UKeiG AGM

A reminder that the 2008 UKeiG AGM will be held on June 12th at SOAS, Bloomsbury Suite, Brunei Gallery, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG at 13.50. A PDF of the AGM papers is available at http://www.ukeig.org.uk/agm/. If you are attending the AGM, please bring a copy of the papers with you.

Karen Blakeman
UKeiG Honorary Secretary
mailto:karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk
t: +44 118 947 2256 f: +44 20 8020 0253 m: +44 7764 936733
http://www.ukeig.org.uk/
http://ukeig.xwiki.com/
http://ukeig.wordpress.com/

UKeiG is a Special Interest Group of CILIP
Registered Charity Number: 313014

Top Search Tips - May 2008, Liverpool

UKeiG's recent Liverpool Internet search workshop was filled to capacity. It was a packed day with a significant amount of new content and plenty of time for participants to try out the tools and techniques for themselves. At the end of the day they were asked to compile a list of their top tips. There were the usual suspects but the Google Custom Search Engine was new. It is the first time that we have covered Google CSE in the workshop and it generated so much interest that UKeiG will be producing a fact sheet on it. The full list of top tips is as follows:

1. Use the 'site:' command to search individual web sites that have appalling navigation and useless site search engines.

2. Search for file formats to narrow down and focus your search. For example search for Word documents or PDFs if you are looking for government or industry reports; xls for data and statistics; ppt or pdf for presentations.

3. Try something else other than Google. Have one Google free day or hour a week. Change the home page in your browser if it is set to Google.

4. Use the OR command in combination with the site: command to search more than one site or type of site. For example,

"carbon emissions trading" filetype:ppt site:ac.uk OR site:gov.uk

5. Don't believe all you see, especially when it comes to people searches and mashups. [Mashups combine information from several different sources to produce a single new resource.]

6. If the information is critical, always cross and double check the accuracy of the information with independent sources.

7. Books are still relevant. For example, if you are new to a subject or industry sector try and find an introductory text that can help you with the terminology. They are also excellent for historical information. As well as Amazon, try Google Books (http://www.google.com/books/) for older texts, and Live Books (http://search.live.com/books/).

8. Use services such as Zuula or Intelways to remind you of the different types of information that are available and their appropriate search engines. Type in your search once and click on the search tools one by one.

9. Build your own Google Custom Search Engine for collections of sites that you regularly search, to create a searchable subject list, or to offer your users a customised, more focused search option.

10. Try good old fashioned Boolean. Yahoo, Exalead and Live support AND, OR, NOT and 'nested' searches, but don't go overboard. Remember to type in the operators as capital letters. otherwise the search engines will ignore them as stop words.

11. Make use of proximity searching.

a) Double quote marks around your search terms to force a phrase search works in all of teh search engines. For example

"carbon emissions trading"

b) In Google, use the asterisk (*) to find your terms separated by one or more terms but close to one another. There is no information in the help files on the maximum separation. Increasing the number of asterisks is not supposed to make a difference but it does and it appears that one asterisk stands in for one word.

c) The Exalead NEAR command finds words within a maximum of 16 terms within each other. You can control the degree of separation by using NEAR/n where 'n' is a number specified by you. For example

climate NEAR/3 change

12. Try social bookmarking services to track down other people's research lists on a subject. For example del.icio.us, Furl, Connotea, Citulike,

13. If you are looking for formatted files search Yahoo as well as Google. One participant tested several searches on both and found that Yahoo consistently came up with more. This could be due to different coverage of the two services but is more likely to be down to the fact that Google indexes the first 100K of a document but Yahoo indexes 500K. [Karen Blakeman comments: also search in Live.com. I recently found two unique documents via Live.com that contained vital information on a company that I was researching].

14. The Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) at http://www.archive.org/ for pages, sites and documents that have disappeared. Ideal for tracking down lost documents, seeing how organisations presented themselves on the Web in the past, and for collecting evidence for a legal case.

15. Partially Answer your question in your search strategy. For example

"A hippopotamus can run at"

UKeiG Intranets Forum - can you demonstrate your intranet?

UKeiG Intranets Forum is hoping to host an afternoon at Imperial College for members of the Intranets Forum to look at other members' intranets in an informal environment.

The event would take place in one of the PC clusters in Imperial's newly refurbished library.

Members of the forum would demonstrate their intranets on PCs, either by accessing them online or via screenshots / presentations. Attendees will have the opportunity to mill around and look at the demos as they wish, rather like an exhibition.

Refreshments will be provided.

Please get in touch with Janet Corcoran if you would be willing to demonstrate your intranet at this event or if you would be interested in attending the event.

Janet Corcoran
Imperial College London Library
j.m.corcoran@imperial.ac.uk

Note: The UKeiG Intranets Forum is a free, informal event for UKeiG members who work with intranets, set up to enable those who work with intranets to meet those colleagues who work in the same area as them.

SharePoint 2007 for Intranets and Web Sites - Fully Booked

Please note that the SharePoint 2007 meeting being held on 15th July is now fully booked.

UKeiG intranets courses

You can find more information or book a place on these courses at on the UKeiG web site or by emailing meetings@ukeig.org.uk. Already know the subject inside-out? Maybe someone else in your organisation would benefit from the top quality training UKeiG provides.

SharePoint 2007 for Intranets and Web Sites
CILIP, 7 Ridgmount Street, London, WC1E 7AE
Tuesday 15th July 2008, 9.30-16.30

The objective of this seminar is to outline the benefits and challenges of MOSS07 implementations so that intranet and web managers are better prepared to discuss these with colleagues in the IT department in developing a business case and implementation plan for using MOSS07.

The course will commence with a comprehensive introduction to MOSS07 which will provide an independent assessment of how to get the best out of MOSS07. This will be followed by a presentation on the search application that is included in MOSS07 and also the new Search Server 2008 Express. There will be a series of case studies of MOSS07 implementations, and the day will conclude with a Q&A Session.

Intranet Governance
CILIP, 7 Ridgmount Street, London, WC1E 7AE
Thursday 9th October 2008, 9.30-16.30

Most organisations have strategies and policies for just about every aspect of operations, but rarely for the intranet. Intranets have now become essential information platforms, and need to be resourced appropriately.

The objective of this workshop is to set out the key elements of an intranet governance strategy. The workshop will cover: Making a business case for an intranet; Developing an intranet strategy; Turning a strategy into an operational plan; Creating and managing the intranet team; Supporting the work of content authors; Achieving intranet impact; Developing and undertaking usability tests; Gaining user feedback.

UKeiG has the CILIP Seal of Recognition, which recognises high standards in the content and relevance of training courses. See http://www.cilip.org.uk/qualificationschartership/seal/ for details.

CILIP Council Briefing - April 2008

For UKeiG members who are also members of CILIP here is the latest news from CILIP Council via Chris Armstrong. Note that there is a new Council Matters Blog and that Council papers and minutes are available on the CILIP Web Site, but you have to be a CILIP member to be able to access them.

Date: 30th April 2008:

The new Council met yesterday for the 4th time, and it was agreed that this briefing which appears on our blog and forum, should also be forwarded directly to Groups and Branches. Here, as agreed, is a short report on our current work. In due course, members will be able to read
the full Minutes on the CILIP website.

In my introductory blog post, I set out the dates for future meetings – in June we are in Cardiff as guests of CILIP Cymru and it now looks as if we may have second out-of-London meeting – we are trying to organise the September meeting in Liverpool.

We had a very full agenda yesterday; what follows are notes on the most important business covered.

• Following earlier discussions, an International Task and Finish Group has been set up with 6 members.
• Council has been aware of concern from Groups and Branches as to their access to members’ details and this issue was discussed sympathetically and at length in the light of the project already underway to improve the ICT infrastructure – CILIP has new Database and ICT Managers in post, and an ICT Project Board with agreed terms of reference has already met twice. (There is a short report by the Project Board in the CILIP Update which members will receive this week.)
• In previous years there has been preliminary (and unfinished) work to unify Branch and Group Rules, and the Governance Task Force and Implementation Group recognised that this would remain a requirement under the new governance. Council has now set up a small Task and Finish Group to work on this – ‘plain English’ and consistency are to be the key words.
• A second Task and Finish Group has been set up to consider all of the issues surrounding future funding for Branches and Groups, to report back in July or September.
• Work on a Corporate Communications Strategy is progressing and the May Council will receive a scoping document for discussion.
• In previous Council meetings, the *Framework of Qualifications and Accreditation Review* (FoQA – see http://www.cilip.org.uk/qualificationschartership/foqareview.htm) was established with a Steering Group, which has now had two meetings and is liaising with the ICT Project Board as some of the FoQA requirements will have ramifications for ICT. A dissemination strategy for the Group’s report has been agreed.
• The Encompass Initiative: Towards an Inclusive Profession – picking up on threads in the CILIP Corporate Plan – was presented and a pilot Positive Action Training Scheme for Public Libraries in England was approved unanimously by Council.
• Colleagues will recall that under the new governance structure the Policy Forum is – as its name implies – the source of policy recommendations, and Council received, through the Forum’s Chair, CILIP Vice-President Peter Griffiths, recommendations following from their first meeting. Council was unanimous in adopting a Policy Statement on Libraries and Learning; and in approving an Action Plan to Support Learning and work to establish an appropriate evidence base.
• Councillors have been concerned that they should receive appropriate training as Trustees of CILIP and work has begun to develop a programme of training for this and future Councils.
• Finally, Council reviewed and approved ongoing work being undertaken in the area of professionalism in the profession.

This is a necessarily brief overview of the main points discussed yesterday. I hope colleagues find it useful.

Chris Armstrong
National Councillor (CILIP)

Online Information 2008 - Call for speakers

Online Information Conference
2-4 December 2008
Olympia Conference Centre, London
http://www.online-information.co.uk/conference

Deadline for submissions extended to Friday 16th May

The theme for Online 2008 is "Information at the heart of business", focused on helping business, academia and government survive and prosper in the first real recession of the digital age. Topics covered are:

• Understanding enterprise 2.0
• Impact of Web 2.0 in organisations
• Understanding behaviours for improved service delivery in the digital age
• Information dynamics and information logistics
• Digitisation and digital rights management
• eDiscovery - the new search
• Information structuring for improved sharing, management and access Library & publishing developments
• Information professionals surviving in the new age

View the conference themes in full at
http://www.online-information.co.uk/online07/conferencethemes.html

Online Information is looking for exemplar cases from around the world - organisations that transformed their business to be information agile and flexible - fit for any digital challenge. Of particular interest are lessons learned one year on from the implementation of web 2.0 tools
in the work place.

To submit a speaking proposal visit the Online Information web site

UKeiG workshop (Liverpool):Searching the Internet - Google and Beyond

Due to a last minute cancellation we now have one place available on our workshop 'Searching the Internet: Google and Beyond'.

Venue: The Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool, 1 Brownlow Street, Liverpool

Date and time: Friday, 16th May 2008, 09.30 - 16.30

Workshop outline:
http://www.ukeig.org.uk/training/2008/May/beyondgoogle.html

Please contact Christine Baker if you are interested in attending.
Tel & Fax: 01969 625751 +44 1969 625751
Email: CABaker@ukeig.org.uk

Further details:

With the major search engines claiming coverage of over 20 billion web pages in their databases, it is becoming increasingly difficult to locate relevant information. Most of us head straight for Google when we want to search the Internet but Google is not the only search tool, and the competition is hotting up. This workshop looks at recent developments at Google and the alternatives, especially the new kids on the block and Web 2.0 'stuff'. There will be advice on locating serious blogs, RSS feeds, audio, video and podcasts of news broadcasts and interviews. Karen Blakeman will take you through the best of the search engine world and highlight how they can be used to significantly improve your results. By the end of the day, participants will have a vital toolkit to help them search more effectively, including key search tools, comparisons, top tips and essential search techniques.

Topics to be covered include:

* different types of search tools and how they work
* making the most of Google and new features
* alternatives to Google
* advanced search techniques to help you track down the "hidden web"
* image, audio, video and news
* Blogs, RSS, wikis and Web 2.0 resources
* tracking down pages that have disappeared

Participants will have ample opportunity to test out advanced search techniques and to compare different search engines. A significant part of the day will be taken up with practical sessions; exercises will be provided but delegates are free to try out searches of their own. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience. The techniques and approaches covered can be applied to all subject areas.

Course Presenter: Karen Blakeman

Karen Blakeman has worked in the information profession for over twenty years and has been a freelance consultant since 1989. Her company (RBA Information Services) provides training and consultancy on the use of the Internet, and on accessing and managing information resources. Karen writes for "Business Information Searcher.” She also publishes a monthly, electronic newsletter called "Tales from the Terminal Room.” Her publications include "Search Strategies for the Internet,” now in its sixth edition. She is a Fellow of CILIP and in 2002 she received the Information World Review Information Professional of the Year award.

ISKO UK - Agenda for Information Retrieval

The British Chapter of the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO UK) is holding an open meeting entitled 'Agenda for Information Retrieval'

Date: 26th June 2008 15:00 - 19:00 (registration starts 14:30).

Venue: University College London, Engineering Faculty, Roberts Building G06

Cost: 10 GBP (ISKO UK members free)

Searching, browsing, and other routes to information are no longer the preserve of information professionals; they are on every desktop, at the fingertips of almost anybody. “Search” has become part of the everyday lifestyle.

Three eminent speakers Brian Vickery, Stephen Robertson and Ian Rowlands will address the issues that have dominated the information retrieval agenda since the 1950s, and still present challenges and opportunities for the future. This ISKO UK event is organized in cooperation with UCL's School of Library, Archive and Information Studies (SLAIS).

For full details on the venue, programme and to book your place at the event visit http://www.iskouk.org/AgendaIR_June2008.htm