Peter Griffiths - sad news

We were so sorry to hear that Peter Griffiths, former President of CILIP and a contributor to BIR, has passed away.

The sad news was shared on CILIP's website. 

We send our heartfelt sympathy to Peter's family, friends and former colleagues.

Social Network Analysis (SNA) and LIS research

Louise Cooke and Hazel Hall have published an article in Journal of Documentation exploring the potential value of SNA in library and information science research.  Here's the abstract:


Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a research approach that focuses on relationships among social entities, and the patterns and implications of these relationships. This paper reviews the value of SNA as a method appropriate to research in the domain of Library and Information Science (LIS). In addition to offering a brief overview of the academic antecedents of modern-day SNA, the relevance of SNA to LIS research is illustrated through the presentation of a case study.

The paper cites an article by Bonnie Cheuk (on SNA and knowledge transfer, published in BIR in 2007) and also develops ideas presented by Hall, Irving and Cruikshank in BIR in 2012.

If you would like to read the article, the published version can be accessed from JDoc contents page on the Emerald web site (non-subscribers to Emerald will need to pay a fee to reach the full text). The full-text of the manuscript is available also available and free to download.

Charles Oppenheim - the Award-winning star of our Editorial column!

At the Internet Librarian International conference held in London in October 2013, Charles Oppenheim was presented with the 2013 Jason Farradane Award.  The award was made in recognition of his outstanding work in the information profession.

Charles Oppenheim's contribution to the profession has also been recognised in the latest issue of Business Information Review (September 2013).  In a wide-ranging interview we discuss his 40-year career in information management. 

Charles first recognised his interest in desk research when working on his PhD in the late 1960s. His career has seen him working in industry, academia and publishing, with an on-going interest in the legal issues of information and content.  He has been a regular - and much appreciated - contributor to this journal as well as to the broader professional literature.

We wish him the best of luck in his retirement.

Business Book Summaries

Harvard Business Review Press books are to be added to EBSCO’s Business Book Summaries.

The Business Book Summaries is updated on a daily basis and offers concise summaries of thousands of leading business books, an iPhone app and audio summaries of selected titles.

For more information see the EBSCO website. 

Business Information Survey on the SLA blog

Is corporate information management in crisis?

Our annual Business Information Survey is a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with senior information managers.  Researched and written by Allan Foster, the Survey provides rich data on the development of corporate information services.

In the first of a two-part feature, Allan Foster shares the findings of our 2013 Business Information Survey on the SLA Europe blog, looking at the pressures that are impacting on information services and how they are responding.

Thanks to our colleagues at SLA and once again to everyone who participated in the research process.

Business Information Review – best paper prize 2013

In 2012 we launched our Annual Award for the best paper published in Business Information Review.

In our March 2013 issue, we announced that the first recipient of the Annual Award was Martin White of Intranet Focus Ltd.

His paper ‘Digital Workplaces: vision and reality’ provided an analysis of the development of the IT landscape over the last ten years, and the influences that are stimulating the evolution of the digital workplace.

The Editorial Board scored each article published in 2012 against a number of criteria:

·         Durability of the content

·         Impact and stimulus to practice

·         Originality and breakthrough thinking

·         Professional relevance

·         Quality of writing and readability

With two issues of 2013 already published, the editorial board looks forward to discussing potential recipients of the 2013 Award. 

We would be delighted to hear from our readers if they would like to recommend a paper they have read for the award.  Leave a comment here or email the editors.

SpringerLink for Android

Springer, which launched SpringerLink via iTunes at the beginning of 2012, has now released an Android version of the app via Google Play.

SpringerLink allows librarians, scientists, researchers and students to access content anytime/anywhere and reflects the increasingly mobile nature of research and content access. 

Springer has also improved the functionality of the apps by updating the user interface and creating more intuitive search options.

For more information see the Springer website.

Euromonitor launches Centre for Analytics, Modelling and Innovation

Market research expert Euromonitor has announced the launch of the Centre for Analytics, Modelling and Innovation or CAMI.

CAMI offers innovative data modelling combined with industry and qualitative research expertise to bring businesses modelling-driven insights to help inform strategy.

Euromonitor was looking for new ways to analyse and make sense of over 115 million comparable international statistics.

The first CAMI model is a Macro Model, which allows users to understand the potential impacts of macroeconomic events on industry and company levels.  Future models and resources include a Commodity Prices Model and a Dynamic Patterns Explorer.

More information.

SAGE reports growth in 2012 Citation Reports®

Academic and professional publisher SAGE (which publishes BIR) has reported a strong performance in the 2012 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2013)

An additional 30 indexed titles this year brings the total number of SAGE titles indexed in the Social Science and Science Citation Indexes to 461.  102 of the titles are ranked in the top ten of their category.

For more information see the original press release.

Global market intelligence survey 2013

In a white paper on the current state of market intelligence, The Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) surveyed nearly 900 companies in 64 countries, and discovered:

·         Improving efficiency in conducting market intelligence - 80% say their investments in market intelligence have paid off (up 2% from 2011)

·          In relative terms, decision-making is 15% more efficient in companies that have a market intelligence function in place

·         The average size of market intelligence teams has been reduced by one person to 12 people since 2011.

·         Large budgets are no guarantee for more advanced market intelligence functions or higher ROI

·         Market intelligence is most advanced in Media and Entertainment companies but interestingly, that is also where the perceived return on investment (ROI) is the lowest.

·         The highest perceived ROI for market intelligence is in the Environment and Renewables industries

For more information on the survey, see The Global Intelligence Alliance website.

Elsevier to improve mobile capability

STM publisher Elsevier is to invest in a new online platform – Smart Content - to improve mobile capability for more than 500 of its health, medical and life science websites.

The platform will offer improved search accuracy and high quality readability for mobile devices. The content will be semantically tagged to help with automated or curated topic collections.

For more information, see the original Elsevier press release.

British Library opens Business & IP Centre in Newcastle

The British Library has launched a new business service for the north east of England.

The new Business and IP Centre Newcastle is one of six new Centres planned for UK city libraries (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield). 

London’s Business and IP Centre launched in 2006 and has helped over 350,000 businesses.

See original press release.

The Financial Times launches ‘Fast FT’

The Financial Times has launched a new ‘bite-sized news’ section of its website.

Fast FT, which also has its own Twitter account, will provide rolling business news and expert commentary in short articles (up to 250 words long) and is designed to meet the needs of increasingly mobile readers.

You can read more about the launch at The Guardian and see screen shots via PaidContent.

"Add value or die" - listen to our first podcast!

The March issue of Business Information Review includes this year's Business Information Survey.

Researched and written by Allan Foster, and now in its 23rd year, the latest survey has been given the rather challenging subtitle "Add value or die".

You can hear Allan discussing his findings with Sandra Ward on our very first podcast which you can access here.

Some of the key findings of the Survey include:

·         Very mixed fortunes of respondents, from modest expansion to disbandment

·         Serious senior management scepticism of the traditional centralized information services model

·         Outsourcing, on or offshore, still a popular organizational model, with notable successes and failures

·         The professional development pipeline for IM/IS personnel has been damaged by, amongst other factors, outsourcing

·         The notably successful services are finding new and imaginative ways of adding value, sometimes well outside traditional IS/IM boundaries

·         The more removed the head of the IS/IM service is from the senior management and Board, the more vulnerable is the service

Confirmed - Elsevier buys Mendeley

Publishing giant Elsevier has bought the social and research collaboration platform Mendeley.

Rumours of the acquisition began to emerge earlier in 2013, causing concern in some circles.  Some academic institutions had been calling for a boycotting of Elsevier products following increased subscription prices.

More on this story from Research Information.

Patent trends – the state of global innovation

The Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters has released its annual analysis of global patent trends.  The State of Innovation report tracks patent activity across 12 key technology areas.

Key findings include:

·         Computers and peripherals had the largest volume of activity in the whole of the technology sector.  There were 232,000+ filings in 2012.  Scanners declined by 34%
·         Medical devices saw a 15.7% increase in patent activity. 
·         ‘Tobacco-related innovation’ increased by 58%
·         ‘Sugar related inventions’ increased by 56%

The full report can be found here.

Pearson reveals mobile traffic statistics

According to Pearson's 2012 annual report, 30% of FT.com's traffic is coming via mobile devices - including 15% of new subscriptions.

Pearson has continued to invest in mobile technology, including the launch of a Windows 8 app.  The Financial Times passed the 50% digital subscriptions milestone in 2012.

Penguin e-books accounted for 17% of global book revenues (up from 12% in 2011).

Source: The Appside

Business book of the year winners announced

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has announced the winners of this year’s Business Book of the Year competition.

The competition is sponsored by Henley Business School and run in association with the British Library.   

This year’s overall winner was The Management Book: How to Manage Your Team to Deliver Outstanding Results written by the entrepreneur Richard Newton.  Newton identified his top three tips: 

·         The management role is made, not given. You need to shape it rather than let it shape you.

·         If you let your team be successful, you will be successful.

·         Being a manager is something to be proud of. Fundamentally every organisation builds from its management.”

Category winners:
Management and Leadership Textbook
Managing Equality and Diversity: Theory and Practice by Savita Kumra and Simonetta Manfredi

Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Winning at Innovation: The A-F Model by Fernando Trías de Bes and Philip Kotler

The New Manager
The Leadership Skills Handbook: 50 Essential Skills You Need to be a Leader by Jo Owen

The Commuter’s Read
The Strategy Book: How to Think and Act Strategically to Deliver Outstanding Results by Max Mckeown

Which business book(s) should you read?

If one of your new year’s resolutions is to read more business books you may have found yourself overwhelmed by the quantity of books available. 

Over on the State of Search website Bas van den Beld has come up with some great ideas for your next business book read.  An infographic designed by Koozai helps take you to choices in a number of subject areas, including:

·         Branding

·         Web analytics

·         Business development

·         Content marketing

·         Paid search

·         SEO

·         Web theory

·         Social media

The post is well worth a look.

BvD releases updated Orbis

Business information publisher Bureau van Dijk (BvD) has released an updated version of Orbis, the company database. 

Orbis contains information on over 100 million companies from around the world sourced from more than 100 information providers.  

 

Enhancements include the addition of over 11,000 CICI (company identifier) numbers; and two additional measures of financial strength and user access to additional original documents.

More information via Information World Review.