DocuTicker editors contribute brief articles to FUMSI on conducting research with grey literature - reports from government agencies, think tanks, research institutes and public interest organisations.

Teaser

It's easy to find pages of results when searching using the conventional search engines, but how can researchers make sure they pinpoint the really relevant search results? Andrew Youngkin provides the answer in his review of eight clustering search engines which take a categorical approach to finding specific information.


What's inside

Clustering search engines are designed to display and organise search results in logical groups or 'clusters' based on similar traits, which allow the user to select the most relevant groups of search results and quickly home in on specific documents or web pages. Eight clustering search engines are reviewed.

Teaser
'Putting customers first' is a core value for service organisations and what better way to do this than by addressing their issues before they have raised them formally? Twitter is awash with enquiries and complaints and, if these can be tracked down and addressed in a proactive way, it will leave the customers with a very positive feeling about that organisation. Graham Mainds describes how Edinburgh City Libraries turned complaints into compliments by setting up Twitter alerts.    

What's inside
These days lots of conversations are taking place on Twitter and there are a number of Twitter alert services you can use, including TweetBeep and Twilert, to find out what people are saying about you, if not actually - and this is the important part - to you. Edinburgh City Libraries have used alerts to answer enquiries, address complaints and find audiences.

Teaser

Twitter started as method of exchanging 'inconsequential' information between individuals but is increasingly being seen as significant communication and marketing tool for organisations, so much so that they should be considering a preservation strategy for their tweets. Marieke Guy looks at why tweets should be preserved and what tools are available.


What's inside


Tweets were initially seen as ephemera but they have since become useful in a way that was not anticipated. As Twitter's search limitations mean that you can only find tweets from the last 7-10 days, preservation needs to be considered for a number of reasons. These include: as a cultural snapshot; to support research; as a measure of impact; to retain an organisation's corporate memory; and as a record of an event.

Teaser

It is the seemingly small problems that can irritate us the most and take up a disproportionate amount of time to fix, like not being able to open a file because you have the wrong version of the software, or not being able to send a large file by email because of size restrictions. So these tips from Martin Belam will help to calm those frustrations.


What's inside

There can nothing more frustrating than when you know, or at least you think you know, that you have the right software to open a file, only for it to resolutely fail to work. But there are tools to help such as OpenOffice and Google Docs. Another frustration is the restrictions sometimes placed on files sizes which can be sent by email. Again help is at hand with services like YouSendIt. 

Teaser

There are many reasons why we might be looking for someone who has knowledge of a particular subject in our organisation but, whatever the reason, it can prove more difficult to track this person down than you might imagine. If you are really lucky a staff expertise directory will provide a quick answer but, for those without this magic bullet, Connie Crosby provides a detailed plan of action for tracking down that expert.

 

What's inside

According to Malcolm Gladwell, the magic number for true expertise is ten thousand hours of practice. If you are looking for a person with extensive knowledge about a subject to head up a multi-million dollar project, those ten thousand hours of practice are important. How, then, do we find expertise inside our organisations? Look for evidence of expertise first inside your organisation, either through the documents of the organisation or by finding someone who knows someone. If that does not work, then look outside your organisation to see what you can find about the people inside your organisation.

Teaser

SharePoint offers librarians the ability to program without coding. In other words, to customise a site... provided they can find the time! Lorette Weldon outlines the possibilities for librarians and, using the results of a survey, looks at integrating SharePoint with library management systems.

What's inside

To use SharePoint for collaborating, capturing and organising ‘corporate' knowledge (activities, ideas and documents), librarians need to understand how to program SharePoint without coding ie how to become a ‘customiser' The survey found out that SharePoint was usually bought by senior management and configured by the IT department. The problem with this implementation was that the web parts used were designed by the IT department from senior management's understanding of what SharePoint can do, without talking to the actual users (librarians and other staff).

Teaser
With over 244,000 apps available for Apple's iPhone and iTouch, are there any which can help business researchers? Patrice Curtis examines a range of apps for finding news, reputation monitoring, productivity and reference, and answers three simple questions for each: is it easy to use; can a researcher use it to share findings with colleagues; and will it allow a researcher to help an internal/external client achieve their goal(s)?


What's inside
This report is designed to focus on those applications - or apps as they are commonly called - that will help and/or support business researchers (Finding News, Reputation Monitoring, Productivity and Reference). I judged each app against three simple questions: Is it easy to use? Can a researcher use it to share what she finds on, say, competitive intelligence, with colleagues? Will it allow a researcher to help an internal/external client achieve their goal(s)?

Teaser

Although URL shortening services first started in 2002 with the introduction of tinyrl.com, it is the increasing use of the social media, particularly those with restricted message lengths, that has led to an explosion in their use. Martin Belam looks at how these services work and explores the advantages and disadvantages of using them.

 

What's inside

The growth of social media content sharing on the web has seen an explosion in the use of URL shortening services, the premise of which is that they replace having to use a long URL like http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2010/jan/25/news-linked-data-summit with a much shorter one like http://bit.ly/8v6FFs. When the bit.ly servers see the code '8v6FFs', they know to redirect the user to the original article. Popular services include http://bit.ly, http://tr.im, http://is.gd/ and http://j.mp/. Google are also in on the act, with their own http://goo.gl/ and http://youtu.be domains.

Teaser
Wolfram|Alpha offers a useful alternative to the more popular search engines in that it can be used in computations. It accepts free-form linguistic queries, which can take some time to get right, but when you do it returns the exact result desired without the need to click additional links.

What's inside
The data in Wolfram|Alpha is organised so that it may be used in computations, not just searched and found. Wolfram|Alpha is a powerful warehouse of knowledge that makes data useful through its computational abilities. Wolfram|Alpha produces more than the end result; it gives historical data, tables, timelines and charts to make sense of the data.