by Jose María Ortiz

(English Translation follows)

El mundo de la información está lleno de numerosos caminos. En muchos de ellos nos perdemos por el desconocimiento en la selección de fuentes, por la avalancha de datos constante e inmediata. En una biblioteca de una escuela de negocios el tiempo es uno de los valores más apreciados y compete a la biblioteca generar medios y difundirlos para engrasar la rueda de la docencia y la investigación.

Visibilidad interna y externa

Parte de un plan de colaboración debe incluir las medidas adecuadas para no generar procesos repetitivos que impidan al staff estar al 100% orientado hacia el usuario. Pensemos en los procesos de catalogación, donde la mayor parte del trabajo está en origen ya hecho y en realidad se requiere formación en compartir e importar datos. Esto mismo tiene dos consecuencias, la primera y ya comentada, se descarga al bibliotecario de trabajo mecánico en pro de un mayor servicio a su comunidad de usuarios, traducido a mayor visibilidad interna de nuestro centro de información.

La segunda, la confluencia de nuestra actividad en el entorno de la información, en los catálogos colectivos, los grupos de trabajo y las redes profesionales, que a su vez genera espacios para la visibilidad del trabajo y la marca de nuestra biblioteca hacia el exterior.

Rentabilidad y eficiencia que impulsan la visibilidad

Es una primera consecuencia, el hecho que la colaboración implica reducción de costes y un mayor aprovechamiento de los recursos disponibles en una biblioteca. Si nuestro centro de información forma parte de un consorcio que opera en materias de préstamo interbibliotecario, compras consorciadas de recursos electrónicos, sabremos que obtenemos beneficios directos en nuestras inversiones y condiciones generales de nuestras licencias.

Pero sumado a esto, pensemos que el hecho de participar colaborativamente en estos foros nos lleva también a crear una posibilidad para la presentación de nuestros servicios, a definir lo que nos posiciona en un carácter distintivo y atractivo dentro de una comunidad académica.

Piensa en global, colaboración es participación

Parte de mi trabajo diario es fomentar las posibilidades y dotar a la biblioteca donde trabajo de herramientas participativas que permitan un eficiente servicio a nuestros usuarios. Siempre que pienso en cómo podemos colaborar y participar en diversos foros, me pregunto ¿de qué manera contribuirá esto a la visibilidad y posicionamiento de nuestra biblioteca, y también de toda la organización?

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The world of information is full of many processes. In many of them, we get lost due to ignorance on the selection of sources, due to the onslaught of constant and immediate data. In the library of a business school time is one of the most cherished values and it is a function of the library to generate and disseminate resources to grease the wheel of teaching and research.

Internal and external visibility

Part of a collaborative plan must include appropriate measures to avoid creating repeatable processes that prevent the staff from being 100% oriented towards the user. Think of the cataloging process, where most of the work is already done originally and actually training is required to share and import data. This also has two consequences, first and already mentioned, it takes the librarians time away from better service to its community of users, translated into greater internal visibility of our information center. The second, the convergence of our activity in the information environment in the catalogs, working groups and professional networks, creates space for visibility of the work and the mark of our library to the outside.

Profitability and Efficiency driving visibility

It is a first consequence, the fact that collaboration means lower costs and better use of available resources in a library. If our information center is part of a consortium that operates in the areas of interlibrary loan, consortia purchases of electronic resources, etc, we know we get direct benefits from our investments and general conditions in our licenses. But, in addition to that, we think that participation collaboratively in these forums also leads us to create an opportunity for the presentation of our services, to define the ways that make us distinctive and attractive in an academic community.

Think global, collaboration is participation

Part of my daily job is to promote opportunities and provide the library where I work with participatory tools that enable us to provide efficient service to our users. Whenever I think about how we can cooperate and participate in various forums, I wonder how this will contribute to the visibility and positioning of our library, and also of the entire organization.

Jose María Ortiz is Associate Library Director in IE Business School, one of the top business schools on the FT rankings. He has an MLIS and is also a constant reader and learner on how librarians influence society.  Follow him on Twitter @josemaLIS.

Scott Schulman, President, Dow Jones Corporate Markets

A colleague of mine once said of the Internet that “free costs too much.” This was no Neanderthal. On the contrary, he recognized the inherent and significant value of the medium and even much of the content therein. He was referring rather to the time we waste and the opportunities we miss, to the imprecision and outright inaccuracy of a Web that is at once essential and untrustworthy.

The world is waking up to the reality that having all the information in the world just a few keystrokes away isn’t enough. Certainly not for business. To get from data to decision takes more than just information. It requires most of all trusted content along with a reasonable assurance that you’re finding and not just searching.

The free Web is an amazing resource – that is for sure. But not every link is worth following. Not every source on the free Web is reliable. We know that. In a knowledge economy where commerce is driven by ideas, businesses cannot take a haphazard approach to information. They need sources they can trust, that save time, avoid information overload and anticipate their needs. Business needs sources to help improve awareness and efficiency and that curtail risk.

You would have thought that by now we’d have a more nuanced view of the value of Internet content. Today’s prime search engines aren’t designed to minimize the clutter; they’re designed to maximize your clicks because that’s where the money is made.

Then there are the results themselves. They are in large part the reflection of connections. The more links to a given page, the greater weight given the results. The more likely the page is to attract traffic, the more likely it will turn up in your search. Not exactly how you find the needle in the haystack if you’re a businessperson looking for opportunities. Independent research from Outsell indicates that one in three businesses searches fail. That’s zero productivity one third of the time. Why would a competent manager abide such waste? The real costs of inefficient search are probably much higher than just a one-third productivity haircut. Not having the right information at the right time is both cost and risk for business.

What business wouldn’t pay for the right information at the right time? Yet some still set “free” as the price point for awareness and thus their future. The Internet changed a lot of things, and rightly so. One thing it hasn’t changed is the value of quality. It is as essential in business information as ever.  Quality information, presented in effective ways, still has value; and that value is worth paying for.

Scott D. Schulman is president of the Corporate Markets Group of Dow Jones & Company where he leads the innovative business news and information products serving professionals and corporations worldwide. These services are designed to help business professionals better monitor and uncover opportunities in the markets, industries, companies and regions that matter most to them.

Mr. Schulman oversees core brands including Factiva, one of the largest electronic business aggregators and archives in the world, as well as Dow Jones Companies & Executives, Dow Jones Insight, Dow Jones Watchlist, The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition and more. These brands and other Corporate Markets Group services are designed to meet the needs of professionals in consulting and professional services, enterprise and business management; public relations and corporate communications; research and knowledge management; and risk and compliance. Mr. Schulman is currently leading a significant investment and expansion in Factiva as well as Dow Jones’ offerings in risk and compliance and corporate communications.