SharePoint - A Librarian's Best Friend?
30th October 2012

Right now it seems like a day doesn't go by where I receive an email or read a blog post that extols the virtues of SharePoint as either an intranet, knowledge repository, knowledge network or collaborative tool. One article published in an AALL/ILTA white paper definitely grabbed my attention with the title "SharePoint: A Librarian's most versatile tool". This is certainly a very bold statement to make, so what is it about SharePoint that makes it so "versatile"?

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Product Review of Linex Systems: Executive Summary
30th October 2012

Reviewer Jan Knight highlights the key findings of her in-depth review of Linex Systems' aggregation and workflow tools. The system's ability to integrate multiple streams of information from a range of premium and web-based sources is a strength; some of the functions could be more intuitive; customer service is present and helpful, to enable new users to get up to speed and get the power of the product as quickly as possible.

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

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Linex Systems: Subscription Information and Costs
30th October 2012

Reviewer Jan Knight notes that interested professionals can initial register for free to perform searches on Linex Systems and receive alerts; customised pricing kicks in for subscribers who which to add their own content and create their own alerts. Pricing is based on numbers of administrators, alerts and specific modules included.

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Linex Systems: Help and Customer Accounts
30th October 2012

Linex Systems takes a "hands on" approach to training, encouraging new users to get involved with the system and then bring their practical questions to WebEx training sessions. Email-based help and FAQs are also effectively deployed, and a global team of customer service professionals helps ensure that customer questions are answered quickly, regardless of the time of day or location of the customer. Reviewer Jan Knight finds customer service and help accessible and useful.

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Linex Systems: User Interface
30th October 2012

Reviewer Jan Knight finds the user interface of Linex Systems generally useful, but lacking some structure that would make it easier for users to orient themselves within the product. A lengthy list of terms used in the product make it difficult to develop familiarity quickly.

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Linex Systems: Outputs and Reports
30th October 2012

Alerts are at the heart of the value of Linex Systems. Users and administrators can set up different types of alerts using different sources, time frames, and alerting mechanism. Reviewer Jan Knight also comments on the products reporting functions, which are designed to help administrators understand what alerts are most useful to users and gauge the value of the product overall.

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Linex Systems: Sources, Content and Coverage
30th October 2012

Linex Systems is designed to pull content from a wide range of premium, web-based and even email sources to enable users to gain a comprehensive view of a topic on an ongoing basis. Users can add their own sources, including subscription-based sources, to the 7,800 sites and RSS feeds provided. The product's primary purpose is not in searching, but a useful search function is available. Reviewer Jan Knight provides the results of her testing.

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Linex Systems: Introduction and FreePint's View
30th October 2012

Linex Systems offers three products to support information monitoring and discovery. The Smart Alerts product is a fully customisable Software as a Service offering that enables customers to automatically monitor diverse information streams including premium databases, web searches and internal information to maintain awareness about projects. The product was originally developed for law firms and professional services firms. It can take some attention to get it set up to maximise the power of the tools -- a challenge for getting started but also a strength of a fully-flexible tool. Reviewer Jan Knight offers her introductory comments on a full review.

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From Gatekeeper to Story Teller?
29th October 2012

We are facing threats to professional journalism from the growth of information sharing, the hazardous lure of free news from myriad sources and the possible fragmentation of peer-reviewed research publication. Where might all this leave the information manager or researcher tasked with sourcing, selecting and – critically – presenting the intelligence they provide?

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Web 2.0 and Its Impact on the Information Industry
29th October 2012

The digital revolution has radically changed how we access information, interact with each other and create content. We are all now capable of adding to the collective knowledge, changing the role of the traditional gatekeepers of information – librarians and other information professionals. Web 2.0 has also spurred the technology industry into producing devices that enable us to access information wherever we are. These are themes which are addressed by Martin de Saulles in his book 'Information 2.0: New models of information production, distribution and consumption. This article attempts to delve into some of the issues raised in the book, with the help of FreePint and other information industry observers.

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