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14th May 2009
No.277
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About FreePint
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FreePint publishes newsletters, websites, magazines and resources for the information industry. The FreePint Family of publications publishes practical tips, product reviews, expert tips, research collections and hands-on tools to support information work of all kinds. The FreePint Bar provides a Q&A forum for getting your research questions answered and building a network of peers worldwide.
This twice-monthly free FreePint Newsletter serves as a guide to the latest content, including discussion at the Bar, tips articles, vacancies, professional development events, product reviews, editorial commentary and more. Subscribing is free and connects you with the information community around the world. Subscribe today.
The latest announcements, including publication contents, can always be found at the FreePint Feed. Subscribe to RSS for the FreePint Feed for fastest updates.
Please share FreePint with others by forwarding this newsletter.
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Editorial
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By Sara Waddington
 FreePint is proud to be a media partner for the Perfect Information Conference (PIC) coming up in May. If you are considering attending, we invite you to submit your thoughts and comments to our special report, made up of commentary from delegates and speakers. Can't make it? You can still get the benefit of delegates' experience by requesting your free copy of the resulting report, to be published in late May. Simply complete the form and you'll receive your copy upon publication.
 In this issue of the FreePint Newsletter, Kate Worlock examines trends in the ebook market, listing the pros and cons of digital and print books. See Kate's article 'EBooks and Traditional Texts: Complementary or Mutually Exclusive?'. According to Kate, Outsell's recent EBooks Market Size, Share and Forecast Report estimates that the global market for EBook content in 2008 was US$150 million, with the bulk of that accounted for by consumer fiction. The presence of stand-alone readers and opportunities offered by other devices has provided a real market stimulus and a great opportunity for publishers to learn about user needs.
Fran Alexander takes a critical look at folksonomies, user-generated content systems, in her article 'Folksonomies: Business Use'. These are gradually finding their way into business settings and have become very popular on content-sharing websites such as Flickr and Delicious. Folksonomies are fluid, responsive and encourage personal expression, so for niche groups, customers, non-critical content and for fun, they have much to offer.
In future issues of FUMSI, we will be looking at proving the value an info pro offers to his/her organisation. How important is it for you to add value to your work product? Do you know if you've added value? Participate in our brief survey and receive a copy of the summary report.
We are always interested in article ideas, suggestions and new article submissions. Publishing with FreePint is a great way to reflect on your experience, further your career and build a portfolio of published work.
Sara Waddington
Senior Managing Editor
FreePint
FreePint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2009
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 Develop Your Strengths with Quantum2
For a wide array of hands-on training and resource materials, turn to Quantum2, an innovative skills development programme provided *free* by Dialog. The programme helps information professionals:
- Expand your services through strategic and business competencies
- Improve flow of information in your organisation
- Gain visibility and build value for your work
Discover best practices, *plus* the know-how to implement them.
Free monthly newsletter and further information at: http://quantum.dialog.com/
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My Favourite Tipples
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By Zena Woodley
I'm at home recuperating from a foot operation right now: non-weight-bearing on my right foot for 8 weeks...that's a lot of hopping about. What I've found most useful is an office chair (as used with a PC) in the kitchen, to help me zoom from one end to another, and my grateful thanks to Catherine Ebenezer for suggesting this!
- The Birman Cat Club is the official site for these beautiful animals. I always look at the rescue pages and wish that I could own one - or better, two - again.
- Check the Eurostar site. I'm looking to travel to France soon - and I wanted to check the price difference between flying and going by train. By the time one pays add-ons with Ryanair, there's not such a big difference!
- The other site I've found - apologies to everyone who knows about this - is the wonderful Craig's List. This is the London URL - however, the site has links to many other countries. Brilliant for rooms if you want to visit somewhere like, say, Berlin, or Barcelona - or choose somewhere further afield!
- Now, something that is work-related....I am using some of the time while I'm at home to ponder A Plan...This site is very useful to direct my thoughts!
- Also, this site is a useful tool.....
I hope to bounce in with élan come early July!
Zena Woodley believes that, in a strange way, all her previous jobs have been preparation for her present post, in the Warner Library of Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. She has worked in a whole string of specialist information services, including (among many others) Inmos, Arup, Hydraulics Research Ltd and Verdict, as well as the information services of both Aslib and CILIP. Now she's been successful in moving the Warner from its former very medical focus more into the centre stream, reminding people that its strapline is 'The Warner Library: working for ALL'. In the wider profession, she'll be representing Essex health library and information professionals at county level in the coming year, as well as being closely involved with the East of England Confederations Library & Knowledge Services Alliance.
Would you like to add your Favourite Tipples suggestions for the FreePint Newsletter or write an article for FUMSI (Find, Use, Manage or Share Information?).
If so, please contact Sara Waddington at sara.waddington@freepint.com with your ideas or visit <http://web.freepint.com/go/family/contribute>.
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Just published in VIP:
- Product Reviews of Newser, SeeNews and Mergent Online
- Announcements of new legal products from both LexisNexis and Westlaw
- Exclusive interview with Kim Zwollo of Springer Science + Business Media
Buy this issue, or save money by subscribing now »
Subscribers receive in-depth product reviews as stand-alone reports; or purchase just the reviews you need.
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The Market for Info Skills has Changed...
So has Jinfo.
Check out expanded offering - professional development events as well as vacancies: http://www.jinfo.com/
How can we enhance Jinfo further? Help us with your suggestions by completing our brief survey: http://digbig.com/4yknr
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FreePint Bar
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By Sara Waddington
Guidelines for photo libraries, value add, collaborative working ideas and trade journal circulation figures are hot topics on the Bar at the moment. See a round-up of recent conversations below and click through to join the discussion. Post your research dilemmas to the FreePint Bar »
FreePint Bar
- One 'Pinter requests help with the set-up of a photo-library system/database that will store full res images for retrieval, and share these with certain groups, perhaps via a password protected website.
- How important is it for you to add value to your work product? Do you know if you've added value? Take our brief FreePint survey (4 questions), and receive a copy of the summary report. The results will be published in a future issue of FUMSI and through other resources in the FreePint Family.
- Another 'Pinter would appreciate help on collaborative working ideas such as wiki working practices as well as key players, countries that promote its use in government depts and/or organisations that could be approached.
- Can you offer a FreePinter your ideas on sources that will give circulation or readership figures for trade journals or magazines in the subject area of engineering and manufacturing (business or trade oriented publications)?
- FreePint is proud to be a media partner for the Perfect Information Conference (PIC) coming up in May. If you are considering attending, we invite you submit your thoughts and comments to our special report, made up of commentary from delegates and speakers. Can't make it? You can still get the benefit of delegates' experience by requesting your free copy of the resulting report, to be published in late May. Simply complete the form and you'll receive your copy upon publication.
Visit the FreePint Bar »
FreePint Feed
The FreePint Feed keeps you up to date on what's new across all the sites in the FreePint Family.
Visit the FreePint Feed »
Sara Waddington is Senior Managing Editor of FreePint. She can be contacted at sara.waddington@freepint.com
The FreePint Bar is where you can get free help with your tricky research questions.
Subscribe to the free FreePint Digest to receive a weekly update of the latest Bar discussion, plus FreePint Feed announcements.
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FUMSI Features
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 FUMSI publishes articles, tools, and a monthly magazine, to give you practical help with information skills.
Visit http://www.fumsi.com/
However you Find, Use, Manage or Share Information, you'll find something in FUMSI to help.
Become a fan of FUMSI on Facebook »
We add new articles to the FUMSI database in each practice area every month, which are free to read, browse, email, print or save. Here are the most recent additions:
EBooks and Traditional Texts: Complementary or Mutually Exclusive?
FUMSI: Use
The EBooks market seems to have been poised for success for years, but widespread adoption has been more promise than substance. Kate Worlock looks at comparative adoption rates for different types of content and academic environments and explains why new devices may help EBooks achieve their promise - or not.
WHAT'S INSIDE: 'While students were initially fascinated with their Sony Readers, they soon became frustrated with the devices' limited interactivity capabilities which made it impossible to highlight passages, cut and paste text, or participate in interactive quizzes. Lack of content is also a problem, as is cost.'
Read, print, save or forward this article now »
Folksonomies: Business Use
FUMSI: Manage
Folksonomies are gaining favour as a free content organisational system on sites like Flickr and del.icio.us, but that doesn't make them ready for business prime time. Fran Alexander explores the pros and cons of folksonomies in the workplace and provides some insight into balancing the costs and benefits of crowd-sourced tagging.
WHAT'S INSIDE: 'Appropriate rewards to encourage tagging will depend on the type of content and the corporate culture. If people feel that they are spending a lot of time tagging, but others are benefiting more than them, or that they are adding helpful tags and other people are adding self-promotional or silly tags, they may become disillusioned and the folksonomy will stagnate.'
Read, print, save or forward this article now »
Also recently added to the FUMSI database:
Browse all FUMSI articles »
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Discover Nexis®Direct
LexisNexis® offers world-class content, information and workflow solutions for professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, accounting and academic markets - to make their jobs faster, easier and more productive.
Nexis, our comprehensive news and business information service and Nexis®Direct, our new tool for business users, provide quick access to premium content covering news, companies, executives and industries worldwide.
To find out more, visit our website or call us on 020 7400 2984.
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VIP Features
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VIP publishes in-depth, unbiased reviews of business information products. If you purchase or use premium information resources, make VIP part of your professional reading every month »
 VIP Magazine No. 65 includes:
- Head-to-Head: In virtually simultaneous announcements, LexisNexis has launched Lexis Legal Intelligence, and Westlaw has caught the moment of regulatory angst with its Securities-UK Centre
- Positioning EBooks: Kim Zwollo of Springer Science + Business Media talks about the thinking behind Springer's EBook strategy
- What's New: Jill Fenton reviews two news products, Newser and SeeNews, and Diana Nutting looks at Mergent Online, a suite of information resources designed to enable business and financial research
- Cleaning Up: Kate Simpson reports on the impact that enterprise information architecture is beginning to have on the world of legal information.
In the next VIP: VIP reviews ReadyImage and NewsEdge
Purchase VIP Magazine No. 65 from the VIP Website, or start your subscription now.
VIP LiveWire
VIP contributing editors comment daily on what's happening in the industry.
Visit the LiveWire for their insights, and subscribe to the free VIP Wires Weekly for regular alerts.
Recent posts:
- One of the topics that came up repeatedly at SIIA's NetGain conference on the convergence of content and technology in San Francisco on May 4 and 5 was enterprise-class video search solutions.........
Direct link to posting: http://www.vivavip.com/go/e19344
- Along with capital, intelligence remains the lifeblood of any business, and both are undergoing spasms at the moment.........
Direct link to posting: http://www.vivavip.com/go/e19264
- As part of the Infosecurity Europe exhibition in London this week, (http://digbig.com/4yrcf) 600 commuters at London railway stations were asked if they would sell their company's secrets.........
Direct link to posting: http://www.vivavip.com/go/e19251
VIP
LiveWire »
VIP Wire
Information-related product and news announcements. Post your
releases and receive news FREE.
VIP Wire »
VIP - Subscribe
and Back Issues
Start a trial subscription today for only £80 for three months. Visit http://www.vivavip.com/sample.html to start your trial. You can also purchase back-issues of VIP from the VIP Archive.
VIP Archive »
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Just Published:
Folio on Competitive Intelligence
Brush up skills, develop new ones and learn directly from the experts
FUMSI Report: Folio on Competitive Intelligence
Includes tips and techniques provided by:
- Jane John
- Heather Carine
- Arthur Weiss
- Sarah Hinton
- Donna Fryer
- Christine Hamilton-Pennell
PLUS commentary, advice and additional resources provided by Marcy Phelps, FUMSI Contributing Editor: Find
Learn more and purchase »
Or subscribe to FUMSI to receive all FUMSI Reports as part of your subscription.
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Attending SLA's Annual Conference? Or wish you could?
Register your interest in
SLA's Centennial Celebration in Washington, D.C. in June 2009.
We'll keep you informed:
- Insider information on where and when to meet FreePint editorial
staff, including Gary Price, Shirl Kennedy, Marcy Phelps and others
- An invitation to FreePint events and receptions
- Exclusive updates during the conference on what's happening, when it
happens
- Opportunities to submit your insights and observations to FreePint's
SLA Special Report, to be published in July
- A free copy of the published report, chock full of on-the-ground
reporting from your peers!
Can't make it? You can still request your copy of the report.
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Jinfo - Jobs and Events in Information
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 Jinfo is the central location for supporting your information career. The Jinfo Jobs database lists vacancies, and the Jinfo Events database lists workshops, conferences, training, webinars and other professional development opportunities.
Start a free subscription to receive the weekly Jinfo Update, with a complete list of the latest vacancies and events, or search the databases at any time (free).
Jinfo Jobs in the FreePint Newsletter are supported through our partnership with Quantum2, an innovative skills development programme offered by Dialog. Learn more at <http://quantum.dialog.com/>.
Jinfo Jobs:
Here is a selection of the latest featured vacancies in the Jinfo database:
- Saturday Assistant (7 hours)
Working as part of the Music Library team, you will assist customers and deal with enquiries and stock work.
Recruiter: City of Westminster
Country: United Kingdom
- Research Services Manager
Research Services Manager required by leading UK law firm to provide and manage full range of legal research support services.
Recruiter: Weekes Gray Recruitment
Country: United Kingdom
- Research/Analyst - Financial Services
Senior Financial Services Researcher/Analyst with strong writing skills for newly created position with Central London consultancy.
Recruiter: Glen Recruitment
Country: United Kingdom
- Archivist & Records Manager
Our client is looking for an Archivist & Records Manager to join its London office for a four month...
Recruiter: TFPL
Country: United Kingdom
- Information Specialist
3 month role setting up a legal info resource covering book and online sources for a government department.
Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment and Services Limited
Country: United Kingdom
Browse all Jinfo
Jobs »
Jinfo Events:
Here is a selection of the latest featured events in the Jinfo database:
Browse all Jinfo
Events »
Jinfo - the best place for information-related job vacancies and professional development opportunities.
- RECRUITING?
- Advertise a vacancy for just GBP 195
- 10% discount for agencies
- 50% discount for registered charities
- RUNNING AN EVENT?
List it on Jinfo to reach a targeted audience seeking professional development opportunities
- Get started at <http://web.jinfo.com/events/load/>
- Partner events listed for free; enquire at <support@jinfo.com>.
Find out more today at <http://www.jinfo.com/>
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Highlights from ResourceShelf and DocuTicker
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 Every week, the editors of ResourceShelf explore a Resource of the Week. Get them for free every week via email by subscribing to the ResourceShelf Newsletter.
Become a fan of ResourceShelf and DocuTicker on Facebook.
Recently published:
- Resource of the Week: OECD Economics Department by Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - basically an international forum comprising 30 industrialized nations has, for about 40 years, 'been one of the world's largest and most reliable sources of comparable statistics and economic and social data'. Because it exchanges information with more than 100 other countries, the information available here goes well beyond the borders of its membership.
Read the rest, including live links »
DocuTicker publishes citations of full-text, free reports available on the web. Visit daily for new postings, or subscribe to the weekly DocuTicker Newsletter.
Highlights:
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Gold
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A look back at what the FreePint Newsletter covered at this time in previous years:
- FreePint No. 252, 8th May 2008. "Identity Theft: The Fastest Growing Crime Wave and Our Role" and "Managing Successful Vendor Contracts: Part 2"
- FreePint No. 229, 3rd May 2007. "Plastic Cash: A History of Money and the Credit Card in America" and "Special Report: Information Architecture Summit 2007"
- FreePint No. 205, 4th May 2006. "Gleaning consumer intelligence from blogs and podcasts" and "Trends in business information, provision and use"
- FreePint No. 182, 12th May 2005. "Ready, Steady, Go! Finding the right time for job hunting" and "Analysing corporate websites for competitive intelligence"
- FreePint No. 159, 6th May 2004. "Working in Older Age" and "Marketing for the Info-Entrepreneur"
- FreePint No. 137, 15th May 2003. "Net the Ancestors: the Internet and Family History" and "Business Continuity and Recovery - An Asian Perspective"
- FreePint No. 112, 16th May 2002. "Video Games Industry Research" and "Weblogs and Blogging - Part 2"
- FreePint No. 87, 10th May 2001. "2001 - The Internet Election?" and "Information Provision for the Information Providers"
- FreePint No. 62, 11th May 2000. "Idiots' guide to UK employment law sites on the Internet" and "Gimme a G for Global, a G for Geography"
- FreePint No. 38, 13th May 1999. "Patent information on the Internet - can you afford to ignore it?" and "Lurking on Lists"
- FreePint No. 14, 14 May 1998. "Six Opinions on Internet World UK" and "Deafblind access to the Web"
FreePint Newsletter Archive »
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| Forthcoming Articles - Provisional
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Contact Information
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Address:
Free Pint Limited
4-6 Station Approach Ashford, Middlesex TW15 2QN, United Kingdom
Telephone:
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Directions and maps: <http://www.freepint.com/contact.htm>
Contributors to this issue:
Sara Waddington (Senior Managing Editor, FreePint), Kate Worlock, Fran Alexander, Zena Woodley, Nancy Davis Kho (Copyeditor), Robin Neidorf (General Manager), William Hann (Publisher), Douglas Brown (Proofreader).
Advertisers/Sponsors:
Quantum2 from Dialog, LexisNexis, Sue Hill Recruitment and Services Limited, Glen Recruitment, TFPL, Weekes Gray Recruitment, City of Westminster.
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