This is the first of a series of posts reporting on talks given at the APLIC Annual Meeting.

Presenters : Allison Burns, Family Health International; Tara Murray, Population Research Institute, Penn State University; Kay Willson, Futures Group

Put two information professionals in a room and you know that eventually they will begin trading stories about what may be the biggest headache we face every day : getting our beloved researchers to help us help them.

Allison Burns, Tara Murray, and Kay Willson gave three perspectives on this vexing issue, looking at some useful tools, how the tools fit the need, and getting participation.

Family Health International was using email and an intranet for collaboration among 2,500 staff in 55 countries worldwide. Problems arose from “email fatigue” and some email policies that restricted what could be shared, as well as accessibility to the intranet on the part of staff in infrastructure-challenged environments. Allison Burns finally settled on a Wiki installation (Confluence) that provided some impressive functionality that could be accessed anywhere an internet connection was available. It was inexpensive, flexible, and included an alert feature and interactivity.

Specifically, it allowed library staff to easily edit and upload documents and to create documents using a rich-text editor. For the users, anyone within the organization who wished to track new documents being uploaded could simply put a watch on the pages that interested them and, of course, it supplemented other forms of communication.

At the Population Research Institute, Tara Murray was working with data archives and a range of users who needed varying degrees of access. Some users would need access simply to the data archive; another group would need access to confidential datasets or other restricted information; finally, a dedicated area for staff collaboration was desired. Her audience comprised students, faculty, peer researchers not at PRI, and staff – all with varying degrees of computer literacy.

Tara implemented an open source web server (Plone) to manage roles and access to the data. It provided simplified search, granular definition of user permissions and workflow, and a way to wrangle the numerous gatekeepers and their priorities. Plone is a content management system, and the interface for creating new documents is easy to learn and not too different from what most MS Office savvy individuals are used to. One benefit of having a staff-dedicated area ended up being greater ease collating staff meeting notes, which are often taken by a different person at each meeting.

Kay Willson has been working for one or another version of Futures Group for many years. Her recent task has been to roll out a Sharepoint collaboration tool. During a previous Futures Group incarnation, a Knowledge Management initiative resulted in an implementation of Sharepoint, mostly to support communities and repositories. Because most users did not enter metadata the result was a multiplicity of sites with no common template – a kind of “Sharepoint for silos,” as it were. On top of that, there was a preconceived idea that Sharepoint was hard to use. “You can’t just tell them it’s easy; you have to stand there and make them do the process (like uploading a file) – that’s the only way it sinks in,” Kay noted.

Kay drew on the book Influencer : The power to change anything* for tactics to create real change. There is a matrix of six strategies for creating influence. The key is to “overwhelm” by implementing at least four of the strategies: 1) on the personal level, make the undesirable desirable and push your limits; 2) on the social level, harness peer pressure and find safety in numbers (of others supporting the cause); 3) on a structural level, design rewards and demand accountability and make whatever alterations to the environment that might encourage the new behavior.

So: Did they log in ? Results are mixed. Kay reported decent results, especially because of strong support from a key stakeholder; Tara reported improvements but no revolution; and Allison is still waiting to find out.

_{* Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler (McGraw-Hill 2007, 288pp).}

APLIC doesn’t do things as others do – let’s be clear about that.

This was my first conference and, truth to tell, my heart was not beating especially fast knowing I would be spending five days in Dallas, Texas. Preconceived ideas, you see.

So – conference hotel, the usual story: big spaces without intimacy and a maze of meeting rooms spread out on two or three levels. You spend the first day just figuring things out. At some point you forget about the environment and remember that the meeting is about people. Folks who are doing something like you do and who may have some insights. Folks who end up being fun to know, too.

At any rate, the 2010 planning group hit a home run with this year’s banquet.

» Continue reading “Not a conventional banquet”

Draft minutes from the 2010 annual APLIC business meeting held during the conference in April are now available. If you were at the meeting and have any corrections, please send them to Tara Murray.

Understanding How Twitter is Used to Widely Spread Scientific Messages (8 pages; PDF)

by: Julie Letierce and Alexandre Passant and John Breslin and Stefan Decker

From the Abstract:

According to a survey we recently conducted, Twitter was ranked in the top three services used by Semantic Web researchers to spread information. In order to understand how Twitter is practically used for spreading scientific messages, we captured tweets containing the official hashtags of three conferences and studied (1) the type of content that researchers are more likely to tweet, (2) how they do it, and finally (3) if their tweets can reach other communities — in addition to their own. In addition, we also conducted some interviews to complete our understanding of researchers’ motivation to use Twitter during conferences.

The Knowledge for Health (K4Health) project recently conducted a qualitative assessment of health information needs in Uttar Pradesh, India. The assessment was designed to inform stakeholders on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the health information system in the state and to identify priority issues and suggest potential solutions.

K4Health Needs Assessments focus on family planning and reproductive health and other health information needs, and are based on a continuous feedback principle that ensures audience demand for health information is routinely gauged and met. There are three components of the needs assessment: an environment scan, a global online survey, and a multi-country qualitative study conducted in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The World Bank announced yesterday that it is providing free and open access to its data, including the World Development Indicators database, at data.worldbank.org.

From the World Bank announcement:

Recognizing that transparency and accountability are essential to development, the World Bank Group now provides free, open, and easy access to its comprehensive set of data on living standards around the globe—some 2,000 indicators, including hundreds that go back 50 years. The data is available in Arabic, French, and Spanish in addition to English.

APLIC held its 43rd annual conference in Dallas last week. The conference was small and allowed for a lot of interaction with speakers and between attendees. In the coming weeks, we’ll be posting presentation slides, reports from attendees, and business meeting minutes. In the meantime, here is a photo of conference attendees waiting for a ride to the APLIC annual banquet (courtesy of Elana Broch).

From the Announcement:

Click on the “Become a Fan” icon, at the top right of the screen. You’ll then be treated to updates in real time, as they’re issued.

[Snip]

The new Facebook page will post information about all aspects of the Library. Fans will be among the first to know about the latest NLM developments, receive notifications on conferences, guest speakers and other events, and be guided to the vast and various research resources NLM has to offer. They can also read the latest issues of NLM’s popular consumer magazine, NIH MedlinePlus, and its Spanish/English language counterpart, NIH MedlinePlus Salud. Viewers can browse through historical images and contribute to discussions on future projects, all via their favorite social networking site. The page will also lead users to content from NLM’s growing roster of social media sites.

Source: NLM

Join us in Dallas for Population Information Roundup: Tools, Experts, and Networks – including what promises to be a valuable introduction to Census 2010, as well as a presentation from Amy Tsui, the director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health and sessions on DHS tools, immigration trends, and tools to support effective collaboration across organizations. Plus sample a unique twist on local cuisine during our banquet at one of Dallas premiere restaurants: Local.

Register today – mail-in registration closes March 15!

The deadline for mail in registration is March 1. Check the conference web page for a preview of the program and a link to the registration form.