Making a difference.
Effective information sharing within
and outside of your “community”
Stephen Gregory
Business & Legal Team Leader
Welsh Government Library & Archive Services
16th May 2014
CILIP Cymru Wales Annual Conference
“Making a difference: libraries and their communities”
Outline
• Consider WG as an information provider
• Consider our communities
• Case study
• Identification of issues and suggestions for
good practice
• To urge reflection on our roles
WG as a Publisher
• Publish >770 p.a. (books, reports, guidance) (In 2013: Penguin published ca 1500 items; OUP
4200 items)
• Cymru.gov.uk = 90,000 pages with sub-sites e.g. http://business.wales.gov.uk/ ; www.planninginspectorate.wales.gov.uk
• Numerous others - possibly 300? e.g. www.sell2wales.gov.uk, www.visitwales.com, www.wales.com.
• Social media channels
0200400600800
10001200
19
99
20
01
20
03
20
05
20
07
20
09
20
11
20
13
2nd Assembly 2003-2006. 3rd Assembly 2007-2011.
4th Assembly 2012-
Number of items added to the Pubs Archive
Average 770 p.a.
Communities
• Internal
– ca. 5000 civil servants – across Wales
• External
– Stakeholders – WG Sponsored Bodies,
representative organisations, third sector, etc.
– Member of the public / other Welsh bodies
– Other government departments
• International
• Notion of “community”?
WG - Effective information sharing?
Q. What do you
think?
Effective Information Sharing?
• Web site
– Poor search engine
– Unfathomable structure
– User perspective taken account of?
– Inconsistent content policy
– Archiving policy
• Social media
• Publications?
Q. Aware of WG Pubs
Catalogue?
Q. Used the catalogue?
WG Publications Catalogue
• http://wales.gov.uk/about/foi/publications-
catalogue/
• Now hidden under: About Us > FOI.
• Up to June 2013 average 5200 page
views per month.
• July 2013 - average 330 page views /
month
Pubs Catalogue 2
• Manually trap and catalogue WG
publications
• Publications request option FPCC ca.
2000 p.a.
• Including increasing number of full text file
attachments, details of original web links,
and supporting text.
• Our Digital Archive?
Archive of WG Publications
• Hard Copy
– Archive ca. 25K items
– Paper still our “gold
standard” for archiving
– Reasonable storage
conditions
• Digital Archive
– Archive size ?
– Very mixed formats:
.doc; .xls, .pdf, .pdfA.
Some text readable,
many not.
– Currently no means of
ensuring digital
continuity
– Cloud storage with
backup
Does Web Archiving Achieve this
for you?
Q. What’s your
experience?
Why do we do this?
The Web Archives do
not suffice:
• Not all layers captured =
missing content
• Not readily searchable.
Dependent on navigating
• Multiple web sites?
• Restricted scraping dates
• TNA 1997 -
http://collections.europarc
hive.org/tna/*/http://wales.
gov.uk
• NLW 2006 –
http://www.webarchive.or
g.uk/ukwa/target/122171/
source/subject
• Wayback Machine 1997 -
http://web.archive.org/we
b/*/www.wales.gov.uk/
Case Study
Cabinet Statements
& FOI Responses
1. Comms – extract from DBs
2. Library – check
data quality
3. Souton
Map, upload
4. Library – quality check
1st cycle –
pilot
2nd cycle –
2001 -
2013
Case Study -the reality
Cabinet Statements
& FOI Responses
1. Comms – extract from DBs
2. Library – check
data quality
3. Soutron
Map, upload
4. Library – quality check
Pilot
complete
Effective information sharing:
barriers and enablers
Q. What do you
think?
Effective information sharing
Barriers
• Ownership
• Cultural
– Work in silos
– No shared vision?
• Technical
– Format, content, protocols
• Time / Priorities
• Ignorance
– not aware of bigger picture
• Communication
– Piggy in the middle?
Enablers
• Genuine desire to share data
• Cultural
– Understand and respect
difference.
• Technical
– using right person for each role
– Appropriate technology
• Programmed / prioritised.
• Shared understanding /
expectations
• Open / honest communication
Why archive?
To maintain
our history
EfficiencyLegal
• Internal / External Use.
• Fully searchable
• Not reinventing the wheel
• Aiding the public
• Aid democracy / openness
• FOI – Publications Scheme
• PSI Re-use - changes July
2015
Recap
• Welsh Government as an information
provider / sharer (& their effectiveness)
• Identified how WG Library & Archive
Services are improving effectiveness …
and our learning along the way
• Considered barriers & enablers to effective
information sharing
Food for thought?
• Do I have a similar archiving role within my
organisation?
• Could I find historical information about my
organisation with ease + successfully?
• What information might be going astray?
• Are the boundaries between sub-
professions blurring? Can I respond to
this?
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