May 17: LinkedIn Workshop

Refresh and revive your online professional persona!  In today’s world of social media, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your online profile and resume are fresh, current, and discoverable by your colleagues. Come to this LinkedIn workshop and learn how to create a professional profile that puts your best foot forward and shows off your abilities and accomplishments.  Even if you are not looking for a new opportunity, you never know when one might be looking for you!

Date:  May 17, 2012

Time:  4:30pm – 6:30pm

Registration:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/cincinnatilinkedin

Location:

University of Cincinnati Health Sciences Library, Electronic Classroom G005G

Medical Sciences Building
231 Albert Sabin Way
Cincinnati, OH 45267-0574

Ph: (513) 558-5628

Program Description:

This workshop is an overview of LinkedIn and its benefits to your online professional presence, as well as an opportunity to customize and enhance your personal LinkedIn account.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will develop and customize their individual LinkedIn profiles.

2. Participants will learn tips on how to effectively use their LinkedIn accounts to network with professional colleagues and groups/ organizations.

3. Participants will learn how LinkedIn can be effective for networking or job searching.

4. Participants will brainstorm about using LinkedIn to increase awareness, branding, and business for their library or information center.

Presenters:

Leslie Schick is Associate Dean of Library Services and Director, Health Sciences Library (HSL) at the University of Cincinnati. Leslie developed the HSL’s well-respected technology training program and loves to teach (when time permits!).

Kristen Burgess is a second year Associate Fellow from the National Library of Medicine who is spending this year at the Health Sciences Library. Kristen is actively involved with collection development and teaching activities while at the HSL.

The HSL Electronic Classroom has 21 computers available.  Or, bring a computer of your own!

Photographer:

The registration fee includes time with a professional photographer, who will take a digital photo to enhance your LinkedIn profile!

Agenda:

• 4:30 – Check in
• 4:45 – 6:00 Presentation
• 5:30 – 6:30 Photos
• 6:00 – 6:30 Work time and networking

Post-Workshop Networking

6:30 – ? All are welcome to network with colleagues at the Mecklenburg Gardens, which is just a few minutes’ drive from UC Health Sciences Library.  On-street parking available.  Guests pay for own dinner.  http://www.mecklenburgs.net

Parking & Directions: (parking is $7 for 2-2.5 hours)

From Martin Luther King Drive, enter UC’s Medical Campus by turning north on Eden Avenue. Just past Goodman Avenue, turn left into the Eden Avenue Garage. Park and either 1) exit the garage at ground level (Eden Avenue) or 2) take the pedestrian bridge from the 5^th floor of the garage into the Medical Sciences Building (MSB).

The entrance to the Health Sciences Library (E005) is on the E Level of the Medical Sciences Building (MSB) near the passenger elevators and directly across from the Bookstore entrance.

Detailed directions: http://libraries.uc.edu/hsl/directions/direction10.html#directions

UC Campus Map: http://www.libraries.uc.edu/information/hours_maps/map2011.pdf

Costs:

• $20 workshop fee, includes photo
• $7 for 2-2.5 hours of parking, Eden Avenue Garage

Registration:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/cincinnatilinkedin

Questions: Please contact Emily Klukken, emilyklukkenyahoocom

The Cincinnati Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) will present a “Tech Blitz” program on Tuesday, November 29.  Details follow.

2011 SLA Tech Blitz: Hi-Tech on the Horizon

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

4:00-6:00 pm

The Ohio Room, The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati Rookwood Tower (adjacent to Rookwood Commons shopping center, free parking)

3805 Edwards Road, Suite 500

Cincinnati, OH 45209-1948

 Admission:

SLA Members – $10

SLA Non-Members – $15

Students/Unemployed – Free

Register at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SLATECHBLITZ

Presentation:

“Hi-Tech on the Horizon” presented by Glen Horton

Libraries are evolving.  New technologies are changing the needs of our users and driving libraries to provide new services. Glen will highlight the hot technologies on the horizon and discuss how they are impacting libraries and our lives.

Glen Horton recently became the Digital Services Manager for Campbell County Public Library in Northern Kentucky.  He is currently building the library’s digital branch and implementing online programming. Glen previously served as the Technology Coordinator for SWON Libraries where he spent eleven years training and providing technology assistance to libraries.

Panel Discussion:

Mary Jenkins, Hamilton County Law Library Jen Evert, American Financial Group Ted Baldwin, College of Engineering & Applied Science Library, University of Cincinnati

These three librarians will discuss how they successfully implemented emerging technologies in their own libraries.  Find out what was successful for them, as well as what went wrong along the way.

Featuring presentations by:

Barnes & Noble

LexisNexis

 Giveaway:

One Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch E-Reader

Nicholas Carr has written extensively on the effects of technology in modern society, having authored such works as Does Technology Matter?, Is the Intermet Making Us Stupid? and The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.  Although throughout his talk my computer suffered from buffering issues and the sound was constantly fading in and out (especially when he was naming specific scientific studies that supported his theories) and no formal slides went with his presentation (and the informal promised Power Points and other supporting materials were never sent to me), the thrust of his presentation was clear enough.  Carr says that most people believe that once the brain reaches a certain physical level of development, it cannot change and its means of operation is set for life.  Carr argues that a number of studies, some of which are found at http://www.ccn.upenn.edu/ and http://www.neuroethics.upenn.edu/, show that massive use of the Internet, with its bedrock of brief paragraphs of information, is actually affecting the brain physiologically and is making it more difficult for people to read long works that require concentration for extended periods of time.  He notes that he himself was formerly a very avid reader but about two years ago he was finding it much more difficult to focus to read books that he used to be able to get through easily and that he was frequently distracted.  Initially he considered the phenomenon just the result of aging, but he came to realize that his increased use of computers contributed to it as the repeating patterns that he was coming across on the net  (brief bursts of information) was actually changing the way he was able to think. Carr noted that the net may be the most powerful mind-altering innovation since the alphabet and numerals.  Young adults average 7 minutes per day with printed materials, and adults are not much better.  He implored his audience not to give up old ways of reading, research and thinking, for the Internet leaves readers with an increased ability to spot visual patterns but it also leaves us with a shallow level of knowledge of many things without any kind of central focus or purpose to our knowledge.  However, he believes that we can still get back our ability to concentrate and to digest longer, more thoughtful works but that our habits must change.   Several of us listening to the talk virtually commented on the irony of listening to this talk on a computer!

Overall attending the convention virtually was a very good experience.  Although there was not a real opportunity to meet the other virtual attendees, it did allow us to get the flavor of what the national SLA convention is like.  Besides the two talks I reviewed, the talk that I attended on finding your own brand was very good, with its comparison of LinkedIn (where a person’s connections are key), blogs(where a person’s content is key), and Twitter (where connections, content and speed are equally important) being quite insightful.  The general panel discussion that I attended on competitive intelligence was worthwhile as it appears to be an aspect of information management that is going to become increasingly important in the years ahead.  I thank the Cincinnati chapter of SLA for giving me the opportunity to attend virtually the SLA national convention for it did give me the opportunity to see what the convention was like without even leaving my room.

Overall this was a very good presentation.  Steve Arnold, the speaker, has been involved in the field of information for 35 years.  Although he did not give a jargon-free definition of real-time search (something that I think could have been useful), its meaning quickly became apparent as he commented on some controversial new findings on the topic that he described in more detail in his work Beyond Text and on his web site at http://armoldit.com/wordpress/.  He mentioned that real-time search is not perfect.  One person drove off of a cliff in the dark using GoogleMaps in real time while another person is suing Google after following its directions that said she had to cross a 4 lane highway and was hit by a car.  The benefits of real-time search are readily apparent though to companies who hire mathematicians to save microseconds on getting stock exchange data by having them find the best place in the building for their servers to be able to save time to get the data on their fiber optics.  Facebook and Twitter both have some applicability in real time searching as Google makes use of Facebook’s tremendous amount of video and Twitter’s context locator in its attempt to produce data in real time.   However, he does not believe that Google, Yahoo or Microsoft are truly moving whole-heartedly into real-time searching as much as their publicists try to promote them as doing so.  Arnold is much more enthusiastic about Collecta.com that takes the user to real-time news sources where the date and time are clearly listed, and uses Facebook and Twitter and other sites to find major documents.  Arnold warns that real-time information is easy to fake since no single person is monitoring all of it and notes that he goes into more detail about this in a chapter in the new book Disinformation.  He notes that real-time information isn’t actually in real time. The speed of retrieval of real-tine information depends on how much companies are willing to pay to put into the resources to be able to obtain it.  Leapfish, NewsLookup.com, Red Tram (which is based in Russia and might be influenced by the Russian government), and Yauba (which is privacy-safe) are free sources of real-time information that he focused on, and then he talked about Fetch Technologies at http://www.fetch.com that companies pay to use.  He feels that real-time searching is a concept that many companies will latch onto once they find out about its benefits.  However, as more real-time searchable content becomes available, it has to be paid for by someone, which brings up the question of how unbiased the information will be.  The one disappointing aspect of Arnold’s talk was that his anecdotes giving examples of the benefits of real-time searching were extremely disappointing.  They did not inspire me, and probably did not inspire much of the audience as they were too closely tied to companies that no one except him knew about.  Overall though, it was a solid presentation that showed both the positives and the negatives of real-time searching and demonstrated that real-time searching is a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Here’s another report from the SLA (virtual) conference, this time on a session called Nuts and Bolts of Contract Management with presenters Bill Noorlander (BST America, a content management and outsourcing firm) and Craig Wingrove (director of external content management at KPMG).  They offered practical advice on preparation and negotiation of contracts.  Even after negotiating many contracts over the past 15+ years, I learned a thing or two from this program.

Let’s start with preparation for contract negotiation:

Know your users’ needs.  Surveys can be effective but challenging; use prizes as incentives.  More importantly, study patterns of use and business needs,not just want patrons say they need.  Maintain regular communication with key practice areas. Conduct an inventory of your organization’s current licenses and maintain centralized contract license information.  Work closely with your procurement and legal departments before negotiating a contract to audit your firm’s knowledge assets and to know at the outset what must appear in contracts.  Consider your “good enough” options and eliminate duplication if you can.

Manage change well.  Consider changing vendors or changes in your terms when there are changes in the business environment, the vendor’s product, or your budget.  Evaluate content, quality, functionality, price, and integration into your work environment and with your portal.  Don’t change for the sake of change.  Balance your business needs and cost and communicate your changes well to your internal clients through portal postings, posters, email, and meetings.

Do your homework before you ever talk with your vendor.  Gather intelligence: use metrics, user satisfaction, overlap, and alternative products. Consider what your vendor might want out of the negotiation.  Set your timetable up front with the vendor, be candid and transparent.  Know from the outset that you want to insist on single sign on and use statistics.  Work with your organization’s contract people to draw up a framework agreement — no specific product information, but all the terms you want to require.

When it’s time to negotiate, know your own goals.  Do any market intelligence you can (legally, ethically) to know if your deal feels comparable to others).  Know your options and product alternatives. Know how important the content is to your users.  That will determine how hard or soft you’ll negotiate.  Remind the vendor how much you spend overall with that company and keep in mind that you want the best deal all around even if one particular product’s contract is less desirable.  Remember the vendor needs to win, too.  Know when you’ve won and when you’re done.

Some specific issues to keep in mind: Build in invoicing on a monthly basis, for example, so it meshes with the benefit of the service, rather than an annual bill.  Work out the widest possible usage terms: the ability to hourse, merge, and access data, to avoid add-on charges later.  Focus on content; a vendor should never charge you extra for other access modes like wireless, mobile, etc. Protect your firm: include language about renegotiating in the case of a merger, major product changes, severe budget cuts, etc.  Make sure that training and help desk availability are built in.  Codify any rights into the agreement: off-shore use, emailing content to clients, posting news to your portal, and the like.

Usage stats:  Do not settle for less than something!  You want metrics.  Insist on them.  You need to be able to demonstrate return on investment.  Senior management is very aware of the cost of information resources.

Your relationship with the vendor should go beyond the sales rep.  Get to know product development, support, and technical staff.  Meet with your vendor more than once a year.  Consider SLA’s Leadership & Management Division and the Business and Finance Division as resources. Get together with your senior management periodically to evaluate the value of the vendors’ services.   When prepping for the next round of negotiations, challenge the status quo, use scorecards, consider competitors, and review usage statistics.

Questions from the audience were good and my notes go on forever, so contact me if you’d like to know more about this session.

href="mjenkinscmshamilton-coorg">Mary Jenkins, Law Librarian & Director, Hamilton County Law Library, 513.946.5300