This document provides tips for professionals to maintain and manage knowledge. It recommends strategies like using blogs, alerts from journals and databases, and asking colleagues about their sources to stay current. It also suggests tools like RSS feeds, Google Reader, Delicious, and Zotero to organize bookmarks and citations. Finally, it advises creating a personalized homepage using Google, Yahoo or other tools to bring together RSS feeds, emails and other resources in one place.

1. Tips for maintaining and managing
knowledge as a professional
Trainee Intern Library Session 2010
Luisa Rossitto and Susan Hope
WM&HS Library, University of Otago

2. Strategies
to keep growing once you leave the nest…

3. Show your boss!
Once set up… use to
build your portfolio
prove your ongoing development
strengthen performance reviews

4. Create a launchpad

5. Maintaining
What?
Blogs, TOC alerts, podcasts, database alerts
How?
Email, RSS
Where?
Sites: Journals, Associations, Universities, databases

6. Start at the source
Where?
Sites: Journals, Associations, Universities, databases
But also… who?
Ask mentors, colleagues, librarians: what sources do they use?
Ideas?
http://delicious.com/wmhslibrary

8. Explore
Work with a partner at
http://delicious.com/wmhslibrary
1) Find one journal
how can you subscribe to updates?
OR
2) Find one blog
who creates it? How do you subscribe?

9. Subscribing
Do you have…
1) an email address?
Database alerts, TOC alerts, some blogs
2) a reader account?
Blogs, podcasts, look for the logo. A gmail/google or a yahoo account gives you
access to a reader. Another standalone reader is Bloglines.
3) an itunes account?
Podcasts

10. It’s orange!
Any page with an RSS button will generate an RSS feed. Look for auto links to
your Reader, or just copy and past the page URL into your Reader

11. …a google account

12. Explore
Work with a partner at
www.google.com
Login!
Use your own google account, our one of the library training accounts
Try google reader
Keeping your google tab active, try adding blogs or podcast subscriptions from
the Delicious library to Google reader

13. DIY
Find your own blogs in google:
(blogs OR podcasts) AND (surgery OR surgeons)
(“best blogs” OR “best podcasts”) (medical OR health)
How to judge a personal blog?
Can you see: A bio? Comments? Awards? Frequent posts?
MedGadget: journal of emerging medical technology;

14. Maintaining…managing
“Social book marking”e.g. delicious
All your bookmarked websites available from anywhere
Also a great tool for seeing what resources other people use
For websites or individual online articles
http://delicious.com/wmhslibrary

15. One step beyond…
“Reference managers” e.g. Zotero
Save and share your resources (like delicious), but also create automatic
citations of research in your documents (like Endnote, but free!)
Better for individual online articles than websites
http://www.zotero.org/

16. …delicious browser add ins

17. …zotero browser add ins

18. Boxing it all up
Do you have a google/gmail or yahoo account?
If yes, you have access to a “personalised homepage”. Other personalised
homepage providers are Netvibes and Pageflakes.
Add your
•RSS feeds
•email
•delicious bookmarks
•Search tools
•To do lists

19. …an igoogle page

20. Explore
Work with a partner and try igoogle
www.google.com/igoogle
1.Sign in, top right with google account from last activity
2.Experiment with adding gadgets- look for the link “add stuff”
3.Look for how many people use the gadget and ratings before choosing
Try finding the gadgets for…
• Google scholar
• Pubmed
• Google reader
• Facebook

21. Take home messages
No right or wrong way
Concentrate on a few, good sources
Work with what you already use
luisa.rossitto@otago.ac.nz
susan.hope@otago.ac.nz
http://delicious.com/wmhslibrary