Category Archives: resources

Just A Few Questions: Seema Rampersad

Author: Hal Kirkwood, Bodleian Business Librarian and BIR Editorial Board member

In this first instalment of Just A Few Questions, I ‘sit down’ with Seema Rampersad, Senior Business Research and Service Manager at The British Library, and the current President-Elect of the Special Libraries Association to ask her about her current role at the British Library and what she sees as the key issues for the business information profession.

Hal: First, please tell me about the BIPC and your role there.

Seema: The Business & IP Centre at the British Library has been supporting start-ups and established businesses to grow and develop. We have one of the largest free collections of business information in the United Kingdom. Over the last 16 years, we have supported 10000s of entrepreneurs, and the success of the centre has created a strong blueprint brand to expand our network across the United Kingdom to other regionals and local libraries. We have also collaborated on European projects to support business such as in the Erasmus for Young Business and in our own Innovating for Growth programme.

I work in the reference and research section of the Business & IP Centre, which can be very varied on a day-to-day basis. I serve customers in our Reading Room in the centre with their reference or research queries, deliver workshops, webinars, one-to-one clinics, and project work. We have several business information databases which can only be accessed in the centre, these require showing customers how to use the systems, how to navigate the library electronic and hard copy sources. We have an online reference enquiry and chat service using the LibAnswer system where we answer general queries from an international audience. I provided a chargeable business information and evidence for patent litigation research to private international clients.

We have been running programme webinars for over ten years, which helped us transition seamlessly in the pandemic. I usually present about 2-3 business related workshops per month, and we hope to go into a hybrid model soon. There have been a few projects work over the years such as an Open Innovation with European Partners, training and sharing insights with the BIPC Network in the UK, and more recently, the Start up In London Libraries over 10 London boroughs. As a national library, we do host lots of visits, tours and talk on the collection, our services, and the centre.

Hal: Is there a high demand for business information to support entrepreneurial development and growth? What type of projects or clients do you work with?

Seema: Definitely there is a high demand for support, and it was one of the feasibilities for the expansion of the BIPC Network. There has been a phenomenal number of entrepreneurs over the years who are innovative on multiple sectors. We have seen a whole new tech industry develop over the last 15 years in London but also across the UK. There has been an organic growth in persons wanting to start their own businesses as well as using the positive developments of ecommerce and online presence. Business information is still at the crucial to a company who is planning their strategy for launching and growing. We encourage entrepreneurs to look at the commercialisation of their business idea, explore the market and look at the trends and forecasts for their sector, as well as assist them in finding B2Cs and B2Bs using the company data sources held in the library. Our unique selling point is the strong ties with the Intellectual Property Centre and with the collection for patent information, which complements business information for protecting businesses. We frequently provide expert intellectual property knowledge to customers and for project work.

We generally work with anyone wanting to start or grow a business, but we also have academic researchers, other corporations for their paid prior art or business research, and any readers who come into the library to use the collection or spaces. We do also have various partnerships and frequently liaise with our project partners inside the British Library and other outreach stakeholders.

Hal: Is there a strong and supportive information ecosystem between organizations like BIPC, academic business libraries, and other groups?

Seema: There were some organisations who do similar service such as ourselves for the business community such as the Small Business Research and Enterprise Centre (SMREC), London & Partners, the London Growth Hub, and we tend to refer our customers to these complementary organisations. In the past, we have had some projects with academic business departments such as UCL and Edinburgh University – it is an area of work that we can explore more in future; for example, I am aware that the CASS Business School do great work for business. I do regular tours for students on Goldsmith University’s Master in Creative Entrepreneurship. For intellectual property projects and initiatives, we do have regular projects with the PatLib Network, The IPO and the European Patent Office. And not forgetting, we now have a National Network of BIPC Libraries – which is a supportive information ecosystem attached to regional and local libraries across the country.

Hal: What do you see as the biggest or most influential trends within business information?

Seema: There will still be a focus on new data tools. Having seen the evolution of databases over decades, there have been gradual but consistent changes over the years to incorporate new data sets that are available from open data sources, such as the Statista database having a large percentage of content from open sources, as well as from their own content and analysis. The last few years have seen a change in the megatrends that is affecting the way we work and live our lives – this too is reflected in the information and the trends we find on business sources. Global sustainability goals are mentioned more in business information content, as we try to mitigate some of the issues and risks that the world is currently facing. Hybrid models of working have impacted on access and our information needs, plus we have seen a great positive digital transformation for organisations who may have been a bit slow in adopting digital and collaborative technologies. It can only get better.

Hal: Considering the information profession as a whole, what do you see as the biggest challenges on the horizon?

Seema: Financial stability and raising costs will be one of the biggest challenges as we go into the third year since a pandemic as well as the rising cost-of-living and inflation internationally. I am hoping this will not have an adverse impact on libraries, library and information budgets, and professionals as we have already had so much disinvestment over the last 15-20 years. This gives us more of impetus to find positive ways to showcase our role in stimulating business and the economy indirectly by the support we give to entrepreneurs and business small and large – near or far. We must demonstrate our unique access to specialist information, networks of expertise, and a skill-set that is great for supporting research, productivity, innovation and creativity. Therefore, we must actively advocate, invest, and find our allies in industry and the business community to highlight our roles in enabling and empowering economic and sustainable futures.

Hal: Thanks very much, Seema, for chatting with me today.

Just A Few Questions will become a recurring series here on the Business Information Review Blog. If you would like to suggest someone for a future interview, please email me at kirkwoodhal:@gmail.com

The Financial Times launches ‘Fast FT’

The Financial Times has launched a new ‘bite-sized news’ section of its website.

Fast FT, which also has its own Twitter account, will provide rolling business news and expert commentary in short articles (up to 250 words long) and is designed to meet the needs of increasingly mobile readers.

You can read more about the launch at The Guardian and see screen shots via PaidContent.

Patent trends – the state of global innovation

The Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters has released its annual analysis of global patent trends. The State of Innovationreport tracks patent activity across 12 key technology areas.

Key findings include:

·         Computers and peripherals had the largest volume of activity in the whole of the technology sector. There were 232,000+ filings in 2012. Scanners declined by 34%
·         Medical devices saw a 15.7% increase in patent activity.
·         ‘Tobacco-related innovation’ increased by 58%
·         ‘Sugar related inventions’ increased by 56%

The full report can be found here.

Apps for information professionals

In our December issue we will be publishing an article by Scott Brown in which he describes mobile apps that are relevant to information researchers and professionals, both in their own work and in the services and products which they offer to their clients.

It’s a great, practical article outlining some of the ways in which apps are being developed and rolled out by vendors and other providers. Brown explores how new developments such as augmented reality are helping create a new generation of mobile information products.

Scott’s articles are always full of practical advice. Here’s one of his tips ahead of the December publication date:

“Be sure to ask your current information vendors if they are making apps available for their products, and include mobile access as part of your discussions with current and potential vendors as you negotiate access and contracts”.

Searchable trademark data

Thomson CompuMark, (a Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property and Science business), has announced plans to expand its SAEGIS on SERION online trademark screening solution. The launch of 136 new databases means the solution will cover 186 countries and registers.

The development means that SAEGIS on SERION will provide the largest collection of trademark screening information on a single source, simplifying search processes for trademark professionals.

More information via the press release.

Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones Indexes’ US Index Data Business

The existing collaboration between Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones is to be expanded.
Reuters’s Elektron has been selected to power Dow Jones Indexes, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Elektron will provide a data solution designed to ensure ‘scalability, robustness and performance’ for Dow Jones Indexes’ real-time US index-data business.
For more information see the press release.

The Business Information Survey 2012

The 22nd annual Business Information Survey throws interesting light on many of the key information/knowledge management challenges faced by corporations. It is based on in-depth interviews with 22 senior managers in a wide range of industrial sectors, conducted in December 2011 & January 2012. As in previous years, this is a qualitative survey which is designed to produce a readable, narrative account of strategic factors affecting these services and some of the hard choices that are having to be made in a taxing business climate.
This year’s respondents are, on the whole, cautious about the likely fortunes of their companies and of the information/knowledge and research units they run. However, there is considerable evidence that they are tackling their managerial challenges with realism, imagination and gusto.
Some of the issues covered by the Survey include:
1. Resourcing: how content and staffing budgets have fared.
2. Progress on the integration of external and internal information
3. The affect of the exponential growth of users’ mobile digital devices on information delivery and service support
4. How these information managers handle the issue of working with partners, third parties, individual contractors – and the implications for licensing, vendor relations and support
5. Do they encourage collaboration by managing explicit/tacit knowledge, knowledge silos, communities of practice & systems such as Sharepoint?
6. How does severe organizational turbulence such as from a merger or de-merger affect the IM/KM culture and task?
7. How have their relations with Vendors changed including content licensing, negotiating and service supply issues?
8. Are they using outsourcing and/or offshoring for any IM/KM functions?
9. Search and data mining capabilities in the respondent companies.
10. Are the analytical skills of IS/KM staff being enhanced?
11. What position is the IM/KM function in the company’s value chain and how can it add more value?
12. How important are workflow systems in globally distributed information services?
The Business Information Survey 2012 will be in Business Information Review, 29 (1), 2012. Keep an eye out for it on the Sage Publications website and through tweets and alerts nearer the time of publication.

Allan Foster
Information Industry Consultant

allan.foster@gmail.com

Informa and Centaur report digital growth

A feature on PaidContent today reports the improved fortunes of two business information publishers following moves toward digital subscriptions.

Centaur, the publisher of New Media Age and The Lawyer has reported that its digital revenues now make up 32% of its overall revenue. This week, Centaur acquired Profile Group.

Informa (Lloyd’s List and Datamonitor) have reported that 2011’s digital formed 74% of its total revenue in 2011. Informa’s ebook sales were also up (11%) and now make up 12% of its total academic book sales.

For more on this story, read the full PaidContent story.

Aslib’s Business Information Group

A Community of Practice brings together individuals with a common interest or purpose and enables them to develop and advance their skills on both an individual and collective level.

Aslib’s new Business Information Community of Practice (BICOP) sets out to help promote and share good practice in searching for, exploiting, and managing business information. The inaugural meeting (22 February 2012) was held at City Business Library (CBL). Attendees networked and heard two presentations – one on career development by Jeremy Clarke of Sue Hill Recruitment and one by Goretti Considine, Business Librarian at City Business Library. She spoke about engaging user communities, stretching service offerings and marketing a service.

The City Business Library is a public library with a target market of SMEs, business start-ups and individuals. Having moved to the Guildhall complex in the last 18 months, its new location has helped to raise the Library’s profile. The Library space is also a great venue, and recent successes in building this part of the service mean CBL hosts anything up to 80 events a month.

However, what has really contributed to the ongoing success of the Library is the zero-budget advocacy and marketing undertaken by the staff. A mixture of continuous networking, clarity in the marketing messages, approachability and some risk taking have helped the Library to find sponsors, new customers, speakers, trainers and vocal supporters.

Lessons from Goretti

Attend as many networking events as possible – even ones which seem marginal
Have a great opening line (Goretti uses “you can’t afford not to talk to me” and has a follow up elevator speech ready
Don’t go anywhere without your business cards!
Don’t be afraid to stretch yourself – the Library now offers a Job Club for example
Take risks and remember “If you don’t ask, you don’t get”

The evening was introduced and concluded by Graham Coult, the editor of Managing Information. The enthusiastic networking of the delegates show that there is great enthusiasm for business-focused networking opportunities.