Newsletter No. 147
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FreePint
"Helping 63,000 people use the Web for their work"
http://www.freepint.com/
ISSN 1460-7239 16th October 2003 No.147
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IN THIS ISSUE
-------------
EDITORIAL
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Natalie Pollecutt
FREEPINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
JOBS
Internet Research Analyst
Senior Researcher
Website Content Co-ordinator
Senior Lecturer in Information and Knowledge Management
Assistant Information Officer
TIPS ARTICLE
"Insurance: a review of websites"
By Trevor Harvey
BOOKSHELF
"About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design"
By Veronica Bezear
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Out of sight but not out of mind: virtual meetings"
By Alison Turner
EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
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>>> ABOUT FREEPINT <<<
FreePint is an online network of information searchers. Members
receive this free newsletter twice a month: it is packed with tips
on finding quality and reliable business information on the Internet.
Joining is free at <http://www.freepint.com/> and provides access to
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EDITORIAL
Why is it in this digital age we still find it so necessary to leave
our desks and actually meet people? Surely with the widespread
availability of real-time chatrooms, video conferencing, picture
mobile phones, etc., we don't need to meet people face-to-face at all.
Of course, it is still relatively easy to travel half way around the
world in the space of a day. We barely gave a second thought to our
round trip of 10,000 miles in the last week visiting North and West
India (photos to follow soon). Of course, there was the minor
inconvenience of a few injections, some obnoxious tablets and the fun
of getting a business visa in time. They're all tiny considerations
when you weigh up the enormous benefits gained from the contacts we
made at conference sessions and relationships formed in meetings.
There are many proponents of a digital world who say that everything
should be online. Hard-copy publications should be PDFs, meetings
should be virtual ones. However, I'm starting to realise that there
are many advantages to not following the crowd. I liken the
'online vs. offline' debate to that of investing money -- in the UK
at the moment everyone is focussing on investing in property because
stocks are doing so badly. A few years ago everyone invested in
stocks (before the 'dotcom correction'). If you had invested in
property at that time you'd be laughing now; likewise I'd be willing
to bet that if you invested in stocks now then you'll benefit
greatly when house prices level out (as they're beginning to do)
and the focus shifts again to the money people are making on stocks
and shares. You can hold me to that in a few years' time.
The message in our feature article today is that it's all about
balance. Take advantage of the timeliness of teleconferencing but
remember that there's nothing quite like shaking hands with someone,
especially at the beginning of a relationship. If everyone else is
sending out emails then something through the post will get you much
more attention. If a remote supplier of yours communicates with all
its clients virtually, then think of the advantages you'll gain by
jumping on a plane and going to see them.
Our recent travels confirmed how important this balance is. Ours may
be a 'virtual' business in many ways, but it doesn't have a future if
we forget about the importance and value of 'real' meetings.
Anyway, thank you for all your nominations for the 'Online
Information/FreePint Innovative Customer Service Award'. Voting closes
very soon so do get your skates on if you want your vote to be
recorded <http://www.freepint.com/events/online-info-2003/>. Report
sales are still strong, so if you have a topic you'd like us to cover
in the future then let us know <http://www.freepint.com/shop/report/>.
All the best
William
William Hann BSc(Hons) MCLIP
Founder and Managing Editor, FreePint
Email: <william.hann@freepint.com> Tel: +44 (0)1784 420044
Free Pint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2003
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"Practical Guide to Negotiating Licenses for Electronic Products"
ISBN 1904769012
If you negotiate licenses for electronic products then don't miss
this valuable report from FreePint. Tips on contract clauses, model
license agreements and more.
"Very useful document - informative, comprehensive and
commonsensical. I regard it as good value for money since
part of my job is to negotiate software licences."
<http://www.freepint.com/shop/report/>
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Natalie Pollecutt
The week before last week was the 100th anniversary of the formation
of the Women's Social and Political Union, and this year is also 75
years since women got the vote on equal terms with men in Britain.
Therefore, a set of topical Tipples:
* <http://learningcurve.pro.gov.uk/britain1906-18/> - Investigate
women, society and the vote using primary material from the National
Archives in the form of digitised documents, to ask who was for and
against women's suffrage, and why.
* <http://www.mepl.co.uk/java/jsp/ml_28.htm> - An article about the
visual imagery used by suffrage campaigners from the Mary Evans
Picture Library, which also supplies images of many campaigners and
events of the time.
* <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/women.htm> - Good overviews of
the individuals and organisations of the campaign, along with essays
on the place of women in society, strategy and tactics used by
campaigners, and parliamentary reform acts.
* <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/women/> - This site
has essays on the ideals of Victorian womanhood, women in the 20th
century and the suffrage campaign, and includes a useful historic
figures section.
* <http://www.iisg.nl/~womhist/vlwhtop.html#rights> - General
information on women's rights and suffrage from around the world,
from the excellent women's history virtual library of the
International Institute of Women's History in Amsterdam.
Natalie Pollecutt is a librarian at The Women's Library, where she
also helps maintain the Genesis website for women's history resources
in the British Isles.
Submit your top five favourite Web sites. See the guidelines at
<http://www.freepint.com/author.htm>.
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>>Online Information Exhibition FREE pre-registration now open<<
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>>> Award for innovative customer service - nominations please <<<
Voting closes soon for this information industry-wide award.
Cast your vote and reward innovative customer service:
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b25898>
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FREEPINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
It's fascinating reading some of the questions, answers and debates
at the Bar. It's not only the variety either, but the staggering
generosity and knowledge of FreePinters.
There aren't many (any?) questions which go unanswered and you can
always pick up good advice. Such as that given recently, along with
some warnings, on where to host Web sites and who to use when
registering/renewing domain names <http://www.freepint.com/go/b26020>.
We think WiFi is great as we're just starting to use it at FreePint.
It's not easy to specify a WiFi installation solution though so if
you're looking into it then read some of the advice given in this
thread <http://www.freepint.com/go/b25983>.
There are plenty of market research requests like one looking for the
market capitalisation of European stock indices such as FTSE, DAX, CAC,
IBEX <http://www.freepint.com/go/b25970>. Do you know where to find
the top five alarm companies in France, Germany, Italy and Spain
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b25958>?
How can one FreePinter identify the largest UK central government
agencies by employee size and IT budget
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b26118>? Is there a directory of
directories <http://www.freepint.com/go/b26120>? Is there an
authoritative work on empowerment and its effect on business
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b25960>? Or software that can data-match
between two large lists of companies
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b25913>?
Any and all help greatly appreciated.
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FREEPINT JOBS
<http://www.freepint.com/jobs>
FreePint Jobs -- the best place for information vacancies.
* VACANCY SEARCHING -- Free search and set up a weekly alert profile.
* VACANCY RECRUITING -- Complete the form and advertise a vacancy
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This week's selected listings are below. All new jobs are posted to
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at <http://www.freepint.com/go/b26091>.
Here are some of the latest featured jobs:
Internet Research Analyst
Determine information sources for markets, produce demonstrations,
monitoring companies, product development.
Recruiter: Magus Research Ltd
<http://www.freepint.com/go/j2720>
Senior Researcher
Strategic Senior Researcher to deal with overseas and U.K. research
initiatives in the financial services sector. High salary and bonus.
Recruiter: Glen Recruitment
<http://www.freepint.com/go/j2727>
Website Content Co-ordinator
Put your web skills to use near Leicester; develop content,
influence design, liaise with content providers; min 1yr exp.
Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment
<http://www.freepint.com/go/j2730>
Senior Lecturer in Information and Knowledge Management
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<http://www.freepint.com/go/j2744>
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Working in our busy Information and Resources Centre, this varied
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<http://www.freepint.com/go/j2746>
[The above jobs are paid listings]
Find out more today at <http://www.freepint.com/jobs>
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TIPS ARTICLE
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/161003.htm#tips>
"Insurance: a review of websites"
By Trevor Harvey
Insurance is central to most peoples' lives, whether it be insuring a
car, or the contents of a house, or providing a pension for
retirement. The UK insurance industry is the third largest in the
world employing 360,000 people. There are a huge number of websites
devoted to insurance - the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) say
there are over a thousand.
This review is split into two sections, concentrating on those sites
specifically aimed at the consumer and those which will be of more
interest to the information professional undertaking insurance
research, though the two categories are not, of course, mutually
exclusive. The review concentrates mostly on UK sites, though some
with a more international scope are also examined. Unfortunately,
some excellent sites were rejected for inclusion as they contained
many dead links or were not regularly updated.
For the consumer
================
The UK insurance web guide <http://www.uk-insurance-web.co.uk/>
explains the different kinds of insurance available and the points to
consider when choosing an insurance policy. A directory of policy
providers is categorised by different types of insurance, e.g. car,
home, boat, life, travel and health. Another site which provides links
to various insurance companies with details of the policies they offer
is the UK Insurance Company Directory
<http://www.uk-insurance-pages.co.uk/>.
An insurance broker is someone who advises consumers on their
insurance needs and negotiates on their behalf with insurers. On their
website, the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA)
<http://www.biba.org.uk/> proclaim that they are "the UK's leading
independent insurance body, representing both the insurance broker and
the consumer". The site provides advice on choosing a policy and the
role of an insurance broker. There is also a useful 'jargon buster' or
glossary.
Another organisation which emphasises the interests of consumers is
the General Insurance Standards Council
<http://www.gisc.co.uk/Home/default.asp> the UK watchdog established
"to set, monitor and enforce standards in all areas of general
insurance, including the fair treatment of customers". Their Private
Customer Code provides the consumer with important protection and
supplies guidance on taking out insurance as well as the procedures
for making claims and complaints.
The Financial Ombudsman Service
<http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/> was set up to provide
consumers with a free, independent service for resolving disputes with
financial firms, including complaints about insurance policies and
personal pension plans.
For the researcher
==================
A good place to start for someone new to insurance research is to
check out the Association of British Insurers (ABI) website
<http://www.abi.org.uk/>. The ABI represents around 400 companies,
transacting 95% of the business of UK insurance companies. The site
has a directory of UK insurance companies
<http://www.abi.org.uk/CompanyList/> with address and telephone details
and links to individual company websites. The 'key facts' section
provides a useful overview of the insurance industry in the UK. There
is also a statistics section, most of it on free access, but some of
the data is only available by purchasing it. The 'Insurance Zone'
contains information on specific insurance products (e.g. motor, travel,
illness). There is also the usual range of publications you get with
any major trade association website including responses to
consultation documents on proposals affecting the insurance market.
The insurance researcher would also be well advised to check out the
Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) website
<http://www.cii.co.uk/thecii/index.html>. The CII is "the largest and
most influential professional and educational organisation in the
global insurance and financial services industries today". The most
useful part of the CII website is the Information Services section
which is only available on subscription.
If you are looking for a good insurance current awareness service, you
could do worse than use the one provided by Insurance Times
<http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/>. The site also has a glossary of
terms.
A good portal is the Insurance Industry Internet Network
<http://www.iiin.com> which claims to connect to "thousands of
insurance related sites". There is a directory of insurance companies
on the internet <http://www.iiin.com/iiincompanies.html> and a similar
list of insurance law firms <http://www.insurancelawlist.com> and
insurance agents and brokers <http://www.iiin.com/iiinagents.html>.
There are also links to a wide variety of insurance related resources
on the web with a distinct North American bias, though there were an
unacceptably high number of dead links when I checked the site in
mid-September 2003.
I would not normally recommend one individual insurance company's
website over another, but an exception has to be made in the case of
Swiss Re <http://www.swissre.com/> who produce the highly regarded
'Sigma Insurance Research' reports. The website blurb informs us that
"the Sigma publication series provides comprehensive information on
the international insurance markets and in-depth analyses of economic
trends and strategic issues in insurance, reinsurance and financial
services, covering life and non-life business". There is also a useful
facts and figures section, covering, for example, the twelve biggest
insurance markets as a percentage of the global market.
London
======
The London Insurance Market is a distinct, separate part of the UK
insurance and reinsurance industry centred on the City of London. The
International Underwriting Association of London (IUA)
<http://www.iua.co.uk> is both a trade association, representing its
members' interests internationally, and a market association
supporting the business environment in London. The IUA site contains
useful marine and underwriting statistics going back to 1993.
Lloyd's
=======
According to their website <http://www.lloyds.com/index.asp> Lloyd's
of London is the world's leading insurance market providing specialist
insurance services to businesses in over 120 countries. It is the
world's second largest commercial insurer and sixth largest
reinsurance group. A proper evaluation of the Lloyd's website would
warrant a FreePint article all to itself, but among its many pages
are the 'Presentation toolkit' which provides up-to-date information
on the Lloyd's of London market, a 'Codes Handbook', market results,
capacity, market directories, a list of accredited Lloyd's brokers as
well as the usual news and publications sections. An important part
of the site is the 'Market and Regulatory Bulletins': market bulletins
are the formal means of advising the Lloyd's market of business
critical issues; notification of regulatory changes are made by means
of a regulatory bulletin. Like all websites that carry a lot of
information, the Lloyd's website is not that easy to find your way
around, but the information it contains is top quality stuff.
Cross-border
============
Nearly a quarter of UK insurance companies' net premiums is derived
from overseas business [ABI website: <http://www.abi.org.uk>] so it is
important to consider the international aspects of insurance business.
At a European level, the Comite Europeen des Assurances (CEA - the
European Federation of National Insurance Associations)
<http://www.cea.assur.org/> is an important organisation charged with
representing the common interests of European insurers by "promoting,
defending and illustrating their views in international bodies". The
website has statistics, newsletters and 'position papers' which are
commentary on insurance issues being discussed at an EU level. There
is a useful link to all the various European insurance associations.
Established in 1994, the International Association of Insurance
Supervisors (IAIS) <http://www.iaisweb.org/> represents insurance
supervisory authorities in some 100 jurisdictions. One of its remits
is to set international standards for insurance supervision and the
website has issue papers, guidance and other publications including a
glossary of terms.
Legal and regulatory
====================
Finally, anyone undertaking research into the insurance industry and
markets needs to be aware of current legal and regulatory
developments. In the UK, the Financial Services Authority (FSA)
<http://www.fsa.gov.uk> regulates over 800 authorised insurance
companies. EU developments are covered by the European Commission's
Directorate General (DG) for the Internal Market Financial Services
and their website
<http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/insurance/index_en.htm> has
a page devoted to insurance covering legislation both in force and in
preparation plus overviews of topics such as life assurance, insurance
mediation and reinsurance.
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Trevor Harvey has worked in the information profession for over 20
years and is currently Information Officer for the Financial
Institutions Group at global law firm Clifford Chance in London, which
has just become the first City law firm to relocate to Canary Wharf.
This is his fourth article for FreePint. His book 'The role of the
legal information officer' has recently been published by Chandos
Publishing and is available from Extenza-Turpin, Blackhorse Road,
Letchworth, Herts SG6 1HN, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1462 672 555, email:
<books@extenza-turpin.com>.
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Related FreePint links:
* 'Insurance' articles in the FreePint Portal
<http://www.freepint.com/go/p71>
* Post a message to the author, Trevor Harvey, or suggest further
resources at the FreePint Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar>
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/161003.htm#feature>
* Access the entire archive of FreePint content
<http://www.freepint.com/portal/content/>
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>>> VIP -- coming soon <<<
It's about information products and information people.
Coming soon from FreePint ...
<http://www.FreePintVIP.com/>
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>>> DigBig -- long URLs short <<<
Long Web addresses often break in emails
and are difficult to communicate verbally.
Shorten them using the popular free DigBig service:
<http://www.DigBig.com/>
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FREEPINT BOOKSHELF
<http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf>
"About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design"
By Veronica Bezear
At 506 pages of main text, this book is probably a little long for end
users to read simply for interest. As an information worker involved
in websites, evaluating or training on software, it is a useful if
lengthy 'should-read'. For those considering a career in usability
or interaction design this is, fairly obviously, a must-read.
As a user/information worker my first verdict was "I wish half the
programmers who designed the software I use had had to read this".
Cooper has a lively turn of phrase - "lipstick on the pig" for badly
designed software with a prettied-up user interface, "fascist-ware"
for programs which will only accept your input on their terms and,
expressing our typical frustration with programs which are not helping
us: "if a 10 year old child behaved like some software programs, he'd
be sent to his bed without any supper".
As well as the almost evangelical tone - taking up the cause of users
- there is an impressive amount of technical but mostly jargon-free
detail on building robust user-focussed interfaces. The book starts
from a description of the goal-directed design process (modelling
users and their goals, building scenarios) moves to general usability
issues (eliminating excise, making software considerate) to visual
design issues (designing look and feel) to detailed discussion of
interaction fundamentals (mice, controls, dialogs,) but surprisingly
does not question keyboards. He finishes with, for me, the most
thought-provoking sections on communicating with users (errors,
confirmations etc.) and current issues: designing for the web and for
embedded systems (mobiles kiosks etc). One-line "axioms" & "design
tips" flag up the issues which the authors see as most important
throughout the book, and are collated in appendices.
Programmers should probably read this but may well feel that as a
breed they have been unfairly treated with the message that they
cannot represent the interests of users on a design team as their
interests and motivations are focussed elsewhere. Online reactions I
read elsewhere varied from someone who wasn't sure about the author's
attitude to programmers, to an enthusiast who claimed to have read it
in a weekend (what, all of it?). Some in the industry may still find
the focus of this book too Microsoft or Windows focussed.
Between About Face and About Face 2.0 there has been a gap of eight
years, several lifetimes in software terms. It will be interesting to
see, by the time About Face 3.0 comes out, how many of his
recommendations have been taken up by the major vendors as common
practice and how many remain on the campaigning list. I look forward
to reading the next version, whenever it appears. I wouldn't imagine
we will have to wait eight years for it.
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Veronica Bezear is an Information Officer working for Surrey County
Council's Adults and Community Care service. She writes here in a
personal capacity.
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Related FreePint links:
* Find out more about this book online at the FreePint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf/face.htm>
* Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764526413/freepint0c>
or Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764526413/freepint00>
* "About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design"
ISBN 0764526413, published by John Wiley & Sons, written by
Alan Cooper, Robert M. Reimann.
* Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the FreePint
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FEATURE ARTICLE
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/161003.htm#feature>
"Out of sight but not out of mind : virtual meetings"
By Alison Turner
If I was to ask any of my colleagues in the health library community
whether they felt they had sufficient time to keep up to date, chances
are most would come back with an emphatic no! You're probably thinking
the same, as you snatch a few minutes from your busy schedule to read
FreePint. Our working days are a crammed schedule of meetings,
appointments, phone calls, enquiries and oh yes, professional
development activities. Finding a few minutes here and there to catch
up with colleagues, or with the latest news and developments, can be
difficult. Add to that the current joys and costs of travel, and
getting out to a meeting or training event can present some
interesting hurdles.
But, all is not lost, as there are now many ways to keep up to date
with colleagues without leaving your desk. Whilst there's no
replacement for face-to-face, there are some alternatives which can
help. This isn't a round-up of new technologies. It's more a picture
of how things look in the health library community right now. Some of
these tools have been around a while, some are new on the scene but
it's interesting to take a step back and look at how professional
communication has changed in the last few years.
Email lists, or discussion lists, have been around a while. I remember
using them as a student and that's going back some time now! Within
the health library community, the JISCmail service
<http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk> is heavily used, with the lis-medical list
generating over 150 messages a month. Whilst much of the communication
via mail lists is routine (e.g: help with interlibrary loans; help
with difficult searches), there are the occasional gems where
subscribers share their know-how and experience. A recent example: a
librarian was looking for new ideas to improve her information skills
training programme; following a request on a mail list, she was able
to gather the ideas and suggestions of a number of colleagues, share
with others online and adapt the suggestions to suit her local
circumstances. This kind of communication is great when it works - you
can ask a large body of people for thoughts, you may never have met
them or talked to them, and from that group you can generate ideas you
wouldn't have thought of on your own.
Teleconferencing and videoconferencing are also nothing new but are
being used in innovative ways, such as delivering search skills
training to remote users. Teleconferencing is great for brainstorming;
I was recently involved in a brainstorming call and it worked
exceptionally well. Within the NHS in England, teleconferencing has
recently been used as a training medium to accompany the national
rollout of electronic resources. The key benefit of teleconferenced
training is saved time: an hour of training takes an hour and there's
no travel to factor in. We're planning to use it to train health
professionals during an awareness campaign later in the year. It will
have the attraction of being short (10 minutes), available (day and
night thanks to recordings) and confidential (for those who are
embarrassed about not knowing search skills!).
Taking this a step further, professional associations, such as the
Special Libraries Association and the Medical Library Association, are
offering a range of virtual seminars. Both are US-based organisations,
but the virtual seminars they host are available to librarians around
the world. An opportunity to learn with international colleagues
without having to pay expensive air fares! Typically these take the
form of a teleconference linked to a simultaneous webcast. There are
opportunities to ask questions so, in essence, it's just like a
seminar. It's just on a bigger scale (geographically and in terms of
numbers) and you can't see the other participants.
Professional associations are developing extensive online resources to
support members, recognising that many find it difficult to attend the
annual conference and intermittent study days. Access to resources
online helps to avoid the sense of professional isolation and to
encourage professional development.
There are other smaller support networks operating virtually. At the
National electronic Library for Health (NeLH), we have recently led
the development of a Digital Libraries Network, bringing together
librarians and trainers interested in training and promotion. The idea
behind the network is to get people sharing ideas, experience and best
practice via a virtual community. We created an online resource
<http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/dlnet> to support the network which features
case studies, materials, know-how and tools. A key element of the
virtual community is a weblog <http://dlnet.blogspot.com>. Created in
June, the weblog was designed to encourage the network to share their
thoughts. We deliberately chose a weblog over a mail list as we felt
it to be less intrusive - with a mail list the messages come into
your inbox, relevant or not. With a weblog you just have to remember
to check it regularly and post something when you can. The weblog has
proved to be a very rich source of ideas. The best tips feed into our
Tip of the Week and other useful comments will be synthesised for our
Know How resource.
Blogging in libraries is nothing new and we had many excellent
examples to follow. At the time of writing, the directory of library
blogs at <http://www.libdex.com/weblogs.html> lists over 100 blogs and
there are a few I know of that aren't on there. Another favourite
listing is <http://www.hi.is/~anne/weblogs.html>. Blogging is an
interesting trend to watch but even more interesting to take part in.
I regularly visit a handful of blogs as they are a fantastic way of
keeping up to date with the latest news and developments - it's like
being spoon-fed information.
As well as keeping in touch with colleagues to share information and
ideas, librarians are making use of virtual communities to learn.
Universities have long provided distance learning and supporting
online resources. Email conferencing can be a great way to discuss
course themes and topics when students are remotely based. However,
such methods are being introduced into less formal learning
situations. Earlier this year, we ran a short pilot programme of
training for health librarians in the UK. The pilot consisted of
three modules, on project management, service evaluation and evidence-
based librarianship. Modules were delivered via email and the web
only; there were no printed materials and no events. Students were
allocated buddies to work through the course materials; some tasks
were oriented to individual working and some to buddy working. The
pilot proved successful and the evaluation suggested a number of ways
of improving the experience for students.
However, many would argue there is no substitute for face-to-face
contact. For example, there is a big debate about the value of
e-learning against traditional face-to-face. So what does
face-to-face really offer?
Not so long ago, I heard a speaker say (at a training event on virtual
working) that the half life of trust is three months. This has been
attributed to Jeremy Scanlan, former manager at Digital Equipment
Corporation; he was talking about why distributed teams need to meet
face-to-face occasionally. What this means is that to build
relationships we need to see people, meet them face-to-face, every six
months or so. To build and maintain relationships with key colleagues,
there has to be some face-to-face connection.
The pros and cons of virtual versus face-to-face came out strongly in
the evaluation of our pilot online training programme. Positive
comments included:
* "[...] overcomes problems of distance to venue, time out (although
strict time management required!) and relevancy ... all the topics
are extremely pertinent"
* "[the best thing about the course was] being able to experiment with
virtual 'group work' with my buddy"
* "[the best thing about the course was] not having travel and find
parking spaces"
* "[the worst thing about the course was] not having the interaction
you get on a face-to-face course. Having a Buddy is fine, and it was
the two Buddy exercises were really useful, but on a day course it's
the chat over coffee and lunch as much as the formal sessions which
add to the overall learning experience."
"[the worst thing about the course was] lack of face-to-face with the
facilitator e.g. questions at end of talks"
So it would seem that face-to-face contact remains an important part
of librarians' professional networking. Although we now have many
different ways of communicating with our colleagues, we still crave
that social contact. So the study day is not at risk but perhaps
better reserved for those occasions which benefit most from the
face-to-face contact. The virtual world connects us to our colleagues
and is a great way to keep up to date and share ideas. If we were to
look back a few years, professional communication was very different.
Whilst the technologies themselves may not be new, ability to access
these different media is perhaps new. For example, I now schedule
teleconferencing, blogging and other such activities alongside
face-to-face meetings and training events. Faced with such drivers as
the growing popularity of weblogs, the rollout of broadband and the
falling costs of conferencing, the virtual meeting place may very
soon become a common feature of a health librarian's day.
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Alison Turner works as the Library Partnership Co-ordinator with the
National electronic Library for Health <http://www.nelh.nhs.uk>, which
sits within the National Health Service in England. Alison has worked
in health libraries for around 9 years, having previously worked in
hospital, research and academic settings.
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