tfpl blog

‘The Business of Law’

This was the theme for the 44^th annual BIALL conference which I attended as a delegate. Glasgow was the location for 2013 and all activities were centred in the Hilton Hotel (just round the corner from our Glasgow office).

This year the programme was as full as ever and there was a wide-reach of topics across the plenary and parallel sessions, all touching on ‘the business of law’.  We heard from a diverse range of industry professionals including Professor Hector MacQueen of the Scottish Law Commission and Carol Tullo from The National Archives – both  excellent and informative presentations. I’ve broadened my understanding of Flipping Training (yes, that is a real concept!), developing mature social media platforms, building my online professional brand as well as taking away a few tips on how to do more with less and how to just say No!

Conference is also underpinned by good, hearty networking opportunities and the social evenings were great fun. No trip to Scotland would be complete without sampling a haggis or some delectable shortbread.  This year’s gala dinner was held in the most impressive Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and we had a number of musical treats, from the Organist who accompanied our arrival to the drummers and pipers who completed the evening.

All in all another great conference ....looking forward to next year in Harrogate.

The Value of Connections

Our first event of 2013 was well attended and our speaker’s presentation really stimulated the conversation at our networking afterwards.  The event, introduced by our Chair and Director at TFPL, Julia Hordle was on how to develop and realise the value of your connections.  This is the start of our year long theme looking at how we can make ‘a lack of (new) resource’ into an opportunity to innovate and grow. 

Speaking were Sue Westcott, Strategy and Performance Team, Department for Communities and Local Government on how to develop and manage the internal and external world of stakeholders; Ceri Hughes, Director and Global Knowledge Business Lead, KPMG on the new ‘Hub’ technology that is helping to connect their business and clients and Rosemary Nunn, Group Head of Business Transformation and Knowledge, EC Harris on the iterative nature of building and facilitating a knowledge based learning organisation that has grown dramatically in size through acquisition.

The slides for the evening will be posted on the TFPL Connect member’s area in the next few days.

The most important points I took away from the evening were:

Human connections are the most important type of connection.  It is all very well having thousands of contacts on LinkedIn or other social media but if you do not enrich the electronic connection with face to face, tele/video conferencing then those contacts are unlikely to bring you the value you need when you need them to

Closely linked to this point is reciprocation, mentioned by all three speakers as very important.  Relationships in any form need to be nurtured and worked at, and reciprocation is a key part of this process.

Technology is a great facilitator but it is up to you and the people you connect with to create the value in the connection.

Join our new TFPL Connect Linked In group to follow more on the discussions from the evening

Merging library authorities: challenges and opportunities Tuesday 14th May

CILIP London’s May event was delivered by David Ruse: Tri-borough Director of Libraries and Archives. The event took place in a welcoming private side room belonging to the somewhat hidden away The Square pub (just off the Euston Road but I managed to get lost!).

 

He talked quite positively about how the 3, still sovereign, councils manage to run their libraries and to co-exist in their new streamlined state. He emphasised that it was a good excuse to reposition all 3 library services and an opportunity to ‘sharpen up’ working practices. He emphasised that the changes had caused no detriment to the service or to the staff and that the reduction of posts (they lost around 30 people) was achieved through redeployment throughout the boroughs, recruitment freezes following resignations and only one compulsory redundancy.

 

Faced with the alternative of mass redundancies and library closures, the positive aspects of the merger seem a good news story:

 -Satisfaction levels have risen amongst users (according to a recent survey)

 -They have introduced one library card for the 3 councils

 -Homework clubs have been revived

 -They are in the process of purchasing one library management system for all 3 library services

 -One centralised stock team to handle acquisitions

 -One Children’s services specialist to coordinate the ‘Summer Reading Challenge’ and other events etc.

 

They also not only managed to reach their budget cutting target, they exceeded it and have received recognition in parliamentary circles!

 

There are obviously challenges to this story, namely bringing together 3 very culturally diverse organisations and the logistical problems that the exercise has clearly thrown up: knowledge capture, harmonising IT systems and other support functions and managing the very different contracts for all staff within the 3 organisations.

 

However, David feels that the key to success (for the 3 years that the agreement is in place) is to keep a focus on the vision of the merge, not get bogged down with the drudgery and to raise quality of understanding and learn how the service is progressing through the steering group’s quarterly meetings.

 

With 33 London library authorities battling ever increasing cuts to services and threats to jobs, David feels this tri-borough structure could be the blue print for other authorities. Watch this space...

A very LIKE-able Evening!

Authors: Susanne Osterlund, Vicky Sculfor, Lee Seymour

Last night we attended the LIKE social evening at Punch Tavern.  It was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with old contacts and friends and make new ones.

As ever, the event was relaxed, positive and friendly and we spoke about everything from: congratulating people on new jobs, new challenges and achievements, the re-branding of CILIP, the employment market and of course the subject of holidays was an important one; most of us are hoping for some summer sun either here in the UK or abroad!

We would like to thank the LIKE committee for organising the evening.  If you are looking for a networking event that is sociable and where it’s easy to meet people then this is a really good group to join.  

We will also be attending the forthcoming LIKE Ideas conference in June.

IRMS Conference 2013: 300 records managers go mad in Sussex

Darron Chapman and I attended the IRMS conference in Brighton last week. This year’s theme was Big Data/Open Data chosen by the organisers to open the profession’s minds and eyes to the hot topic of the IT world.  The conference format was the usual mix of keynotes, workshops and many, many
networking opportunities which kept Darron and me very busy chasing up old and new candidates.

I always enjoy catching up on the latest legal update by Ibrahim Hassan who is one of the UK’s leading experts on Freedom of Information and data protection. His talk this year was focused on Freedom of Information and Datasets.  As public authorities have greater obligations to release and publish datasets, they must be supplied in an electronic form capable of re-use. This is an area also close to the heart of Universities who are required to put in place policies and procedures to make their research data available for re-use by external parties.  After his talk, a panel discussed the intersection between records management and research data management as many records managers are becoming involved in shaping RDM initiatives.

Closer to home, John Davies from PSSD ran a workshop session on “What records managers need to know about Big Data”.  John commented that attendance was low but that the conversation in the room was very lively.  Quality not quantity! The topic was quickly dismissed:  if records managers do their job properly then engaging with Big Data poses the same issues as any other category of information or job function. Understand what it’s supposed to do; assess the legal position; figure out how long it needs to kept.  Document all that.  Move on. 

This was the 30^th anniversary of the IRMS and John was one of a select group of 30 who were awarded foundation Fellowships of the IRMS for outstanding contribution to the profession.  Congratulations!

It’s rumoured that the conference will be held in Brighton again next year so, if the sun ever shines, I may be tempted by a dip in the Channel.

 

Breakfast Networking

I was an eager attendee of the CLIG ‘Posh Breakfast Networking’ event this week. Kindly sponsored by 7side and held in the fine dining establishment of Hawksmoor, this was a wonderful opportunity to spend some quality time networking with members of the City Legal Information Group over a rather decadent breakfast. 

CLIG http://www.clig.org/ is a London organisation, formed to support legal information professionals, offering networking and training events. I always find these events beneficial, not just to meet new people and make fresh contacts in the industry but to hear on the ground what issues are concerning this professional community.

It was also a great ice-warmer before the forthcoming BIALL conference, to see who will be attending, make plans for meeting up as well as adding a few more followers on Twitter.

Project Risk Management- Keeping it simple

Earlier this week I attended a webinar for World Risk Day; the opening session was led by David Hillson of “The Risk Doctor and Partners”; the topic was Project Risk Management and the concern towards the stunted growth in success rate of projects hovering around 37%. The discussion looked at why this could be using a back to basics approach.

The key focus for all projects from start to finish should be the objectives; too often these get lost along the way due to various influences and this ultimately leads to either the project missing its deadlines or at worst, complete project failure. Discussed was a good way to keep focused on the basics by asking yourself “What is Risk? Is it purely Uncertainty? No. All Risks are uncertain yes, however not all uncertainties are Risks, only the ones that have or can have an impact to the project.” The ISO31000:2009 definition of Risk is “Effect of uncertainty on objectives”. It is important also to keep in mind the positive uncertainties of Project Risk Management that can be lost sight of while searching for, identifying, and analysing the more obvious negatives.

With this at the forefront of thinking on a project it should be easier to keep on track and on target.

You’re only as strong as your RISKIEST link

A lot of Risk Professionals I have spoken to during my time recruiting in to the Risk industry have said that one of the biggest struggles to get Risk Management working to its full potential within a company lies with the successful implementation of a companywide Risk Culture across all levels.

The biggest question, “How do you overcome the barriers to get this done?”

I have found that the most popular and seemingly successful method I have heard about is a top down approach. The idea and worth of Risk needs to be imbedded starting at the very top in order to give it real credibility within the company. If the board members are in support then the rest of the company will follow. As Risk doesn’t come with a stand out set of financials it can be difficult to persuade the right people that Risk is cost effective and worth the investment.

There does seem to be a great advantage to having a dedicated Risk Management team shown not only in the time they have to do their job but also the time they would have to champion Risk Management across departments through training sessions, intranet posts on recent successes, and regular interdepartmental liaison.

The struggle is getting and then keeping everyone on board as a company is only a strong as its weakest link.

From Big Data to Little Apps: How you can access, present and deliver information in the workplace

TFPL is pleased to be involved in the organisation of this year’s  London Knowledge and Information Exchange Ideas conference taking place on the afternoon of Friday 28 June 2013.

St Bride Foundation,
14 BrideLane,
Fleet Street,
London EC4Y 8EQ

Tired of hearing BIG talk about data? Want to cut through the hyperbole and learn something useful about using and managing your organisation’s data?

LIKE Ideas will be a practical, informative and enjoyable knowledge-sharing event. You’ll hear from expert practitioners who, like you, are interested in down-to-earth solutions to real-life information management issues.

To book on this event, please go to http://www.likenews.org.uk/likeideas2013.html

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

TFPL trio go to the London Book Fair

Victoria Sculfor, Lee Barnes and Liz Ryan attended the London Book Fair in Earls Court last week. The London Bookfair is a great exhibition where authors, publishers, distributors and service providers can all come together to share ideas, knowledge, technology and means to reach the target audience.  We too got a great deal out of the day, coming away with some excellent insight on issues and new developments within publishing, and of course the odd free pen!

We used this as an opportunity to meet some new faces and understand more about the services being offered and provided by publishers. There were some interesting talks and discussions at the Bookfair, especially on the changes in publishing in recent times for example the development of e-books and e-publishing. We were also introduced to some interesting tools which were being developed and used to aid these developments, such as self-publishing tools and new project management systems.

It was a really great day and one that we all thoroughly enjoyed; we look forward to attending next year!