Blog - Improve your Current Awareness Strategy

The information industry has never been more aware of the importance of current awareness provision. Keeping up to date with news, markets, clients, and industries is central to the success of all types of organisation - from legal, financial services, health, or the third sector. Information and research services, or equivalent, are generally responsible for managing and delivering accurate, reliable, and targeted updates for their end-users.

We live in a hi-tech world where even the simple act of reading can depend on electronic devices. You catch the news on your mobile or tablet; reading for pleasure might mean a Kindle; and longer articles perhaps become ‘TL;DR’ because of service interruption. Imagine the pleasure then, of a picking up a book. Michele DeStefano’s 2018 hardback has been a constant travel companion and physical reminder of the nebulous world of legal innovation.

Carrying out research is something we are all familiar with, but we might not necessarily be up to date on the laws which are associated with it. Everyone has heard of GDPR - but practically speaking, how has it impacted on how you should approach research? A seminar held by the University of London outlined the main concerns; although it was aimed at academics, it was useful for information professionals. We must be aware of the rules regarding the gathering, storing, re-use, and disposal of research data.

Working directly with news content can feel overwhelming due to the sheer quantity of information. As such, two recent (unrelated) conversations struck a chord when they imagined the abstract concept of information flow using ‘firefighting’ imagery*. Here I revisit some ideas about how information people - and content providers - act as intermediaries to help their end-users avoid the information deluge.

Networking can be challenging for many information people but it is a skill you can acquire. Following on from the induction blog posting, it’s that time of year when you will be required to meet lots of new people - welcome lunches, evening events etc. So I thought I’d revisit some notes that I’ve found helpful in the past. As an added bonus there is a CILIP event coming up on exactly this issue.  

This post has come out of an initiative to improve communications with our clients here at Vable. As a client you need to talk to us, and we want to make it as easy as possible. After all, everyone values an organisation with which they can communicate promptly and efficiently.

August doesn’t mean holidays for many library and information services. All professional service providers - banks, accountancy, consultancy, and law firms - as well as educational establishments will be preparing inductions and training for September’s new starters. So how can we ensure that end-users are equipped with the right research skills to carry out their work?

This is the fourth in our BIALL 2018 Conference series, and I can recommend you read it in conjunction with our other piece on agile working. Vable uses agile methodology to manage workflow, and it requires a mental shift if you are accustomed to a more traditional workplace. The more we collaborate and share experiences, we can make new ways of working possible in a corporate/legal library environment.

At Vable we believe that business skills for librarians are as essential as research skills. Through conferences and workshops together we can learn from each other and share best practice. Practical, immediately applicable sessions are always the most popular events at BIALL, and Claire Fox’s session was full. She focused on business planning and how we can assist our organisations in ensuring future success.

These notes are taken from a most satisfying CLSIG event with Alex G Smith. It was a timely wake up call for how machine learning is being perceived; instead of the marauding AI robots of horror movies, it should be the thought of messy misused data keeping us up at night. Above all it confirmed what most of us already know; that information professionals have been designing and providing ‘AI’ for years. Many things currently being touted as such are nothing more than data and algorithms. Analytics and automatic documentation is not AI.