Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector

This report highlights five key trends and how their coming together will shape the social sector of the future. Based on extensive review of existing research and in-depth interviews with thought leaders and nonprofit leaders and activists, it explores the trends (Demographic Shifts; Technological Advances; Networks Enabling Work to be Organized in New Ways; Rising Interest in Civic Engagement and Volunteerism; and Blurring of Sector Boundaries) and looks at the ways nonprofits can successfully navigate the changes. The monograph is by La Piana Consulting, a national firm dedicated to strengthening nonprofits and foundations

Exploring the application of RSS for library staff professional development and SDI services

Blog and XML feed technologies have provided new opportunities for information dissemination and communication. The University of Southern Queensland Library developed a virtual professional Reading Room using these technologies to provide a centralised, easily-accessible source for professional reading, based on SDI principles. The Reading Room also provides a discussion space so that Library staff can exchange views on readings of interest. This paper outlines the goals of the initiative, the processes used to establish the Reading Room, and the challenges dealt with along the way. Finally, it provides a preliminary evaluation of outcomes of the initiative and plans for the future

Strategic Planning for Sustaining User-Generated Content in Digital Collections

Experimentation and exploration are hallmarks of innovative libraries, but as experiments become on-going projects and investigations become long-term commitments, it is important to gain perspective on how the roles of librarians, archivists, and information professionals are changing. As social computing becomes routine for computer users, libraries of all types are responding to these new expectations by building interactive communication features into their on-line collections. Social features and user-generated content raise several compelling issues as organizations strive to balance agile adaptation to the ever-evolving user environment with the realities of limited staff resources and greater administrative expectations. This paper examines the challenges inherent in efficiently managing social media and user-generated content and discusses the various stakeholders involved in managing the increased day-to-day work these initiatives create. Several strategies are suggested to help develop an flexible and supportive organizational framework that can effectively sustain and deliver on the promise of social computing

Applying Knowledge Management to an Organization's Transformation

Although workers in the information age have more information at their fingertips than ever before, the ability to effectively capture and reuse actual knowledge is still a surmounting challenge for many organizations. As high tech organizations transform from providing complex products and services in an established domain to providing them in new domains, knowledge remains an increasingly valuable commodity. This paper explores the supply and demand elements of the "knowledge market" within the International Space Station and Spacecraft Processing Directorate (ISSSPD) of NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). It examines how knowledge supply and knowledge demand determine the success of an organization's knowledge management (KM) activities, and how the elements of a KM infrastructure (tools, culture, and training), can be used to create and sustain knowledge supply and deman

DATUM in Action

This collaborative research data management planning project (hereafter the RDMP project) sought to help a collaborative group of researchers working on an EU FP7 staff exchange project (hereafter the EU project) to define and implement good research data management practice by developing an appropriate DMP and supporting systems and evaluating their initial implementation. The aim was to "improve practice on the ground" through more effective and appropriate systems, tools/solutions and guidance in managing research data. The EU project (MATSIQEL - (Models for Ageing and Technological Solutions For Improving and Enhancing the Quality of Life), funded under the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme, is accumulating expertise for the mathematical and computer modelling of ageing processes with the aim of developing models which can be implemented in technological solutions (e.g. monitors, telecare, recreational games) for improving and enhancing quality of life.1 Marie Curie projects do not fund research per se, so the EU project has no resources to fund commercial tools for research data management. Lead by Professor Maia Angelova, School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences (SCEIS) at Northumbria University, it comprises six work packages involving researchers at Northumbria and in Australia, Bulgaria, Germany, Mexico and South Africa. The RDMP project focused on one of its work packages (WP4 Technological Solutions and Implementation) with some reference to another work package lead by the same person at Northumbria University (WP5 Quality of Life). The RDMP project‟s innovation was less about the choice of platform/system, as it began with existing standard office technology, and more about how this can be effectively deployed in a collaborative scenario to provide a fit-for-purpose solution with useful and usable support and guidance. It built on the success of the Datum for Health project by taking it a stage further, moving from a solely health discipline to an interdisciplinary context of health, social care and mathematical/computer modelling, and from a Postgraduate Research Student context to an academic researcher context, with potential to reach beyond the University boundaries. In addition, since the EU project is re-using data from elsewhere as well as creating its own data; a wide range of RDM issues were addressed. The RDMP project assessed the transferability of the DATUM materials and the tailored DATUM DMP

满足用户的需要以重塑图书馆未来的工作重心

Theme: Intelligence, Innovation and Library Services在数字时代, 技术成为驱使图书信息服务方式变化的主要力量。 技术创新使图书馆有能力将信息服务随时随地传递到用户桌面。 然而，技术的迅速发展也带来了意想不到的结果，并不断地挑战着图书馆。如今，全球的图书馆员都关注着许多共同的问题，其中包括 ...Technology is a major driving force behind the methods used to deliver library and information services in this Digital Age. Blessed with technological innovation, libraries are empowered to capitalize on the use of technologies to deliver the information services to the desktop of users anytime, anywhere. However, libraries are also constantly challenged by the unintended consequences of these rapid technological developments. Nowadays, librarians worldwide are concerned about numerous issues, including ...published_or_final_versionThe 4Th Shanghai International Library Forum (SILF 2008), Shanghai Library, Shanghai, China, 20-22 October 2008. In Proceedings of the 4th SILF, 2008, p. 65-7

Final report of work-with-IT: the JISC study into evolution of working practices

Technology is increasingly being used to underpin business processes across teaching and learning, research, knowledge exchange and business support activities in both HE and FE. The introduction of technology has a significant impact on the working practices of staff, often requiring them to work in a radically different way. Change in any situation can be unsettling and problematic and, where not effectively managed, can lead to poor service or functionality and disenfranchised staff. These issues can have a direct impact on institutional effectiveness, reputation and the resulting student experience. The Work-with-IT project, based at the University of Strathclyde, sought to examine changes to working practices across HE and FE, the impact on staff roles and relationships and the new skills sets that are required to meet these changes