By Karen Blakeman

The projects and research that I conduct cover a wide range of industries and subject areas so the services I use can change radically from one week to the next. There are some, though, that remain constant and these are the five that I use most on a daily basis.

• RSS Owl: starting up RSS Owl on my laptop is the first thing I do every morning. I subscribe to between 300 and 500 feeds covering local and international news, industry sectors, what’s happening in the information industry and I also have RSS alerts set up for searches. About half of these change depending on the projects I am working on.
  
  
• Twitter: this is my second port of call when I hit the work desk in the morning. It’s a fantastic way of catching up with people’s news, what’s been happening and what’s being talked about at conferences. It’s also the quickest way I know to get a response from a company when their product or service breaks down. I use TweetDeck to manage my separate accounts, lists and searches.
  
  
• Zanran: this is great for tracking down statistics and market data that is buried in lengthy reports. Zanran extracts and indexes numerical data presented as tables, charts and images in PDF reports, spreadsheets and ordinary webpages. It gets better all the time and even has government documents that have disappeared from the visible web because of website closures.
  
  
• Company Check: there are a growing number of services that repackage Companies House information and offer substantial chunks of it free of charge. Company Check is my favourite at the moment. I like the way it integrates with its sister site Director Check, and they offer a free monitoring service that alerts you to updates of both company and director information.
  
  
• Google: Yes, I know I often complain about the way Google messes around with search but it is still one of the most powerful search engines if you know how to use its advanced search features. I also use the Public Data Explorer a lot to identify relevant data sets and statistics. I sync everything I possibly can – maps, calendars, alerts etc - with my Android phone, which I take almost everywhere. I have sold my soul to Google!

Karen Blakeman started her working life with a degree in microbiology but was soon enticed into the world of electronic information. She first worked as a microbiologist and then spent 10 years in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry as an information scientist. She moved to the international management consultancy group Strategic Planning Associates before becoming a freelance consultant and setting up her company RBA Information Services in 1989. She now provides training and advice on search, social media and collaborative tools. She is an Honorary Fellow of CILIP and in 2002 she received the Information Professional of the Year award from Information World Review.

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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:

• FreePint Keeps Customers Informed About Sources
  By Fokkelien Fink on Tuesday, 19th March 2013
  Some of the most-shared articles in FreePint are our monthly "source" updates. The updates are proving so popular that we'll be extending them to cover a greater number of aggregators and plans are afoot to add those information sources which focus on web-based content and social media. Fokkelian Fink reports on why these updates are so useful and which other FreePint resources can help subscribers to stay aware of source and publisher changes.
  
  
• FreePint for Skills Upgrades: In an Era of Constant Change
  By Robin Neidorf on Thursday, 14th March 2013
  Information professionals must adapt their skills to the demands of today's challenging information environment and its new requirements in terms of tools, techniques and resources. Robin Neidorf examines some of the most popular FreePint articles and how they are helping information professionals to make best use of tools such as social media and email and to appreciate how human-led data analysis continues to play a crucial part in information and knowledge management.
  
  
• UK Legal Market Research: Reactions to PLC Acquisition
  By Robin Neidorf on Thursday, 14th March 2013
  Robin Neidorf introduces 2013 FreePint research into UK legal firms' budgeted spending on the three major suppliers: LexisNexis, Practical Law Company (PLC) and Thomson Reuters, and legal information professionals' reactions to Thomson Reuters' planned purchase of PLC. The article outlines likely changes along with key areas of concern as the number of key information suppliers contracts to two. Research into US legal firms' spend on information sources starts later this month and FreePint welcomes contact from any librarians who would like to be part of the project.
  
  
• FreePint for Skills Upgrades: Stop the Intranet and PowerPoint Insanity
  By Robin Neidorf on Tuesday, 12th March 2013
  If you mention intranets or PowerPoint to colleagues, the most common reaction is a groan. However, both can and both should be an essential part of our information and communications armoury. Robin Neidorf examines two of the most popular FreePint articles on these topics and identifies how such articles can help information professionals to improve their skills, wow their colleagues and support continuous improvement.
  
  
• Using FreePint to Support Skills Upgrades
  By Robin Neidorf on Monday, 11th March 2013
  Robin Neidorf examines data on FreePint Subscribers' sharing patterns with their colleagues and identifies the articles on "sources" which have been most shared and how FreePint articles can help staff upgrade their skills in the area of truth, falsehood and free. A variety of Subscriber levels cater for all needs and there's also the option to order bespoke reports or white-labelled versions.
  
  
• FreePint Supports the Team and Beyond
  By Robin Neidorf on Wednesday, 6th March 2013
  Robin Neidorf considers the role of teams within and between departments and explores how a FreePint Team Subscription can support learning, increase collaboration, and aid the organisation's overall understanding of critical information-related challenges and opportunities. And don't miss out on the special offer!
  
  
• ... More ...

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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:

• Introducing Gamification into Law Firm Business Applications
  By James Mullan on Tuesday, 19th March 2013
  Following the consumerisation of technology hardware through the Bring Your Own Device movement, the next big thing for law and professional services firms could be the consumerisation of business applications. So what could this mean in practice? James Mullan examines why legal firms should improve the user experience and what firms could gain from gamification techniques.
  
  
• Mini Review: LogixData SECAnalyzer
  By Jan Knight on Monday, 18th March 2013
  Jan Knight reviews LogixData's SECAnalyzer™, an online database offering SEC compliance and disclosure intelligence to law firms, auditors and corporations. The goal of the product is to "deliver insight on SEC disclosures through data, analytics, & technology".
  
  
• Teleworking - Bad Career Move?
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Monday, 18th March 2013
  The furore over Yahoo's ban on teleworking has prompted pundits such as MarketingProfs and iHubbub to come out in support of the practice. But Telework Research Network figures show that homeworking is still not widespread, and a University of Texas study suggests that it hasn't helped work-family balance either. Nevertheless, a recent LinkedIn study shows that most women define success as having a good work-life balance, and another from Grant Thornton suggests that many employers are encouraging it. Finally, the London Business School has some tips for how teleworkers can avoid being sidelined for promotion.
  
  
• Are Intranets at Death's Door? How to Improve Your Intranet
  By James Mullan on Thursday, 14th March 2013
  The death of the intranet, like email, is something that has been discussed many times in the past. So seeing a blog post questioning whether intranets are dead always intrigues me. However, intranets aren't yet receiving the death knell and there are many ways in which intranets can be revived and reinvigorated. James Mullan offers some tips for intranet managers to improve the user experience and to ensure that the intranet remains a key part of the organisation's KM and communications arsenal.
  
  
• FreePint Report: UK Legal Market Research: Reactions to PLC Acquisition
  Published on Thursday, 14th March 2013
  Robin Neidorf introduces 2013 FreePint research into UK legal firms' budgeted spending on the three major suppliers: LexisNexis, Practical Law Company (PLC) and Thomson Reuters, and legal information professionals' reactions to Thomson Reuters' planned purchase of PLC. The article outlines likely changes along with key areas of concern as the number of key information suppliers contracts to two.
  
  
• UK Legal Market Research: Wishes and Fears, in Equal Measure
  By Robin Neidorf on Wednesday, 13th March 2013
  Robin Neidorf presents the final part of her analysis of 2013 research into legal librarians' spending on the "big three" information sources. Of course the "big three" are now set to become two with Thomson Reuters (TR) announcing its purchase of Practical Law Company (PLC) in January. FreePint's research examines the possible benefits and opportunities of the PLC/TR move and voices the concerns and comments of information professionals in the legal field about the PLC/TR offerings and the future of legal information products such as Westlaw, Lawtel and PSL.
  
  
• Small Businesses Stand to Gain from CRM Lite
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Wednesday, 13th March 2013
  Customer relationship management (CRM) tools are becoming increasingly accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and investment in CRM technology is now a top priority. But while separate reports from Constant Contact and the Economist Intelligence Unit suggest that even micro businesses can deploy effective CRM systems, Gartner is warning that creating a "single view of the customer" requires a complex master data management strategy. In between these two extremes, there may be opportunities for astute info pros capable of exploiting such systems to the benefit of the business.
  
  
• UK Legal Market Research: Vendors, and How They Are Perceived
  By Robin Neidorf on Tuesday, 12th March 2013
  Robin Neidorf continues her examination of the three main information suppliers to the legal information profession and dissects the responses to identify interviewees' perceptions of LexisNexis, Practical Law Company (PLC) and Thomson Reuters. She also looks at how info pros and fee earners use the products in their daily work, which products are strongest for different specialisms and how firms would feel about reduced budgets forcing them to cut any of these sources from their information centres.
  
  
• Looking to the Skies - Law Firms and Cloud Computing
  By James Mullan on Monday, 11th March 2013
  Much has been written in recent years about how cloud computing is going to revolutionise the way that law firms work. Cloud computing and SaaS has, in fact, been a disruptive force for much longer than we think and has the potential for long-term impact in most industries including the academic and commercial legal sector.
  
  
• UK Legal Market Research: What Librarians Get and What They Want
  By Robin Neidorf on Monday, 11th March 2013
  Research into UK legal firms' budgeted spending on the three major suppliers: LexisNexis, Practical Law Company (PLC) and Thomson Reuters was carried out by FreePint in 2011 and has now been updated with further interviews in 2013. Robin Neidorf digs down into the results to examine information professionals' satisfaction with current offerings, which content sets and products they currently use, and what's on their wish lists.
  
  
• NYT Targets Coffee Drinkers - Who Stands to Gain?
  By Penny Crossland on Friday, 8th March 2013
  Newspapers publishers have long come to the realisation that the future of their businesses lies online - the ongoing debate is now how to make money from digital content. However, with so many search engines and aggregators offering free access to news, enticing readers to content behind paywalls is becoming an increasing problem. Penny Crossland examines marketing tactics used by major US newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
  
  
• ... More ...

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Latest featured vacancies in Jinfo Jobs:

• Senior Library Officer
  London law firm seeks Senior Library Officer for collection mgt, cataloguing, classifying & line management of a team of Lib Assistants. Staff mgt & prof services exp ess... | Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment and Services Limited | Country: United Kingdom. Full listing »
  
  
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  Organiser: Information Today | Date: 14 - 16 May 2013 | Country: United Kingdom

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