Business info search - A VIP Editorial
Jinfo Blog

By Scott Vine

Item

The task of searching for valuable, relevant and up-to-date information is one all of us in the library and information sector will be familiar with. It is often the lifeblood of what we do. It has certainly been central during my own personal information journey.

One of the reasons it is nice to be asked to guest edit this particular issue of VIP is because the two products under review deal with the topics I have most been called upon to research over my career – business and law.

As someone who started out working in public libraries, (in particular, a large reference library in Swansea) assisting people doing business research has always been a significant aspect of my job. Of course the tools at my disposal back in the early 90s were a world – and a web – away from where we are today. Back then we still had to rely on multiple hard copy directories, loose leafs, and very basic database access via CD-ROM. Very little was internet-based. It was a world where the pen, notepad and the photocopier were king.

What a difference 20 years has made. Now the majority of information you could once only get offline is available online – a wonderful thing. However, because of the millions of web pages now accessible to us every day, trying to pull together the most relevant information on specific topics using traditional search engines such as Google or Bing, even using advanced search options, is no easy task. No surprise, then, that businesses have grown up in the past few years to try and filter web content in ways that Google and other search engines are not set up to do. FirstRain, reviewed by Perrin Kerravala in this issue, is an example of such a business that looks to provide a solution to that problem for business information. It provides a current awareness research tool that searches and filters the web just for business-related content.

The provision of legal information too has been revolutionised by the web, and the last few years has seen the growth in much of this primary material – particularly in the UK – being provided, at least in some form, free online. Despite this, the market is still ruled by the likes of LexisNexis and Westlaw (Thomson Reuters/West). Last year, Westlaw launched WestlawNext a new US-focused service covering primary and secondary sources all behind a simple “Google–like” search interface. Leah Pellegrino tells us whether this approach is one that we should welcome.

The bottom line consideration for most organisations when looking at any new product, like those reviewed in VIP, is, of course, is the price right? Every day we as information professionals weigh up free and paid options to answer the questions we are posed. In doing so we recognise that the cost of a product subscription is not just the headline price you are paying for it, but also the cost of finding and accessing the information provided by the product from other sources, and any associated cost of staff time in doing so, if you did not subscribe.

Both the products reviewed in this issue will be trying to convince potential customers that their ease of access to their particular content makes them both time and money savers, as both are trying to provide a one-stop-shop for particular types of content, and trying to assist the end user in sorting the information wheat from the chaff.

Scott Vine

Scott Vine has over 20 years’ experience of working in the library and information sector, both in the public and private sectors. He is currently Senior Information Officer for the Communications, Media and Technology practice area of the global law firm Clifford Chance LLP.

This editorial appears in VIP Magazine No. 93, August 2011. Purchase online >>

Start your annual subscription >>

Take a three-month trial >>

« Blog