Past events

 

 

Thursday 26 January

Future of history: digital preservation

Chaired by Lena Roland, with Adrian Brown, Parliament Archives

As we marked the passing of another year, LIKE turned its focus to the “Future of history” and current approaches to digital conservation.

Report by Richard Nelsson

 

Thursday 8 December

LIKE Christmas Party

Kindly sponsored by Prenax

Festive fun to end 2011 with Mingle Bells Bingo and a wonderful dinner.

Report by Sarah Wolfdenden

Report by Matthew Rees

 

Thursday 24 November

Information literacy: fit for the workplace?

Chaired by Dr Susie Andretta, London Metropolitan

This panel discussion drew on the experience of LIKE members to explore Information literacy in the workplace and discover whether, in the second decade of the 21st Century, it’s really enough to get us by. Chaired by Dr Susie Andretta, we heard presentations from Caroline De Brun, Rachel Adams and Adjoa Boateng: from the fields of Health, Legal and Higher Education information services.

Presentation notes from Caroline de Brun on health information literacy

Presentation notes from Adjoa Boateng on information literacy in Higher Education

Report by Sarah Wolfdenden

Report by Virginia Henry

 

Thursday 27 October

Knowledge transfer: making it stick

Gary Colet, Warwick University Business School

Gary is the facilitator for the Knowledge Retention and Transfer special interest group at the Knowledge and Innovation Network, Warwick University Business School. In a highly interactive LIKE 30, Gary Colet led us on an exploration of proven techniques for identifying knowledge 'domains,' elicitation, and working with donors and recipients.

Report by James Andrews

Report by Virginia Henry

Report by Sarah Wolfdenden

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by Donald Lickley

 

Ooops! A slight counting error meant we jumped straight to LIKE 30 and missed out number 29.

 

Thursday 27 September & 6 October

Connecting information with innovation

John Davies, TFPL

Our autumn season got off to an exclusively topical start, when LIKE hosted the first discussion of insights uncovered in TFPL’s latest report, Connecting Information with Innovation. The survey examined knowledge and information management skills and roles across a range of participating organisations. The findings were presented by and one of the report’s authors, John Davies.

Report by Nicola Franklin

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by Virginia Henry

 

Thursday 28 July

Guided walk: King's Cross

Rachel Kolsky

This year we explored the fascinating area around King's Cross. We explored the newly renovated station and with our tour guide, Rachel Kolsky, unlocked the secrets to the surrounding area's history. Once London's most notorious red light district this area has undergone a startling transformation. From the beautifully renovated St Pancras station and hotel, to the vibrant King's Place.

The walk was preceded by a tour of the Guardian's offices courtesy of Richard Nelsson.

Go London Tours - our tour guide for the evening

Report by Virginia Henry

 

Thursday 30 June

Information Architects

Martin Belam

Telling people that you are an "Information Architect" is a lousy introduction at parties, but it is a discipline that underpins the digital experiences that most of us increasingly have in our day-to-day lives. In this talk Martin looked back at how he came to describe himself as an "Information Architect", and explained why it has such an affinity and so many practitioners who come from a library and information science background. And why you might want to become one.

Report by Donald Lickley

Report by Nicola Franklin

Report by Hanna Lewin

Report by James Andrews

Report by Matthew Rees

 

Thursday 26 May

Return on Investment

Caroline Brazier

Caroline Brazier, the newly appointed Director of Scholarship & Collections at the British Library, spoke at LIKE about how the British Library balances the current challenges of budget cuts with increasing expectations on the Library's leading role in supporting Britain in the digital information age. She discussed the British Library's vision and strategy for continuing to achieve its ambitious programme with ever decreasing funding, and how it argues its return on funding investment. She posed some challenging questions to LIKE, including, "How would you spend £100million each year to ensure UK citizens had the best access to knowledge and information."

Report by Donald Lickley

 

Tuesday 19 April

Human Library

Linda Constable

The Human Library is a way of helping people to have a conversation with others who they might never get to speak to. It’s a device for exploring different experiences and cultures, and for challenging stereotypes and prejudices. The idea is that people – readers - can ‘borrow’ a person, or ‘book’, for a conversation, just as they would borrow a book from a library. In the first part of the evening Linda provided more details about the Human Library - how it started and developed in the UK – what it feels like to take part – how to organise an event. This was followed by a mini Human Library event with everybody having the opportunity to be a Reader or a Book.

Report by Nicola Franklin

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by Virginia Henry

Report by Richard Nelsson

 

Thursday 31 March

Information in the palm of your hand: the evolution of mobile information access

Mark Needham, Andrew Swaine - chaired by Jennifer Smith

Mobile devices have become computers in their own right, with an astonishing amount of processing ability and bandwidth. More than 1.2 billion people carry handsets capable of accessing, using and publishing rich information.

Yet organisations still limit their employees' ability to access information on the go, publishers still insist on valuable information only being accessible from within their customer's offices, and user interface and connectivity issues can still leave even the most devoted smart phone user frustrated.

To help us understand the potential, and the limitations, of mobile access to information, we discussed the tipping points in the evolution of mobile devices; how on-the-go access to information first became possible, then cost-effective, and ultimately ubiquitous. Ultimately, we asked do we have to choose between convenient, on-demand access to AN answer, or inconvenient access to THE RIGHT information?

Report by Nicola Franklin

Report by Matt Woods

Report by Tina Reynolds

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by Richard Nelsson

Report by Virginia Henry

 

Thursday 24 February

What is Knowledge Management - really?

Virginia Henry, Matt Walsh, Linda Woodcraft, James Andrews, Katharine Schopflin, Matthew Rees

Some say it's been around for ages, others that it's an "emerging discipline", and some say KM is history! A few of these commentators actually know what KM is. But no-one knows better than practitioners. For LIKE 22, Knowledge Managers working in a high-profile national charity, central government, a global international consulting firm and an influential professional organisation told it LIKE it really is.

Report by Nicola Franklin

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by Tina Reynolds

Report by Virginia Henry

 

Thursday 27 January

Information blackholes

Hanna Kazerani

Hanna is a passionate advocate of information governance and shared her experience on taming, deduplicating and organising terrabytes of information.

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by Nicola Franklin

Report by Virginia Henry

 

Thursday 25 November

The Spirit of LIKE, the Spirit of Christmas (Networking with Santa!)

Lesley Robinson - chaired by Virginia Henry

Lesley Robinson has never applied for a job in her illustrious working life. All of her roles - from running the specialist recruitment agency, TFPL, to running KPMG's transformation programme and consulting for lots of big city firms - have been acquired by recommendation. Her career is a testimony to the power of effective networking. Lesley shared her tips for effective networking with the group including a festively-themed skill swap.

Report by Paul Margree

Report by Virginia Henry

Report by Richard Nelsson

Report by Tina Reynolds

Report by Matthew Rees

 

Thursday 28 October

LIKE Health: making the leap to Open Source

Choosing and implementing Open Source software at the King's Fund Information and Library Service

Ray Philips - chaired by Hanna Lewin

In the Autumn of 2009, The King's Fund Information and Library Service's support contract for their Library Management System (LMS) came up for renewal. They were confronted with an opportunity which required a quick decision: to cancel our contract and become one of few UK libraries using the open source LMS, Koha, or to stick with SirsiDynix for another year and ruminate on the options. They went for Koha. Ray Phillips, Head of Information Services and Matthew Hale, Online Services Librarian, explained some of the strategic reasons behind that decision.

 

Report by Tina Reynolds

Report by Laura Woods

Report by Tom Roper

Report by Matthew Rees

 

Thursday 30 September

21st Century Info Pros

Talk led by Luisa Jefford, Director of Public Sector Recruitment at TFPL on the myriad of skills required of Information Professionals and the roles currently available.

Report by Richard Nelsson

Report by Tina Reynolds

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by Jackie Fishleigh

 

Thursday 21 September

Chris Collison KM Masterclass

Following on from his February No More Consultants talk at LIKE, we were delighted to welcome back Chris Collison for a full day Masterclass to explore and experience these knowledge management techniques in more depth.

 

Thursday 26 August

LIKE Posh Picnic

Report by Tina Reynolds

Report by Matthew Rees

 

Thursday 29 July

Guided tour of London's Square Mile

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by David Pottinger

 

Thursday 24 June

Civil rights in the digital world with Glyn Wintle - Open Rights Group

Glyn Wintle is a computer programer who frequently gives talks about the Open Rights Group. He makes a living from technical consulting, programming and security work.

Glyn's talk covered all the areas in which the Open Rights Group are involved from the Digital Economy Bill, to the BBC breaking your TV, to Knitting, to the goverment breaking Wikipedia, to copyright and Digital Rights Management.

The Open Rights Group exists to preserve and promote your rights in the digital age. Founded in 2005 by 1,000 digital activists, ORG has become the UK’s leading voice defending freedom of expression, privacy, innovation, consumer rights and creativity on the net.

Report by Danielle

Report by Matthew Rees

 

Thursday 27 May

LIKE Dinner with Susie Andretta

Transliteracy: In the world of ubiquitous computing are we all competent ‘transliterati’?

Report by Hanna Lewin

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by Richard Nelsson

Hear our VoxPop of reactions to Susie Andretta's talk

 

Wednesday 28 April

LIKE Dinner with James Lappin

A file for our times: reimagining records for the real time world

In the 20th century the 'file' was a ubiquitous information tool within the organisation, the main (or only) source of information about a particular project, case, or piece of work.

The records management profession responded to the coming of the internet and the networked office by attempting to replicate the hard copy file in the digital environment. This was to be done by means of a 'records folder' which would ideally reside in corporate fileplan sitting on an electronic document and records management system (EDRMS).

James explored the reasons why the 'records folder' has not entered our language or permeated our organisational culture to anything like the same extent that the hard copy file did all those years ago. If the records folder hasn't worked, what would work?

James presented us with two questions for discussion: What types of records do 21st century knowledge workers want to read? and What types of systems or standards would be needed to support the capture and management of those records?

Report by Matthew Rees

 

Thurs 25 March

LIKE Dinner with Chris Collison

No more consultants

Chris talked about his recently published book, No more consultants, co-authored with Geoff Parcell. In their book, Chris and Geoff argue that automatically reaching for external consultants to solve a problem misses the opportunity to use the expertise held within the organisation.

Hear our VoxPop of reactions to Chris Collison's talk

Report by Jennifer Smith posted on CILIP Update's blog

Report by Matthew Rees

Report by Virginia Henry

 

Thurs 25 February

LIKE Dinner with Fran Alexander - Taxonomy Manager, BBC

Taxonomies in an open world

How can we use knowledge systems like taxonomies to create common ground so that we understand each other and share information effectively? At the same time how can we make knowledge systems flexible enough so that we can all use terms we want to use?

Report from Marja Kingma

Report from Matthew Rees

 

Thursday 28 January

LIKE Dinner with Liz Scott-Wilson, Carol Scott and Virginia Henry

Knowing me, knowing you: information behaviour & culture change

Do professional traits influence information behaviour? A knowledge specialist interviewed a social worker and an engineer about how they see their world, their work and their knowledge and records.

Report from Virginia Henry

Report from Matthew Rees

 

Thursday 3 December

LIKE Dinner with special guest Cerys Hearsey

Tales from the SharePoint trenches

Cerys Hearsey is Metataxis' Sharepoint and Information Architecture expert.

Report from Matthew Rees

Report from Virginia Henry

 

Thursday 29 October

LIKE Dinner with special guest Tim Buckley-Owen

From Walled Garden to Amazon Jungle: orienteering in the new information landscape

Tim Buckley-Owen lead the discussion on the changing information landscape and what it means for all of us. Tim is an independent information industry commentator, with over 35 years’ experience in the information profession. He has previously worked for CILIP, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, and the Library and Information Commission. He's author of "Success at the Enquiry Desk," currently in it's fifth edition, and has written for all the major information industry publications. Tim's vast experience and critical eye give him an expert perspective on the information industry. We were delighted he agreed to join us for dinner and share his views and concerns on orienteering the new information landscape.

 

With 18 attendees at LIKE 8, from an excellent mix of professional backgrounds and experience, we enjoyed a really good discussion on the changing information landscape. After dinner we asked some LIKE members about themselves and their experience of the evening.

 

PLAY MP3 Hear what attendees at LIKE 8 had to say about the evening.

Report from Virginia Henry

Report from Fran Alexander

Report from David Holme

 

Monday 14 September

Tim Berners Lee

A visit to the Science Museum to hear Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

 

Thursday 30 July

Books etc.

1. What's on your bookshelf?

What books have you found most useful in your professional life and would recommend to others in the LIKE group?

 

2. Workplace bookclubs

Just an excuse for a glass of chardonnay and a gossip, or a useful tool for breaking down barriers and increasing learning in the workplace?

Topic proposed by Jennifer Smith.

 

Thursday 25 June

Return on investment

How do you prove the value and ROI of KM? In these tough economic times, demonstrating the value and return on investment of KM is crucial. What are the challenges? What measures can be put in place to achieve this?

 

Thursday 28 May

Storytelling and knowledge sharing

What is the role of storytelling in knowledge sharing? What associations does the word ‘story’ conjure up with you; pyjamas or pin striped suit?

Storytelling is as old as humankind, but what makes a good story and what makes storytelling such a powerful tool in knowledge sharing?

Topic proposed by Marja Kingma.

Report from Marja Kingma

Report from Matthew Rees

Visual storytelling: An exploration of ‘Telling Tales’ at the V&A by Marja Kingma

 

Thursday 30 April

Knowledge and Recession

How the lack of knowledge caused it - and how the application of knowledge could restore confidence.

Topic proposed by Roger Williams.

 

Wisdom of crowds

Does the wisdom of crowds replace experts and, if not, when should one be used and not the other?

Topic proposed by Matthew Rees.

Report from Matthew Rees

Report from David Holme

 

Thursday 26 March

The Economic Crisis and the Age of Uncertainty - a debate with Don Tapscott at the RSA

Report from Matthew Rees

 

Thursday 26 February 2009

The starting point. The four founding members met and laid the foundations of LIKE.