Legal Research

What stuff should I add to my Intranet?

Posted on December 14, 2010
Nina Platt of the Strategic Librarian blog has written an excellent series of posts asking "What functionality and content should I add to my Intranet" this is like opening up a can of worms to a hungry school of worm eating fish. But it made me think about our Intranet and how we could make it more useful and perhaps more interesting...

The Social Intranet

Posted on December 14, 2010
Heather Colman has written an excellent write up of her attendance at the Social Intranet conference. In her blog post "The Social Intranet"Heather outlines some of the key learnings from the conference.If you've not come across the term "Social Intranet" before Heather defines this term in her blog post "What is social Intranet software? According to the experts, social Intranet software combines traditional Intranet elements with social collaboration features such as ?rich user profiles, activity streams, discussion forums, wiki and blog capabilities,? micro blogging, etc...

Legal Know-How: Organisation & Semantic Analysis

Posted on November 22, 2010
Last week I attended an ISKO event called, you'll never guess what, "Legal Know-How: Organisation & Semantic Analysis" I'd never been to an ISKO event before so I was unprepared to see so many faces I actually knew. I shouldn't have been surprised though as this was a legal know-how event and had presentations from 2 law firms...

Intranets with great usability

Posted on November 20, 2010
Communitelligence have released their Intranet Design Annual for 2010, in it are a list of best practice areas for making Intranets even better then they already are! They've included a list of these "best practice areas" on their blog for all to see...

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Information as Strategic Asset

Posted on November 19, 2010
Two weeks ago I attended the Solcara organised event ?Information as a Strategic Asset? this was hosted by MacFarlanes and featured speakers from 3 different law firms, MacFarlanes, Pinsent Masons and Allen & Overy.Following an introduction from Rob Martin, Solcara?s Managing Director, Sally Roberts from MacFarlanes described how and why they chose to implement Solcara...

Wikis v SharePoint

Posted on November 09, 2010
Should you use a Wiki or SharePoint to collaborate within your organisation? This is the question asked in this excellent blog post which I saw in Google Reader.In the post the author compares some of the features of a wiki specifically Confluence with SharePoint...

Measuring the rights things!

Posted on October 28, 2010
Jack Vinson on his blog Knowledge Jolt references a very interesting article called "The problem with metrics" in this blog post the author who is a numbers guy (I'm not sure I should admit to being a numbers guy but I probably am) looks at well...the problems with metrics...

Working collaboratively means a new way of working...

Posted on October 27, 2010
James Robertson of Step two Designs has written an excellent article on how the new breed of Collaboration tools will require staff to work differently.James explains the problem in more detail in his post Collaboration tools require new ways of working:"these are deeply unfamiliar tools for most ?normal? staff (ie not us)...

What every LIS pro must know about SEO

Posted on October 25, 2010
If you haven't read it already I thoroughly recommend you read the Q&A with Shari Thurow on the Library & Information Update blog. In the blog post Shari provides excellent definitions of Search Engine Optmization (SEO) and Information Architecture (IA) her definition of SEO is as follows:SEO is the abbreviation for search engine optimisation (or optimization)...

Managing personal change

Posted on October 22, 2010
We're in a time of massive change both within our professional and perhaps more significantly across the country. The question is how can Library professionals deal with/manange change effectively and what are the most important skills you need to foster in order to deal with change?Roy Tennant's article in the Library Journal Digital Libraries column posts his thoughts about how Library professionals should approach change...

Integrating applications into the Intranet

Posted on October 06, 2010
This is something I'm thinking about right now so it was interesting to read Catherine Grenfell's blog post called "Integreating applications into the intranet" on the Step Two Designs blog.Right from the outset Catherine highlights the most important thing to remember when integrating an application into the Internet, that is that the experience for staff should be "seamless" Staff don't want to have to worry about where the application sits or exists, they just need to know that it sits somewhere within the Intranet and that they can access it easily and of course seamlessly...

Should intranet links open in a new window?

Posted on October 04, 2010
I'm a fan of James Robertson and his website Column Two so it was with interest I read his latest blog post on whether Intranet links should open in new windows James' post follows an interesting discussion on the Intranet Professionals groups on LinkedIn which if you're involved in managing an Intranet and haven't joined yet I thoroughly recommend you do...

Keeping track of your passwords!

Posted on October 01, 2010
What I'd really like is seamless access (authenticated access) to every single website I need to log on to. In lieu of that I guess I'll have to use a password management tool like one of the ones listed in this very useful article from My Life Scoop...

Enterprise 2.0 and Information Professionals ? a perfect match?

Posted on September 30, 2010
In the latest blog post on the Information Matters blog Martin De Saulles writes about the "close match between the core skills of library and information professionals and the core elements required to effectively deploy Web 2.0 and social media in the organisation" in his post he uses the diagram I've reproduced on this page to demonstrate how the elements of Enterprise 2...

Are you a social media savvy Librarian?

Posted on September 18, 2010
What "competencies" do you need to demonstrate in order to be a "social media literate" Librarian?The blogpost Top Ten (10) Social Media Competencies for Librarians outlines exactly what's required.In my mind the first five are the most important, closely followed by points 6 and 9...

Finding expertise in your organisation

Posted on September 17, 2010
Finding expertise in your organisation is the title of an excellent article in FUMSI in which Connie Crosby looks at how we can find experts in the organisations we work for.Connie begins her article by looking at what expertise is, why we would look for expertise and perhaps most importantly for information specialists the sources we can use to find expertise including some of the new social web applications...

The Running Librarian

Posted on September 16, 2010
I've known I've been really bad recently! I've not been posting as much as I should have but I blame moving house on my radio silence.I'm back now and relatively DIY free so I hope you'll keep reading my posts!

Running free!

Posted on September 16, 2010
Do you run with or without a watch? The last race I ran (Margate 1/2 Marathon) I completely forgot to bring my watch which meant I couldn't tell how quick or probably more accurate how slow I was running. I was also surprised to see how many people there weren't wearing watches I know because I asked a few people how long we'd been running!It got me thinking does running wearing a watch actually impede your running? I know that when I run wearing a watch I will often check the watch to see how I'm doing and if I'm running too slow try and speed up, but is this necessarily a good thing? Just some food for thought!

Margate 1/2 Marathon

Posted on September 16, 2010
Two weeks ago I ran the Margate 1/2 Marathon. This was my first 1/2 Marathon in more than 2 years and my first race since I ran the Mid Kent 5 miler. On top of that the last time I'd run at least 10 miles was in February!Before I reveal my time I have to say this was a very well organised event...

New intranet resources

Posted on August 18, 2010
Some Intranet resources that have caught my eye recently which I'd thought I'd share with you all.The Intranet Lounge - "Intranet lounge is a non-commercial initiative to promote intranet knowledge across intranet profesionals" This looks like it's becoming afantastic resource for Intranet Managers in any organisation...

Who do you think you are!?

Posted on August 18, 2010
Sadly this blog post isn't going to be about the BBC television programme of the same name but about something close to my heart which is the role of an "Intranet manager" Two "recently" published blog posts have made me read around the subject and it's quite interesting to see what other people think...

Making SharePoint successful!

Posted on August 17, 2010
Just in case you hadn't seen or heard enough about SharePoint, the following are blog posts or articles I've read recently about SharePoint which I found useful.The SharePoint puzzle - Confused about how SharePoint is being used, you're not alone Mary Abraham at the Above and Beyond KM Blog explains all!How to make SharePoint 2010 a success - A blog post from Mark Morrell of BT which asks how do you "harness" the power of SharePoint...

How is SharePoint used in Libraries?

Posted on August 17, 2010
Fumsi have published a very interesting article on the use of SharePoint within Libraries, called originally "How is SharePoint used in Libraries" the article detail the results of a survey undertaken in March 2010 which asked about the usage of SharePoint in Libraries...

Sue Hill Networking Breakfast

Posted on August 16, 2010
A couple of weeks ago I attended my first Sue Hill Networking Breakfast at Roast Restaurant in Borough Market. My train passes Roast every day on the way into Cannon Street so I was excited about the prospect of being one of the people enjoying a hearty breakfast rather then the other way around...

You get what you pay for - Mid-Kent 5 Miler

Posted on August 16, 2010
Yesterday I took part in the Mid Kent 5 miler this event, which was hosted by Velocity Events took place in the very scenic village of Staplehurst, in well Mid Kent. The course was described as fast and flat and a potential 5 mile PB was on the cards...

Understanding new solutions

Posted on July 30, 2010
Understanding and investigating new solutions is an important part of any Intranet Mangers role, which is why Catherine Grenfell's article "Understanding new solutions" on the Step Two Designs blog caught my eye.From the introduction to the blog post:"In today?s world new solutions and applications appear every day, and some are more useful and interesting than others...

Dinosaur (Deal) 10k

Posted on July 29, 2010
Last Sunday I ran the Dinosaur (Deal) 10k this was my first competitive race since the Darent Valley 10k in April when I fell off the pavement on the final corner and torn a bunch of ligaments in my ankle.Since April I've not managed to train much until this month so it came as no surprise that my time was a very disappointing 52:00, this placed me 205th out of 463 runners...

What is open source?

Posted on July 08, 2010
LLRX.com have published a great introduction to Open source called "What is Open Source" which if you're interested in Open source, you'll want to take a look at! This sounds like it is just an introduction to a number of articles which will look at how Open Source can be used by Librarians...

How to evaluate enterprise wiki software

Posted on July 08, 2010
How do you evaluate wiki software for use in an Enterprise? The Confluence product blog might well have the answer with this post "10 questions to answer when evaluating enterprise wiki software" In the post the author puts forward 10 suggestions for questions which should form the basis for your requirements, they are as follows:Open-Source-Software or a commercial wiki product?Price? - This can be a major factor in determing what wiki software you can implementAre high quality plug-ins available?Does an active community already exist?Is this particular Wiki a known quantity?What kind of technologies?System functionalities?Usability and Design?Requirements for the project?Migratability of the data?Does the wiki offer simple system administration?Hold on that's 11 suggestions...

BIALL 2010 session summaries

Posted on July 07, 2010
I could spend some time writing summaries of ALL the sessions I attended at the BIALL Conference but thankfully I don't have to because someone has beaten me to it!Laura Woods aka WoodsieGirl has written some fantastic summaries of the sessions she attended...

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