My Favourite Tipples from a Library and Information Management Consultant & Trainer
Jinfo Blog

By Shaida Dorabjee

Abstract

My Favourite Tipples are shared by Shaida Dorabjee, a library and information management consultant. She shares her favourite online resources in areas from creative problem solving to organisational culture and marketing.

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When working in different organisations as an information consultant and trainer focusing on making better use of resources and people, one of the issues that crops up time and time again is the fact that the organisational or operational changes needed in order to be able to develop the services further need a change in the culture - or "the way we do it around here". This applies within an organisation as well at internationally.

• The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business is an ebook and hard copy book where author Erin Meyer outlines a number of cultural maps which clarify different national approaches. The many anecdotes of her experiences working in different countries make it a valuable resource on my iPad which I can dip into time and time again.
  

• Creative Problem Solving Group: Managing an environment where creativity and innovation are the key drivers is often tricky as you have to merge the culture of creative thinking, taking risks, and taking time with the basic business needs of deadlines, output and efficiency. The Creative Problem Solving Group has published some useful papers as well as some assessment tools such as the Situational Outlook Questionnaire (SOQ) tool which is used to help foster and maintain a climate that can support innovation and change.

• Culturevists blog: This is a blog from the Culturevists, an informal community of people working in a variety of sectors who are looking at ways to develop organisational cultures. It has some interesting and unusual contributions to the subject, just what we need!

• BusinessBalls: I often encourage library and information clients to treat their service as a business and get them to look at examples in other sectors and then adapt them to their own environments. This site is a useful resource which goes back to basics and gives clear explanations and links to many sources relating to communication, human resources, leadership, marketing and so on.

For fun...

• FlightRadar24: Having done some work in airports and for the Air Ambulance service recently I have been looking at FlightRadar for fun. Being able to identify most of the aeroplanes you see above you and also to see the route a plane has just taken gives a fascinating insight into, for example, the holding patterns for the planes queueing up to land at Heathrow.

An article in FreePint I found particularly interesting:

• The "FreePint Report: Best Practices in Information Skills Development" is a good collection of articles and commentary covering professional development and produced at the end of the FreePint Topic Series "Best Practices in Information Skills Development". Following an in-person Communities of Practice session on skills she ran at the SLA annual conference in Boston, Robin Neidorf blogged in "Driving the Future of Information", very succinctly hitting the spot and highlighting the need to focus on collaboration, breaking down barriers and risk management. All requiring the need to change "the way we work around here".

Contribute Your "My Favourite Tipples"

Would you like to share your "My Favourite Tipples" with the FreePint audience? For contributor guidelines email catherine.dhanjal@freepint.com or visit the Publish with FreePint page.

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