Practical action on Jinfo's Research Focus, from a management consultancy perspective
Jinfo Blog

By Anja Chemnitz Thygesen

Abstract

We asked an information professional in a management consultancy about the recent Research Focus, "Content and technology for current awareness" and how it's affected their thinking and resulted in some concrete next steps.

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How are the articles, webinars and Community sessions from the Research Focus, "Content and technology for current awareness" being used? We spoke to one of our regular participants and readers from a management consultancy who shared with us thoughts on their plans for current awareness and how they will involve stakeholders.  

Jinfo: What did you find most valuable about the Research Focus?

Research manager: This Research Focus came at a good time for us. We are currently looking at this as we have a mandate to cut down on current awareness in order to devote time to other things. So we were looking at ways to do this and if we could somehow work differently or smarter. I think this was completely on point for us that this Research Focus came up.

Jinfo: How did it affect your thinking?

Research manager: It was useful for us to read the articles and I also participated in one of the webinars. This actually suggested a couple of things that I probably know already but hadn't articulated. There were also a couple of things that I hadn't thought of, which was very useful input.

Next step for me is to decide with my superior what to do. I'm still at an early stage and doing some data gathering but then I need to suggest some changes and to decide which actions to take as a result of that. I find it very useful to use Jinfo in this process as it gives me some insights into what others are thinking. This is also a good way to show management that we are in line with best practice.

Jinfo: What will be the practical next steps?

Research manager: As part of our current process we need to go back to our stakeholders and make sure that we're actually meeting their needs and not just inventing something. Maybe we could make some changes to the current tools - that would be the easiest.

We also have to consider the whole question of automating. It's a balance between manual labour (cost) and quality. I often find that the automated solutions are ok but need some manual adjustments and additions. For instance, some sources may not be included in the tools we use and have to be added. 

I haven't been a big user of Jinfo in the past but over the last months I have tried to pay more attention to the Newsletter and to have some time to read more articles. My strategy is to devote time every week to read something new. I know that it's difficult but it often works for me.

The main lessons learned from this three-month Research Focus, plus a thematic index to all content published, are included in the "Insights & actions report on current awareness", visit the Research Focus page to get your copy.

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