Quantum² : InfoStars : Rikke Andreasen

Rikke Andreasen

(l-r) Henrik Bang (Dialog Account Representative) and Rikke Andreasen of Ferring Pharmaceuticals A/S in Denmark

InfoStar Rikke Andreasen finds it hard to remain neutral when it comes to delivering information to end users at Ferring Pharmaceuticals. She’s passionate about delivering information to others in her company and believes information professionals have to engage other departments and become involved in projects, participate in product management meetings and other activities. By learning the priorities and plans of end users, Rikke is able to take a more proactive approach in supporting the information needs of those departments

“By engaging in all of these activities, we are able to sometimes predict the needs of the user and push information to them, even before they are aware of the needs,” says Rikke, who is director of the Corporate Library & Information Centre (CLIC) of Ferring Pharmaceuticals’ International PharmaScience Centre.

Rikke has tremendous enthusiasm for the pharmaceutical industry, and says she was initially attracted to the industry because of the vital role information plays in all stages of product development and marketing. She continues to demonstrate that enthusiasm nearly four years later.

“This role provides for a number of interesting challenges for the information professional, and it offers a fantastic opportunity for developing the service we provide,” said Rikke.

Recently, Rikke organized and conducted a user-needs analysis, and from the findings of the survey, developed a customized content solution. She also developed an alerting service for Ferring. She also has played a lead role in facilitating knowledge sharing in this content solution by helping to mesh internally produced and stored research with information available through external online services.

CLIC employs six people, including Rikke, three information specialists, one assistant and a part-time student assistant. CLIC offers information searches and document delivery to Ferring’s 2,700 worldwide employees. The services are increasingly becoming electronic, and the centre is focused on providing a greater number of document deliveries covered by its own collection of journal subscriptions.

“One can hardly describe us as a traditional library,” said Rikke. “Rather we identify ourselves as content specialists to signal that we are much more than a library with a physical content collection.”

Rikke Andreasen is the director of the Corporate Library & Information Centre of the International PharmaScience Centre of Ferring Pharmaceuticals A/S, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven biopharmaceutical company. Headquartered in Switzerland, Ferring employs 2,700 employees with operations in 50 countries.