tfpl blog

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. 

Connecting our knowledge to make a difference

Author: Claire Valentine

TFPL, Training Manager

This was the topic of our latest TFPL Connect meeting which we held last night.  In a change to the usual format we invited Paul Marriott, CEO of Depaul UK, the largest charity for homeless young people in the UK to present his company and his challenges for developing an information and knowledge management strategy.  Our members were then asked for their ideas and advice on how he could meet these challenges.

The group broke out with enthusiasm into several different teams and each were assigned a particular challenge which ranged from providing staff and volunteers with a shared vision to addressing how to encourage information sharing in an environment where confidentially brings much needed trust to relationships and information sharing is not the norm.

Key themes to come out of the evening were:

• development of partnerships with like minded organisations to share best practice and obtain help with providing more services such as temporary accommodation
• a rating system for information posted to understand what is useful and what isn’t
• use of social media in various different forms for communicating with the homeless
• use of mentors to work closely with new staff to share knowledge more effectively

Paul was keen to consider each and every suggestion and promised to feedback later in the year with what they had taken from the evening and been able to implement.

The evening ended with a chance to network and share ideas further over a glass of wine and nibbles, with further ideas being added to the documentation which we will present more formally back to Paul.

Feedback from those that attended was that they had felt the session was immensely positive and liked the idea of contributing to an organisation that needed advice.

We will be in touch soon with further details on the report which will be made available on the TFPL Connect members’ area.  On a final note many thanks to all that attended and contributed to making the meeting a success last night.

Strong demand for training in records management and Web 2.0

Author: Claire Valentine
TFPL, Training and Events

It has been a busy four months since Christmas and we have seen an increasing demand in the need for in house training, as organisations look to gain benefits from the tailoring and customisation that can be achieved by having a trainer come onsite to deliver a course specifically for a team or department.  This can work out very cost effective for organisations too, reducing travel costs and gaining the discounts that can be available through not paying for an external venue.  Key topics have been in records management and web 2.0  in particular how web 2.0 tools can be used effectively within organisations to facilitate communication and collaborative working.

This demand has been reflected on the public access schedule too where we have needed to add new dates on to the programme in these areas.  We also have a number of new courses on the programme that start to go live in May which cover Copyright issues for web 2.0, knowledge transfer between teams and an overview of information security.  Paul Pedley our resident expert trainer in copyright has developed a new course exploring the risks posed by re-using and producing copyright within the web 2.0 world.  Ian Wooler and Sandra Ward senior associates and trainers at TFPL have developed a new course looking at sharing of knowledge between teams and how to encourage this transfer.  We also have the pleasure to welcome new trainer Vic Parry to the team to run an Introduction to Information Security looking at the ISO 27001 2005 standard and what it means for your business.  Full details on these courses can be found in the training pages of our website.

We are looking forward to a busy summer and to meeting some of you on the courses and events we have coming up.

One size fits all?

On reading the latest issue of the Library and Information Gazette I was interested in an article written by Tim Buckley Owen, CILIP trainer on the appropriateness of public access training for all learning requirements.  Public access courses can be invaluable when you need to get one or two people up to speed in a certain area and are also useful tools for networking with peers, sharing information and gaining a new perspective on a subject area.

However, we have found over the last year an increasing demand for more tailored training and have adapted our training delivery model to match this demand by offering customised onsite training courses and one to one or small group coaching sessions.  Areas where we have seen this demand increase have been across research training, influencing stakeholders and train the trainer training.  These are areas where individuals have had very specific objectives to fulfill, perhaps their research role is expanding into areas not previously covered or they are working on a specific project where they need to hone their communication and presentation skills further.

Our onsite delivery has seen increased demand in areas such as SharePoint and Records Management were new systems implementations and strategic changes have meant that whole teams have needed to be trained in everything through from the basics to more advanced methods and uses.

It certainly seems that in a climate where funds are scarce the demand for return on investment in training is much greater and hence the increase in demand for more tailored solutions.  Here in training we are keen to adapt to what our clients needs are and would be interested to hear any comments you have.

Digital Economy Bill and further copyright changes, what does it mean for you?

Since my last post on copyright the debate has heated up.  Currently Google, Yahoo, Ebay and Facebook have come together to oppose legislation, drafted in the Digital Economy Bill to increase the power to the secretary of state to change copyright law.  The legislation aims to stop copyright infringements taking place something which is all too easy in our new digital world.  However, the legislation that is causing this conflict is the ability given to closely monitor users on the internet in order to stop abusers of copyright from continuing to operate.  Google and the other internet companies are concerned that this ability is open to abuse to monitor people’s data usage regardless of whether any illegal behaviour has taken place or not.  Further details can be found at http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=27970  If this is the case, will we soon be looking into the wrong use of internet monitoring information like we currently are with the misuse of CCTV footage?

The Digital Economy Bill, as currently drafted, also poses a number of difficulties for libraries offering internet access to its users, because of the question of liability for copyright infringement. 

In addition, the Intellectual Property Office have launched the second part of consultation regarding proposed changes to UK copyright legislation which will be of benefit particularly to educational and research institutions. For further details please see http://www.ipo.gov.uk/about/press/press-release/press-release-2009/press-release-20091211.htm

Our resident expert in all things copyright, Paul Pedley addresses this and other changes to copyright that effect information professionals in his suite of training courses running next year.  An introduction to copyright gives a thorough grounding in update issues affecting the information professional and how to deal with them.  The more advanced digital copyright builds on the initial course and goes into further depth on copyright issues; Web 2.0 for copyright specifically looks at how social media is affected by copyright legislation.  Paul’s recent course on Digital Licensing covered discussions on how libraries are being affected by the new Digital Economy Bill and the concerns it is raising in addition to advice and tips on how to negotiate and re-negotiate licenses for copyright.

It’s a wrap… 2009 is over and we are looking forward to seeing the emerging trends for 2010

A big topic last year was SharePoint and its various uses and failures.  We have had quite a flurry of training needs that came through, particularly just before the end with more interest seen in our more advanced courses.  Our trainer Marc Stephenson noted the following topics of conversation in the courses

top 5 issues are:

1 Our budget for records management will be/has been cut, can I make SharePoint do the job?

2 How do I get user permissions right?

3 How can I tell if IT are making all the functionality available to me?

4 What kind of information management resources do I need to run SharePoint?

5 Do I really need to use Office 2007 to make the best use of SharePoint 2007?

Are these also issues for you?  What will we see with the launch of SharePoint 2010? 

 

I think the year will definitely see SharePoint stretching its lead as a key topic for information professionals to get to grips with, closely followed by making sense of and utlising to its best in the workplace the new social media technologies.   We have added new courses to the schedule in this area looking at social media uses in knowledge management and as a tool for information professionals to make their work smarter and easier with Steve Dale and Phil Bradley leading the courses in this area.  I would be interested as always to hear your comments, whether these are key areas for you or whether you find others more pressing.

Making the most of your current skills and resources

In the current economic climate there is a real imperative to ‘do more with less’.  There is a constant pressure on managers and employees to manage their time and resources as effectively as possible, which can result in negative impact on morale and motivation.  What is the answer to this problem that is effecting most information departments today?

One of TFPL’s new trainers, Elisabeth Goodman is utilising her skills in Lean and Six Sigma techniques to show people how to empower them to face up to these challenges by ensuring that teams are working on the right projects and in the most optimal way.  She provides this through a training course she has developed – Optimising the use of internal team resources.

 

Other organisations are developing this further in cross training and up skilling programmes.  In Grant Thornton for example, (as noted from People Management’s 30^th July edition- page 12)  staff have the opportunity to move from areas of the business  where work has dropped off and re-training in new areas where skills and resource are still needed.  Their “clearr” forum is based on an admirable set of values and are intended to promote them – collaboration, leadership, excellence, agility, responsibility and respect.

It is encouraging to note, although there have been a lot of job cuts that organisations are clearly trying where possible to avoid this.  Employees are valuable assets to a company having key skills and knowledge that in some cases have been developed over many years.  To lose these skills through job cuts can only be detrimental in the end for the organisation concerned.  It is in times like these that we need to be more creative and realise the wealth of resource and skills we actually have, making the most of it.

 

As always we are keen to hear your feedback/comments.  Are you experiencing a new creative drive to avoid job cuts?

Professional development in a downturn

Organisations (and individuals) have responded to the current downturn by cutting costs wherever they can, and all too often training and development budgets are considered easy targets for budget cuts. 

This provides a challenge for those of us who value our continuing professional development but it’s also an opportunity to consider new ways of keeping up to date and maintaining our networks.

In the current climate it’s worth considering the resources and support on offer from our professional bodies such as CILIP , The SLA and other networks for example, our own Connect. 

The SLA offers its members access to Click University and free webinars, in addition to face to face meetings and networking opportunities; CILIP provides members with access to newsfeeds, blogs and discussion groups as well as membership of special interest groups.  Membership of these bodies is relatively inexpensive and, if you make the most of the resources on offer, is very good value for money.

I also find the free newsletters and listservs I subscribe to and the discussion groups I belong to really good sources of information and support.  The current surge of interest in social networking sites like LinkedIn has meant that activity in discussion groups is high.  It is possible to keep up to date without spending a great deal (or anything at all).

I also found it very impressive that so many of the delegates at the SLA’s 2009 conference in Washington were self-funding - these people value their professional development and networks so highly that they are willing to invest their own time and money.

Of course, there are occasions when only targeted training will provide us with the necessary knowledge and skills needed for particular projects and initiatives but it is worth remembering that by using free resources for more general development needs, you can be better placed to make the business case for investment in more focused commercial training and development.

Melanie Goody
Director of Consultancy

Training Discussion Corner - July

At the end of our training schedule before the start of the summer holidays we had some interesting topics discussed of note particularly were the following:

“In our Information Governance course run by records management guru, Philip Jones, the key focus was the ever expanding legislative framework within which all public authorities have to work. Philip is quite clear that nothing ever stands still and that “this is particularly challenging when there are tensions between different pieces of legislation in this area e.g. between data protection and freedom of information.” He continues to emphasise the increasing role of records management as the critical foundation to the successful delivery of any organisation’s responsiveness to this legislative framework.  Philip works with course delegates to scope and design an information management programme that embodies all these different legislative requirements as part of its objectives.”

Paul Pedley's course Digital Licensing offers a guide through the 'legalese'.  The course looked at the typical layout of licence agreements for electronic products. It was an opportunity for sharing knowledge and experience of negotiating agreements, including lessons learnt from practical examples; what to watch out for; and tips and tricks on negotiating a deal that best suits the organisation. Paul advised that one point was not to focus exclusively on cost as the vendor may have limited room for manoeuvre. Thinking laterally about whether there might be other ways of getting better value from the deal such as free training, free documentation, access to another module, or setting up a few extra userids was a better solution.

The training discussion corner will be back in September, but if you have had similar experiences or have any comments on the above we would be keen to hear from you.