Mobile devices represent a significant opportunity for visitor engagement – before, after and during visits. In a major survey done in 2012-2013, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London discovered that almost two thirds of their visitors own a smartphone and bring it with them to the museum, and the majority of survey respondents said they use their phones to “enhance their cultural visits.”

What do you do when you get an unsolicited email about a product, event or service that’s full of exclamation marks or threats of scarcity? I hit delete, and I’m betting you do too.

ETS is a nonprofit organization that advances worldwide quality and equity in education by creating assessments based on rigorous research. They develop, administer and score more than 50 million tests annually in more than 180 countries, at more than 9,000 locations worldwide.

Special librarians achieve sustainability by understanding that end user requirements and forces at work (e.g. new technologies, globalization and a mobile workforce) all demand change.

I recently noticed a statement about Web presence and visibility for public libraries being “potentially the most important development in the library industry since the transition from the card catalog to the Integrated Library System.” It might seem counterintuitive, but the imperative to make content discoverable via Web search engines isn’t limited to public libraries.

Organizational information and knowledge management activities must be overseen and conducted by highly trained professionals who are supported with cutting edge technology and applications.

The backbone of an information intensive organization is an integrated library system (ILS) that optimizes the management of acquisitions, cataloging, delivery and circulation of critical content across the enterprise.

In addition, there are many other important information management applications (ideally built and maintained by library staff) including:

Self-promotion is difficult for everyone …well, except the Kardashians. And it can be especially challenging for those of us who aren’t extroverted, or who simply don’t have a knack for it.

If you are planning to buy an ILS or KM system, or want to migrate/upgrade, you need to think about your organization's needs both strategically and tactically in order to select the right platform. Here are 20 questions to ask yourself that will help.

Who is ETS?

ETS is a nonprofit organization that advances worldwide quality and equity in education by creating assessments based on rigorous research. They develop, administer and score more than 50 million tests annually in more than 180 countries, at more than 9,000 locations worldwide.

The Accessibility Challenge

ETS’ relationship with SydneyPlus began in 1987 when the demand to catalog their various collections became pressing. ETS’ professional staff produces and collects a significant volume of important content, and offering global access to these materials is imperative. Providing access to their books, general library collection, archives (e.g. institutional history; conferences; papers; proceedings; writings of founding officers and key researchers, product histories) and their test instrument collection was the driving force for selecting an ILS. SydneyPlus was the solution.

At this year’s SLA conference, Lucidea is sponsoring a Hot Topics session, the second in our discussion series on the sustainable library. This time, at “Building the Resilient Library: Leverage Change and Become Indispensable,” you’ll hear from peers and industry experts who know that “adapting” requires reacting positively to change - even creating change - and ultimately ensuring that it works to the library’s advantage. Equally important, librarians themselves can thrive, both personally and professionally, when they become change agents …think “resilience,” not resistance.

I can’t lose if I begin this post with a quote from Aristotle: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” I actually do think of this when I consider the impact of integration. With regard to knowledge management applications, KM solutions should not dictate the way people work and how they do things, but rather should dock neatly with existing systems and processes in order to optimize organizational knowledge delivery and exchange.

People who need people may indeed be the luckiest people in the world, but if you depend on others in order to do your job successfully, you’re going to need a strategy that embraces both daily partnership and situational independence.

Many museums rely on interns and volunteers for data entry, cataloguing and as docents. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming is no different. With a campus that houses five museums and a research library, managing the collection of western objects, papers and research materials, photographs and art is a tall order, and requires a team of well-trained people supported by excellent tools.

Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. The company maintains a presence in 67 countries and has over 143,000 employees committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, to reducing environmental impact and to improving the communities where they live and work.

With such a large globally distributed workforce, Cargill’s information management requirements are significant. Cargill is one of many organizations needing to leverage technology in order to offer efficient, easy and global access to data and information, and to ensure productive collaboration with non-library departments, maximizing their return on investment. To achieve this, they selected Lucidea’s Sydney – the leading ILS.

They leverage Lucidea’s Sydney system to:

But isn’t SharePoint a KM application? At Lucidea we work on KM projects with clients around the globe, in almost every industry. One question that we hear again and again is “But isn’t SharePoint a KM application?” I love this question and I hate this question, because the answer is “it depends.” It depends on what you mean by an application, and what that implies. Let me explain.

There is always a wealth of information related to any single artifact in a museum or archive collection, and curators know that providing supporting materials to researchers, authors, students and faculty is critical to expanding knowledge. The Colorado University Art Museum is leveraging technology to share important resources relating to single objects and to structure collections of related artifacts to enrich the museum visitor’s experience, whether in person or virtual.

Lucidea invites you to a special preview of GeniePlus,
the newest release in the Inmagic Genie family

Please join Phil Green, COO and Mike Cassettari, CMO for a special preview of these new capabilities including:

 

Originally posted on SydneyPLUS blog 12/16/2014

What actually motivates users of a knowledge management system? It’s the feeling we get at the moment of discovery. Yes, we need the information we are seeking, but it’s the buzz we get when we find it that keeps us searching. And if we get the hit we’re looking for, we’ll come back – guaranteed.