1. Hanging Together in an
Increasingly Complex
Multi-format Landscape
Cindy Hill
SunLibrary – Sun Microsystems
SSP Annual Conference
8 June 2006
2. Fast Facts: Sun
● Global enterprise
> 37,000 employees
> >40% employees in the iWork program
> 100% employees are knowledge workers
> 100% are connected to the internet
>Internal & external information are of equal value
>No internet limits
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 2
3. Fast Facts: SunLibrary
● 1990 SunLibrary established
– Global resource
– Primary emphasis on digital content
● internal & external
● Integration, channel deployment (centralized and
decentralized approaches)
● Information visualization
– Two physical libraries: California, Massachusetts
– Research consulting
– Clients: Technical & scientific communities
– Clients: Marketing – Sales – Business Development
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 3
4. People are spending too much time
not finding what they need...
• Knowledge workers spend 1/3 of their search
time not finding what they are looking for ...
simply not acceptable.
• Knowledge workers spend approximately 11 hrs
per week seeking and analyzing information
• Employees now spend more time looking for
information than applying their knowledge
Source: Outsell, “Feeding the Masses with The Web 2.0”, October 7, 2005
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 4
5. SunLibrary Core Priorities
• Be Sun's premier knowledge and information
partner
• Provide global access to selected information
and knowledge
• Leverage internal and external partners
• Drive towards simplicity
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 5
6. SunLibrary Customer First VOC:
What's important to our clients?
900
800 High-touch
700
600
500
Weight
400
300
200
100
0
Relevancy Timeliness Money savings
Time savings Responsiveness Other
1800
1600
1400
Digital library
1200
Weight
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Relevancy Ease of use Money savings Clarity
Time savings Access Variety Other
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 6
7. What's important to SunLibrary's
clients?
● Strong partner relationships
● Relevant, complete, accessible content
● Information expertise
● Subject matter experts: research and resources
● Information architecture
● Search & browse, taxonomy development
● Timeliness – quick turnaround
● The ability to find information themselves quickly and
easily
“Without this service from SunLibrary, either my team would cover the research (but not as well) or it wouldn't be done at all,
due to lack of time or skills.”
"What made the (experience) valuable was to have SunLibrary staff that understands the industry, tracks the industry, knows all
the terms, what is relevant, what is not, knows a lot about Sun and knows the lay of the land...I did not have to buy anything
new to get this done. I thought I would have to spend money and I did not.”
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 7
8. One example: what would the
technical community like to see?
● More depth of content – particularly in
sciences
● Research skills:
– Subject matter experts
– Complex searches (complex topics and multiple
resources)
● More digital content
● Notification of new, targeted content
● Outreach/awareness, particularly to
junior engineers
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 8
9. Emerging needs for “content”
● Tools to “do” something with the
content
– Visualization
– Analytics
● Mashable
● Chunkable
● Collaborative
● Embeddable
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 9
11. Information Visualization Value
Proposition: Discovery
• Visualization can make information easier and
faster to discover and use
• Search engines were designed to locate
specific information where the user knew what
they were looking for
• Research = topic driven + full text
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 11
13. O'Reilly Rough Cuts
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 13
14. Behaviors for the future
Users are...
• Growing up immersed in technology
• Have shorter attention spans
• Want to be players, not just spectators
• Yearn to be part of the community – and often multiple
communities
• Want to be helped to help themselves
> Source: “Life Interrupted”, Seattle Times Magazine, November 28, 2004
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 14
15. Implications For Us
• We have a future
• We need to change
• Need to anticipate
• Opportunities to collaborate
• Open attitude is essential
• Creativity is a necessity
• Partnerships lead to profitability
SunLibrary | Sun Microsystems, Inc. SSP Annual Conference June 2006 15
16. Hanging Together in an
Increasingly Complex
Multi-format Landscape
Cindy Hill
SunLibrary – Sun Microsystems
cynthia.hill@sun.com | 408-276-3326
8 June 2006
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