A Deep Dive into Information Discovery
Jinfo Blog

By James Mullan

Abstract

Series co-producer James Mullan reflects on the content published to date in the FreePint Topic Series "Making Information Visible" and highlights upcoming articles around information discovery as well as Webinars and Community of Practice events on the horizon.

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We're in the first couple of weeks of the "Making Information Visible" Topic Series and we've already seen some fantastic content published by our FreePint contributors.

There's much to look forward to as we delve deeper into some of the issues organisations are facing around information discovery, integrating information resources and the challenges associated with search and making information visible.

What Do We Mean by Visibility?

One of the highlights for me during the first week of the Series was Robin Neidorf's article which looked at what we mean by "visibility".

In the blog Robin looks at the three components of visibility, which are identified as:

• The right technology
• The right content
• And the expected & managed user behaviour.

There is also a call to complete the FreePint survey on "Making Information Visible" - I would encourage you to complete this survey if you have not done so already.

Assessing Needs for Information Visibility

One of the most important things organisations need to do when thinking about information visibility is to identify their actual needs.

To assist organisations with this FreePint will be running a Communities of Practice Session "Needs Assessment for Information Visibility" in March, which will help organisations prioritise and assess the existing gaps in the way they make information visible.

Understanding Data Visualisation

If you actively manage information then you may have been involved in a data visualisation project.

Data visualisation is the process by which sometimes complex information is translated into tables and graphs to make it easier to understand. It can be as simple as a bar chart or pie chart, but will increasingly use concepts like infographics to present information to users. Anja Thygesen's article "Presenting Research Results" offers some useful insight into what to remember when you visualise data. 

As part of this Series FreePint will be running a Webinar "Beautiful Information is Visible Information", more information coming soon. 

Q&As with Information Vendors

FreePint is committed to providing insights and updates on acquisitions in the information field as well as Q&As with suppliers of information products that we think will be of interest to subscribers.

The first Q&A as part of this Series is with Emily Sheahan of the Copyright Clearance Center, where one of the subjects discussed is their acquisition of Infotrieve in November 2014. The integration of the two companies is now well underway and the Q&A looks in more detail at some of the practicalities of this integration.

Another Q&A in the pipeline is with Tallyfy, a company that help organisations manage their distributed processed more effectively. So instead of having processes listed in Excel, Word or even within Business Process Management tools, Tallyfy creates a way for organisations to manage and understand their checklists. This promises to be a Q&A that will provide an insight into their product and how organisations can better manage their internal processes.

If you haven't done so yet I would encourage you to register your interest in the FreePint Topic Series "Making Information Visible", it promises to be an insightful series.

This Blog Item is part of the FreePint Topic Series "Making Information Visible".

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