research Skills Coordinator at Cambridge University Library is preparing to attend the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Columbus, Ohio this August, as CILIP’s 2016 IFLA Grant recipient.
A Chartered librarian working in the Office of Scholarly Communication at Cambridge University Library, Claire’s role is helping to develop an education programme for library staff and users at one of the world's top research libraries. She will share her experience and reflections in a series of blog posts and live tweeting of sessions from Columbus and formally via a conference report and presentations to the UK profession after the event.
Claire said:
“I'm especially interested in the sessions which focus on professional development for librarians. My role has responsibility for training Cambridge library staff and there are many of them with different needs so I want to see what colleagues around the world are doing in terms of staff development. I'm also interested in attending sessions which look at scholarly communication issues.”
The award was open to practitioners participating in CILIP’s Leadership Programme, a new programme providing leadership development to mid-career library and information professionals. The successful grant application is designed to complement the learning outcomes with an opportunity to look at leadership from a global perspective.
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Press contact
Cat Cooper, Campaigns and Communications Manager, CILIP
Tel: 020 7255 0653
Mobile: 078 674 55070
Email: cat.cooper@cilip.org.uk
Notes to editors
About Claire Sewell
A regular blogger and active member of CILIP and the wider information profession, Claire Sewell is Candidate Support Officer for CILIP East Members' Network, helping those at all levels working towards CILIP qualifications and serves as Social Media Manager on the CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group Committee. She is on the Editorial Board of the New Review of Academic Librarianship. Professional interests include social media in libraries, library metadata, library advocacy and improving scholarly communications. Find Claire online at www.librarianintraining.com and on twitter @ces43
About CILIP
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers. CILIP’s vision is a fair and economically prosperous society underpinned by literacy, access to information and the transfer of knowledge. CILIP is a registered charity, no. 313014. www.cilip.org.uk
About the IFLA Congress
The international flagship professional and trade event for the library and information services sector, the IFLA World Library and Information Congress sets the international agenda for the profession and brings together over 3,500 participants from more than 120 countries.
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Event description:
ARLG NW are pleased to announce our summer event, “Social media: Can you tell if it’s working yet?”
So your service has started dabbling in social media, or you’ve been working on it for a while. But do you know if it’s working? Is it worth the time and effort you’re putting in? And do you know what your goals are? What’s the point of your social media presence? This afternoon event will address all these questions and more. This event is suitable for people at all stages of planning for their social media presence.
1.45pm - 2.30pm Experiences of social media, policy and practice
Sarah Mallen, Information & guidance coordinator University of Manchester Careers Service & Michelle Bond, Faculty Librarian Liverpool Hope University
Sarah and Michelle will talk about their experiences of running social media accounts for their services, with a focus on process and why it’s important to get organised and set goals. They’ll consider important questions such as “what do you hope to achieve?” and “what messages do you want to get across?”
2.15pm – 3.00pm Tom Mason, Social Media Coordinator, Communications & Marketing, The University of Manchester
Tom will be talking about social media from a wider university perspective, covering areas such as which social media to use, analytics, and tips and tricks to encourage engagement.
3-3.15pm Refreshments
3.15pm-4.00pm Creating your social media framework / policy – activity
Working in small groups, attendees will have the opportunity to start work on their own social media framework or policy, specific to their institution. This is also an opportunity to exchange experiences with other attendees, and get support from Sarah, Michelle and Tom in creating your own policy.
4pm-4.30pm Your experiences - Advice & questions from the floor
The final session is for attendees to share experiences with the wider group and ask any final questions of the presenters or other attendees. We’ll bring together the strands of the afternoon and try to create a master list of tips.
To book your place, please email Annette Ramsden ARamsden@uclan.ac.uk with the following details:
Name:
Institution (if applicable)
CILIP membership number (if applicable)
Name and address for invoicing
Access or support requirement
Booking deadline: Friday 17th June 2016
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The programme and booking form for our AGM and Members Day in London on June 16th can be found at http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-ein...
The day takes place at No. 11 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN and starts at 10:30. There is a small charge for those who are not members of UKeiG, but members can attend free.
Looking at new trends and challenges emerging in the world of e-information and how we, as information professionals, can ensure that we keep our services at the leading edge, our speakers from the information industry present insights from their own perspectives. Our Future Cafe, introduced by Sue Silcocks and John Wickenden, will give delegates the opportunity to discuss some of the key challenges facing information professionals in the workplace.
Speakers include CILIP CEO, Nick Poole, speaking on the future of the profession, David Milward of Linguamatics on search and text mining, and Lin Lin of EBSCO on the search experience. After the short AGM the afternoon will be taken up by our Future Cafe and some time for networking, with drinks sponsored by Manzama.
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The 38th Annual General Meeting of UKeiG, the UK eInformation Group, will be held in the No. 11 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN on Thursday 16th June 2016
Motions for the Annual General Meeting must be sent in writing via post or email to:
John Wickenden, UKeiG Honorary Secretary, 13 Fernhill Close, Blackwater, Camberley, Surrey, GU17 9HD
Tel: 07724 746 093
e-mail: secretary.ukeig@cilip.org.uk
Motions must be signed by two members* or subscribing members* of the Group. Motions must reach the Honorary Secretary by Tuesday, 31st May 2016.
*The term 'member' refers to members of CILIP who are members of UKeiG. 'Subscribing member' refers to members of UKeiG who are not members of CILIP.
The published Call for Motions can be found at: http://www.cilip.org.uk/uk-ein... (members will need to sign in to access)
John Wickenden
UKeiG Honorary Secretary
13 Fernhill Close
Blackwater
Camberley
Surrey, GU17 9HD
e-mail: secretary.ukeig@cilip.org.uk
Tel: 07724 746 093
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The Feminist Library is a large collection of Women's Liberation Movement literature based in London. They have been supporting research, activist and community projects since 1975.
In 2015 The Feminist Library celebrates 40 years of archiving and activism. Totally volunteer run, they have created and looked after one of the most important collections of feminist material in all of the UK, and provided an inspiring learning and social space for thousands of people.
The visit will cover the Feminist Library's history and current situation, a tour of the Library, a look at its specially designed classification system and viewing some of their material.
The maximum number of attendees is 12.
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Are you looking to prove the value of your library service?
Do stakeholders understand the importance of what you do?
Have you ever used the CILIP Impact Toolkit?
If you answered "No" to any of the above, then Demonstrating Your Impact is the event for you.
CILIP East of England Members Network welcome Jo Cornish (Development Officer, CILIP), who will provide an overview of the CILIP Impact Toolkit and facilitate a practical workshop on stakeholder analysis.
To avoid disappointment book by 25 May.
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