Mini Review: Bloomberg Government
23rd January 2013

Jan Knight reviews Bloomberg Government, a robust, web-based information source that sits at the "intersection of business and government" and where users can find news related to government, business, industry, and in the same product search for, or keep up-to-date with, legislation, regulation and government contracts.

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Can You Lengthen Your Skills Ladder?
23rd January 2013

Despite the uncertain economic times, there do seem to be potential opportunities for information professionals. Companies are concerned to build up the information architecture they will need to deal with mobile, social and cloud developments. There’s greater emphasis on compliance, big data and the monetising of information assets, and concern about the continuing risks of rapidly spreading disinformation. So, with learning new skills the top goal of respondents in a recent LinkedIn survey, perhaps now would be a good time for information professionals to do the same.

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Mini Review: Workshare
22nd January 2013

We're all trying to work more closely with colleagues, regardless of their location. And the need to do so with effective controls over document security, revision history, and peer inputs is increasing. James Mullan reviews Workshare, a collaborative tool that integrates tightly with Microsoft Outlook to avoid common security mishaps involved with emailing documents, while also creating a cloud-based, secure collaborative environment for commenting, revision management and document auditing. Screenshots and detailed user analysis included.

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Facebook Graph Search - Disruptor to the Internet Giants?
22nd January 2013

Penny Crossland reports on last week's launch of Facebook's much anticipated search engine, Graph Search. The feature will come as welcome news to searchers frustrated by Facebook's cumbersome search engine, since discovery of information is made easier by category indexing using natural language searching. The big internet businesses, however, and especially Google, are likely to view the new feature as a major disruptor, since in the long-term it will enable users to search for jobs, products and local businesses. This will affect the likes of Amazon, LinkedIn and Yelp.

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Dealing with Digital Addiction
21st January 2013

2013 has only just started and a number of websites are already talking about digital addiction clinics. This can't be a good thing, surely? What is it about social media that so many people find so addictive? James Mullan asks how information professionals can help individuals suffering from digital addiction.

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Mini Review: Infotrieve Mobile Library Rx
15th January 2013

Aileen Marshall reviews Infotrieve's Mobile Library Rx™, the iPad-based ePrint delivery solution for pharmaceutical professionals/sales representatives/marketing, interacting with healthcare professionals or other external organisations. Unlike some other products, it does not focus on internal document delivery but rather on sharing ePrints with external clients while complying with all applicable copyright/digital rights regulations.

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Mini Review: Cortera PULSE
14th January 2013

This review covers Cortera PULSE™, a credit risk monitoring and intelligence database that is a disruptive presence in the otherwise staid and conventional world of credit reporting data. Cortera brings a focus to payment variables and B2B buying behaviour that has been somewhat overlooked by the credit world. The database is colourful and user friendly, but not overly simplified, offering a variety of communities, tools and report options to suit a range of business needs.

Update: A new review of this product is available here »

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Nothing is Certain Except Death, Taxes... and Compliance
14th January 2013

Even when times are tough, opportunities continue in regulatory compliance. Thomson Reuters has just launched its FATCA solution and LexisNexis has acquired regulatory information specialist Knowledge Mosaic. Although much of the current focus - in Britain, the United States and Europe - is on tax avoidance, a recent Virgin Media Business survey brings corporate tweeting to the fore again, and there's also growth in due diligence, fraud investigation and insolvency work. There's evidence, too, that some of this is being brought in-house.

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Reconnecting with Your LinkedIn Connections
11th January 2013

The New Year means different things to different people, but if you're serious about professional networking then it should be a time when you reach out to your connections on LinkedIn to ensure they're not "gathering dust" and that you and your connections are continuing to provide value to each other. But how should you go about this? James Mullan provides some useful tips for LinkedIn novices as well as those more au fait with the tool.

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Easier Broadcast News Searches - Both Sides of the Pond
10th January 2013

The latest smart devices combine with increasingly sophisticated streaming technology to make it easier for us to consume broadcast news wherever we are. Our appetite for TV news online is increasing and watching news on televisions is declining in favour of a mix of computer-based devices. Creating easy access to archived broadcast news is now a vital part of information professionals' roles as searching video news becomes an important part of the search strategy.

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