Gifts that our librarians hope to receive this year

Posted by Mark Maslowski In the past, buying a gift for a librarian meant going to a store and picking something off a shelf. The gift was waiting there to be found and librarians could use their investigative and interview skills to find it.
In recent years, buying a gift for a librarian has meant going online and ordering something off a digital shelf. The gift was sitting in some warehouse, but librarians could use search strategies and a social network to find it.
Most recently, we have found ourselves buying gifts that only exist as an idea in someone's mind. For example, here are two projects on Kickstarter that stand out as thoughtful gifts for a bibliophile:
The Game of Books: Reward Your Imagination by Aaron Stanton http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aaronstanton/the-game-of-books-a-discovery-game-for-libraries-a

The project describes itself as a game where every book you read earns you points and rewards. On the surface, this may sound like any book club, or it may make you remember a contest in your elementary school. But this project is different because it’s a take on a role-playing game (RPG) where you develop your "character" by reading books. If "you are what you eat," then this game proves that "you are what you read" and rewards you. If you are familiar with PC or console gaming, then you will know about "achievements," "perks," or "badges" that can be collected for performing tasks that are not essential to the main quest, but which motivate you.
Litographs: Entire Books on Posters and T-shirts by Danny Fein http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/772573430/litographs-entire-books-on-posters-and-t-shirts
How would you like to walk around with entire text of the "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "Treasure Island," "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," or "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" on your shirt? This gives circulation a whole new meaning to a librarian. You could hand out shirts to people instead of books! You could send your librarian, wearing one of these shirts, to "hand deliver" the book - loan out your librarians!
Admittedly, the selection of titles may not be relevant to special libraries, but it is the thought that counts.

Check out:
http://www.litographs.com/

To RDA or not to RDA

Over the last few years there has been much talk about RDA in the library world. As an ILS vendor we are at times approached by our clients with questions about what RDA could mean for them and whether or not they should consider adopting it. For those of you who are curious here is a quick summary of our current and evolving perspective on RDA, what we are doing about it and some helpful links for those who want to learn more.
As you may know, RDA is a content standard that describes how to catalogue, but it is not an encoding standard (e.g. MARC) or display standard (e.g. ISBD), which means that as a vendor there is some interpretation required on our part.
Though SydneyPLUS has sent staff to conferences and we have staff taking workshops on RDA, one challenge we keep facing is that we have yet to see a comprehensive checklist that describes all the features an ILS system needs to have to be RDA ready. The best source we have found so far is the Full Report: Report and Recommendations of the U.S. RDA Test Coordinating Committee where the Library of Congress does make some recommendations to vendors on how to prepare for RDA (page 23-24).
Upon reviewing the recommendations in the report, however, we find that we are already compliant with RDA. Below is the list of functional capabilities that the report identifies as necessary to be RDA ready along with our answers to them.

1.“Additionally, integrated library systems changes should include… the new MARC tags…”

SydneyPLUS already supports the new MARC tags 336-338 through a configurable MARC Map.

2.“Use of buttons and checkboxes to more easily handle on/off elements.”

SydneyPLUS already developed an optional module called Views Designer that allows clients to create custom record views or screen layouts which include the ability to have checkboxes, radio buttons, etc. Furthermore, the Views Designer also supports field groups that can be expanded or collapsed just like RDA requires.

3.“Future applications where linked entities will only require one change (e.g. …attributes of the creator are only stored in one place)”

SydneyPLUS clients already use linked entities, such as authors, that store all attributes in one place and require only one change. For example, more than one “Book” can link to the same “Author.” A change to the Author is reflected across the whole system where the author is used.

4.“Systems that can ingest metadata in a variety of formats.”

SydneyPLUS has made it possible to import and export data in a variety of formats. For example, we have a module that allows us to import and export CSV and XML with a configurable map.

5.“In the longer term, vendors can be exploring innovative approaches… for exposing RDA data to the Web.”

SydneyPLUS has also made it possible for search engines to crawl its data through the Site Map module exposing RDA data to the Web. In addition, we also have integration with SharePoint which provides even further exposure.

6.“One of RDA’s goals is to be readily adaptable to newly emerging database structures...”

SydneyPLUS is readily adaptable to new emerging database structures through its kmBuilder technology. SydneyPLUS was one of the first ILS systems to support a relational database and we remain one of the only systems to allow clients to be able to modify the database dynamically through a simple user interface. SydneyPLUS kmBuilder easily allows us to create fields and change field names to support changes from AACR2R to RDA.

In general, because the RDA standard itself requires interpretation and because of the customizable nature of SydneyPLUS, we see that the steps needed to implement RDA will vary from client to client. Take the example of MARC records. If a library imports or exports to MARC or uses Z39.50, then it will need to modify MARC Mapping tables and create new fields to take advantage of the data for RDA’s new MARC tags 336, 337, 338. This however will only apply to those libraries using MARC. In another example, since SydneyPLUS libraries are able to customize different field sizes to suit their unique needs, field sizes can vary from client to client. As a result, some clients may need to increase their field sizes to accommodate RDA data requirements. Though such issues are not large, they should be reviewed before proceeding with an RDA implementation.

When deciding whether or not to adopt RDA, librarians should carefully consider the costs versus the benefits of the standard for their own libraries and ensure that it’s in line with their supporting organization’s strategic plans for the future. In the meantime, we feel we are ready to support the implementation of RDA with any client approaching us to do so. One last thought is that in SydneyPLUS both AACR2R records and RDA records can coexist. This means that for those libraries that would like to experiment and evaluate before considering full fledged adoption, it is entirely possible to do so.

Of course, as a vendor we would love to hear from those of you who are considering RDA. Questions that come to mind are:

1.Does your library have a specific question about RDA to us?

2.When does your library intend to adopt it?

3.How is your library preparing its staff to implement RDA?

4.What benefit does your library see to implementing RDA?

We look forward to your responses. Send your emails to sales@sydneyplus.com.

Here are some resources we hope will help if you want to learn more about RDA.

- RDA Toolkit (free trial): http://www.rdatoolkit.org/trial

- Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/aba/rda/

- MARS Authority Control: http://ac.bslw.com/community/blog/2009/09/more-rda-resources/

SydneyPLUS at MLA 2012

Once again SydneyPLUS is heading off to the MLA conference May 18–23 - this year in Seattle.

Themed “Growing Opportunities: Changing Our Game”, the association urges members to focus on the challenges, successes, and trends in “Growing Opportunities” and offers members the flexibility to examine the convergence of these game changing opportunities with the need for maintaining sustainability.

SydneyPLUS also helps medical librarians leverage new “game changing” technologies to grow new opportunities in supporting their organization’s business success. Some of the new SydneyPLUS technologies that can change your game are,
• SharePoint integration - solutions that deliver seamless access to valued content.
• SaaS - technologies that dramatically reduce the operational costs of libraries.
• E-Content - management solutions that empower users to always find what matters to them.
• Mobile support - solutions for iPad, iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

We hope that visitors will join us at booth #227 for a demonstration of the latest SydneyPLUS solutions and discuss with our staff how they can help you achieve your library’s business goals, answer your questions and listen to your comments. For further information on SydneyPLUS or its affiliates CuadraSTAR, Inmagic or LookUP Precision, phone 604 278 6717 or email sales@sydneyplus.com with your questions

What does teaming up with SydneyPLUS mean to Inmagic users in the UK?

SydneyPLUS just announced it has partnered with Inmagic to deploy local support services to UK based Inmagic clients.

Teaming up with SydneyPLUS last fall has allowed Inmagic to begin expanding the products and services offered to its clients. Historically, Inmagic delivered software and services in the UK through its resellers and partners. Moving away from this approach, in February it setup shop in the SydneyPLUS UK branch offices and began to deliver free library and technical support to all local Inmagic users – a benefit that was greatly appreciated given the number of inbound calls received.

Delivering local support in the UK is one of a number of benefits to come out of the SydneyPLUS Inmagic partnership and users can also expect to feel the SydneyPLUS difference in other ways. Already the teams working on DB/Text, Genie and Presto have been expanded to accelerate the development of new features. With this newly gained momentum, Inmagic has just released the new DB/Text for SQL v13 and also committed to shortly releasing both Genie v3.5 and Presto v3.9 as well as new DB/TextWorks and WebPublisher service packs.

Aside from Inmagic, other KM companies such as CuadraSTAR, Questor Systems, and LookUP Precision are also receiving the benefits of being affiliated with SydneyPLUS. The ability to go to a single vendor capable of meeting all of one’s KM needs has an inherent economic and business value that librarians recognize and want.

For Inmagic and its UK library community, being affiliated with SydneyPLUS has clearly opened the door to a greater variety of KM products and cost effective services. For further information about SydneyPLUS or any of its affiliates, email sales@sydneyplus.com with your questions.

Inmagic Joins The SydneyPLUS Group of Companies

SydneyPLUS International, provider of Library KM software and solutions to Fortune 1000 companies, top law firms and government institutions has announced the acquisition of Inmagic's special library business. Inmagic, a pioneer in information management solutions, is known for its large customer base in special libraries, government agencies, commercial organizations, associations, and other non-profits. The library portion of the business includes Inmagic's DB/Text(R) Library Suite of products: DB/TextWorks(R), DB/Text(R) WebPublisher Pro, and Inmagic(R) Genie.

The addition of Inmagic's special library business to SydneyPLUS will extend SydneyPLUS' leadership position in knowledge management and library automation software markets. Phillip Green, former Inmagic, Inc. CTO, will join SydneyPLUS and lead the new division. He will be joined by Inmagic's co-founder Karen Brothers and other core members of Inmagic's special library team of sales, customer support, and engineering staff to form the new SydneyPLUS Inmagic division.

"We are thrilled about joining the SydneyPLUS family," said Phillip Green. "We share a commitment to long-term healthy and productive relationships with customers. We look forward to exploiting the synergies of our combined organizations to accelerate development, enhance customer service, and continue delivering world-class products to our global customer base."

"We at SydneyPLUS welcome everyone in the DB/Text and Genie communities to the SydneyPLUS family. Having our combined customer bases under one roof has been a long-time goal of mine," stated Ron Aspe, President of SydneyPLUS. "Inmagic and SydneyPLUS have long served similar markets, and I believe the combined expertise of both our companies will yield compelling solutions that will bring opportunity, innovation, and more choice to all."

The new Inmagic will continue to protect and reward its customers' investment in Inmagic products by adding new features and capabilities, as well as new applications. SydneyPLUS and its new Inmagic division remain dedicated to maintaining and increasing the qualities that their customers have come to expect--technical innovation, exceptional service, ease of use, outstanding reliability, and a lifelong reputation for integrity.

As part of this transaction, SydneyPLUS acquired the Inmagic trademark, which is strongly associated with the special library market. However, Inmagic, Inc. retains and will continue to market and sell its award-winning Presto technology and its products, Presto KnowledgeNet, Presto AssociatioNet, and Presto IdeaNet. Inmagic, Inc. will continue to use the Inmagic name until such time as a new company name is established.

Additionally, the companies are announcing a strategic partnership to co-market and support Inmagic's Presto for Social Libraries which is a Social Knowledge Network (SKN) application that integrates library workflow with knowledge-based content and the "wisdom of the community" to create a "Library 2.0" environment to support the research and business objectives of organizations.

"This is an extremely positive outcome for Inmagic's large base of library customers and business partners around the world," said Ron Matros, CEO of Inmagic, Inc. "SydneyPLUS has a long and successful history in the special library and knowledge management market and is a great home for Inmagic's library solutions business." For more information about Inmagic, visit www.Inmagic.com.

The SydneyPLUS Group of companies also includes, Incite Software Solutions, LawPort, Cuadra Associates, Inc, Questor Systems and Lookup Precision.

SydneyPLUS Continues to Expand and Seeks Knowledge Management Consultant

SydneyPLUS International is expanding and wants to hire a Knowledge Management Consultant. And the job title reflects your many responsibilities here!

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT

Responsibilities:
As a librarian you know that the ultimate aim of our profession is to put the right information into the hands of the people when they need it. This is what SydneyPLUS KM software does. With our software you can play an integral part in the KM success of many of today’s top companies.

Working alongside our team of expert KM librarians you, as SydneyPLUS Knowledge Management Consultant, will be responsible for interviewing, researching and gaining a full understanding of client specific KM problems and then utilizing your creativity, ingenuity and in-depth understanding of our in-house software solutions will design, implement and roll out custom KM solutions. Leveraging your solutions within their organization, your clients will be able to maximize efficiency, help reduce costs and offer seamless enterprise access to their knowledge resources. Candidates must also be able to carry out sales and training support. These include,

• Conduct product demonstrations and customer training sessions on all SydneyPLUS products and capabilities



• Work with Sales and Marketing team to prepare and deliver unique software solution demonstrations



• Consult with and advise customers on training and implementation process issues



• Work with in-house team and managers to resolve problems



• Stay abreast of SydneyPLUS product development and the Knowledge Management Industry



• Always be learning

Requirements:
You have an MLIS degree, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, can work effectively with a variety of people in a variety of situations and possess a commitment to superior customer service. International travel required.
Salary:
Salary commensurate with capabilities.
Contact:
Your resume and accompanying letter can be sent on-line to mmaslowski@sydneyplus.com or Faxed to 604-278 9161.
We thank all candidates for their applications; however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

ALA launches the S+ CE module

ALA recently launched the SydneyPLUS Continuing Education (CE) module to further the professional development of its staff. The following post is derived from the December 2010 SydneyPLUS Client NewsLetter article available from the SydneyPLUS website.

Founded on October 6, 1876 during the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the American Library Association was created to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.

ALA succeeded in making it easier for the presenter and attendees to manage registrations. Described by ALA as “intuitive,” the SydneyPLUS CE module allows staff to register for courses through a “single click workflow,” which generates an e-mail confirming the registration to staff, along with notification by e-mail to the presenter of the number of seats left.

The SydneyPLUS CE module automatically manages a wait list on behalf of the presenter. As the number of registrations exceeds the number of seats available in the class, participants are wait-listed in order of registration. Any cancellation by a registrant frees up a space and the next person on the wait-list is enrolled and notified by e-mail.

SydneyPLUS provides more than a library system to ALA in that the SydneyPLUS Information Manager is used as the organization’s internal Knowledge Management System. SydneyPLUS CE is the latest initiative, which joins these other projects:

• SydneyPLUS Calling Tree (i.e. a hierarchical representation of staff used to ensure proper communication of important news throughout the organization)
• SydneyPLUS Expertise Management (i.e. staff can describe their expertise and skills to ensure the organization makes best use of them)
• SydneyPLUS Virtual Reference (i.e. a virtual reference desk that automatically routes requests to experts in the organization)

How has ALA accomplished so much using SydneyPLUS? The secret to the successful partnership has been to invest in training, consultation, and even more training. In the last four years ALA has trained five times with SydneyPLUS: three times at SydneyPLUS headquarters and twice onsite at ALA.

SNUG 2010 Virtual Conference

This year’s Sept 20 2010 SNUG (SydneyPLUS National Users Group) meeting was held as a virtual meeting for the second year in a row. The following post is derived from a full press release available from the SydneyPLUS website.

SNUG sessions started with a focus on reporting with a Crystal reports primer that showed how users can start creating their own reports, how they can enhance existing out-of-the-box reports and how they can best leverage their own data for reporting. The meeting’s focus then shifted to a review of how to make best use of Information Manager version 4.1.1. Among the many options explored during the review where; how to enhance a portal database with book jacket covers, how to access a collection via a mobile device and to how to generate reports with the portal’s own built in Report Writer. The final session of the meeting provided case study examples of innovative Information Manager Implementations. The examples showed how IM can be used to apply “terms of use control” by having users enter their network credentials before accessing sensitive corporate reports and how existing IM functionality can be calibrated to manage all aspects of electronic information subscriptions.

SydneyPLUS clients can further network by visiting the client supported SNUG wiki at https://snug.pbworks.com . They are also welcome to follow SydneyPLUS through Twitter at http://twitter.com/sydneyplus.

SydneyPLUS Seeks Librarian Consultant

SydneyPLUS International is looking to hire a Librarian Sales Support / Training Consultant. And the job title reflects your many responsibilities here!

SydneyPLUS employs several librarians, so we asked them, "What do you like about your job?"

1. SydneyPLUS International's headquarters are located in beautiful Richmond, British Columbia and its neighbor, Vancouver, BC is ranked as the top Canadian city for quality of life.

2. SydneyPLUS also has librarians working in many top locations, such as New York, Nottingham (UK), etc. and it is an experience to work with staff around the world.

3. SydneyPLUS clients range from governments to corporations to non-profits, and every industry is represented by our clients, which allows us to meet experts in every field.

4. SydneyPLUS has supported special libraries, archives, and museums for thirty years, and many staff have worked in the company for all of these years.

SydneyPLUS SharePoint Web Part

If your organization is pursuing SharePoint integration and implementation for the library, then you may want a range of options for that integration, including the best choice: a Web Part.







Based on the SydneyPLUS Information Manager platform, SydneyPLUS has supported integration with SharePoint through a number of measures to the extent that it has designed a Web Part specifically for providing access to any SydneyPLUS data through SharePoint.

The SydneyPLUS Web Part may be the best choice for clients using SharePoint for many reasons which we will discuss here. Before we outline the benefits of the Web Part, there are other measures available to clients that provide access to SydneyPLUS data through SharePoint:

· SydneyPLUS RSS Generator can publish RSS feeds for display in SharePoint.
· SharePoint BDC can also query the SydneyPLUS database.

Editor's note: The SharePoint BDC (Business Data Catalog) is also known as the Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010.

SydneyPLUS Web Part capabilities:

1. The SydneyPLUS Web Part is easily configured by librarians. The SydneyPLUS Web Part is configurable to allow your administrator to determine what should be shown:

· Administrators can select any table and fields.
· Administrators can query using a search screen designed for librarians.
· Web Part uses the familiar SydneyPLUS Information Manager user interface.






2. The user does not have to leave SharePoint to interact with the library.

A number of actions are available to your users through the Web Part, which means that they will appreciate the convenience of staying on SharePoint.

· Users can renew items checked out in SydneyPLUS from SharePoint.
· Users can request items from SydneyPLUS through SharePoint.
· Users can search the SydneyPLUS database directly.

3. The SydneyPLUS Web Part can display relevant data based on user identity.

An important feature of the SydneyPLUS Web Part is its ability to display data that is specific to a user.

· Display resources specific to the person's department, office, etc.
· Display a list of journals that are being routed to the person.
· Display a list of requests made by that person.


If you have questions and want to find out more about SydneyPLUS SharePoint Web Part feel free to contact us at 604 278 6717 or email sales@sydneyplus.com

Editor's note: SydneyPLUS also provides intranets and extranets for law firms, and a competitive intelligence solution on the SharePoint platform.

If you would like to learn more about the extent of library-related vendors supporting SharePoint integration, then read this article:

Weldon, Lorette S.J. How is SharePoint used in Libraries? FUMSI, August 2010, online:
http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/use/4714

SydneyPLUS New Website

SydneyPLUS International, provider of Library Knowledge Management software and solutions to Fortune 1000 companies, top law firms and government institutions is pleased to announce the launch of their new corporate website.

Rapidly created and deployed in less than two weeks by SydneyPLUS staff librarians, the new site sports a fresh "look and feel" delivering more information on the products and services available from SydneyPLUS, and the many partnerships that SydneyPLUS has forged with other companies that serve related industries.

A press release is available.

SydneyPLUS Welcomes LookUp Precision

SydneyPLUS International would like to welcome the users of LookUp Precision to the SydneyPLUS family. The addition of LookUp Precision will leverage complementary technologies and accelerate innovation, delivering on a strategy of providing powerful, adaptable cost recovery solutions to the professional services sector.

SydneyPLUS and your LookUp Precision team remain dedicated to maintaining and enhancing the qualities their customers have come to expect—technical innovation, exceptional service, outstanding reliability and a lifelong reputation for integrity.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 604 278 6717 or email us at sales@sydneyplus.com.

Best Practices at Conferences

SydneyPLUS staff librarians attend many conferences throughout the year, including conferences that serve museums and archives. At every conference, there may be a session, workshop, or practice that really stands out. We want to share with you some experiences.

Here are some of the best practices for conferences that we have recently seen, which we hope every conference will consider adopting:

SCIP 2010 “Vendor Workshop”

While restricted to vendors, you may find it interesting to know that this workshop allows vendors to practice delivering pitches to our competitors - our peers - while the moderator provides feedback. The conference organizers also review basic interview techniques and measuring our ROI. Many conferences brief us on the most recent survey of the marketplace and demographics. The purpose of these types of workshops is to make your experience, the participants' experience, more productive when you visit our booths. Perhaps a conference will consider offering a similar workshop for the participants? It could be called “Tradeshow Bootcamp” and cover interview techniques, planning your path through the tradeshow floor, best times for private demonstrations, a list of new vendors this year, etc.

Museums and the Web 2010 - Crit Room

Imagine volunteering your portal (e.g. OPAC) up for critical review in front of a room full of your peers. (Your vendor sitting silently at the back of the room will beam with pride). You are only given a few minutes to provide an orientation to the web site, but the volunteers that are going to be asked to perform some tasks on it are waiting outside the room to put the site to its test. After you sit down, these volunteers ranging from end users to experts, attempt to use your portal while describing their experience. Yes, it is intimidating. Can it show you insight into the usability of your portal? Absolutely. We wish every conference offered this session.

Museums and the Web 2010 - Demonstrations

Vendors are always looking for ways to engage participants in the exhibit hall. At some conferences, SydneyPLUS sponsors a client to deliver a presentation. Museums and the Web conference had participants “take over” the exhibit hall floor for part of the day to offer presentations to other participants. While vendors could offer the presentations themselves, it was an opportunity for the vendor to invite one of their clients to occupy the booth. Instead of talking with the vendor, you had the chance to speak to the client using their product. The focus did not need to be on the product, but what the client had achieved with it. As a vendor, these demonstrations succeed in the desired “word of mouth” aspect of marketing products.

SLA “Hot Topic” Sessions

Among many sessions offered at SLA, the value of having sessions that bring you up to speed on developments in your industry is invaluable. Along with the “Ideas” bulletin boards, which allow you to share innovation with other participants, there are many efforts to foster discussion. With the growth in virtual participation among attendees updating blogs, wikis, Twitter, etc., the speed at which a good idea can spread among participants at a conference is astounding.

The Future of Conferences

Whether you are a museum, library, or archive, there is value in attending a conference in a related field. As a vendor, we have the privilege of experiencing the “best of the best.”

We have noticed some trends among recent conferences:

- rise in panels as participants want more perspectives in a shorter amount of time

- part of every conference is being left open for spontaneity (e.g. Museums and the Web offered an “Unconference Session” where the participants propose their own topics for discussion)

- use of portable technology is outpacing the infrastructure at many conference sites (e.g. ranging from saturating the Wi-Fi to not finding an available outlet for charing your device)

- memorizing the Flickr, Twitter, etc. tags is essential to participate online while at the conference, but many participates will participate after the conference

- organizers increasingly have to brand their Flickr, Twitter, etc. tags in their banners and prominently display them everywhere (e.g. web site, program, pre and post e-mail, etc.)

- vendors are increasingly offering more services and products in more disciplines, which is making it more challenging for participants to make comparisons on the tradeshow floor

SydneyPLUS Welcomes Questor

SydneyPLUS International would like to welcome Questor employees and the users of Argus to the SydneyPLUS family. We are pleased with the opportunity of leveraging our complementary technologies to accelerate innovation and deliver on a shared vision of new, powerful and adaptable collection management solutions for the cultural and academic world.

In our partnership with Questor employees and Argus users, we continue our dedication to maintaining and enhancing a quality that all our customers have come to expect — technical innovation, exceptional service, outstanding reliability and a lifelong reputation for integrity.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 310 316 9511 or email us at info@questorsys.com. A full press release is available here.

SydneyPLUS launches Competitive Intelligence Dashboard

SydneyPLUS attended the 2010 SCIP Conference on March 10-12, 2010 which was held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals is an organization for everyone involved in creating and managing business knowledge. This was a milestone event for SydneyPLUS as we had the opportunity to launch our competitive intelligence product and solution offering, SydneyPLUS CI.

SydneyPLUS CI was met with a great deal of interest by myriad firms represented at the conference. SydneyPLUS' capabilities in enterprise class data aggregation, integration to both in-house and external content stores and research databases (public domain and subscribed), and our ability to deliver relevant information dynamically and instantaneously to those that need it set us apart from many solutions on the market.

SydneyPLUS Listens to Library Directors

SydneyPLUS staff recently attended the Ark Group / Managing Partner Magazine's 4th Annual "Best Practice & Management Strategies for Law Firm Library & Information Service Centers" on February 25 held in New York.

The seminar was attended by more than 50 directors and managers of law firm libraries. Notably, 6 out of the 11 speakers were SydneyPLUS clients; it is always admirable to see our clients share with their peers! If you were not able to attend in person, then you may want to read the posting by Greg Lambert, Library & Records Manager, King & Spalding.

There were a number of KM initiatives discussed as means for the library to serve the business interests of the firm, including expertise management, which is the practice of providing a means of collecting the skills and experience of staff for the purpose of helping identify the right person for a given project. SydneyPLUS offers an expertise management system.

SydneyPLUS published an article in LibraryWorks describing such an expertise management system, which uses SydneyPLUS kmBuilder, our user interface for creating relational databases (SQL or Oracle), and SydneyPLUS Information Manager, our user interface for building a KM portal. The result is a flexible system for storing any data about a person's experience.

SydneyPLUS during the Olympic Games

As you may know, SydneyPLUS has its headquarters near Vancouver, BC, which is the host of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. SydneyPLUS has taken steps ahead of the games to ensure service levels remain in place.

There is a lot of excitement surrounding the games, which you can see in this photograph of the torch being shared through Vancouver on its way to the Games.

Photograph credit: Alicia

Showcase Your Library to Senior Management

Start 2010 with your best foot forward by reminding senior management of the high value service your library provides to your organization.

We are committed to helping you prepare for any presentation to senior management that involves SydneyPLUS. As part of that commitment, SydneyPLUS is offering to its library directors the services of its consultant librarians.

If you want to showcase your services or projects in SydneyPLUS, then we want to help you by assigning one of our consultant librarians to assist you. SydneyPLUS staff will assist you in a number of ways:

- creating PowerPoint presentations
- providing talking points

Some clients may prefer to have our consultant librarians partner with them during the presentation. SydneyPLUS can deliver the presentation on your behalf, or participate on a call as to answer questions.

Looking Inward to Expand Library Services Outward

Libraries are always looking for ways to offer more services without increasing their workload, which often means making more use of existing products and services. In fact, special libraries have reported that librarians should market services that align themselves with the essential needs of the parent organization, which has proven to be one of the best ways to prevent downsizing and cost cutting during a recession. Where could we find a new service that we could market to the organization, while addressing the priorities of senior management? Special libraries should look within for inspiration, because information about their own firms’ staff - information more valuable than all of its books and journals combined - can be found there. Special libraries can help achieve their firms’ business objectives by providing senior management with the ability to identify such expertise.

Most special libraries have the potential to offer a new service at little to no additional cost without realizing it. The product of many libraries is access to organized information, which is stored in the catalog in the form of books, journals, etc. Your library may have already expanded the catalog to include a FAQ, competitive intelligence, continuing education courses, etc. There are obviously many uses for a catalog, in terms of providing access to information, that your parent organization needs. The distinguishing factor for expanding into these areas is the realization that your organization is already using other products and services, other vendors, and may even have internal departments set up to manage such information. Special libraries should compete to be the provider of these other uses for information. Senior management, if we are successful, should be left turning to the library as their first choice.

The thread that ties all these uses of information together is people. Whether it is circulating a book to a borrower, or conducting research on behalf of a patron, special libraries know a lot about the most valuable resource in an organization – their staff. At a minimum, your library probably has the name and contact information for the employees within the organization. Many special libraries are set up to receive an import from HR or IT departments to keep their borrower records current. Very few special libraries have made any effort to make their borrower records available on their intranets or internal portals.

While there is already a system in place for HR, these systems are rigid and defined for their application, which is to support payroll, medical benefits, and manage work performance. As librarians, we can see a much bigger picture when we look to social networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook where individuals and organizations describe their expertise to market their services outwardly. There is an equally strong demand within any organization to know who the best person is for a particular job or client, but this is usually left to an informal process, such as the judgment call of a manager, which is more difficult in large organizations with many offices spread out across other divisions, such as language, time zones, etc....

There is a more detailed article by SydneyPLUS International in the January 2010 issue of LibraryWorks

Summary of 2010 predictions for legal technology

Are you too busy to read all of the predictions for 2010 about the technology used by law firms? We asked our SydneyPLUS consultant librarians to take on the task of reading several blogs and articles for you and provide a summary.

Next, we decided to ask our team to report back to us a list of predictions that appeared on the majority of the sources we consulted. Here is what 2010 appears to hold for legal technology according to the "wisdom of the crowds" online:

1. More applications will be developed for mobile phones (e.g. iPhones, BlackBerry), more firms will support the use of these devices, and there will be more competition.

2. Social networking (e.g. LinkedIn) will become more important to firms.

Obviously, when you try to summarize so many sources, some of the details fall to the side, but feel free to read some of the many 2010 predictions made by the experts, editors, etc. working with legal technology, and we feel you will agree that these two predictions seemed to be shared.

When we asked one of our SydneyPLUS consultant librarians for the “most interesting” prediction of 2010 that he reviewed, he cited the prediction about the importance of touch screen technology, similar to tablet computing, in terms of the future development of web sites, a prediction made by many experts, such as Steven Matthews and Dennis Kennedy.

For a reality check, we compared the 2010 predictions in legal technology to the 2009 predictions by Dennis Kennedy. Spoiler alert: his predictions from 2009 are nearly identical to the predictions made for 2010, which can be interpreted many, many ways. The simplest explanation is that predicting what will happen in legal technology from year to year is naturally going to have some repetitiveness because it often takes more than a year for the predictions to come true, and it certainly takes time for predictions to become true for everyone.

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Some of the blogs and articles we consulted in no particular order:

Jason Plant, "Top 5 Legal IT Technologies of 2010," No Option for Law Firm!, 1 January 2010: http://tinyurl.com/ye97vo4

Neyah Kane Bennett, "Pondering the Year Ahead in Technology, The Connecticut Law Tribune on Law.com, 5 January 2010: http://tinyurl.com/yctuj4r

Steven Matthews, "Web Law Predictions for 2010," Slaw.ca: http://tinyurl.com/y8toekq

"Nine Legal Technology Trends for 2009: The Year of Hunkering Down," DennisKennedy.com, 29 April 2009: http://tinyurl.com/dma6mu