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where researchers record and share notes and documents within an intuitive interface. It is completely integrated with Offi ce tools and synchronised with the document libraries of SharePoint Server, which stays as the central repository. OneNote is now one of the three pillars of the knowledge management system at Pfi zer (the others are Newsgator to collect info and a wiki to capitalise internal knowledge). Teams are shifting to a ‘culture of knowledge sharing’, the holy grail of knowledge management workers, concluded a manager. SharePoint is the foundation: pick the appropriate bricks to build up your own business wall. This agility could inspire many customers to leap into the world of SharePoint 2010, especially those who consumed energy and (big) money on failing knowledge management platforms in the 1990s.


Applications for libraries It is not only because the heart of the SharePoint system is called the ‘document libraries’ (the analogy with our business is pretty funny) that librarians must keep an eye on this system. It is mainly because SharePoint could integrate much of our daily activity. You could use SharePoint as a communication platform to publish your library blog or a learning wiki; or to store training materials and surveys. You could create a collaborative work environment to share documents and dashboards with your staff or your patrons. You could also edit your virtual library with attractive web sites or a luxurious knowledge portal like the Library of Congress did, including online reading rooms, podcasts and virtual tours. As some local editors tend to develop specifi c web parts for library staff like Inmagic Presto, you could also manage physical or electronic assets to build your own catalogue, to manage your journals collection or to compile your RSS feeds. So, actually, there are many reasons for information professionals to embrace the SharePoint mania. And there are wider opportunities for info pros too with this tool. Each time that the word ‘knowledge’ is said, librarians really ought to be in the neighbourhood. Many implementations of huge knowledge management platforms have failed in previous decades, because of a lack of information structure. Everybody knows


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Could SharePoint be the next ‘big thing’?


at least one organisation that has ruined knowledge initiatives by lack of metadata organisation, for example. Everybody knows at least one organisation where managers and employees waste precious time trying to fi nd the critical information they need. People now recognise that we need


classifi cation, thesaurus, ontologies, etc. to control a chaotic and exponential growth of the enterprise document system. With their natural practice of thesaurus and classifi cation, librarians should be appointed by large organisations to organise the metadata properly. After 10 years of unstructured data anarchy, the Google-like reign, welcome back to our core values! Yes, we are talking about convergence of


competencies, at the borders of the IT and information science worlds. IT guys are focused on technology while we are devoted to patrons. They manage the structure and we take care of the content. They maintain the network and we deliver the knowledge and make the collaboration effi cient. For all these aspects, it is clear that IPs have


a critical role to play, alongside IT teams, in deploying SharePoint in the organisation.


To SharePoint or not? SharePoint is probably a good compromise between the not rigorous enough


applications coming from Web 2.0 and the too heavily structured IT systems. But SharePoint will not solve all the problems with regard to information sharing, enterprise content management, search effi ciency, etc., especially if your organisation is not geared up for knowledge collaboration. Like Lotus Notes in the 1990s, SharePoint is not a Magic Wall: it is what IT and information management specialists, associated together, would like to do with it. Yes, SharePoint might be the next ‘Big


Thing’ for information professionals. Shall we watch the train leaving without us as happened with the internet in the 1990s? Of course not! It is time to expand our horizons and promote our skills. I encourage librarians who read this article to jump on the train, to be educated in SharePoint and to move forward in a new career as ‘knowledge engineer’. This way you might become the future SharePoint document librarians.


Hervé Basset is a librarian at a major pharmaceutical company, where his responsibilities include coordinating different R&D libraries in Europe and in the USA. His current interests focus on monitoring technologies (science intelligence) and the application of Web 2.0 to science business


Research Information August/September 2010 23


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