tfpl blog

Information Management in 2008

As 2008 begins, TFPL consultants reflect on the projects we have worked on over the past 12 months and outline the key information challenges that our clients have asked us to address as a pointer to the trends for the coming year.

Content management
Our consultants were involved in several intranet redesign projects as well as taxonomy strategy and development projects. The common theme was intelligent information architecture,  making content better organised and described to bring it and users together in a more natural and efficient way – to the benefit of the business AND the user.

Intranets are key resources for organisations, and TFPL helped a number of national organisations review and redesign theirs to work both as a communications channel for the business and as an efficient business application, serving up everyday information.  This process needs skills to look at both the user-focused (i.e. the layout of pages) and the content-focused,( i.e. the metadata profiles and attendant controlled vocabularies) elements.

Taxonomies continue to be important:  there effective design allowing users to manage and navigate content systems and aids retrieval using search engines.  Extending these classification aspects with resource discovery and dynamic publishing of content we are beginning to allow Information Discovery with content related to other similar content through well created and managed metadata.

Aligned to information architecture work has been a growing need from organisations to manage the complex task of migrating unstructured web content from disparate sites into centrally managed content management systems.   We have managed content migrations for a large government deparment and a global law firm.  TFPL have developed a methodology to assist our clients through a content migration, covering:

1. content audit
2. migration planning
3. user review
4. automatic, rule-based migration
5. quality assurance

Knowledge management
There has been much interest this year in the development of information and knowledge strategies to support the business objectives resulting from changing trends in external economic, social and technical advances. These drivers have led to:

• Downsizing the workforce and workspace
• Flexible work patterns, with more and more staff working from home
• New technology (web 2.0) and more robust communication networks to improve knowledge sharing and learning across organisations

We have conducted information and knowledge audits and strategy development projects for government agencies, local councils, and the not-for-profit sector.  Organisations are reviewing how they manage and deliver information to ensure that K&IM strategies and services are aligned with business objectives.  They are looking to rationalise the procurement of published material and working to deliver internal information effectively as well as seeking to avoid silo working

Our consultants spend time talking to staff across the organisation, using a variety of methods to better understand:

• What information they require to carry out their jobs
• How they want to work
• How best they would prefer to access and use information 
• What where the key issues and barriers preventing them from doing so.

In nearly all of our client organisations we found that people were spending too much time trying to find the information ‘they knew was there somewhere’. . Clients were also interested in how other organisations have addressed these issues so that good practice methodology can be adopted straight away.

The range of our IM/KM work across all the sectors has enabled TFPL to share experience and know-how with our clients and to work with them to build a vision for information and knowledge management.. In many cases TFPL has gone on to support clients through the implementation and evaluation of the projects.

Information service reviews
We have worked with in-house information services to ensure that the services and products offered are fresh and relevant.  Challenges facing information services include:

• Detachment from target audiences
• Remoteness from senior management
• Hesitation over service development
• Subjective spending decisions

Records management

The demand for records management consultancy during 2007 remained very strong across the government sector and clearly re-emerged in the private sector as organisations realign their information and records management programmes to meet changing external demands and set out to realise the benefits of technologies. Building good RM practices into the electronic records management arena still poses a challenge for many and TFPL is supporting a number of EDRM designs and implementations.

Small to medium sized organisations are attracted by the Microsoft Sharepoint offering which is considered an attractive alternative to traditional RM applications and are showing increased interest in using collaborative and social media tools.

Bringing sense to the e-records environment still requires the understanding of the connectivity between the governance frameworks, information architecture, user friendly corporate fileplans with appropriate metadata frameworks and controlled vocabularies. TFPL is meeting the growing demand for making sense of and integrating legacy records into the new e-environment through migration and rationalisation of applications that hold records.  Developing and applying retention schedules for legal and regulatory compliance across all organisations has also featured in this year's consultancy projects.

2008 is widely expected to see a tightening of belts across all sectors.  In this climate, efficiency in business is essential and good decisions can only be taken with the right information at hand.  TFPL consultants can help your business put it's Information Management strategies and practices in order.

Top tips for a library move

It's a year since Jacky Berry left TFPL to become the Librarian at the British Medical Association (BMA).  In that year, Jacky has been immersed in that most complex of projects - the library move.  I have been to visit the new library space - it's going to be fantastic.  The library move is now underway and I asked Jacky to share her top tips for managing a library move and minimising the risk.  Here's what she wrote:

• Plan, plan, plan.  And then plan some more
• Get all your team involved in planning the new space you will be occupying
• Build up good relationships with all your internal clients - the porters, the estates team, security etc.  In fact, with anyone you may need to call on for support when it all looks desperate
• Get to know your movers - and their nicknames.  I have recently been dealing with Ballerina Bill, Gigolo, Marbles and Stewy Stewpot
• Be present during the move.  It is good to be on hand to avert a disaster
• Always have an emergency plan for shelving items that may not have been accounted for
• Be prepared to supply endless cups of tea and goodies - Wagonwheels, teacakes and pink wafers have been really popular with my moving team
• Get plenty of rest and sleep prior to and after the event.  It's exhausting!

AIIM Roadshow - and a new TFPL competition!

It's time for the AIIM 'five cities in five days' Roadshow!  The Roadshow has been running for many years and brings together a diverse audience to debate and learn about various IM issues.  This year TFPL is exhibiting in all five venues:

• Edinburgh - 30th April
• Manchester - 1st May
• Birmingham - 2nd May
• Reading - 4th May
• London - 5th May

We are running a competition with a prize of a PlayStation3.  Come and visit our stand at the Roadshow to pick up a competition postcard with four pictures on it.  Alternatively, you can enter the competition online.  The idea is to identify which one of the Roadshow venues is NOT represented by a picture.  Good luck!

CLUE - it's the only venue that is NOT a city.

Is IM a new profession? Or a blurring of disciplines?

TFPL has  been working with the recently formed Information Management Group (IMG) to identify the set of skills that make up Information Management.  The IM Group, whose members include  the Metropolitan Police, Yell, Henley Management Centre and CILIP,  argues  that the  capability  that enables  organisations to effectively manage and exploit information call for a range of skills not currently well understood by the IT community.  There is, they suggest, a 'new profession' waiting in the wings.  The immediate objective of IMG is to develop a set of IM specific skills which will influence the development of the 4th edition of Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).

A joint TFPL/IMG workshop on 6th March explored these arguments, the skills included in the current version of SFIA and the IM responsibilities identified by TFPL in its  'Information Management Framework: responsibilities in the e-landscape', and the developments needed.   The outcomes of that workshop are currently being summarised but the overall impression was that IM and IT skills are different - but interdependent, and that the development of one Framework addressing both IT and IM communities would be difficult.   But a look at the SFIA website with its four supporting organisations, and consideration of the range of organisations and professional groups that make up the non IT information professions, illustrates why IM is poorly understood.  IM is all pervasive - but poorly articulated.  Many of the skills required exist but are not visible; others are in short supply. The information profession needs to keep talking to SFIA and other organisations - it needs to ensure that IM becomes a key competence, not an 'also ran'.

Your opinions and comments would be very valuable.

TFPL's Information Management Framework is available on our website - the white paper called 'Who's managing information?'

The IM Group presented their arguments at a seminar at Online Information last December, and have written a number of articles.

The SFIA Foundation is jointly owned by the British Computer Society, E-skills UK (the sector skills council), Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS),and The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

"The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems (IS) making use of Information & Communications Technology (ICT)".   

Professional skills for working beyond the Library (NGLIS conference)

I attended the Network of Government Library and Information Specialists (NGLIS) conference during the week, which was looking at the professional skills that Library and Information Specialists (LIS) need to acquire so they can work in other areas outside of libraries. Presentations were made by a number of senior LIS from different government departments, who spoke about the different roles being carried out by LIS working in areas such as records, intranet and knowledge management. They showed that skills like leadership, project management, good communication and facilitation are required, as well as applying IM skills in areas like content management or intranet publishing. Roger Wilshaw, from Government Skills, the newly licensed Sector Skills Council, outlined the Professional Skills in Government (PSG) programme that provides a framework of skills which will apply for all civil servants. Key message of the day: there are relevant roles beyond the traditional information job market and LIS must develop other core skills to compete in this arena. This was in keeping with the findings from the TFPL research project on e-roles, carried out in 2006, which looked at how IT had affected the emerging and evolving job roles around information management.

Within fifteen years information will be delivered to the desktop untouched by human hand

We held a lively debate at the Bath Club

on the 31st January. The debate entitled "This house believes that within fifteen years information will be delivered to the desktop untouched by human hand." was met with a lively conversation and an audience with differing views on the subject. For me there was much to think about on the subject in my role to second the motion, following Ian McEwan from the Metropolitan Police, as proposer. Although I stuck to my brief during the debate, I left it personally rethinking some basic principles. Here are my top ten thoughts on automate vs manual.

1. Humans can be unreliable and do not always appreciate the importance of tagging and preparing documents for distribution and consumption.

2. Whilst computers are consistent they lack intuition, interpretation and insight when automating the publication and distribution of information

3. A combination of the two is most probably the more realistic and practical approach. (Chris Collison's third motion proposal!)

4. The vendors have promised too much in the past and left the market with an unhealthy amount of scepticism about the true accuracy of automation.

5. It could be time to reassess the manual vs automated option.

6. We have come a long way in 15 years but where will technology be in another 15 years. Will we be swept along by Moore's Law or will we maintain control over our information and change little?

7.Information Retrieval and Records Management may require different levels of control and this may vary across information assets and different organisations. Therefore, "one rule fits all" may not work.

8.There is a cultural, emotional or personal influence in this debate. Difficult to put your finger on what but individuals are influencing the outcome of organisations information policies and practice.

9. Some organisations are already automating their information management but there will always be a human at both ends of the communication pipe so let's not forget to build usable interfaces.

10.Whenever someone comes up with a top ten they are never exhaustive otherwise the list would most probably be 9 or 11!

Our chair's (Jaqueline Rees, from HM Treasury) introductory slide  "no humans required" is I suspect still a far cry. We may have to wait more than 15 years for the wonderful world of sitting on the beach, sipping cocktails, telepathically receiving precise data onto our sunglasses. Long may the debate rage on!!!!

Who is managing information?

TFPL published their white paper  'Who is managing information?: information responsibilities in the digital world' this week.  It includes an 'Information Management Framework: responsibilities in the digital world'.  This Framework suggests 6 responsibility clusters:  information strategy; enterprise information architecture; information governance; creation and acquisition; communication and publication; information exploitation and use.  You can download the report and Framework  from our website www.tfpl.com

This is a topical subject.  There are number of streams on information skills and career development at the Online Information Conference this week and we will be presenting some of the conclusions of our white paper at a free seminar on the TFPL stand.  The recently formed IM Group are also presenting a seminar on IM skills as part of the IMS exhibtion. 

Do let us know what you think of the  Framework and you ideas for its development via the blog, by email, discussion at Online - or call us.

Special Collections

The British Library hosted a conference last week (Manuscripts Matter) examining the continuing flow of source material into well-funded US academic collections.  Brenda Maddox wrote a piece about it for The Observer (29 October) that balanced the general preference for manuscripts to be located appropriately with the pragmatic view that the material is best housed wherever it can be best cared for. 

At TFPL, we've completed a couple of assignments this year that have required a review of special collections.  Both interesting pieces of work and both highlighting some key points:

• funds for basic collection management:  cataloguing, conservation and preservation work have become harder to secure
• digitisation is the mot du jour but digitisation projects are not to be taken lightly.  They need careful preparation and a long-term strategy if they are to succeed
• special collections in academic institutions can come alive if linked to and supported by the curriculum and research interests of the academic community - the converse is also true
• it is a shame when the subject of a special collection becomes a victim of fashion but take a long-term or "long tail" view - there will be interest from some quarter and fashions change!