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I was researching on communication skills for a meeting with the librarians and  I stumbled upon Mind Tools. The site is a resource center for articles on different apects management skills. The introduction to the site says this:

" you can discover the essential skills and techniques that help you excel in your career - whatever your profession. Learn leadership, personal effectiveness, goal setting, and stress management. Further, discover techniques that improve creativity, assist problem solving, organize time and deadlines, and improve your memory."

 The good thing about  reading theuseful tips from the site is that it is freely available and you do not even need to logon or register.  The advice are practical too. 

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Vivian To's Blog
Knowledge Management PDF Print E-mail
Information Management - Creative Commons
Written by Vivian To   
Tuesday, 14 October 2008 22:16

It would be fair to say that the librarians in big  is very weary about the phrase "Knowledge Management". When something is labelled "knowledge" suddenly documents are removed from the library and put on a pedestal that is beyond the reach of the average librarians. When in fact what is special about "knowledge management" is the  word "knowledge" not "management"- let me explain.

The term knowledge management can mean many things.  The experts will tell you that the design and layout of the office could have an impact on the sharing of knowledge.  You could therefore re-design your office to encourage the flow of knowledge. However here I would like to concentrate on the organisation of documents which are labelled as knowledge. 

As far as the organisation and retrieval of the documents are concerned, there is really no magic in  the skill sets required to manage knowledge once knowledge is codified (written).  A qualified  librarian / information manager is trained to deal with information/ records in different formats.  Even back in the 80's when I attended library school, we were taught to deal with information in different formats not just to books. A information manager / librarian knows how to deal with a document , whether you call it  "knowledge"  or  "information".  In fact librarians spend many years in studies and work in perfecting their skills in organising these kind of documents whether it is IT skills, indexing and classification skills.

Admittedly though "Knowledge" is different from "information" in its acquisition.  The acquisition of "knowledge" is usually through internal source. For example, agreements that a lawyer or team of lawyers in your firm have drafted, a research memo or a letter of advice.  The acquisition of these precious documents are tedious and difficult.  I would be the first to admit that this is not a job for the librarians. 

Why not ask for help from a friendly  librarian for  the organisation of your  collection of know-how ? You might be surprise what could be achieved with adequate  briefing and support.

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 November 2008 22:25 )
 
Mind Tools PDF Print E-mail
Website - Slider
Written by Vivian To   
Tuesday, 14 October 2008 02:43

I was researching on communication skills for a meeting with the librarians and  I stumbled upon Mind Tools. The site is a resource center for articles on different apects management skills. The introduction to the site says this:

" you can discover the essential skills and techniques that help you excel in your career - whatever your profession. Learn leadership, personal effectiveness, goal setting, and stress management. Further, discover techniques that improve creativity, assist problem solving, organize time and deadlines, and improve your memory."

 The good thing about  reading theuseful tips from the site is that it is freely available and you do not even need to logon or register.  The advice are practical too. 

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 October 2008 22:14 )
 
Creative Commons PDF Print E-mail
Information Management - Creative Commons
Written by Vivian To   
Wednesday, 17 September 2008 03:31

It is good to know that there are good people out there who happen to share my belief that copyright legislation is  now so restrictive that it  prohibits  the sharing of knowledge.  Although I do not really like the term Creative Commons, I can readily endorse the philosophy behind this movement.  Hopefully, the concept of sharing information and knowledge for free will catch on in Hong Kong.  I truly  hope the example of the publishing of textbook on the web for free as discussed  in a recent New York Times article will encourage many more to share their knowledge online. 

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 September 2008 08:43 )
 
The Annotated Ordinances of Hong Kong PDF Print E-mail
Research - Legislation
Written by Vivian To   
Monday, 22 September 2008 23:27

Last Friday I received through the post a letter from Lexis enclosing a table which lists 127 Ordinances  that have been annotated so far.  The first reaction I have is thinking that it pays to blog. I am not sure if the publisher has read my post  which commented about the lack of indices of the Annotated Ordinances of Hong Kong.  If they had I certainly hope the next letter will arrive soon and it would enclose an  in-depth  subject index for the series !

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 September 2008 14:16 )
 
Blogs from Barristers PDF Print E-mail
Useful Resources - Free Stuff
Written by Vivian To   
Tuesday, 16 September 2008 01:57

The last post I wrote has somewhat put me off blogging.  It was just a bit too serious. I promise myself to make my blog a bit more fun from now on.  I have just discovered a listing of blogs written by barristers in the UK.  The list is maintained by Delia Venables who has been helping the legal community exploring legal information on the web for more than ten years.  One of the two blogs that she marked as important is actually written by the librarians in Inner Temple.  Nonetheless, it is interesting to see what barristers in the UK are blogging about.  Click here to see the list.

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 September 2008 03:25 )
 
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