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Connecting entrepreneurs with librarians for success

Note: This article originally appeared in New Brunswick’s provincial newspaper, the Telegraph-Journal.

Bridging the info gap

by Erin O’Halloran, principal and information specialist at CloudScout Information Services.

To cap off the 2011 Canadian Small Business Week, let’s reflect on a big idea – bridging the gap between innovation and commercialization. Many jurisdictions are doing so through incubation centres where businesses “hatch” into successful enterprises. The announcement this week regarding the donations for a new innovation and entrepreneurship centre at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) means the province will soon be taking part in the highly competitive business incubation race.

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Social Media in both official languages

Note: This article originally appeared in New Brunswick’s provincial newspaper, the Telegraph-Journal.

Bilingualism, meet Twitter

By Erin O’Halloran, Principal & Information Specialist, CloudScout Information Services

New Brunswick has an opportunity to do something that hasn’t been done anywhere in Canada yet – mandate how government organizations use social media in both official languages.

As a communications tool, social media’s popularity has exploded. Using social media properly can assist any organization with mass communications, brand management, customer service or recruiting. However, with the benefits of social media come expectations as well. The culture of social media is based on a conversation model where communications can be informal, and happen in real-time. This culture is difficult to fuse with traditional communications methods, which require drafts, translation, and a planned release – a process that enables government organizations to communicate in both official languages and abide by the Official Languages Act (OLA).

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LIS skills apply to many professional fields

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the amazing application of skills attained by professionals who are in, or used to be in library & information science (LIS) professions.

LinkedIn was where I started reading. I monitored the LIS Career Options group -a subgroup of American Library Association group. The conversations have led me toward some really interesting reading, such as books/ articles on competitive intelligence, information entrepreneurship, and freelance contracting on sites such as eLance & Guru. Also, I have spoken with colleagues all over Canada and the United States through this forum.

However, I have also heard some interesting ideas on the topic from friends and professional acquaintances closer to home. I was recently emailed an article about librarians being essential additions to Instructional Design teams. Now you may be asking your self – ‘What is Instructional Design?’

It’s a field I only recently learned about. It can be defined in a few different ways; however, most commonly I’ve heard it described as a career within the e-learning and training industries, which uses a step-by-step process to design curriculum for adult learners.  It can be a very organized procedure consisting of the following steps:  Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.  I heard that large e-Learning companies employ instructional designers, as well as institutions and organizations that frequently need to re-train employees.

The article I received says information management is needed in the instructional design field, particularly in the realm of “discoverability.” It says a “modern librarian will be able to add extreme value with metadata, search readiness, content taxonomies and federated search models” (Masie, 2011).

I found this article very interesting. If you have an interesting topic to share in this area… please do.

Erin O’Halloran, BJH MLIS
Principal & Information Specialist
CloudScout Information Services
Email ErinOHalloran@CloudScout.ca

www.CloudScout.ca

Works Cited:
Masie, E. (2011, Aug. 23). New Roles for Learning Designers; Makeup for High Def Learning?. Retrieved from http://trends.masie.com/archives/2011/8/23/679-new-roles-for-learning-designers-makeup-for-high-def-lea.htm
Note: This post was originally published on AskMeAnything.ca

Contribute to AskMeAnything.ca

Hi all,

I just created a new website called AskMeAnything.ca. It’s a place where anyone can ask about issues and topics they’re wondering about, but don’t have time to look into.

Collaborating on AskMeAnything.ca creates an opportunity for friends, family, colleagues and online followers to have research and interviews conducted on their behalf, as well as start conversations on interesting topics.

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