My Favourite Tipples from a Research Services Manager
Jinfo Blog

By Michelle Anderson

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My Favourite Tipples are shared by Michelle Anderson, an information services manager for Integreon Managed Solutions. She shares her favourite online resources ranging from legal to business and personal interest in infographics.

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My role is as an information services manager working for law firms. As part of this I am a client account manager and research services manager, which means I have a fairly broad range of interests.

These are some of the sites and tools I find useful:

• Google: When I had a look at my internet history I found that Google was my top site, closely followed by legal research databases. Although I use a lot of dedicated legal sites, quite often enquiries fall outside their coverage and Google, used with care(!), is an embedded part of research life. In particular Google news and email alerts are a quick and useful feature, even sometimes supplementing premium news services.

• BusinessBalls: My work in legal libraries today requires skills not only as a subject matter expert but also general business knowledge, such as for presentations, project management and marketing library services. BusinessBalls contains a wealth of practical guidance, checklists and templates. I've even used some of their material to help plan a team building and networking event.

• WorldLII: This is a website to check for international case law or legislation before going to the subscription databases. WorldLII (World Legal Information Institute) is maintained by multiple legal information institutes from around the globe and is free to access. Eagle-i is an alternative source maintained by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, with a large collection of international law links and short content descriptions.

• SurveyMonkey: This is a straightforward website for running surveys, which I have used frequently to collect feedback and input on anything from training, database trials and strategic planning preferences. We have a subscription in the team, but there is a free option for simple surveys. There are templates and guidance for creating effective surveys, but my tip is to offer a reward for responding - chocolate has proved to be a great incentive!

• RollOnFriday: To find out what is happening in the legal world, RollonFriday takes a humorous and irreverent look at law firms and their inner goings on. The Lawyer and LegalWeek also give good industry coverage and insight to the legal world.

For fun:

• Information is Beautiful: I am a fan of infographics, and would like to incorporate these more into work; this and DailyInfographic are both fun and inspirational to browse through.

An article in FreePint I found particularly interesting:

• I am really enjoying the Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities", which is running through FreePint at the moment. There's a lot of interest in current awareness and trends and FreePint does a great job of pulling together useful supporting information. The recent article, "Market Landscape - Media Monitoring"  gives an overview of some key vendors in the media monitoring space and is a useful timesaving comparison article.

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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