tfpl blog

The effect of web 2.0 on information management

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. 

This six minute video (that I have just spent the last 18 minutes watching, re-watching and persuading colleagues to watch with me) says more about the mind spinning effects of web 2.0 on information management than a thousand text books/ blog posts/ wikipedia entries.

It was made by Michael Wesch of Kansas State University.

It is witty, clever and informative, I found it inspiring.  For the whole of that 6 minutes (repeated 3 times) I felt glad to be in this field of work

The thesis of the film: organising information is no longer the sphere of experts, it is the sphere (and the responsibility of everyone). One of the assertions the film makes is that 'we can now make information find us'. This information found me because my browser home page is set to 'http://del.icio.us/tag/folksonomy.  That page simply shows me the last twenty webpages that anyone in the world has tagged with the word 'folksonomy' and saved to their favourites on del.icio.us and tagged with the word folksonomy. And at 3:35pm today, London time, this video had just been tagged and saved by Thierry De Baillon. Thanks Thierry!

Knowledge management and penguins

Definitely the best story of the day was referenced in The Daily Telegraph.  The story refers to the New Scientist which summarises findings published in the journal Animal Behaviour.  Little penguins were observed picking specific friends to take fishing.  The implication is that the penguins are able to 'share knowledge' about fishing sites.

This news is not surprising to those of us with a grounding in Pingu-ology.  Pingu met Robby, his best friend, on a fishing trip.  They pooled their expertise and had a very successful day's fishing.

Training for our temps!

We run regular (free!) training events for our temporary recruitment candidates. 

On 1^st October, 24 temps came to listen to 'An introduction to business research' delivered by Chris O’Hare. This hour long session provided attendees top tips, such as understanding basic business structures, common business enquiries, as well as useful websites and resources for the up to date researcher.

For more information about temps training events or temporary recruitment at TFPL contact katy.crosse@tfpl.com

Have we lost the ability to communicate - from our roving reporter

Ian Wooler sends this story in by Blackberry!

"I was on a train and the lady next to me was busy tapping into her Blackberry.  At the next station, this lady realised a friend of hers had joined the train and was now sitting opposite. 

• Fellow traveller, very loudly - 'where have you been?'
• Her friend - 'at work'
• Fellow traveller [louder] - 'no, where have you been for the last two weeks?'
• Her friend - 'at home and work - just the normal stuff'
• Fellow traveller - 'so why did you not respond to my text message?'
• Her friend - 'But I did'
• Fellow traveller [almost screaming] - 'but I did not receive it!'

There followed a bizarre game of 'technology investigation and blaming'.  Respective outboxes, addresses, archives and numbers were checked and service providers and hand-held devices were blamed.  After 20 minutes the friend was victorious, able to prove time, date and content of the message she had sent.  Fellow traveller acknowledged she may have deleted the reply in error. 

At last, Fellow Traveller and her friend dispensed with their hand-held devices and began a conversation.  'How are you?' 'Fine, but I have to get off here so can't talk now.  We must keep in touch - I'll text you'.

And with that, she got off the train and Fellow Traveller returned to her Blackberry."