Blog - Improve your Current Awareness Strategy

As an information professional I am fascinated by the way in which information spreads across an organisation. And - as far as information management is concerned - I’m always keen to learn more about different sectors and industries. Take in-house legal departments, for example: legally qualified people fulfilling a vital role in their company’s long-term success. In my mind, a function which filters information in a similar ways to law libraries.

Why fix what you don’t think is broken? Once upon a time a single organisation-wide internal newsletter was good enough. However it is increasingly apparent that basic daily alerts are old-fashioned and inadequate. Not only that, but businesses need to connect and collaborate with their clients. One way of doing this is through easy-to-manage, intelligent, and targeted news updates.

As the Vable team look forward to an exciting new year of current awareness and premium news aggregation developments, we take a brief look back over our most popular 2018 blog posts. It was an exciting year when information awareness went mainstream from the GDPR implementation, as well as the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

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 organisations - 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?