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FreePint Newsletter No.363
15th November 2012
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 It makes me a wee bit crazy (crazier?) when I hear of young people choosing a programme of study because it claims to provide practical training for the workplace. Yes, there are both theoretical and practical skills that young graduates should know in order to enter the work environment. But the most important foundation for their careers is one that is never - I think - emphasised enough: the ability to be perpetual learners.
Work today necessitates knowledge of a vast array of different requirements, many more than it did even five years ago, and the pace of change shows no sign of slowing down. The ability to learn new ideas and skills and adapt them to an ever-changing workplace needs to be on every worker's CV. And the hiring strategy for every organisation that desires long-term resilience needs to include finding and cultivating people with these abilities.
The learning-focused organisation is a special interest of mine and has most recently resulted in my editorial for this month's FreePint Report: Knowledge Management, as well as the establishment of a special page on FreePint to document commentary about learning (especially distance learning). I'd love to hear from you about how your organisation is making formal and informal learning part of its long-term strategies.
Of course, we hope that FreePint itself is part of your learning strategy, given the critical importance that information and information-related skills play in business success. This issue of FreePint offers shareable insights on knowledge sharing (see what I did there?) and information overload, as well as new reports on Linex Systems and BvD's Mint, and early results from our annual survey on news needs and preferences.
Whatever kind of learning you need, I hope you'll find assistance through FreePint. Register for upcoming free webinars on how to conduct research on private companies and understanding the value of scientific and technical information for "the rest of us".
Coming soon in 2013: learning-focused communities of practice, solely for FreePint subscription holders - yet another reason to make FreePint part of your 2013 plans. If you haven't yet done so, please complete our online form, "How can FreePint help?" to start the process of making our resources part of your organisation's learning.
By Robin Neidorf
Director of Research, FreePint
robin.neidorf@freepint.com
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My Favourite Tipples
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 By Marcella Dulka
I'd like to share a few of my favourite websites that help me accomplish my assigned duties and tasks at Ecolab.
- I review my Meltwater News alerts which form the basis of the five newsletters that I produce for our R&D and business groups in Ecolab.Google Alerts: Google Alerts are very helpful when tracking a specific company, person or locale over time by notifying me when that name shows up anywhere on the Internet - including web pages, news articles, job listings, blogs and webcasts that match my search term.
- I keep in touch with business associates and vendors along with reviewing and contributing to user and interest groups through LinkedIn.
- Crain's Chicago Business contains Chicago, Illinois (US) area business news and events. It also keeps me informed of area industry news, company financials, M&A and divestitures.
- Industrial Information Resources is a great place for me to find out about manufacturing plant information in various industries such as pulp and paper, food and beverage and other industry sectors.
- I receive a weekly newsletter and read the monthly electronic issue of Industry Week. This trade journal's purpose is to cover the manufacturing industry, but I find valuable insights on markets, industries and companies in every issue in addition to the daily news on their website.
Marcella Dulka is Supervisor of Ecolab's Global Knowledge Sharing (GKS) for the Naperville, Illinois (US) site. She has been with Ecolab (formerly Nalco Company) for 28 years. Before joining the GKS staff in 1997, she was a member of the support staff for various business groups at Nalco Company. This experience gave her a solid foundation for her present responsibilities, which include supervision of support staff, business, industry and competitive intelligence, operations, collection, journal subscriptions, vendor negotiations and literature research. Marcella graduated with a BS in management from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.
Would you like to submit your Favourite Tipples suggestions to the FreePint Newsletter? Find out more »
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Nothing Fits Quite Like A NewsEdge Solution!
We specialise in crafting a custom fit of our NewsEdge services into your workflow. The end result is a powerful real-time news management solution tailored for how your end users need their information.
Whether you need to deliver current news to an intranet, alerts to a mobile device or custom newsletter to your executive staff, NewsEdge will make you look good. We are not a "one size fits all" solution. It's our tailoring that makes all the difference!
Let us show you more with a tailored demonstration fit just for you.
Find out more at www.newsedge.com. Follow us on: Twitter - Facebook
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 Don't Be Mystified by STM
Technical information can play a central role in competitive intelligence, business development, and risk management. But if you don't "get" it or know where to find it, your organization can't get the benefits.
Join the upcoming FreePint Webinar to understand the types, uses and strategic advantage of STM (scientific, technical, medical) content in any corporate setting. We'll look at several examples of the types of content you can use or recommend, where to find them, and how they can be part of effective planning and decision-making.
Free registration, but seats are limited:
Tuesday, 4 December
9 a.m. Pacific / noon Eastern / 5 p.m. UK
Register now »
This session is generously sponsored by Springer.
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FreePint Features
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 FreePint Features offers the latest commentary on trends, issues and opportunities in the information world, as well as examples of how organisations use FreePint resources to raise the value of information.
Selection of the latest FreePint Features articles:
- All Things To All People?
By Scott Brown on Tuesday, 13th November 2012
It continues to be clear that information professionals bring valuable skills and services to our users in a variety of ways. But should we try to be all things to all people - or do a few things really well? The question continues to plague us, and also continues to offer us flexibility and opportunity.
- Knowledge Management: It's About the Motives
By Robin Neidorf on Tuesday, 13th November 2012
FreePint Director of Research, Robin Neidorf, discusses knowledge management: you've got all the tools and technologies so why aren't staff tapping into the corporate know-how? Understanding what motivates your workforce is essential to ensure that staff make full use of KM tools available to them.
- Guide, Aggregator, Evaluator, Facilitator
By Scott Brown on Tuesday, 6th November 2012
I confess - when I was growing up, the only thing I asked for from any librarian was a good book recommendation. In grade school, I needed information on Alaska - and the librarian gave me a book on Alaska. In college, I needed some reading and criticism on Robert Burns - and the librarian pointed me to books by and about Robert Burns. It simply did not occur to me to ask the librarian for assistance beyond a book.
- Information Along a Continuum
By Robin Neidorf on Thursday, 1st November 2012
Labels like "free" and "fee" suggest firm boundaries between types of information, when the reality is quite a bit more fluid. In this FreePint Newsletter editorial, Director of Research Robin Neidorf comments on the latest data from our annual Survey on News Needs and Preferences, along with recent additions to our collection of Articles and Reports that cover a continuum of value-exchange.
- Making Inroads into the Organisation
By Scott Brown on Tuesday, 30th October 2012
The concept of 'embedded librarianship' feels as if information professionals somehow insinuated themselves into a more strategic position in the organisation (which, in part, is exactly what we did). This Information Practice Newsletter editorial reflects some other stealthy ways that information professionals are making inroads into the organisation.
- Linex Systems: Current Awareness Monitoring Simplified
By Jan Knight on Tuesday, 30th October 2012
If your role includes seeking, reviewing and culling information to be shared with others, this Current Awareness Management tool from Linex Systems may be worth a look.
- The Latest News on News Content
By Robin Neidorf on Tuesday, 30th October 2012
With data collection for the 2012 iteration of the FreePint Survey: News Needs and Preferences well underway, trends regarding corporate use of free and fee resources demonstrate unresolved tension for information professionals. Respondents to date indicate their strong and growing appreciation for premium features like reporting and targeted searching; at the same time, they remain convinced that usage of free resources will grow in the coming year. Read more and participate in the survey.
- BvD's Mint: A Fresh Approach to Business Intelligence
By Dale Moore on Monday, 29th October 2012
'Business intelligence' is usually used as a collective term for a diverse group of technologies, tools and processes which help organisations make more informed strategic business decisions. Bureau van Dijk's Mint, a fresh approach to business intelligence, is one such tool. If you need access to high quality company information backed up by industry reports and news - no matter what your role in the organisation - Mint could be just what you need.
- Endorsements and "Networked individualism"
By Scott Brown on Tuesday, 23rd October 2012
Blog posts and tweets are one thing to use and manage as information sources. How do we begin to make sense of and integrate "content" - and it IS content - such as number of endorsements for a particular skill, or star ratings? And how is an increasingly networked world shift expectations for managing information?
- ... More ...
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Perpetual Learners Create Resilient Organisations
Smart organisations make learning part of their personnel development strategies. As quickly as the world changes, workers ready and able to learn new skills, ideas and approaches will create resilient organisations.
FreePint supports your learning and your organisation's resilience through increased focus on where knowledge management and distance learning come together. Read more about our approach.
Ready to develop your own strategy for creating a learner-focused environment? Start with Director of Research Robin Neidorf's recently released book, "Teach Beyond Your Reach" and trade topic-focused teaching with learner-focused interactions.
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There's More Valid Information than You Might Think on Private Companies
If your target company has European partners, suppliers, customers, or owners, you can access valid information about financials, personnel and more. And you might be surprised to learn how many European connections even the most unassuming US private company may have.
Join this free webinar to learn about valid and useful data available to you to support research on private companies. We'll work through a number of real-world examples, as well as discuss the regulatory, legal and economic context in which information is gathered and made available in Europe.
Learn more and register »
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FreePint Subscription
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 Articles and reports included in a FreePint Subscription provide customer organisations with practical insight to support information practice, content purchasing and usage, and strategic planning.
Subscribers can click any link to login and view the full item. If you have not yet purchased a FreePint Subscription, learn more about the benefits now.
Selection of FreePint Subscription articles and reports:
- Mendeley's Research Report Proves Open Access Boosts Productivity
By Penny Crossland on Wednesday, 14th November 2012
Coinciding with the global open access week initiative, Mendeley, the cloud-based database providing access to academic and scientific research papers, has published the Global Research Report. The report, which is a useful research tool in its own right, contains statistics based on Mendeley's two million users worldwide and more than 65 million uploaded research papers. All this ties in with recent UK Government efforts to boost open access with £10 million worth of funding and to comply with the Research Council UK Open Access Policy, which was launched in July of this year.
 FreePint Report: Knowledge Management
Published on Tuesday, 13th November 2012
FreePint Director of Research, Robin Neidorf, discusses knowledge management: you've got all the tools and technologies so why aren't staff tapping into the corporate know-how? Understanding what motivates your workforce is essential to ensure that staff make full use of KM tools available to them.
- New Video Curation Tools Let You Filter Cute Kitten Virals
By Penny Crossland on Thursday, 8th November 2012
As information professionals, we know that video news has become an important part of the mix when searching for business news. However, with 72 hours of video being uploaded every minute on YouTube alone, how do you sort the wheat from the chaff - the cute baby videos and the Fenton, the dog videos from those that contain relevant nuggets of information? The answer lies in video curation, and in recent months there have been launches of new apps and other tools worth mentioning.
- Too Much Data? Trust Your Judgement
By Tim Buckley Owen on Monday, 5th November 2012
Salesforce.com continues to grow its portfolio to unify social listening, content, engagement, advertising, workflow, automation and measurement. While sales executives may have access to more data than ever in crafting their sales territories or incentive plans, concern about misleading, incomplete or out-of-context data is leading at least a third of these executives to place some reliance on their "best guess".
 FreePint Report: Information Services Management Monthly Update (October 2012)
Published on Friday, 2nd November 2012
This monthly update collects the current content relevant to those responsible for information service management, information strategy and content procurement in a convenient PDF package for download and offline reading.
- Inventing Our Own Future
By Scott Brown on Thursday, 1st November 2012
Users are well aware that the information environment is changing, and they're having their own struggles navigating this space. We have a huge opportunity in addressing that pain point, among others. That's a huge challenge, but an even bigger opportunity for information professionals. How often do we get to invent the future? And what are we going to do about it?
- What You Can Do to Improve Knowledge Sharing
By James Mullan on Thursday, 1st November 2012
We all know how important it is for organisations to create and share knowledge. This is especially true in the legal sector, where knowledge of the law and legal subjects is what a law firm sells. Yet knowledge sharing within law firms can be especially difficult. There are many reasons why this is the case, but knowledge staff can take steps to improve knowledge sharing.
- Forget BYOD, It's Time to COPE
By James Mullan on Wednesday, 31st October 2012
Earlier this year I wrote about some of the challenges which organisations face when considering how they can encourage and develop a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. Whilst the popularity of BYOD has grown during 2012, a new concept is being discussed which might bring an end to some of the challenges it created.
 FreePint Report: Product Review of Linex Systems
Published on Wednesday, 31st October 2012
Linex Systems is a Current Awareness Management tool originally created in 2002 to help users in the legal and professional services industries manage the increasing amounts of information that was available online and that needed to be shared in some manner. The initial product has expanded over the years from a simple pre-defined alert to include more complex functions.
- SharePoint - A Librarian's Best Friend?
By James Mullan on Tuesday, 30th October 2012
Right now it seems like a day doesn't go by where I receive an email or read a blog post that extols the virtues of SharePoint as either an intranet, knowledge repository, knowledge network or collaborative tool. One article published in an AALL/ILTA white paper definitely grabbed my attention with the title "SharePoint: A Librarian's most versatile tool". This is certainly a very bold statement to make, so what is it about SharePoint that makes it so "versatile"?
- Product Review of Linex Systems: Executive Summary
By Jan Knight on Tuesday, 30th October 2012
Reviewer Jan Knight highlights the key findings of her in-depth review of Linex Systems' aggregation and workflow tools. The system's ability to integrate multiple streams of information from a range of premium and web-based sources is a strength; some of the functions could be more intuitive; customer service is present and helpful, to enable new users to get up to speed and get the power of the product as quickly as possible.
- ... More ...
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Jinfo
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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.
Latest featured vacancies in Jinfo Jobs:
- Information Services Specialist
Manage procurement and subscription process for online databases; provide technical and operational support. | Recruiter: Clifford Chance | Country: United Kingdom. Full listing »
- Know How Officer - Legal
A leading law firm wishes to recruit, on a 12 month contract, an information professional to join... | Recruiter: TFPL | Country: United Kingdom. Full listing »
- Knowledge Product Manager
KM sought by international law firm to develop enterprise search tool. Exp of key KM technologies & knowledge of enterprise search tools a must. | Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment and Services Limited | Country: United Kingdom. Full listing »
- Business Research Assistant
Business Research Assistant to be trained up to provide research support for consultants in Central London. May suit fairly recent Library / Information graduate with some experience. | Recruiter: Glen Recruitment | Country: United Kingdom. Full listing »
Browse all Jinfo Jobs »
Latest featured events in Jinfo Events:
- How to Succeed with Systems
This course will equip you work effectively with your IT systems providers. | Organiser: TFPL | Date: 5 Dec 2012 | Country: United Kingdom
- SLA Europe - Networking Event at Patch - SLA(m)
SLA Europe, in partnership with RM Group, invite you to join us for our SLA(m) networking reception | Organiser: SLA Europe | Date: 21 Nov 2012 | Country: United Kingdom
Browse all Jinfo Events »
Next steps:
- Jinfo Update - Receive the weekly email Jinfo Update, with a complete list of the latest vacancies and events.
- Recruiting - Advertise a vacancy for just £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.
Visit Jinfo »
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FreePint supports the value of information in the enterprise. We do this by publishing practical articles and reports about information practice, content and strategy.
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The FreePint Newsletter (ISSN 1460-7239) is published by Free Pint Limited. FreePint is a registered trademark of Free Pint Limited, registered in England and Wales. Registered Number: 3754481. Registered Office: Delaport Coach House, Lamer Lane, Wheathampstead, Herts, AL4 8RQ.
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