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News, musings and issues relating to Legal Publishing, Legal Information Provision and the application of Web 2.0 in Law Libraries.

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Last Entry: November 21, 2009 at 06:00:00

Taking social media inside the Enterprise

Posted on November 21, 2009
What are the guidelines that companies should provide employees when they're using Web 2.0 tools inside their organisation? This is the question Bill Ives asks in his blog post More on Taking Social Media Policies Inside Enterprise 2.0 - Eight Issues to Consider this post is a follow up to his post Social Media Policy Outside and Inside the Enterprise in which he looked at some of the social media policies published by companies...

Developing a Web 2.0 strategy

Posted on November 19, 2009
Nina Platt of the Strategic Librarian blog has written an interesting blog post on the steps you need to take to ensure the development of Web 2.0 within your organisation is strategic. Called Web 2.0 & Marketing: Develop a Strategy from Start to Finish the post takes and interesting look at the Do's and Dont's of developing a strategic plan for the development of Web 2...

Is Social Media a drug?

Posted on November 17, 2009
I recently read an article in the Daily Mail (I don't ordinarily read the Daily Mail) about internet addiction and some of the "symptoms" so it was interesting that I then read a post on the Fast Forward Blog called "Is Social Media the new cigarette?"This post examines a survey of social media use by individuals in the US...

Microblogging can be intimidating

Posted on November 15, 2009
Anyone considering microblogging in their organisations should read this blog post on the Content Economy blog. In the post the author looks at some of the reasons for microblogging, some of the suggestions include the following:"Asking colleagues to help them find information about something, such as a report, method or customer Asking colleagues to help them with a problem they have with a specific software, their computer, or something else Finding colleagues with a specific skill, experience or knowledge Sharing ideas and finding collegues willing and able to help them develop them further"There are of course many other reasons for using microblogging to communicate and collaborate with colleagues but this is a very good list if you're trying to encourage your firm to look at microblogging...

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Information Overload is the Devil

Posted on November 06, 2009
I love this PowerPoint presentation from the Librarian in Black blog a good introduction to the subject and then some really useful tips on how to deal with Information Overload. Information Overload is the DevilView more presentations from Sarah Houghton-Jan.

Thnking about Twitter lists

Posted on November 05, 2009
If you're thinking about or are using Twitter lists, you might want to take a look at Chris Brogan's blog post "Twitter lists I'm not down"In his post Chris' describes how yes Twitter lists are useful but when it comes to using them to list people there is a problem, as Chris explains "In talking with friends about it on Twitter, people immediately started DM-ing me, telling me that they felt left out or even LESS important because they weren?t on any lists...

Should law firms embrace SaaS?

Posted on November 03, 2009
In a guest post on the Orange Rag Blog called SaaS for legal software Dominic Cullis, Chairman of the Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA) looks at some of the benefits and drawbacks of using Software as a Service (SaaS) technologies.This is a very thorough introduction to the concept of SasS and some of the benefits for law firms...

Moving on...yikes!

Posted on November 02, 2009
This time next week I will be working in a new firm with a very different role. Now that the move is only a week away I'm filled with a mix of nervousness and excitement. I'm excited about managing and developing the tools the firm already has...but I'd be lying If I didn't say I was a little bit nervous about leaving and taking on the responsibilities...

A potted guide to RSS

Posted on October 23, 2009
Phil Bradley has posted a really useful guide to RSS on his blog, which I think if useful for anyone who is trying to understand what RSS is. Called a "Quick potted guide to RSS" The guide is actually a PowerPoint presentation, which I've embedded below, enjoy!A Potted Guide to RSSView more presentations or Upload your own.

What Library adminstrators should know about technology

Posted on October 18, 2009
Roy Tennant has published a useful list on his blog called "The Top Ten things Library administrators should know about technology" The list is available in full on his blog, but these are the headlines:Technology isn't as hard as you think it isTechnology gets easier all the timeTechnology gets cheaper all the timeMaximize the effectiveness of your most costly technology investment -- your peopleIterate, don't perfectBe prepared to failBe prepared to succeedNever underestimate the power of a prototypeA major part of good technology implementation is good project managementThe single biggest threat to any technology project is political in natureRoy makes some useful points, which I'm sure I'll be referring to from time to time.

Did you know...4.0

Posted on October 16, 2009
I love this video about the changing media landscape which was developed for the Media Convergence Forum in partnership with The Economist.[Hat Tip - The iLibrarian]

What is Google Wave?

Posted on October 14, 2009
Everybody is talking about, the next big thing from one of the many development teams at Google is Google Wave. But what on earth is it?Well, you could watch the extremely loooooong video on the Google Wave website, but if you'd prefer to watch something a bit shorter then you cant go wrong with the following overview from the Google Wave development team...

Using Technology to manage costs

Posted on October 12, 2009
Mary Abraham of the Above and Beyond KM blog has written an interesting post which lists some of the tools law firms could use to "manage costs". The tools I'm obviously interested in are those listed under the heading collaboration so tools like, Blogs, Wikis, RSS...

A great career choice?

Posted on October 01, 2009
I've promised to do this and I've finally sat down and done it, following a meme started by Woodsie Girl ,then Jennie Law and finally Maria Robertson I'm going to describe how and why I ended up as a Librarian.It sounds weird to say this but I knew from a fairly early age that I was going to work in Libraries...

Faversham 10k 2009

Posted on September 28, 2009
Two weeks ago I ran the Faversham 10k this felt like a comeback run as my last race was the Cliffe Woods 10k which took place in July - that seems a long time ago!This race wasn't described a "flat" but I wasn't expecting it to be as undulating as it was...

Web 2.0 - the truth behind the hype

Posted on September 18, 2009
Last night I attended a CLSIG seminar called Web 2.0 - the truth behind they hype. This sounded like it was going to be quite interesting a battle between good and evil...well maybe not quite like that more like someone who isn't a fan of Web 2.0, Phil Duffy from Hammonds v someone who is Karen Blakeman...

Libraries and Librarians Using Web 2.0 to Connect, Create, and Collaborate

Posted on September 18, 2009
I love this presentation from Buffy Hamilton which Connie Crosby discovered. Buffy's presentation is both attractive and the points come across very well.Pivot Points for Change: Libraries and Librarians Using Web 2.0 to Connect, Create, and CollaborateView more presentations from Buffy Hamilton.

Knowledge Management - More than the sum of its parts

Posted on September 18, 2009
I've just finished reading the ILTA White paper - Knowledge Management - More than the sume of its parts this was published in June of this year but is well worth reading. The following articles were of most interest to me:The ABCs of KM - this looks at the importance of KM and provides a Knowledge Management checklist...

100 Best Blogs for Librarians of the Future

Posted on September 06, 2009
Are you studying to become a Librarian or thinking about moving into a new role. Yes - then you'd better start reading the blogs listed on this site "100 Best Blogs for Librarians of the Future"The list divides the blogs into eight subject areas; Technology & Education, School & Academic Librarians, Library Issue and Advocacy, Research and Reference, Innovation and Information, Reading and Literature Blogs, Media & Communication and Professional Blogs...

Web 2.0 and the productivity paradox

Posted on September 04, 2009
The Knowledge Board blog has an interesting post on the conflict between using Web 2.0 and being productive. The post called the "Web 2.0 and the productivity paradox" From the introduction to the post:"The loudly trumpeted Web 2.0 business revolution has been frustrated by a powerful paradox...

The unspoken rules of blogging

Posted on August 30, 2009
Gareth Johnson aka llordlama has written an interesting piece in the latest CILIP Gazette in it he looks at how you can make your blog "sing" rather then "sag". So what are Gareth's top tips.Readership - Who is the blog for - ensure you have a targert audienceMessage - What are you trying to say - you need to stand out because of the number of blogs out there so think carefully about what you're going to sayTone - You need to ensure you keep things light and informativeLength - Blog posts are usually shorter then other digital formatsRegular - As you build up a readership they will expect you to deliver, so make sure you do!Conversation - Blogging shouldn't be about working in isolation you should be commenting on other people's posts as well to continue conversations and drive traffic to your blog...

Legal information in a recession

Posted on August 28, 2009
There has been a lot of talk on LIS-LAW and other email lists about this report full title Legal information in a recession: A restructuring opportunity which has been produced by Managing Partner Magazine in association with LexisNexis.The first thing I would say is read the report before you do anything else - perhaps even before reading this blog post! Still here...

Why you should care about Social Media

Posted on August 23, 2009
I've been directed to a very interesting Slideshow on Slideshare which I'm now going to share with you. (There were way too many Slides and shares then)The presentation called "What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later" asks a very simple question - "Why you should care about Social Media" and goes on to answer the same question with some quite staggering statistics and slides...

Balancing technology & culture doing a social business implementation

Posted on August 21, 2009
"Balancing technology & culture doing a social busines implementation" is a thought provoking albeit long post from the Headshift blog which looks at the balance between technology and culture when implementing a social business project.The post starts with some slightly over the top examples of organisations that are likely to embrace social media and that are risk averse and set against social media and looks at how you could implement social media in these two very different situations...

Enterprise 2.0 adoption

Posted on August 19, 2009
The Fast Forward Blog have published a really interesting post on Enterprise 2.0 adoption, which I recommend everyone has a look at. The post called "Jakob Nielsen on Enterprise 2.0 adoption" is a summary of a study of the adoption of Enterprise 2.0 at 14 companies...

This is why you need a blog...

Posted on August 18, 2009
...a few weeks ago one of my colleagues sent me an email which contained the details of a document I might need to refer to, the document could probably become a wiki but that is another story for another day.This would be fine but the email also included the line "if you delete this email just search for the document using this search string"...

Izzy wizzy, let's get busy with Enterprise 2.0

Posted on August 12, 2009
Mary Abraham has published an interesting post on the "magic" of Enterprise 2.0. Called There?s No Easy Magic in E2.0 the post looks at how those people who advocate Enterprise 2.0 often become carried away with the possiblities of the tools they're working with and forget how difficult the adoption of these tools by organisations can be...

Dealing with social networking overload

Posted on August 10, 2009
A lot of people talk about Information Overload being a real problem and I agree to a degree inormation oerload is a problem for many. I was recently interviewed by a post-graduate Information Science student who was looking at this very problem and how it affects the work of Information Officers and Professional Support Lawyers...

Twitter resources

Posted on August 07, 2009
Twitter continues its plan to take over world (very quickly at the current rate of growth) so it's no surprise to see people writing more about Twitter. The three resources below caught my eye. Thanks to the iLibrarian for bringing these to my attention...

VIP report on outsourcing

Posted on July 29, 2009
The latest issue of VIP includes a summary of a report on outsourcing that Freepint and Integreon undertook. The report looked at how information professionals and information centres are approaching the outsourcing of Knowledge and Information Services...

KM tips for introvets

Posted on July 27, 2009
Neil Richards of the Knowledge Thoughts Blog has written an interesting piece entitled "Channel your inner George Costanza; KM tips for Introverts" In the post Neil looks at how introversion can effect the work of Library/Information Managers by influencing the networking they do and subsequently the number of people/groups that they're exposed to...

Managing Social Media

Posted on July 25, 2009
Mashable have written an excellent post on "How to manage social media goals and expectations" the post writes about something I have a real problem with. Indivdiuals desire to have a billion followers! From the post:"People have been setting some strange, unrealistic, and possibly misguided expectations recently in social media...

CLSIG events

Posted on July 24, 2009
I haven't been on the CILIP website for a while, essentially because I find it difficult to navigate but had reason to today when Hanna Lewin reminded me that the Commercial Legal and Scientific Group (CLSIG) are running a Web 2.0 event in the autumn...

Are you obsolete or mission critical?

Posted on July 22, 2009
Mary Abraham from the Above and Beyond KM blog has written a very timely post called "Are you obsolete or mission critical" in which Mary points reader to an article from rickmans posterous blog called "Should knowledge managers look for a new job?"As Mary indicates in her blog post "The message that comes through is that in an Enterprise 2...

33 ways to use LinkedIn for business

Posted on July 19, 2009
I love this article from the Web Worker Daily which lists 33 ways in which you can use LinkedIn for business, that is as more then just a place to "connect with people" not that this isn't valuable. Some of the suggestions are quite obvious, like filling out your profile completely but others are quite useful for anyone who is just starting to use LinkedIn or is a regular user...

Competitve intelligence in a Web 2.0 world

Posted on July 17, 2009
Greg Lambert over at the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog has written an interesting post on "Competitive intelligence in a Web 2.0 world" the post looks at some of the tools and techniques you can use to find people on Twitter.In the post Greg uses the example of trying to find Lawyers who work in particular law firms, but there is absolutely no reason why Greg's techniques cant be applied more widely...

JPMorgan Chase & Clife Woods 10K 2009

Posted on July 16, 2009
Two runs to report about here. The first the JPMorgan Chase Challenge is an annual race that I have taken part in for the last four years. I'm pleased to say that during that time period my times have always come down and this year was no exception.My time (25:19) was a whole minute faster then last year was helped by very favourable conditions last week...

Twitter for Libraries

Posted on July 08, 2009
I've seen and used a lot of useful Twitter resources recently so I thought it was only fair that I share them with you. The first is Twitter for Libraries a post from the What I learned today blog.Then there is Twitter search in plain English, which is another great video from the team at Commoncraft...

Volunteering opportunities...

Posted on July 01, 2009
Are you a Law Librarian...who is a member of the British & Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL)...and would like to become involved with the work of BIALL...then I'd love to hear from you!BIALL relies on its members to volunteer for committees that work on projects like the BIALL Website, The Conference, BIALL Salary Surveys and much much more...

When Librarianship might not be a fit!

Posted on June 25, 2009
When you might think could Librarianship possibly not be a fit? well in the current climate it might be right now. So what if anything could Librarians be doing to keep their options open. Well this article from the FUMSI Website looks at what we should be doing and how "for the health of our careers, it's important to take time on a regular basis to examine whether our current jobs - and our current career paths - are still the right fit, and whether investigating new possibilities might help us move forward"The article goes on to look at when Librarianship might not be a fit, how you could transfer your skills to a new role and pinpointing your new career path.

Should We Be More Social?

Posted on June 20, 2009
For anyone who wasn't at the BIALL Conference, the slides from my presenation are available below. The session look at how Social Media tools can be used by Law Librarians to become more productive...that's right more productive! Enjoy the slides...Should We Be More SocialView more OpenOffice presentations from James Mullan.

Wildy-BIALL Law Librarian of the year 2009

Posted on June 20, 2009
If you weren't already aware, last night BIALL presented me with the Wildy-BIALL Law Librarian of the year 2009 award. I was honoured to receive this award, especially in the company of so many of my peers. At the time because I had absolutely no idea I was the recipient of this award I hadn't prepared an acceptance speech, so my speech when called upon was quite short and I didn't thank the many people that have encouraged me to become involved with BIALL and to develop my technical skills...

BIALL Conference 2009

Posted on June 15, 2009
I hate to bang on about the BIALL Conference, both here and on the BIALL Blog but I'm uber excited about the Conference. Not only am I talking about one of my favourite subjects aka Social Media but the new BIALL website will be launched and I'll be catching up with a couple of friends who I haven't seen in more than 10 years...

Harvel 5 2009

Posted on June 07, 2009
Yesterday I ran the Harvel5, a 5 mile race round the village of Harvel in Kent. I hadn't run this race before so I wasn't sure to expect especially as the running club organising the race has the logo "A drinking club with a running problem"The race also started at the very strange time of 2pm on a Saturday, if it had been really hot then I'm not sure I would have run as fast as I did...

Navigating the Enterprise 2.0 Highway

Posted on June 02, 2009
LLRX.com have published an interesting article on how US Law Firm Hicks Morley implemented Thoughtfarmer as a replacement to their existing intranet."A review was recently conducted that included an in-depth analysis of the site and user statistics as well as a feedback survey to determine the frequency of use, value of content, usability of the interface and ease of information retrieval...

Making connections

Posted on June 01, 2009
David Lee King has written an excellent post on how he deals with the numerous requests he receives to follow people on Twitter, befriend people on Facebook etc etc. From his post "Who to friend? Who to ignore? Who to respond to? And when?" It can be quite tricky deciding who to friend/befriend and who to ignore especially as the lines between professional and personal become more and more blurred...

Has the Age of the Legal Knowledgebase Finally Arrived?

Posted on May 29, 2009
An interesting post here from the Technologist the "Findlaw Technology Blog" in which the author argues that "...Web 2.0 technologies can increase the adoption of knowledge management systems, and thus the benefit to law firms, by integrating the systems with attorneys' everyday experiences"Many law firms have implemented Knowledge Management systems, which have ultimately failed either through lack of use or because the main users are those individuals who are responsible for Knowledge Management systems! So what does Web 2...

Thinking about a career in Legal Information?

Posted on May 28, 2009
Recently I had the great pleasure to work on a project with Emily Allbon of Lawbore and City University fame. Emily and I did a session ages ago for the CILIP Career Development Group for students who were looking at librarianship as a career.So we teamed up to produce a "slideshow" which gives people a view of the work that goes on in academic and law firm Libraries...

Second wave adapaters - are you ready!?

Posted on May 28, 2009
Three posts here from of Headshift on Enterprise 2.0 and barriers to the adoption of Enterprise 2.0. The posts are:Overview of barriers to introducing Enterprise 2.0 and user adoptionScrutinizing barriers to user adoptionThoughts on how to attract second-wave adopters

Is RSS Dead?

Posted on May 26, 2009
Lee Bryant from Headshift has written a very interesting post about a subject very close to my and many other Law Librarians hearts - RSS. In the post Lee describes how many people within the Social Media/Web 2.0 industry have written RSS off citing Twitter as a replacement...

I want my Web 2.0 and I want it now...

Posted on May 22, 2009
This, albeit with my small addition at the end is the title of an article in the April 2009 edition of the AALL Spectrum. The article looks in detail at the CS-SIS Web 2.0 Challenge which took place last year.I wonder whether BIALL might think about doing something similar in the UK?

50 Best Blogs for Law Librarians

Posted on May 21, 2009
I'm absolutely delighted to have been included in the Online University Lowdown list of the 50 Best Blogs for Law Librarians. There are some fantastic blog listed here, which I would recommend people subscribe to if they don't already, they include:Strategic Librarian law...

Making the case

Posted on May 20, 2009
This months edition of Inside Knowledge carries an interesting article* on the business case for and against the use of Social Software within an Enterprise. The article is an excerpt from the CMS Watch Enterprise Social Software & Collaboration Report and is a brief look at the "Hard" and "Soft Benefits" of using Social Software...

How To Keep Up Without Having To Stay Up? Web 2.0 For The Solo Librarian

Posted on May 18, 2009
Last Tuesday I spoke to the BIALL Solos Group on the subject of surprise surprise Web 2.0 or rather Social Media. The webinar was predominatly about how Solo Librarians could use Social Media tools to keep up to date with developments in the Legal Sector...

Whistable 10k and Larkfield 10k

Posted on May 17, 2009
Two race reports here for the price of one! The first the Whistable 10k was my first race of the *new* running season so I didn't have great expectations in terms of my time. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when I finished with a time of 46:21, which placed me 145th out of 572 runners...

How to..ReTweet

Posted on May 11, 2009
This is a great post I was made aware of recently which looks at how to ReTweet and be ReTweeted. To ReTweet is to basically forward a Twitter post that you have seen to your followers, thereby spreading information around the Twitterverse.But how do you actually ReTweet a Tweet and perhaps more importantly create content on Twitter that is going to be ReTweeted? The post make several suggestions as follows:Keep your ReTweet shortRead what you're sharingKnow your audience/followersTo get your Tweets ReTweeted:Write good contentInclude linksRemember your character countSome useful suggestions here and a post that is well worth reading.

The 4P's of Social Media

Posted on May 08, 2009
I've read a lot of blog posts recently describing the 4P's of Social Media that is, Public, Private, Personal and Political. One of the issues I have is the blurry divide between what you do on Social Media sites that is personal and what is professional and more importantly how you manage these two aspects of your life...

Socialising in the workplace

Posted on May 06, 2009
A really interesting article here from Communicate Magazine which reports on the use of Twitter, Yammer and other Microblogging tools within organisations. Notably at the BBC and CAPGemini, which are two of the organisations whose use of Social Media tools is discussed.

Building blogs of success

Posted on May 04, 2009
My latest article called "Building blogs of success" (I couldn't think of a better title unfortunately) has just been published in Managing Partner Magazine. Although the article is available online you will need to be subscriber of Managing Partner Magazine to be able to read it...

CILIP Open Session on Web 2.0

Posted on May 01, 2009
Unless you've had your head buried in the sand for the last few days, you cant help but have noticed that the CILIP Open Session on Web 2.0 took place. This was an open session on how CILIP should be using Web2 technologies to engage with both members and non-members in the LIS community...

The Legal Case for Web 2.0

Posted on April 30, 2009
A look here by Law.com at how Lawyers in the US are using Social Networking tools to market themselves and develop their legal practices. From the introduction to the article:"...an elite subset of attorneys has decided to go above and beyond the basics, maximizing use of these new online outlets to build law practices in a substantial way...

Can you tame Twitter?

Posted on April 30, 2009
The Anecdote blog has an interesting post on whether it's possible to tame Twitter and email. From the blog post:"I think it's useful to have an analogy to explain how to use a technology. I think of Twitter as like my virtual tea room or cafe. It's the place I go to hear the chatter about what's happening...

Lexis Nexis does Twitter!

Posted on April 27, 2009
I'm a huge fan of Twitter, but had never thought to use it to keep up to date with what Legal Publishers are doing. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that Lexis Nexis are using Twitter with not one but seven different Twitter AccountsOf these I'm currently only following LexisNexis2009 however It got me thinking what if anything are the other legal publishers doing on Twitter?The answer is not much...

Top 10 reasons to become a Librarian

Posted on April 24, 2009
Is a Library the perfect place for you to "shine" according to this article from the Get Degrees Website it certainly is. But what I hear you say are the "Top 10 reasons for becoming a Librarian"1. You Have a Passion for organization2. You Never Want to Stop Learning3...

The rise of the Knowledge Librarian

Posted on April 21, 2009
An interesting post here from the KM World Blog which looks at how the traditional role of a Corporate Librarian is changing as Libraries come under more and more pressure to cut budgets.So what are the shifts in responsibilites that a Corporate Librarian must make to become a Knowledge Librarian? From the blog post;"Role shift #1: A knowledge librarian should be the "content czar" of the enterprise...

Great Twitter resources

Posted on April 16, 2009
Despite my earlier misgivings...I've become a massive fan of Twitter over the last couple of months moving from the Website to TWhirl to now finally using Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is a great tool for managing your Tweets and replies you receive. I especially like the integration with Facebook although the email/tweet Facebook status updates can be a bit flaky...

Are you...worth it?

Posted on April 16, 2009
In the Library with the Leadpipe has published an interesting, although US focused post on Return on Investment here. From the Blog post: "Return on investment (ROI) is how much you get back for what you put into something. Strictly speaking, ROI is based on dollars and cents...

We?ve got the technology ? now give us law e-books

Posted on April 15, 2009
An interesting article here on the Law Society Gazette website which asks if the technology exists why haven't more legal publishers made books available in electronic format? From the blog post;"...where are the law texts in new, rights-managed PDF formats? We need legal publishers to wake up to technology like this and get the content out there ? that will drive the competition in the IT market to make devices that are constantly better...

Is It Really Free?

Posted on April 02, 2009
Earlier this month I talked at Managing the evolution of legal Libraries and Information Services. Below are the slides from this presentation. Rather embarassingly I had the most slides across the two days so I'm going to write another presentation which has a lot less slides! In the meantime enjoy although it's not the same without me speaking...

Twitter in Twenty minutes

Posted on April 02, 2009
Twitter and IntuteView more presentations from cfbloke.

Social software adoption...why law firms get it wrong!

Posted on March 23, 2009
A great post here from the Transparent Office blog on why the adoption of Social Software within Law Firms so often goes wrong. From the blog post;"Social software can deliver 3 main patterns of use and value to firms:At the most abstract level, there is general legal know-how: how to be an effective lawyer, how to serve clients, etc...

Just for fun...27 things to do before a Conference

Posted on March 20, 2009
I'm speaking at "Managing the evolution of Legal Libraries and Information Services" next week so Chris Brogan's post on 27 things to do before a Conference seemed very timely.Thn I thought what should you avoid doing at Conference and came up with the following, do post your own suggestions!Leaving the notes accompanying your presentation at home and not realising until 10 minutes before your presentation...

Social Networking...it's not just about the numbers

Posted on March 20, 2009
Social Networking for business what does this mean to you? Collecting business cards? counting the number of subscribers to your blog, the number of connections you have on LinkedIn?Forget about that...numbers when it comes to Social Networking for Business aren't important...

Shiny toys or useful tools?

Posted on March 18, 2009
An interesting albeit very academic article here in the February 2009 edition of Cites and Insights. The article by Walt Crawford looks at how blogs and Wikis have moved from being toys to play with to "tools"[Hat Tip - the iLibrarian]

Email 2.0

Posted on March 16, 2009
The BBC Website has an interesting report on from the South by SouthWest Festival. The article discusses how Status Updates on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Yammer are become much more pervasive. David Sacks, founder of business social network Yammer is quoted in the article saying"We are all in the process of creating e-mail 2...

Legal Librarian Twitters

Posted on March 13, 2009
Jason Plant of the No Option for Law Firm Blog has started a list of Legal IT Twitterers so I thought I'd do the same but for Legal Librarian Twitterers...I can see a trend starting here.Anyway here's the list *note these are people I follow so if you're a Law/Legal Librarian or are a member of BIALL and Tweet then let me know!@jimmy1712 - that's me@jaffne@infobunny@stupidgirl_no1@barbaragordon@ioverlord@littlestar19@loopy_lor@jeiseman@byrnedf@lawbore@mookin@lawlibrarians@neilstewart@jenenifer@marianneber

Resistance to RSS

Posted on March 12, 2009
The first line of this article from the February/March 2009 edition of the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers is "It is human nature that people are resistant to change" oh how true this is especially when it comes to the use of Web 2.0 technologies.Thankfully the author is on hand to provide some tips on how to encourage/convince your employers to start using RSS (the subject of this article)...

Six ways to make Web 2.0 work

Posted on March 10, 2009
I love the McKinsey Quarterly (when I can access the articles that is) and they haven't let me down with this article from the February 2009 edition entitled Six ways to make Web 2.0Nina Platt of the Strategic Librarian summaries the article nicely here...

Should UK Legal Professionals be more in the game?

Posted on March 09, 2009
A short article here from the Law and More Website which is quite interesing. In it they discuss the pros and cons of using Twitter and Facebook with links to some well known legal blogging sites.

Exploiting Web 2.0 - Legal IT Session

Posted on March 05, 2009

Creating better presentations

Posted on March 05, 2009

Five things every legal practice should know about...

Posted on March 05, 2009

Computer Hardware in Plain English

Posted on March 04, 2009

Social networking: privacy and other issues

Posted on February 25, 2009
Yesterday I attended a really interesting seminar hosted by PLC with Lilian Edwards Professor of Internet Law at the University of Sheffield School talking for about why Social Networking Sites matter and some of the privacy issues raised by the use of these sites...

Collaboration through Wikis

Posted on February 12, 2009
An interesting article here in the latest issue of LLRX in it the author (Heather Colman) describes how her firm Hicks Morley chose Domino Wiki as solution for sharing knowledge.This is an interesting article in that it describes the problems fee-earners within her firm faced and why Wikis were identified as the solution...

Speaking engagements 2009

Posted on February 09, 2009
I'm about two months late posting this but better late than never! So despite the credit crunch I'm still going to be very busy writing articles and presenting.Last week I spoke at the Legal IT Show on how Law Firms are exploiting Web 2.0, this was a panel session with Damien Behan of Brodies and Cora Newell from KM Insight Consulting I'm not going to say too much about this here as I plan to write a more detailed post about the session...

The line between personal and professional

Posted on February 09, 2009
Now this is an interesting question and something that I have struggled with (although not literally) for a while now."Where do you draw the line between personal and professional. Do you keep your "friends" in Facebook and your "professional connections" in LinkedIn?"Lets make one thing clear straight away I don't think having your line manager or boss as friend on Facebook or Myspace is a great idea although there many people who do this...

I do run...honest

Posted on February 07, 2009
Anyone who has been following this blog for a while will know that I enjoy running hence the name of the Blog "The Running Librarian" but I haven't posted about any runs in a while. Now I know what you're thinking this is where I roll out the excuses and it's true! This time last year for example I'd run the Dartford 10 Miler and my first 1/2 Marathon at Brands Hatch...

How to become a succesful twitterer...

Posted on February 05, 2009
So you've signed up to Twitter but you're a bit scared and not exactly sure what you're supposed to be doing, Tweets, Twits*, Twonks*, Retweets, Twitpics it's all a bit alien.Never fear, help is here from the iLibrarian and a useful post she has published to her blog called 8 Useful Tips To Become Successful With Twitter this is described as "a useful introduction for Twitter users, both new and experienced" so lets have a look and see how I fare...

Professionals and Web 2.0

Posted on January 30, 2009
The Law Librarian Blog reports here on a White Paper produced by CCH Australia in which they asked (their customers) Professionals about their use of Web 2.0. There were a number of questions, of which CCH identified the following as the most important:How many professionals currently use Web 2...

Is it all doom and gloom?

Posted on January 22, 2009
If you've read a newspaper or looked at the Web recently you cant help but have noticed that people keep talking about a "Global Economic Crisis" or "the Downturn" or a "Credit Crisis" or worst of all "Recession" but is it all doom and gloom and what as Information Professionals can we do to ensure we survive the downturn?First of all I'm trying not to worry about it too much, hard to do when job losses in Law Firms are being reported on an almost daily basis and more importantly there are things you can do to demonstrate the value we provide...

What's your social media drug?

Posted on January 16, 2009
The Shifted Librarian has written an interesting post here, in which they describe which Social Media tool they currently use and the reasons for their choice.Deciding which Social Media tool you're going to use and then sticking to it, is actually harder then it might seem, despite the fact that many of them offer very similiar functionality they could potentially all be used for different purposes...

Are you Hot or not?

Posted on January 12, 2009
Anne Welsh at the First Person Narrative blog has pointed me in the direction of this new Website "Hot Stuff 2.0"From the About section of the website:"HotStuff 2.0? is an automatically updated blog developed by Dave Pattern (Library Systems Manager, University of Huddersfield, UK)...

Good news...Bad News...

Posted on January 09, 2009
The Good News first, Jennie Law very kindly sent the following link to me, which included all UK Law Librarian Bloggers in a review entitled Blogs in The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008 great to see that there are so many active Librarian bloggers out there...

Merry Christmas...almost!

Posted on December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas to everyone who subscribes to/reads the Running Librarian Blog. The Running Librarian is off now until early in the New Year and it looks like 2009 is going to be an exciting year with lots of speaking opportunities.Have a great Christmas and New Year!

The case for collaborative tools

Posted on December 23, 2008
This a href="http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp0812/pub_sp0812_PLL.pdf"article/a from the December 2008 edition of a href="http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp0812.asp"AALL Spectrum/a looks at how Web-based collaborative tools could be used by Law Librarians...

Are we losing out when it comes to Web 2.0?

Posted on December 23, 2008
This is the attention grabbing title of an article* in the December 2008 edition of Inside Knowledge Magazine. In it they report on a White Paper published by Spada Research entitled "The Laity Bytes back? The impact of Web 2.0 on UK Professionals" the report was actually published in September, but I've only just spotted it! The report is broken down into the following sections:Current knowledge and usage levels (with the obligatory explanation of Web 2...

Want to know more about the semantic web?

Posted on December 22, 2008
Then take a look at this a href="http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/manage/3327"article/a on a href="http://web.fumsi.com/"Fumsi/a, which has a brief introduction to the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_webc"Semantic Web /a(which even I understood) and then some predictions on how the Semantic Web will change Information Management (which I struggled a bit more with!)br /ulliPrediction 1 - A move from the pull to the push search paradigm, or more "context-aware" applications/liliPrediction 2 - the battle of the identifiers or the age of pointing at things/liliPrediction 3 - the changing role of the information professional/li/ulpThis is where it all gets interesting! With the author asking the question em"...

Enterprise 2.0 for KM Professionals

Posted on December 19, 2008
I don't usually write about Enterprise 2.0 in this blog, I have another blog where I write more extensively about Enterprise 2.0 but the following a href="http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/2008/12/forrester-on-enterprise-20-for-km-professionals...

Twitter, the good the bad and the ugly...

Posted on December 17, 2008
I?ve been using a href="http://www.twitter.com/"Twitter/a for a while now?at the last count I had posted 1415 Tweets, am following 110 people and am being followed by 112 people. Recently though I?ve struggled to understand the true value of Twitter (and I don?t mean in US Dollars)...

Law publishing at the crossroads

Posted on December 16, 2008
In this article from the November 2008 edition of a href="http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/story.asp?sectioncode=3amp;storycode=13335"Solicitors Journal/a* Nick Holmes of a href="http://www.binarylaw.co.uk/"Binary Law /aand a href="http://legalweb.wordpress...

Getting started with enterprise social networking

Posted on December 15, 2008
A great post here from the Headshift Blog the post is a summary of Lee Bryant's talk at Online Information where he discussed how Social Networking could be used within an enterprise.Lee's slides cover four main points, but as he says there are many more potential uses for Social Networking within an enterprise, including:"Social reading and writing" - this is about sharing what people are reading about by using RSS"Social search and expertise location" As Lee says Social networks are a great way to find people and can help show "connections and networks" that you might not have been aware of...

My blog template

Posted on December 13, 2008
I've not been happy with my blog template for a while now...so I've decided to change it and get rid of some of the clutter that was on my previous template.I'm pretty pleased with the result although my technical skills have let me down again...(1) The title of the blog "The Running Librarian" isn't clear enough(2) I like the first picture in the header but not the flower...

My new blog URL

Posted on December 13, 2008
Finally after umming and ahhing for almost I year I have sat down and changed my custom domain name to http://www.therunninglibrarian.co.uk/It looks like and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my feed will come with me and I wont lose all my existing subscribers...

35 tips for getting started with social media

Posted on December 12, 2008
I love this list of 35 tips for getting started with Social Media. Some of my favourite tips..."Find the top 50 blogs in your space, and subscribe to their RSS feeds in Google Reader. Consistently be on the lookout for new blogs, and the voices behind them...

Third Sector 2.0

Posted on December 12, 2008
Anne Welsh, whom I met at a Web 2.0 event last year and who writes frequently about the use of Web 2.0 in the third sector has published the slides from her talk at Online Information 2008. In them she describes the use of Web 2.0 applications in the Third Sector...

So you think you're doing Enterprise 2.0?

Posted on December 11, 2008
Looking for an introduction to Enterprise 2.0 and some thoughts on what Enterprise 2.0 really is? Then take a look at this post from the Library Clips blog.In in the author asks, whether "you really are doing Enterprise 2.0" since there has been much discussion recently around what the focus of Enterprise 2...

Librarians are recession proof...

Posted on December 03, 2008
...at least according to an article in Men's Health, yes I read Men's Health and not just for the pretty pictures. I do run sometimes you know...Unfortunately they go on to say that a "Specialist Librarians" starting salary is �60k, they are definitely special if they are getting paid that much and that you might end up alphabetically organising everything you come into contact with...

The Three-E strategy

Posted on December 02, 2008
Following on from a recent post during which I asked why more law firms aren't using Web 2.0 I read a very interesting article in the Educase Quarterly on a strategy for overcoming resistance to technological change.This can be a major issue for any organisation trying to implement a new piece of technology and can ultimately lead to failure...

Web 2.0 yes or no no no?

Posted on December 02, 2008
The economic downturn will not spell the end for Web 2.0 firms according to this article from the BBC Website.In fact according to Tim O'Reilly (slightly famous dude who originally coined the term Web 2.0) it might improve the tools that are available to us by "clearing out the clutter" In other words the sensible serious applications will flourish and the frivolous here "catch this sheep" applications will die...

Us Now

Posted on December 01, 2008
The Headshift Blog recently posted about this Film Project they have been involved in. I'd love to be able to see the film, but unfortunately it is too short notice for me to attend the screenings.Anyway the film is about the "power of mass collaboration, government and the internet" Some of the clips are well worth watching, especially the interview with Liam Daish, manager of my local football club Ebbsfleet United...

Email lists v Twitter

Posted on November 28, 2008
I love this post on the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog which discusses whether Twitter has the potential to replace Listservs (email mailing lists). In it they describe some of the problems associated with using email lists, which include;People conducting lazy research (using the list to request items that they could probably find themselves or could find at their local library)There being too many people (if you send an email and you get 200 Out of Office responses you're not going to be posting too much in the future)List bad apples - you know the person who always finds something to vent about at the most inopportune moment...

Want to test your geekiness?

Posted on November 26, 2008
Then check out "The 50 skills every geek should have" I failed this test scoring a measly 1 out of 50!

Web 2.0 resistance from Law Firms

Posted on November 24, 2008
Why are some Law Firms still not using Web 2.0 applications "behind their firewall"? and do you work at one of these firms? If so you might be interested in reading a summary of the Am Law Tech 2008 survey.Penny Edwards from Headshift describes this as disappointing and I'm sure many people who are working with Web 2...

Social Software - is it really worth the effort?

Posted on November 07, 2008
Two posts here from the Headshift Blog which discuss Social Media. The first is a short checklist of questions which organisations should review, at the end of which organisations will wonder why they are currently using Social Media.The second is a much longer post which questions the true value and usefulness of Social Media and whether you can measure its Return on Investment (ROI) and whether you should bother! The author points to a couple of examples where organisations have looked at the benefits or Social Media and these are well worth reviewing...

How do Wikis and Blogs fit together?

Posted on November 05, 2008
I'm often asked by people when they should use a Wiki and when they should use a Blog. So when I saw this post from the Library Clips Blog I thought great, now I can just forward this explanation which I think provides a good summary, from the blog post:"...

It's a funny old world...

Posted on November 03, 2008
...would be a great title for a blog post and would tie in nicely with the title of this article (It's a web 2.0 world) from the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland so I'll think I run with it..geddit? Run with it...Running Librarian...Anyway this is a useful if slightly basic, at least initially, look at how pervasive Web 2...

CILIP Graduate Open Day - Part 2

Posted on October 31, 2008
Following on from my previous post, I've decided to write a more detailed post about the CILIP Graduate Open day I presented at earlier this month.Mostly because I promised CILIP I would, but also because after my second session on "Getting published" I thought it would be useful if I shared with everyone my top tips for "Getting published"...

Lawtel and RSS

Posted on October 31, 2008
If you haven't seen already Lawtel are rolling out RSS Feeds for all the content on their platform. The feeds are due for release in November.

Wilmington 10k 2008

Posted on October 30, 2008
Last Sunday I ran the Wilmington 10k, this was the second time I had run this race so I was hoping for a better, but surprise surprise the weather was awful. It is October I suppose but even so horizontal rain does impede running somewhat, at least that is my excuse for a poor time!Anyway after 46 and something minutes I discovered that they had slightly changed the course and included a soul destroying, leg sapping 400 metres slog around a school playing field, so cruel...

Petts Wood 10k 2008

Posted on October 12, 2008
Another Sunday another race, this time the Petts Wood 10k and for once the weather was kind (in other words I wasn't drenched after 1/2 a mile) in fact the weather was unseasonably warm for the time of year, which caused some problems!I didn't run this race last year after picking up a slight injury in my previous race so I was determined to set a decent time, unfortunately I was going to be disappointed...

How Information "overloaded" are you?

Posted on October 10, 2008
Following my previous post on Information Overload I've just seen this quiz you can take, which asks "How Information Overloaded are you?"I scored a 5 out of 20, which I think is pretty good!

Sittingbourne 10 2008

Posted on October 07, 2008
Its October its wet and windy so what better way to spend a Sunday morning then running through the delightful Kent countryside, to be precise the villages in and around Sittingbourne in the Sittingbourne 10, that's 10 miles not 10k or 10 metres unfortunately...

Information Overload...pah

Posted on October 06, 2008
A lot has been written recently about Information Overload...see this post on the Above and Beyond KM Blog and this one on the iLibrarian BlogMuch of the talk has come about because of this presentation by Clay Shirky entitled "It's not information Overload it's filter failure" in his presentation Clay suggests that Information Overload is an ancient problem going back to the age of the printing press...

CILIP Graduate Open Day 2008

Posted on October 03, 2008
Later today I'm going to be talking at the CILIP Graduate Open Day I'm feeling slightly nervous about speaking at this event, not because there are 90+ people attending but because I'm going to be talking about Social Networking and "Getting Published"Although I've talked about Web 2...

Social tools and the current awareness process

Posted on October 02, 2008
Last week Headshift organised a breakfast seminar at their offices which looked at the role Social tools like RSS and Wikis can have in a "current awareness" service.By current awarness they refer to the collection and dissemination of external and internal information within a Law Firm...

The Web 2.0 olympics

Posted on October 01, 2008
I don't usually compare Web 2.0 to sports...but then I'm sort of borrowing this comparison from Mary Abraham over at Above and Beyond KM who has written an post about overcoming the hurdles of Web 2.0In it she mentions a recent article* by Ruth Ward of Allen & Overy (leaders in terms of Web 2...

Time & Reasons v Emerging Technologies

Posted on September 30, 2008
Kathryn Greenhill of the Librarians Matter Blog has put together a very interesting presentation called "...but I don't have time and THEY don't get it": Finding time and reasons for emerging technologies As Kathryn says in her blog post, the presentation address two key concerns Information Professionals have (1) The time to research all the cool stuff that is happening (2) If they do is anybody actually going to be interested...

Social Software...the basics

Posted on September 29, 2008
This is definitely my kind of post, short, simple but very effective! In it the author asks three questions, which all lead to the same answer - Why wouldn't you want to use Social Software.[Hat Tip - Elusa The Knowledge Management Blog]

Portal to Progress

Posted on September 26, 2008
An interesting article here in the latest issue of Legal Week which discusses whether Law Firms are missing out on Business growth because of a "reluctance" to use Web 2.0/Social Media technologies" on the whole this is a very positive article which demonstrates (with practical examples) how Social Media can be used by a Law Firm for both business growth and as a means to encourage collaboration amongst fee-earners...

Twittering with a difference

Posted on September 25, 2008
A few weeks ago someone told me about Yammer, this is a microblogging service, similar to Twitter but with a difference. This application is organised around a company so when you sign up with your email address only people at the same company who have the same type of email address can see what you are saying...

Information Technology (IT) for Information Professionals

Posted on September 25, 2008
Earlier this week I attended this course, which was organised by the Commercial Legal and Scientific Sub-Group of CILIP. The course is one of three being organised by CLSIG over the course of the next few months as part of their "Professional Development Club"The course was held at Macfarlanes, so I shouldn't have really been surprised when most of the attendees turned out to be from Law Firms...

Web 2.0 - Where are we going?

Posted on September 17, 2008
An interesting if at time somewhat abstract presentation here from Martin De Saulles of Brighton University. In it he discusses how the Information Profession is currently using Web 2.0 and where we might be heading. The full blog post is available on the Information Matters blog here...

Presentation tips and tricks

Posted on September 09, 2008
I'm preparing a couple of presentations at the moment and rather conveniently I was sent the details of a couple of useful looking guides, which I'm now sharing with you all!The first Everything You Need to Know About Presentations from Forrest Gump discusses how when thinking about putting together a presentation you shold be prepared to be a little bit different...

Links and connections...

Posted on September 09, 2008
...or how to make Web 2.0 work in a law firm environment is the title of a really interesting article in the latest edition of the Legal Technology Journal, not available online unfortunately. In it Damien Behan who is IT Director at Brodies discusses his experience of making Web 2...

Web 2.0: Hype or help?

Posted on September 08, 2008
This is the title of an article in the Autumn 2008 edition of the Public Library Journal in it the author looks at how Social Networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, Youtube) can promote Library Services to a wider audience. A really interesting article which is well worth reading.

Intranet evolution

Posted on September 05, 2008
I love the visual way Richard Dennison at the Inside Out Blog has shown how his Intranet has evolved, simple but very effective.

Are you wired or tired?

Posted on September 05, 2008
Information Overload is an age old problem, which occassionally people have another stab at addressing. The i-Librarian has very kindly highlighted an interesting article published in the latest edition of AriadneIn the article the author suggests ten techniques for managing "the overload"...

Are you multi-faceted?

Posted on September 04, 2008
I've just finished reading an interesting article in IWR Horizons (not available online unfortunately) written by Julia Hordle of Intelligent Resources. In it she describes the skills required by todays information professionals if they really want to make their way in our profession...

How to get to Intranet 2.0

Posted on August 22, 2008
The Thoughtfarmer blog (I love that name although it scares me slightly ) has an interesting post on how to 2.0 your Intranet. The post is essential 10 steps to Intranet 2.0, whch are...Blow up the old intranet (okay)Turn users into authors (basically give everyone editing rights)Expose the social content of all content (every piece of content should say who created it and where they work)Make things findable (obvious one this one, good intranets have great search engines)Send signals when content changes (installs RSS in other words)Provide scaffolding/a framework to support new content (This is all about structure and about providing something for people to work around rather then create something from scratch)Hold a barn raising to populate initial content (Essentially - get loads of people in a room and start migrating or creating content)Make them use it...

The worlds a virtual stage

Posted on August 19, 2008
Gary hayes of Personalize Media has created this 7-minute video which takes the viewer on a tour of over 40 social virtual worlds. Hayes is working on a commercial report exploring the creative, business, and educational potential of the metaverse and has some preliminary insights in his post here...

Web 2.0 Videos

Posted on August 07, 2008
Recently someone asked me whether I knew of any videos that "explained" Web 2.0 and I have to admit I drew a blank initially before I remembered the following which I thought would be useful to share:Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us Probably the most famous of all videos about Web 2...

Social Networking and Libraries

Posted on August 05, 2008
Because the blog was locked down for a few days I've been a bit slow to post about some of the really interesting posts I have seen recently. A couple that have caught my eye have been about Social Networking in Libraries.The first, "Managers pay attention: Why social networking and Web 2...

Officially...not Spam!

Posted on August 04, 2008
I'm pleased to be able to say Blogger has classified me as officially not being Spam. Good to know, I was worried there for a moment.I don't follow the Blogger Blog, but perhaps I should because they have two posts on the "issues" they encountered on Friday...

Do we need to work harder in a downturn?

Posted on July 24, 2008
This is the title of an interesting article on Fumsi (part of Freepint) which to anyone with any common sense the answer would be obvious - Yes must worker harder to show how valuable I am.But...it's not just about working harder, it's also about adding more value and making yourself more visible to those individuals (managers) who make decisions about funding and staffing...

Dartford Half Marathon 2008

Posted on July 21, 2008
Yesterday I took part in the Dartford Half Marathon, this was described as "challenging" course which in my mind meant hills! So I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was only one major hill, albeit one mile long!To cut a long story short I ran what I considered a pretty perfect race although I could have probably gone a bit quicker in the first 6 miles, after 10 miles I "kicked" for home and made it there in a time of 1:43:23 smashing my previous PB by four minutes! very pleased overall especially as I had enough left in the tank to pass two people in the last 400 metres.

Tagging inside the Enterprise

Posted on July 18, 2008
This is the title of a really thorough and informative presentation from David Hobbie Litigation Knowledge Manager at Goodwin Procter and owner of the Caselines BlogI like the idea of Tagging being about more than just external Websites, in David's presentation he includes People, Document Management System Documents, Intranet Pages and much more.

Cliffe Woods 10k 2008

Posted on July 17, 2008
Surprise surpirse on Sunday I ran yet another 10k this time the setting was Cliffe Woods in Kent for the rather originally named Cliffe Woods 10k. Unfortunately the run didn't take place in any woods which meant runners had to endure temperatures in the mid 20's...