My Favourite Tipples from a pharma information centre manager
Jinfo Blog

By Arthur Robbins

Abstract

My Favourite Tipples are shared by Arthur Robbins, the library and information centre manager at the Roche offices in Hertfordshire. In the ever-changing pharmaceutical industry, library and information professionals must stay a step ahead to enable their users to innovate. He shares his favourite online resources in areas from video to collaboration.

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I'm library and information centre manager at Roche, a pharmaceutical company based in Welwyn Garden City, as well as the more traditional aspects of information management, much of my role is about creating engaging content to attract users to our high quality resources, and looking at tools which just make life easier.

• Spark Video: Originally called Adobe Voice, this app is available on the iPad and desktop. It has to be the most simple video creation software I have ever used. All the content provided is licensed for reuse, so simply fire up the app, record your voice, add some music and pictures and you have yourself a video ready to go viral.

• Canva: I am terrible at art. Awful. I dreaded creating posters, flyers and wordles for our library events. However with Canva you can use free graphic design software and templates to make everything look professional. Some content is Pay As You Go but with the right search terms you can find a design to suit your needs.

• IFTT: Also known as If This Then That. A brilliant little app that runs in the background linking your favourite apps and services together with a little program called an Applet. You can link anything together, for example you can send yourself a text when your weather app forecasts rain. You can switch your heating on when you enter or leave a specific location. I personally have mine set up to send me an urgent email everytime I add something to my Notes app. It's been a lifesaver.

• Padlet: Padlet is a quick and informal way to collaborate. I like to use Padlet at company inductions as a Q&A. New starters can anonymously ask questions by writing little interactive Post-it notes. You can add sound and images too if you like and all changes are autosaved. There's no need for people to log in either as long as you have shared the link.

For fun:

• Lifecake: The resource I like to use for fun is Lifecake. As a new father I can upload and share a massive amount of photos with family. Better, all photos are displayed chronologically so you can watch your little one grow.

An article in Jinfo which I found particularly interesting:  

• A Jinfo article I recently found interesting was "Revolutionising big pharma with big data, visualisation and analytics" by Michelle Maxwell. Big data is a hot topic amongst information professionals in the pharma industry and trying to leverage this information into an edge.

Contribute Your "My Favourite Tipples"

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