RSS feedsRebranding is always a tricky exercise. Those familiar with an organisation’s previous incarnation may worry about the change, while some will worry that the new name will not have the reach or the recognition the former name has attained.
The UK eInformation Group (UKeiG), which was formerly the UK Online User Group (UKOLUG), decided to undergo its own rebranding in 2004 (see box) and the new phase for this professional group was unveiled on 1 December 2004 at the Online Information 2004 conference.
“We felt the term online was rather nebulous,” explains Gary Horrocks, who has chaired the group since 2004. “It was a question of rebranding and thinking about our future direction. We wanted to take that very successful brand and recreate it with a twenty-first century angle. The main message is that we exist as a collective resource for information professionals.”
UKeiG’s aim has been to continue the UKOLUG tradition of offering a wide range of expertise and services to electronic information users, as individuals or organisations.
Horrocks’ own professional role is research and learning liaison manager at King’s College London’s Information Services and Systems. So why become chair of a group like UKeiG, with all the work that entails? “I was intrigued by the work involved and the professional demands that type of role would put on me,” says Horrocks.
This chimes with current thinking about continuous professional development, which is provided by UKeiG, in the form of training (see box), but in addition, as Horrocks points out, being part of the running of such a group also forms part of CPD. “I also like to think of myself as an ideas person and I felt I could contribute some ideas and perhaps imagination to the group,” adds Horrocks.
UKeiG is a Cilip special interest group, but its members do not have to be Cilip members. Many are, of course, but many are not and Horrocks believes this brings a pleasantly eclectic range of membership.
Reshaping the group to meet the needs of its members is an ongoing process in which Horrocks has been heavily involved since he became its chair. “The first we did was some operational planning, to map our future direction,” explains Horrocks.
Being at the coalface
The most important aspect of UKeiG’s activities comprises its training and meetings programme. Meetings are open to both members and non-members, and are held all round the UK. Particularly popular, says Horrocks, are the practical training courses. “This is about people being at the coalface,” he says. “The training is organic and is updated regularly, to meet the requirements of our members. It’s not about theory, it’s about a good, hands-on knowledge for people in a wide range of fields.”
Last year, the group ran 12 courses. This year’s topics include developing
and managing e-book collections; RSS, blogs and wikis: tools for dissemination
and collaboration; intranets; bibliographic referencing; and internet search
tools.
“We have great feedback from the training and the seminars to help us identify
further training requirements,” says Horrocks. “It is amazing how many people do
want this practical level of information. Occasionally we do horizon scan, but
we pride ourselves on providing the hard information that people need, from
people who are highly expert in their field.”
Also important is the way in which UKeiG provides a community of practice, bringing together information professionals from many different sectors. “This is our great strength,” says Horrocks. The group provides its members with a series of factsheets, again aimed at giving very practical, “how-to” advice.
“We are a collective of information professionals from every sector, with a common goal, which is to be a forum for the issues that are affecting how people manage electronic information,” says Horrocks.
In the light of the recent cutbacks made by Cilip, the work of special interest groups such as UKeiG might appear to be under threat. Cilip has taken a series of painful steps, including making 13 people redundant, to bring its financial situation under control. Does Horrocks think these moves will have an impact on UKeiG? “Special interest groups are the lifeblood of Cilip,” he answers. “As far as I’m aware, in 2006, there is going to be a lot of detailed consultation on the future management of SIGs and I hope to play a major part in that consultation and I’d be surprised if SIGs did not receive greater recognition of their importance.
“As chair of UKeiG, I feel this group has a clearly focused remit, in supporting the management of electronic information, and I feel that fits beautifully within the overall Cilip approach and with other SIGs. I think change is no bad thing and it is important that members take part in any consultation process, but I would be astonished and amazed if SIGs did not remain as a major aspect of the Cilip portfolio.”
Horrocks says the ultimate aim of the review of Cilip SIGs under way is to
look at improving support for the groups. “We have a very close relationship
with Cilip and I’d like to see SIGs supporting Cilip in driving policy forward,
as we have a lot of expertise and knowledge in the management committee,” he
comments.
UKeiG committee member Karen Blakeman chairs the Cilip executive board, while
UKeiG vice chair Chris Armstrong is a member of the Cilip review group, and
Horrocks’ own boss, Maggie Haines, is on the Cilip executive board and was
president of Cilip until Debby Shorley took over in April 2005. So Horrocks
feels there are close ties between UKeiG and its parent body. “I’m proud of the
relationship we have with Cilip and the impact we have had on the organisation,”
says Horrocks. “It works well.”
UKeiG has its own administration officer, based in north Yorkshire. In 2005, the group created a new logo and revamped its website, to reorganise content and enhance the members-only area.
Horrocks has previously said that a group like UKeiG needs to “constantly evolve” to keep up with developments in the electronic information world and he acknowledges that there are changes on many levels that are impacting information professionals. “There is an awful lot of innovation and development in this area,” he comments. “We have search engines going beyond text into image and sound and that will result in a whole range of support issues. There are many profound changes coming with the whole ‘Googlisation’ of society.
"There will be greater integration of software and services. The post-processing of data will be key and there will be software tools to integrate that into the organisation. I also expect to see much greater integration of information professionals into organisations.”
Creating hybrid professionals
The issue of converged information services, with library services coming closer to traditional IT services, is one that has been much discussed. Horrocks himself works within a converged service at Kings College London, where the Information Services & Systems group employs almost 200 full-time staff.
The role of Horrocks and his team has expanded beyond the traditional boundaries of subject support and collection development, into a whole range of new areas. “The major remit now is in developing the information service, records management, legal compliance and so on,” he explains. Team members have to let their users know about developments in IT and information management, and have to provide feedback from users about research and developments in teaching and learning, in order to provide appropriate support from within ISS.
Providing this kind of converged information service is very different from traditional information provision, acknowledges Horrocks. “There are major cultural differences and the change can take a little time, but we have been taking things forward and what we are finding now is that it creates a whole new skill set for information professionals who don’t necessary come from one or other of those traditional backgrounds,” he points out.
“Similarly, managing the enquiry system means that as we use more and more IT, it becomes increasingly difficult to make the distinction between what is a library enquiry and what is an IT enquiry, so it is about creating that hybrid information professional.”
Higher education is probably one of the sectors that has moved furthest forward with this integration, but Horrocks believes firmly that it is an inevitable, if sometimes challenging, process for those in all sectors. “In many ways, at the moment, it can be like trying to pin jelly to a wall,” he says. “Who knows where we will be in a few years’ time? But I do believe that although the technology is shifting, many of the problems are traditional problems. It is about things like information architecture.
"It’s also about how the web is developing, and the ways in which this is bringing about greater collaborative working. It’s very exciting, because there is no doubt that collaborative technologies are going to change so much about the way we work and we are already beginning to see that with blogs and wikis. Then there is also the question of hardware and the methods in which we deliver information. We are still grappling with some of the engineering problems of handheld devices, for instance.”
Horrocks is not too concerned about the impact of all this technological change on the role of the information professional. He points out that from the time of the 1980s onwards, with the invention of the CD-ROM, people have worried that the role of the information professional is about to disappear. “We are still grappling with information management and there will always be people who need to take a lead on that,” he comments.
Chairing a group like UKeiG is time-consuming, on top of a demanding full-time position, but Horrocks has time left over for other interests. He is a big Judy Garland fan and has been editor of the official, twice-yearly, Judy Garland magazine, Rainbow Review, since 1998.
Horrocks believes firmly that membership of, and involvement in, such a group is a valuable aspect of professional development and says his own role in UKeiG provides him with a lot of expertise that feeds back into his everyday role. “People need membership of this group to enable them to look at the wider issues and to look at them in what we hope is a digestible form,” he comments.
Horrocks’ own background is in health information and he has an MSc in information science, which he says has stood him in good stead. “The degree in information science has been very useful, because it has helped provide me with a holistic vision of the environment,” he comments.
With UKeiG safely rebranded, the job now for Horrocks and his committee is to raise its profile. There will be lots of marketing in the next year as the group continues its core job. In the end, says Horrocks, it comes down to coping with ongoing change. “It’s all about mapping ambiguities,” he concludes.
[main feature ends]
UKeiG: “Need a digital roadmap? UKeiG is here to lead the way…”
That’s the slogan for the UK eInformation Group which was originally founded in 1978 as the UK Online User Group (UKOLUG). In 2004, the group changed its name to the UK eInformation Group (UKeiG). Its aims are to:
• encourage exchange of knowledge about electronic information
• disseminate information about e-industry developments
• raise awareness of technologies for retrieving, processing and managing
electronic information and promote innovation in these areas
• support continuing professional development by delivering practical and
affordable training and seminars
UKeiG has 2,000 members, of whom 96% have joined as individual members, with 4% have corporate membership. Although UKeiG is a Cilip special interest group, it is not necessary to be a Cilip member to join UKeiG. Members come from many different sectors: 35% work in the academic world and others work in industry, health, government, research and law. The group includes self-employed information consultants and about 2% of its members are students.
The group’s website (www.ukeig.org.uk) includes details of its meetings and training programme, plus a newsletter for members, Elucidate.
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