Sunday 5 May 2013

About me: the 2013 edition

Given it's been 3 years since I blogged I thought I'd better give you a sense of who I am and what I get up to professionally these days.

I am the Knowledge Manager for CCH Australia.  My role is a blend of special librarian and true knowledge manager (ie working on improving the flow of knowledge and information around the business).  I've also done a fair whack of research on behalf of CCH.  Let's break those three down a bit more:

Linda the Special Librarian:

CCH is a tax and legal information solutions provider.  Our editorial team (mostly lawyers-come-writers) spend a lot of time tracking what the government and courts are up to, analysing it and turning it into useful information for our customers.  So as a special librarian for this team my focus is on providing effective current awareness for these sources.  I'm also in charge of managing all our research subscriptions so editors stay on top of what other information providers are saying about the law.

The CCH library is virtual, with the exception of our historical publications archive and the odd book that an editor may request.  We are too small to bother with a proper Library Management System so I have become a master at contorting Microsoft SharePoint into a library intranet and basic catalogue.

Linda the Knowledge Manager

This part of my role is a funny blend of document management, intranet management and social media champion.  I have become a DIY expert on SharePoint and am currently working on two projects that utilise SharePoint to manage and access editorial and marketing documents more effectively.  Recently the business implemented Salesforce Chatter (think Facebook for the enterprise) and I am doing a lot of work with various teams around the business to help them use the tool for genuine cross-functional communication and collaboration.

Linda the Researcher

As part of my work at CCH I have done several major research projects on how our customers (ie accounting and legal professionals) use tools such as mobile devices and social media.  My interest in mobile technology is not a new thing!  You can access all of my whitepapers here but the most relevant one for #anz23mthings is Legal Professionals and Mobile Devices (March 2011).

Resurrecting the blog for ANZ 23 Mobile Things

After almost 3 years I've logged into Blogger and blown the dust off my poor old blog.  The reason? Despite  having several major projects at work and a REALLY major one at home (I'm having a baby in October), I've been swept up in the excitement of ANZ 23 Mobile Things.  For the first time in a long time I feel the need to  publicly say something longer than 140 characters about my profession and technological change.

ANZ 23 Mobile Things is a learning program based on the highly successful "23 Things" model that educated the library profession about social media and its applications for libraries/info mgt about 6 years ago now.  This time (in case you hadn't guessed) the focus is on educating us about mobile devices and their applications.  I'd say I'm familiar with about 2/3 of the concepts in the program, but there is always room to learn more!  I volunteered to write a feature post on mobile email and I've already discovered some apps that will make my inbox waayyy more manageable.

So if you're involved in the library, KM and info mgt profession and have even a passing interest in mobile technology I encourage you to sign up to the program.  Heck, sign up even if you don't.  It's an enjoyable, free opportunity to do some structured professional development, and you can't go wrong with that!

PS twitter details: my public handle is @Linda_Moore.  The program account is @anz23mthings and the hashtag is #anz23mthings.  See you there!