January 29, 2010
Interesting piece in the latest Computer Weekly which reports on research from Gartner about the “4 roles that will define IT departments of the future”. They are:
1. Litigation support manager
2. Enterprise information architect
3. Digital archivist
4. Business information manager
Those last 3 look a lot like the work currently done by many library and information professionals. If Gartner is right, perhaps the future for the LIS profession is brighter than many are predicting.
January 14, 2010
A piece I wrote for the CILIP Library and Information Gazette has just been published. In it, I look back at some of the key changes to the information world over the previous 10 years and anticipate what the future might hold for us.
January 7, 2010
Our first newsletter of 2010 is now available. Click HERE to read it and click HERE to have future editions delivered to your email inbox. This month’s newsletter contains:
- interview with Sue Hill of Sue Hill Recruitment
- tips for getting organised in 2010
- advice for job seekers
- blog of the month
- free report of the month
- Web 2.0 site of the month
January 5, 2010
Top-down or bottom-up? What is the best way for new technologies to be diffused throughout an organisation? Of course, it depends on the technology, the organisation and what you want to achieve. Some recent dealings I have had with the NHS have made me think more carefully about this. Having spent quite a lot of time with a sick relative in various hospitals over the last few months I am astounded that despite more than £5 billion being spent on the NHS IT Programme, the effective sharing of patient records between hospitals and GP’s does not seem to be working. We have been taking photocopies of medical documents with us to appointments as the various specialists we have seen do not seem to be aware of tests that their colleagues in other hospitals have carried out. I thought the NHS IT Programme was supposed to do away with all that – but then the computer was supposed to result in a paperless office. So the top-down approach does not seem to be working very well for the NHS. What about the bottom-up approach? For me, this is the interesting part. Before Christmas I ran a 5 day training programme on Web 2.0 technologies for 15 NHS librarians and information professionals. I really enjoyed their enthusiasm for learning about new services like Twitter, Delicious, YouTube, blogs and wikis. As an example of a NHS librarian using a blog for professional purposes we looked at Sue Jennings’s blog for the Lancashire Care Library and Information Service. I interviewed Sue to find out more about the blog, why she set it up and what the benefits have been. Sue, who had never posted to a blog before she set this one up, told me that the blog had allowed her to promote her unit’s services to their clients in a way that would have taken years to do without it. Visit the blog and you’ll see the types of information she posts. The blog is hosted for free at WordPress.com and the only investment is her time spent posting updates on new information sources she thinks her users would be interested in. This is a great example of a low-cost/free Web 2.0 technology that is making a difference to healthcare provision. I’m not naive enough to suggest that Web 2.0 holds the answers to all the problems of the NHS but there must be some lessons to be learned here. Perhaps one of the first lessons is, don’t try to control everything and everyone. Despite the enthusiasm of my NHS students, most of them had to carry on their experiments with Web 2.0 at home – many of the IT service managers in their NHS trusts blocked access by default at work to blogs, wikis, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook etc. We still have a long way to go.
(Photo courtesy of YoNoSoyTu)
December 11, 2009
The result of the voting by SLA (Special Libraries Association) on whether to change its name to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals was announced yesterday with a majority voting not to change. This is an excerpt from the official announcement: “The Special Libraries Association (SLA) announced the results of its association-wide vote on a new name today. Voting in record numbers, SLA members failed to approve a proposal to change the organization’s name to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. 50 percent of those members eligible to vote participated in the referendum, with 2071 voting yes and 3225 voting no.”
Personally, as a member of the SLA I am disappointed and had voted for a change. Although the proposed new name was not without its faults (being rather wordy was one of them), I felt it recognised the diverse range of roles that many SLA members have and the need to emphasise the strategic importance of information and the people that manage it. Following this decision, I imagine that the organisation will continue to move away from spelling out the SLA acronym. The only mention of the “L” word on their website this morning was at the bottom of the page in very small print. 
December 4, 2009
I managed to get up to the last day of the Online 2009 exhibition yesterday. It was little different to any of the previous Online events I have been to over the last 15 years. The main difference seemed to be smaller stands from the large information vendors with the central space of the main floor being a cafe area. I’m sure this space was normally taken by an exhibitor. It made me wonder whether this was simply a result of the recession or whether the days of large exhibitions like this are numbered. Before the web, exhibitions and trade magazines were a major source of information for purchasers to find out what new products were being offered by information vendors. B2B magazines such as IWR and Information Today have clearly been hit by the plethora of useful information now available on blogs, company websites and filtered RSS feeds from a variety of sources. Perhaps exhibitions are going the same way. The cost to companies of running a stand at online must be significant in terms of fees and staffing. Of course, many exhibitors will say that they pick up a lot of business at these events and I’m sure for some of them that is still the case. However, with all the other communication channels open to them, I’m not convinced the economics will make sense for a lot longer. Having said all that, I enjoyed catching up with a number of people at the exhibition which, for me, made it all worthwhile.
I also saw a pelican in St James’s park on the way home.
November 13, 2009
I’ve been quite busy doing CILIP things this week and very enjoyable they were too. On Wednesday evening CILIP in Sussex organised a workshop on dealing with change with a very good trainer/consultant called Pete Pearce. ‘Who isn’t affected by change?’ was the rhetorical question. He helped us all think through the impacts and implications and our part in the processes in a way which was thought-provoking but non-threatening. This was quite a feat, given that the roles of those taking part ranged from library assistant to head of service. The other CILIP activity was a meeting of the Manifesto Task and Finish Group in Ridgmount Street. The purpose of this group has been reported in Gazette and elsewhere, but it’s basically a group set up to draft a library and information manifesto for the next election, aimed at political candidates. It’s been an interesting initiative and we’ve made good progress with the drafting. There will be more publicity when it’s finished and we ask all CILIP members to do their bit in taking it to the hustings. One really nice thing for me was that at both events there were former students involved, which is always heartening and proof that we’re doing something right. Now, back to the day job…
November 4, 2009
I took this picture yesterday in the University car park. Looks like our library has been doing some weeding.
September 16, 2009
I was very pleased to see one of our ex-students being profiled in the CILIP Gazette recently (to read the profile from this link go to the penultimate page). Liz Strachan graduated with an MA in Information Management in 2006 and is currently Librarian at the William Harvey Hospital. Liz is honest about the effort involved in balancing academic, work and family commitments but her interview offers some useful advice for anyone thinking of going back to college to improve their professional skills.
Liz is very positive about her experiences as a student at the University of Brighton. 
It’s always good to see our alumni doing well. If you are one of our ex-students please get in touch and tell us how you are getting on.
May 8, 2009
On Wednesday, 6th May 2009, I attended a CILIP East of England Information Sevices Group seminar entitled ‘Digital Native or Digitally Naive: Library and Information Services for the Next Generation’ – the focus of which was ‘What is the role of libraries when people already have access to everything?’ The day was very similar to the cpd25 event I attended last week (and topic of my last post), in that questions of relevance to ‘users’ (learners/customers etc.) and the role of the library and the librarian were the key focus. A number of very similar issues emerged: in particular, that of confidence and advocacy – how do we not only shout loudly about the added value we bring, but work strategically within our organisations to contribute to the delivery of that organisation’s wider agenda? Alison Wheeler, a Strategic Commissioner for Suffolk County Council (and former Head of Development for their library and information services), introduced and chaired the day. She spoke of the ‘moral imperative’ we have to provide services that:
Libraries’ – and library staff’s – role in this will be as trusted intermediaries who signpost good and valid information, help people find and understand that information, and support marginalised people. Alison and a colleague visited us here at the University the following day, and it was fascinating to hear examples of the way Suffolk is already doing this in practice. For example, Suffolk were quick off the mark in establishing a ‘Credit Crunch Suffolk‘ website, with advice ranging from benefits to energy to free or cheap activities. Their Felixstowe library is also the first to have set up a Baby Cafe.
I was expecting the day to be more focused around the specific issue of the ‘Net Gen’ question (i.e. the digital natives/naives of the title); though this came up in a numebr of presentations (with mentions of the ‘Google generation’ study of 2008, and the recently commissioned study into the research behaviour of ‘Generation Y’), discussions were more general, about the possible role of libraries and librarians in the future (and, in fact, in the now).
The highlights of the day for me were the contributions from the four ‘new’ professionals, particularly Colin Higgins’ amuisng but insightful ‘10 Reasons why Facebook and libraries don’t mix’ – ranging from its unreliability, to ownership of copyright to the simple fact that already, Facebook just isn’t cool any more… The discussions during the sessions and at the end of the day were also lively and interesting, covering the importance of library as physical space (this theme of libraries as social learning spaces is being addressed in a half-day seminar organised by CILIP in Kent on 27th May – details on the Kent pages of the CILIP South East Branch site); censorship and surveillance and the issue of school libraries. Earlier, Caroline Moss-Gibbons, Leader of CILIP Council (and a keen Twitterer) had outlined the role of CILIP in contributing to these ongoing debates about professionalism, and suggested that we need to adapt or face extinction (again, echoing themes from the Future of Libraries event last week). She welcomed suggestions and contributions to be sent to her or other members of Council – it seems to me that CILIP could usefully focus on school libraries in the future, now that they have proven themselves willing to intervene in the issue of public library closures such as those proposed in the Wirral.
