Author Archives: Jaye Lapachet

Content Management – Valuing Content Practically

Some time ago, I talked a little about information reuse and content management. I have had the opportunity to talk with a company that is experiencing this right now. The short version is that people cannot find the information they need and doing their jobs is delayed.

This company is several years old, but still young and I applaud them for realizing that their information has value and wondering if it still has value if nobody can find it.

This is interesting to me and I wonder if it is a trend? For years companies had vast libraries with multiple researchers and librarians corralling information and pushing it back out to colleagues for use in the business of the organization.

Libraries started to close in the early the 2000s and that coffin was nailed shut in the crash of 2008. Many libraries were closed or reduced to shadows of their former glory. Law firms, in their bid to recover from the crash have followed suit. Organizations believed the hype about full text search being the ultimate tool. Librarians didn’t help their cause when they stuck to traditional methods and, in many cases, failed to understand and embrace new technologies and methods.

Now Content Managers are being hired. These are not always MLIS grads; they are sensible people who have skills in organization, but may not be trained in standard (library) methods. This is a place where a forward thinking, technologically oriented information professional can thrive if s/he can get past the stereotype of the shushing librarian.

Various & Interesting #4

 

Michael Ginsborg, NOCALL President shared the title of a post by NOCALL member Sarah Lin which was published at the On Firmer Ground blog. Sarah offers us tips on how to deploy our data sources to better track collection usage. She describes new ways to think about our monitoring tools and training opportunities. Michael also noted that  Sarah will join David Holt in a related panel moderated by Hadi Amjadi: “Google Analytics: Best Practices and How To Use At Your Library” at the NOCALL Spring Institute. Check the NOCALL site for an announcement about Institute registration.

Various & Interesting #3

From ResearchBuzz: “The ALA is offering a digitization workshop for beginners at the end of January. “Whether you’re a community repository just dipping your toes into digitization, or you need to digitize old materials to save space and enable greater access, the ability to plan and begin a digitization project is quickly becoming an essential skill for librarians. In this workshop, digitization expert Susanne Caro will show you what you need to get started if you are new to digitization.” It’s not free, but $60 for an introduction to digitization sounds like a good deal.”

Not much today, but I am sure I will find more later.

Various & Interesting #2

I know this series of posts must seem like All ResearchBuzz All the Time. I think Tara, the author and owner of ResearchBuzz does a great job and has so many helpful tips on so many different topics that I can’t help myself. I have found some other interesting tidbits and added them.

The Toronto Public Library and the Kansas City Public Library really did a good job collaborating on activities and events around the World Series. Great way to engage in the community and get people to the Library.

From ResearchBuzz: “Aaron Tay’s got a useful article if you’ve been using Google for a long time: 6 Common Misconceptions When Doing Advanced Google Searching. These are good points but I want to add it’s always worth it to try multiple * as wildcards when doing phrase searching. It doesn’t work quite like it used to, but it can still change the count and order of your search results. (Compare “three * mice” to “three * * mice”, “three * * * mice”, etc.)” (10/31/2015)

–> One of the things corporate and special librarians do for their professionals is help them with more precise Google Searching. I really wish Google would partner with librarians to work on their search algorithm.

Tara from ResearchBuzz also gives us some tips on uninstalling in Windows 10: “In case you need it: How to uninstall an app or program in Windows 10.” (11/2/2015)

ResearchBuzz is spending NaNoWriMo writing articles she has wanted to write for a long time. recently she posted one on Buffer. I knew about Buffer peripherally, but the article really got me interested in the product. I hope Buffer is listening as Tara has some GREAT ideas for improving the service.

Intersect Alert, the Government Relations newsletter of the San Francisco Bay Region chapter of SLA has posted an interesting new app. LawLibe – A Law Library – on Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

“This app comes preloaded with the U.S. Constitution. Then you can download additional legal content directly into the app, including the U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, State Statutes, the M.P.E.P., and more!”

Features:

  • Fully offline – just download and go!
    • Download additional content directly into the app!
    • Lightning-fast speed.
    • Full-text search and in-text highlighting.
    • Page through content just like a book.
    • User preferences – adjust the font and font-size for easier reading.
    • GoTo Button – know the exact section you want? It’s one touch away.
    • Includes Advisory Committee Notes where available
    • Updated frequently to ensure you have the most current edition.

Have you tried it? What do you think? What effect will we see on law libraries and law librarians.

Reusing Information – the Lost Opportunity

Marc Benioff was quoted as saying “Companies now, more than ever, have an urgency to connect with their customers in a deeper way. But there is a problem, shared Benioff. All of the data and all the devices are not bringing us closer to customers.” Organizations are swamped with data and it has separated them from their customers. Less than 1% of customer data has been analyzed, while 77% of customers are not engaged with companies. “That’s what we are here to fill,” said Benioff. “Get ready for a new kind of customer success.” ” (Blog post, Salesforce blog, 9/16/2015)

This makes me wonder why more companies don’t value information for what it can do for them. Further, I wonder why reuse of information is not a higher priority.

Reuse of information has the following value:

  1. Saves time – when a document is reused, time is saved, because, at minimum, the basic information does not have to be duplicated. Maximum, a document can be created much more efficiently and the ultimate goal achieved that much more quickly.
  2. Branding is preserved – If templates are not set up, then the creation of documents that fit the branding and style of the organization can be a chore to create. By reusing documents, branding can be preserved. Of course, there are other considerations when using save as.
  3. Efficiency – time is a valuable commodity. How many people can the organization use more efficiently if documents are reused.
  4. Content created by an organization is an asset.

Information and documents are often not reused because they cannot be found. This is a content management problem that feeds into a knowledge management problem.

I was recently told by some friends that when they turned 50, suddenly a well known social media company was feeding them ads for Plus sized clothing and laxatives. Nothing had changed except their birthday. This proves Benioff’s point that 1% of customer data has been analyzed and 77% of customers are not engaged with companies. My slim, active friends sneer at the social media giant for stereotyping them and getting it so wrong when the company has the money to analyze the mounds of data they are collecting. Worse for the companies that buy ads: my friends don’t click on those links because they are not relevant.

Content created by someone in an organization is an asset and must be managed with the same efficiency as desks and chairs. Knowledge management programs must be tailored to each organization. Both of these tasks can be achieved with the assistance of a professional with experience in information organization and management.

Hashtag Love

I am quite giddy whenever I see hashtags on tweets, Instagram and blog post tags and categories. The much maligned and put upon Technical Services and Cataloging librarians have finally gotten the last laugh even though they don’t know it and may be cringing when they see hashtags.

Catalogers are often considered to be the most introverted, the most pinched and the most uptight of all librarians in a profession where stereotypes run rampant. Even today when librarians have tattoos and piercings, listen to heavy metal as often as opera and run marathons, we are thought to be spinsters and bachelors with buns and excellent skills at shushing.

In reality Technical Services librarians, now called Metadata Application Specialists are some of the most detail oriented, smartest librarians I know. They have it down when talking about taxonomies, controlled vocabularies and subject headings.

In order to stay relevant, these TSL/MAS must embrace hashtags. Hashtags are uncontrolled. Hashtags are folksonomy. Hashtags are slangy and crazy. Hashtags are also useful and consumers have embraced them. We must as well. We must allow patrons to add hashtags to catalog records for their own use. We must teach the relevance of hashtags and how they relate to the library catalog. Hashtags are a perfect entry to library use. Embrace them.

Various & Interesting

From ResearchBuzz: LinkedIn is apparently making all LinkedIn Groups private starting October 14th. “The biggest change — the one that LinkedIn believes will make a qualitative difference — is that all Groups are being made private; only Group members will be able to see the contents of conversations, and only members will be allowed to contribute. LinkedIn also won’t allow search engines to crawl the discussions, another key, it believes, to providing a trusted private space for people to communicate.”

–> Well, I have to say it is about time. LinkedIn has made some changes in the past year that have made it less useful. I find it useful as an online place to store my resume, but beyond that, it isn’t useful and groups were just annoying. I hope that this change will start to turn the LinkedIn ship.

From ResearchBuzz: The DPLA has released a self-guided curriculum for digitization. “Through the Public Library Partnerships Project (PLPP), DPLA has been working with existing DPLA Service Hubs to provide digital skills training for public librarians and connect them sustainably with state and regional resources for digitizing, describing, and exhibiting their cultural heritage content…. Now at the end of the project, we’ve made this curriculum available in a self-guided version intended for digitization beginners from a variety of cultural heritage institutions. Each module includes a video presentation, slides with notes in Powerpoint, and slides in PDF. Please feel free to share, reuse, and adapt these materials.”

–>This is great news. Many public libraries have interesting print materials about their local community, but no knowledge of how to get it online. While this new curriculum doesn’t solve the funding question, it is a start.

I saw an article where a security expert was telling colleagues NOT to tell their client to Google some question for which they need an answer. My mouth dropped open, because we have the opposite problem. Info Pros want to help people, but everyone wants to Google their question. What is the difference?

Also from ResearchBuzz: “A brief slide deck, but plenty of resources: Text Analysis Without Programming.”

Internet Librarian 2015

Internet Librarian is one of the best conferences I have attended. It is small, focused on technology and the Internet. In the past it has been to the point and interesting. I heard Liz Lawley speak there and became a huge fan of the possibilities in workplaces around gaming. Of course, HR has not adopted any gaming techniques and the idea is now somewhat out of fashion.

I like Internet Librarian, because I meet other people who are smart, articulate and thinking about the way things could be in libraries and working with technology to realize dreams.

IL 2015 session

IL 2015 session

This year, after a few years’ hiatus, I am speaking again. This year, I am taking a detour and speaking about vendor relations. I am passionate about this subject as I sincerely dislike the negative talk and disrespect often heard in library circles. Come and hear me speak on Monday October 26, 2015 at 3:15.

Register and take a look at the full schedule. See you there!

Questions Around Dreamforce

A number of questions occurred to me as I sat through the Dreamforce sessions, mostly based on my experience working with clients or at law firms.

  1. How does all of this advanced sales type information relate to law firms?

Well, I don’t think it does. Lawyers refuse to think of themselves as salespeople or to think of their services as something to sell, even though being a rainmaker is clearly a salesperson and their services are something for which they want to get paid. From the little I know about Salesforce products, I believe they could be used in a law firm. Knowing each touch a client receives would give the partner for the client a good sense of how the client is being treated. If the partner has clients without any ‘touches’ for a period of time, then s/he would know to find something to send to the client to remind the client how valuable they are to the firm. This is where library staff could assist.

2. Are legal services disconnected episodic events? If so, how does that relate to the relationship based aspect of selling legal services?

If a client is involved in an ongoing legal matter, s/he will have more contact with lawyers than s/he would like. However, for other legal services, such as estate planning, they may be one time or disconnected episodic events. Years might go by before a change in a will or trust needs to be made. Still, the law firm should want to let the client know s/he is important. If the law firm or partner relies on anecdotal information, it is harder to keep in touch. Lawyers are busy and can easily forget a happy client. The law firm should want their client to get to the ‘Advocate’ section of the customer journey.

3. Is the cloud aspect of Salesforce a problem for law firms?

Most law firms are lax about security, don’t read license agreements carefully and don’t require users to change their passwords frequently. In light of that, probably not, but for some law firms the cloud is a problem as companies providing the cloud services allow themselves to share information, via their license agreements, with others.

4. Is the customer/client at the center of law firm transactions?

Most of the speakers at Dreamforce talked about how the customer was at the center of all transactions at Salesforce. Most of the Salesforce executives who spoke reiterated their commitment to customer happiness. I don’t think the same is true at law firms. I think the partners’ money is at the center of law firm transactions. I don’t think money is a bad thing in commercial enterprises (you wouldn’t be reading this if I did), but I do think that happy customers bring in more money.