Quantum² Highlights
A newsletter of the Dialog leadership development program for information professionals

Dear Quantum² Member...
May already!?! While travel has eased a bit, we're now getting ready for one of our major conferences — SLA, which is in Baltimore, Md., this year. We hope that those of you attending will stop by the Dialog/Thomson Scientific booth (Booth #2405) to meet us and say hello. As you may know, we announce our North American InfoStars at this conference, so thanks to those of you who offered nominations.

Also, we are delivering a Quantum² session as a continuing education course on Saturday, June 10 (see details below). And we have yet another new Quantum² coach to introduce. Finally, I thought we might also talk a bit this month about best practices.

Quantum² AT SLA

At the forthcoming SLA Annual Conference in Baltimore, Quantum² coaches will be offering a half-day Continuing Education (CE) course on Saturday, June 10. To register for this event, please visit the SLA Conference Web site.

• Session Title: Achieving Operational Excellence: Best Practice for Information Services
• Date and Time: Saturday, June 10, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
• Ticket/Price: Ticket # 270, Price $199/MBR, $299/N-MBR
• Presenters: Liz Blankson-Hemans and Betty Jo Hibberd

Getting to Know Your Quantum² Coach:
Ron Rodrigues

Ron Rodrigues, a California native, worked for Dialog from 1990-1998 as an engineering and defense file specialist, and he rejoined the organization in 2005 as a Senior Content Specialist. Ron has 33 years experience in online research and has worked for 30 years as a reference librarian in public, Department of Defense, academic and corporate libraries. He specializes in all aspects of engineering and physical science library research, particularly in the field of Geopolitics and Geosciences, i.e., Remote Sensing, Aerial Photogrammetry and Cartography.

To read more about Ron, visit our website.

Quantum² Topic of the Month:
Exploring Best Practices for Information Services

• What is a best practice?
• What are potential pitfalls?
• Why adopt a best practice?

In 2003, Caroline Oades, in her article "Benchmarking Workplace Libraries", wrote:

In a business environment characterized by new ways of doing business and fiercely competitive marketplaces, workplace libraries are facing major challenges. Key to meeting these is the ability to demonstrate value for money and return on investment through the provision of highest quality service aligned with organisational[sic] goals. In this turbulent setting, the ability to share best practice and pool experience is invaluable and provides the workplace information manager with the opportunity not only to learn from others, but also to help establish and strengthen perceptions of the in-house information unit as being among the most effective. *

Definition: The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines best practice as a working method, or set of working methods, which is officially accepted as being the best to use in a particular business or industry, usually described formally and in detail. **

Basically, despite various nuances in definition, a best practice falls into one of two categories, either internal to the business or external within the industry.

Pitfalls: Although using best practices is ideal for optimum performance, you may encounter some obstacles. Internally, there are potential pitfalls in several areas. First, it is sometimes difficult to make tacit knowledge explicit or to explain exactly what is done in a "step by step" fashion to create a best practice. Additionally, the time it takes to research and create a best practice in a resource-shy environment may often seem overwhelming. Another stumbling block can be the identification of critical business knowledge that pinpoints gaps in the current process. Finally, it also takes some effort to implement and gain acceptance of a best practice within the organization as, frequently, it's much easier to continue with the current "accepted" workflow.

As for external obstacles, the cost of purchasing benchmarking reports or outsourced surveys can strain budgets. And, although there is discussion in the literature about working with colleagues in other organizations to share best practices, you may find that a best practice is considered a competitive advantage and so precludes this type of cooperation.

Why adopt best practices? As information professionals are expected to do more with less these days, ever maximizing their current resources, adopting a best practice can help improve the work processes for delivery of products and services to better meet the needs of clients. That translates into achieving effectiveness, efficiencies and economies that are extremely important to senior management. It also aids in building stronger relationships across the organization. Perhaps most importantly, however, this type of effort, if communicated properly, will help prove the value of the information center to customers, raising the level of its importance to the organization and, further, helping to gain improved support from upper management.

In other words, to achieve excellence today for your information services, you need to create best practices in your organization to keep up with the trends and combat the challenges you face when trying to prove the value of the services you provide.

*Oades, C. "Benchmarking workplace libraries", Library and Information Research News, v27,n87,p47(8), Winter, 2003.

**Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

For more information on this topic, you may attend our Quantum² workshop, "Achieving Operational Excellence: Best Practices for Information Services."