Jinfo: Newsletter No. 283

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.

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Editorial

By Sara Waddington

Sara Waddington New research is now underway, to help everyone in the industry understand the impact of the economic downturn. Take 10 minutes to participate in FreePint's Economic Impact survey. If you provide a valid email address at the end (not associated with your responses), you will receive a copy of the full report upon publication, to better understand how your organisation's choices around content and staff budgets and priorities compare with those of your peers around the world.

In other research, FUMSI has published the FUMSI Report: Folio on Social Media in the Enterprise, including the results of our survey on social media practices, editorial comment from our Share contributing editor Martin Belam, and five practical articles on implementing and leveraging social media for business. Survey findings weighed usage of tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, online workshops and listservs against traditional offline resources like networking events and face-to-face conferences. We also gathered enlightening information on organisational policies on social media. Read more about the results on our press page, and purchase the report for further insight and expert advice, or subscribe to FUMSI to receive similar reports every month.

In this issue of the FreePint Newsletter, Ellen Naylor explains, in her article 'Cooperative Intelligence: Help Yourself by Helping Others' why cooperative intelligence - the process of developing your networks by finding ways to help others - can greatly boost your info gathering skills. You are helped because you help others: no strings attached. One of the key findings in knowledge management (KM) is that people share their knowledge only when they feel cared for and when they care for the organisation. It is not new technology that entices people to exchange data: it's the quality of the human relationship.

Bob Duckett draws on his years of experience to give handy tips on handling the wide range of questions that land at the public reference desk in his article 'Reference Desk: Tips on Using Your Wits'. He identifies the sort of things that members of staff need to consider when dealing with an enquiry as well as some of the common mistakes and pitfalls made.

Until next time...

Sara Waddington
Managing Editor
FreePint

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My Favourite Tipples

By Jill Foster

I have always been a great reader so here is a selection of handy book sites that may be useful for you.......

The Guardian has some excellent book reviews on its website as well as editors' picks of original writing, an A-Z of authors, a book club (hosted by John Mullan, professor of English at University College, London) and lists of books by genre.
Penguin has an interesting taster feature (first chapters of all Penguin's latest novels) available to download for free. You can read them on screen, download and print them or put them on your iPhone or Blackberry. You can also try out its eBook tasters.
The Times Online website also offers book reviews, as well as interviews with authors, Top 10 book lists, articles from The Times Literary Supplement, book extracts and a book group.
If you want to find a certain book anywhere in the UK and compare book prices between UK retailers before buying, then the Find-Book website could be of help. It covers audio books and also has a price watch feature to e-mail you whenever a book drops below the price you have specified.
Waterstones' website is useful for book searches, daily book news, downloadable audio books, book offers, competitions and also has its own book club.

Over her career, Jill Foster has held various company directorships and is an avid reader and information 'finder'.

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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School of Informatics
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/

With a postgraduate degree, you can earn up to 37% more than your colleagues who only have an undergraduate degree
(The Guardian, 17 Jan 2009)

Join our Master's courses in:

Information Science
Library Science
Information Management in the Cultural Sector

Our graduates find employment in library and information management, information research and analysis, resource description and information architecture.

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Also available: short courses for professional development
Past topics include Digital Forensics, Mobile Search, and Data Visualisation

Call us on +44 (0)20 7040 0248 or visit http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/.

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Order online »

For the cost of a single FUMSI report, you can get FUMSI for three months and share with every location of your organisation to gauge its value.

Take a no-obligation trial today and get:

July: FUMSI Report: Folio and Survey on Social Media in the Enterprise
August: FUMSI Report: Folio and Survey on Alternative Search
September: FUMSI Report: Folio and Survey on knowledge management.

Plus the monthly FUMSI Magazine and internal reuse of all materials -- intranet, internal newsletter, custom training packets...

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FreePint Bar

By Sara Waddington

Sara Waddington Data on university research projects, info services in the credit crunch, glucose syrup consumption and alternative search engines 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

Can anyone help a Bar member find sources that list current university research projects. He is looking in particular at those researching infectious diseases. Advice, hints and tips from the Bar would be greatly appreciated.
The mood on the street lately has been that the dust is starting to settle following economic upheaval. FreePint is conducting a survey to understand how information functions in organisations have weathered the storm. Please take a few minutes to participate. The survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete. Your responses will be completely anonymous. We will send a copy of the report to everyone who provides a valid email address.
One 'Pinter would appreciate the Bar's thoughts on finding data and sources for consumption of glucose syrup in Europe?
Another 'Pinter would like to know the Bar's experiences or knowledge of Risk Disk?.

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.

[FUMSI] Report: Folio on Social Media in the Enterprise
FUMSI has published the FUMSI Report: Folio on Social Media in the Enterprise, including the results of our survey on social media practices, editorial comment from our Share contributing editor Martin Belam, and 5 practical articles on implementing and leveraging social media for business...

[RS] Resource of the Week: How to Read a Privacy Policy
While we usually post reports on our sister site, DocuTicker, we wanted to make sure this one was seen by as many folks as possible. This report - from The Common Data Project, a nonprofit based in NYC - analyzes the privacy policies of 10 major websites, as well as several start-ups...

[VIP] Reviews of Alacra Pulse and RightTrade
Get an insider's view of two innovative products that make the most of new forms of publishing: Alacra Pulse and RightTrade, both reviewed in this month's VIP...

Visit the FreePint Feed »

Sara Waddington is Managing Editor of FreePint. She can be contacted at sara.waddington@freepint.com

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FUMSI Features

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:

Cooperative Intelligence: Help Yourself by Helping Others

By Ellen Naylor
FUMSI: Find

Competitive intelligence may have a bit of a cloak and dagger reputation, conjuring up images of secretive sleuthing. But Ellen Naylor makes a strong argument that Cooperative Intelligence - that is, voluntarily sharing information with others in our increasingly connected digital world - may yield better results for customers and companies in the end.

WHAT'S INSIDE: 'As I conduct my research, I often share some of my findings to those I am interviewing which often cause them to open up in ways that surprise me! I apply cooperative intelligence practices with my LinkedIn and Twitter connections. I have helped some LinkedIn folks find work, and answered questions under the Q&A in LinkedIn Groups.'

Read, print, save or forward this article now »

Reference Desk: Tips on Using Your Wits

By Bob Duckett
FUMSI: Use

The best training in the world may not always be enough when you're staffing a reference desk that serves the general public. From contextualizing to active listening to polite deflecting, Bob Duckett draws on his years of experience to provide tips for handling the wide range of questions that land at the public reference desk.

WHAT'S INSIDE: 'On being asked about shipping routes to West Africa, and wondering what source to seek, I was saved by the enquirer volunteering that he wanted to work his passage and happy being given Jobs Abroad from off the open shelves.'

Read, print, save or forward this article now »

Also recently added to the FUMSI database:

Browse all FUMSI articles »

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VIP Features

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. 68 includes:

Intriguing Results: The VIP Editorial Team details the results from a recent Outsourcing Survey conducted by Free Pint Ltd. and Integreon.
Close-Up: Highlights from Anne Jordan's detailed reviews of Alacra Pulse (a recent addition to the Alacra suite of products) and RightTrade, a media sentiment and financial analytics service.
Under Pressure: Licensing for re-use of newspaper content is set to extend to web sites from next year. VIP reports on this licensing story and rounds up the latest industry and product news.
A special two-page section called VIP Horizon. Based on conversations with subscribers, we are experimenting with ways to help you communicate internally around issues and challenges in information work. We invite VIP subscribers to extract the VIP Horizon pages, add your notes, and share them freely throughout their *entire* organisation, regardless of their distribution level.

In the next VIP: We review SkyMinder's aggregated credit database and Esmerk.

Purchase VIP Magazine No. 68 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.

VIP Wires Weekly is generously sponsored by LexisNexis.