tfpl blog

Temps Training: Networking, a note from Kristel Petru

Author: Kristel Petru
TFPL Intelligent Resources, Candidate

First of all, thank you to both you and Virginia for organising the networking training event tonight - It was really excellent, and very worthwhile.  It is funny, I have been to a lot of networking events, but never a networking event on Networking itself.  I wish I had gone to this training session before I started going to networking events as I'm sure, with some of the hints and tips Virginia gave us tonight, I would have made my networking much more effective!

I am grateful for Virginia's pearl of wisdom about there being 'a reason why we were born with TWO ears and ONE mouth' and the importance of listening when networking.  My other favourite point from tonight was the advice to know what we want to get out of a networking event before we go.  I for one have never really thought too much about this and have just turned up to networking events and talked (mostly about myself I'm sure!) and never really gave much thought to what I wanted to achieve at the event. 

Again, thank you, Virginia and TFPL for a great event - I'm off to update my LinkedIn account and to design my personalised business card for future networking events!

Networking: how to make it work for you

Author: Susanne Osterlund
TFPL Intelligent Resources, Consultant

Last night, we continued with our temps training events.  The topic was Networking.  Virginia Henry, Making Knowledge Work Ltd, was our trainer and what an event she hosted.

Never before has the boardroom at 160 Queen Victoria Street been so alive.  Virginia kicked-off with an open discussion as to what we think networking is and why do people do it.  She offered invaluable tips on how to become a successful networker and then put us all to practice.

The group was full of lively conversation and the room was buzzing with excitement.  We took Virginia’s advice and not only asked questions, but also listened to what was being said. 

Following on, Virginia made suggestions of what to do after an event. She also let us know why and how she had jointly set up LIKE (London Information & Knowledge Exchange).

Many thanks to Virginia for giving up her time to host the temps training session, it was a fantastic event and thank you to the attendees, you really made the session an excellent one!

TFPL tries to run a temps training event once a month.  The event is free to registered temps.  Any ideas of what topic(s) you would like us to cover are very welcome.

Temps training - records management

Author: Jayne Eaton
TFPL Intelligent Resources, Consultant

James Lappin ran a temps training a session on Records Management on the evening of 16th June. James, as ever, encouraged lively debate (in particular from one of our regular attendees!) on the pros and cons of SharePoint vs in-house repositories. He managed to remember all the delegates' names and engaged each of them so that we were able to get an insight into each person's various challenges and successes with relation to RM in their individual work places.

Archive rescue - back to basics

Author: John Davies
TFPL, Senior Records and Information Management Consultant

I was interested to read a note from the British Records Association about its new project to identify and make recommendations about how to deal with risks to historical records held in established repositories as well as to those not (yet) in held in archival custody.  The BRA survey is looking for responses from archives in London and in the East of England.  This type of work is exactly what the BRA was set up to do before World War II and it is the work it has done so well since then.

I read the note on the day that the Coalition Government began to announce the list of potential closures amongst government agencies and quangos. Here are potential archives at risk.  Will parent departments have the resources to manage the often important records that will be left behind?  Debatable.  I hope the BRA project notes some of this before it is too late.

If you are in a position to take part in the survey, the web link is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WLZ56WZ

Health Libraries Group (HLG) Conference 19/20 July, Manchester

Author: Vivienne Winterman
Senior Knowledge and Information Management Consultant

The theme of the conference ‘keeping information centre stage amid changing scenery’ was an apt title in the current climate. Pauline Blagdon, Chair of HLG, stressed in her opening remarks that ‘information is essential’ and the conference and individual presentations illustrated a variety of ways how information professionals were contributing to the work of front line-staff to show this. Dr Gillian Leng, Deputy Chief Exec. from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) opened the conference by talking about the aims of NICE to develop quality standards and guidance on specific topic areas, using NICE Pathways to map all of this, and the vision for NICE Evidence to be a single portal for health information to integrate both the ‘evidence’ data and the information-rich electronic resources (e-journals, bibliographic databases) previously available from the National Library of Health (NLH). The value from NICE would be measured in terms of the outcomes for patients by providing this knowledge and information to staff, patients and the public in a meaningful way. 

The conference programme consisted of several parallel sessions with papers and case studies showing:

• Development of LIS at a strategic level.
• How Library and Information Services (LIS) were working to raise and keep a high profile, develop the right skills, using the drivers for change as opportunities for LIS and not threats.
• Introduction of web 2.0 into the daily work of NHS staff and the use of IT.
• Development of e-learning platforms, coaching sessions to introduce information literacy, with an example of where clinical IT trainers had been brought into the LIS group.
• Examples of collaboration in delivering public health information by bringing together: surveillance data and the literature, - analysts and LIS.
• Successful toolkits that had been developed, including those for: measuring the impact of LIS; strategies for LIS professionals.
• How change could be managed.

Overall the impression is that there are so many examples of good practice where information professionals are demonstrating their value to, and working with, clinicians and other front line staff. This learning and good practice needs to be proactively shared across Trusts, SHAs, public health and social care organisations so that our specialist knowledge and value is unquestionable and the impact on patient treatment evident and measurable.

TFPL Connect - Depaul UK Update!

Author: Nina Benscher
TFPL, Networks and Events Manager

Following up the outcomes of our last Connect meeting (see here) we held the first meeting of the Steering Group for the Depaul UK Knowledge Management (KM) Challenge at TFPL this week. As agreed at Connect, we are looking to pull together a package of support and advice that address some of the key information and knowledge challenges currently facing Depaul UK.

Over a working lunch, we had a very informative discussion that set into the context the challenges that Paul Marriott, CEO Depaul UK, had identified as the major areas for attention for taking his knowledge strategy forward.  This discussion lead to a decision that in order to create projects that are tangible and actively support Depaul UK, a visit to the charity to experience first hand how it works would be necessary. Therefore John Davies, TFPL Consultant and Connect member, Iain Simpson will be visiting both the London and Newcastle offices of Depaul UK next week.

Once they have seen how knowledge and information is shared through the organisation and spoken to a range of staff members and young people, an interim report will be put together to detail the best way to manage this moving forward. It should make for a very interesting and insightful read!

We would like to thank Emma King and Iain Simpson for their time this week and next, it was greatly appreciated by all.

An update from training and events

Author: Claire Valentine
TFPL, Training Manager

 

With the summer holidays upon us our course schedule is taking a break too.  Demand we saw in the spring for Records Management and Web 2.0 training has continued through the past few months.  The big topics of today seem to be about getting your house in order and proving the value of the service you are providing as an information and knowledge professional.  This could be reflective of the courses that have seen the most demand this year, using technology that is low cost like Web 2.0 to work more innovatively.  In addition ensuring compliance to rules and regulations, plus better information storage organisation through records management training.

Since my last training post we have had a new addition to the training and events team, Nina Benscher who is in charge of developing and running all of our networks and events.  As SharePoint continues to be another popular subject especially with the release of SharePoint 2010, Nina is producing the programme for our, now annual, October event.  This year it will be taking forward the theme of obtaining value and looking at ‘unlocking the knowledge and information management potential’. As usual you’ll have a chance to learn and network with your peers and experts, with interesting case studies from organisations such as; Department of Education, BAE Systems and National Grid for more details visit www.tfpl.com/sharepoint.

SharePoint features in our autumn schedule too as demand; particularly for the records management aspect has led us to put another date in before we finish the year.  The full timetable from September to December is now confirmed and available through the course calendar.  We are expecting that the themes we have seen this year will continue through the autumn and winter course but would be keen to know your opinions on this. 

Value and Impact

Author: Claire Valentine

TFPL, Training Manager

This was the topical subject of the recent LIS Research Coalition conference held at the British Library earlier this week.  The day was introduced by Dr Michael Jubb of the Research Information Network, followed by an informative and thought provoking talk by Andrew Dillon from the University of Texas.  Andrew’s points included: the importance of considering human behaviour and not technology as the focus for looking at adding value, the importance of collaboration across disciplines encompassing information science, human computer interaction, computer science etc.  Full coverage of his and others talks have been expertly recorded on the LIS conference page - http://lisresearch.org/conference-2010/

Next followed the ‘One Minute Madness’ which I was pleased to take part in. A fantastic idea organised by Miggie Pickton and Hazel Hall, where participants were given exactly 60 seconds to present their topic of research around the question – “Evidence, Value and Impact – What’s on your mind?”  21 people took part and most accomplished getting their point across in the required time, one person even experimented with music and another presented in the style of a fairy tale!  (It was filmed and you can view it on the LIS Research Coalition website). 

Despite it being a nerve racking experience waiting in line to go on stage, I felt it was a great exercise.  It meant I had to focus my mind to get important points across in order to develop interest for my area of research.  I thought this exercise was particularly important to the topic of the day.  It is definitely a key skill in promoting value and making an impact.   All too often time is short when getting to speak with key stakeholders to get your argument across, whether it is to avoid cost cutting or to get buy in for your service provision or new business idea.

After a delicious lunch and plenty of networking it was on to do some work in the breakout sessions.  These were facilitated workshops designed to discuss the challenges faced by Information professionals in today’s environment, where limited budgets and resources are fast becoming the norm.  There were discussions around measuring the value by first measuring use of services before new initiatives were implemented.  This then allows for a more accurate demonstration of the value added afterwards.  In addition, another topic was how we can take a different look at failure to learn from previous mistakes and how this knowledge could then be communicated in a confidential environment.  We also looked at the importance and benefits of research and how to gain benefits through promotion of services and collaborative work across disciplines.

For me, ways to work cross collaboratively to the benefit of all concerned, as well as looking at failure in a more positive way, were topics I could see really making a difference in today’s working environment.  I believe it would help us work more effectively to be able to learn from mistakes.  To work across organisational silos would really make a difference in what we do by incorporating different perspectives and knowledge making us more innovative.

The day ended with a summing up and review by Charles Oppenheim.  The day for me was valuable and a chance not only to connect with like minded researchers but also to gain different perspectives on the challenges posed in these tough times.  Thank you to all those who have offered help for my research topic for my dissertation and to Hazel for recommending the day to me.