Tuesday
0930 After dealing with a few important emails, I start the day writing a summary of the Yemen workshop that I attended yesterday. Useful for future research requests and to build my own knowledge-base. I then finalise arrangements for our team’s short presentation/Q&A session for the Policy Department and Whitehall colleagues, this week.
1030 Standing-in for my line manager, I attend the Research Analysts’ IT Group meeting to receive instructions for the FCO’s data migration programme – what needs to be done, by when. My information management skills will be useful but my task is to lead and encourage our team to prepare for data migration.
1130 Off to Policy Department team meeting. Analysts work closely with policy-makers so our attendance enables us to find out what they are doing, anticipate research they may require and it means they get to know us and make use of our research skills.
1215 There’s an inter-library loan request in the Research Enquiries Inbox. I find two of the articles requested by searching the journal databases on the FCO’s electronic library. That saves some time and money, so I am pleased!
1245 Still writing summary on Yemen workshop and searching Internet for the recommended background reading material. Quite a lot to read so seriously considering the need to factor ‘dedicated reading time’ into my weekly schedule.
1315 Attend lunchtime presentation/Q&A session by a visiting academic. An opportunity to learn more about yet another unknown subject and it is clear that I will need to do further research to fill my knowledge-gaps!
1445 I have a sudden inspiration for possible content for a conference we are organising in September so I search the Internet for examples and forward them to the conference planners.
1515 Undertaking research for FCO staff means I am aware of what information is being requested, so I am invited to join the eContent Management meetings, hosted by the Open Source team. I give input, hear about new eResources and take part in a trial. As a previous Editor of the electronic library, it’s good to be with the team again and it keeps me up-to-date with developments in that field.
1615 To raise our team’s profile with the Policy Department, I suggested circulating a current awareness email giving an abstract and links to articles and book reviews etc. on related subjects. I need to start thinking about how I propose to do this. I produce a draft version, giving a few ideas i.e. name of product, format, frequency, which resources I will use … and find a few examples.
1730 Before heading home, I upload details about future Information Professional courses and events to our Knowledge and Information Management Sharepoint site.