Information Management for Library Study
Information Management for Library Study
Before the start of semester what did you think IM was about?
Information Management or IM sounds overwhelming. It seems very technical. It is commonly attributed to the Internet these days. Before the semester, the closest idea I had about IM involved news articles, signing up for social media membership, social media sharing, and uploading and downloading files, turning them into archives. All of these are pieces of information. Certainly, each of this piece of information is, as mentioned, archived or organized. The process of organizing these bits of information is what Information Management, I thought, was all about.
What do you think IM is about now that you have completed the semester?
Now that I have completed the semester, I learned that IM is about creating and maintaining a system to efficiently gather and distribute information. It is almost similar to my first impression of IM. However, as opposed to my previous thinking that it’s about an overwhelming process in organizing data, the thing that has become clearer is the idea that IM utilizes a system to fulfill its role. It is still technical but somehow, it should become less overwhelming. To put it simply, IM is about organizing an organization to organize data.
Take the university libraries of Australia, the UK, and the USA for example. It was indicated in this project’s annotated bibliography how these three nations sought to improve their library facilities through IM. In this regard, Australia set the standards through the Library Association of Australia. The US then saw the need for regulation. Meanwhile, the UK analyzed the system development process and would want to extend its regulation. If the system is being fixed, it is also possible for the contents to be extended. It increased my understanding of IM in such a way that my perception about it has widened.
How has the annotated bibliography assignment increased your understanding of IM?
Based on the annotated bibliography, I learned that IM is used to better transfer library materials and academic sources on a global scale. This means that education is under an innovative advancement that would help in the faster and easier acquisition of knowledge. There may be some instanced that a researcher is from the US who wants to study a subject in Australia. With IM, that person does not have to travel and come to Australia in person anymore. He would just have to access the system library. In this regard, IM is changing how academic learning is acquired.
How has the applied assignment increased your understanding of IM?
The applied assignment presented another capability of IM. As opposed to improving external forces, IM could also make a difference once the internal aspect of an organization is changed. However, it requires the training of staff on how they can efficiently incorporate the latest technology. In addition, the IM implementation follows a procedure, an IM plan.This is to initially evaluate the condition of a system and see from there what feature is lacking.
The applied assignment increased my understanding of IM regarding the creation of a system. As in any other plan, careful IM planning would lead to an efficient flow of service. The various departments, such as the finance, marketing, and operations departments, produce information that need to be managed as well; thus, enabling all aspects of an organization to be organized.
What are the parallels or synchronicities (if any) between the two assignments?
The similarity between the two assignments is that both highlighted the significance and potential of using IM. The annotated bibliography assignment showed how IM helped libraries across countries in different periods make advancements to improve access to knowledge. In the older times, an Australian student would be limited solely to the Australian education. Today, one enrolls for courses and reads various journals from other countries. IM provides more options to people who want to learn more, as education can come more conveniently and economically.
The applied assignment, on the other hand, discussed how IM helps an organization improve its data management through the development of an IM plan. Although the applied assignment has Brisbane City Council Library as the subject, it tapped on the business side of the institution. This means that it looked into the profitability, the survival, and the maintenance of the system, which in turn enabled the institution to continue providing services. With this in mind, the points being proposed on the IM plan are about how the current users would benefit from the system, as well as how it could encourage new entities to use its services.
What were the key differences (other than one was academic)?
In this regard, the key difference between the assignments is the scale of IM’s impact and the recipient group of IM’s improvements. In the first assignment, the reach of IM is worldwide. It dealt with various systems, particularly the systems of Australia, the UK, and the US. Certainly, one system is different from the others. However, when one sees a beneficial technology, they would consider adapting it. In turn, each system has extended.
For the second assignment, the discussion on IM had narrowed its scale from international to local. From multi systems to a single system, IM would be utilized in the Brisbane library. Here, there is only one IM history to look into. From there, improvements would be suggested. The recipients of such improvements are the users. The institution upgrades its system for them.
What were your strengths in each assessment item?
My strong point in the first assignment is my ability to find and organize sources that are significant to the study. The sources relate to and support each other. This strengthens the discussion and deepens the insight about the subject. When it comes to the second assignment, my strong point is the ability to analyze and synthesize the findings and to come up with solutions. As with the IM plan, I carefully followed the procedure until its conclusion.
What could you work on for next time, or for when you join the profession yourself?
Despite the strengths I thought I was able to practice, I believe that I can still work on gaining more knowledge regarding IM and on improving the manner by which I presented my research. As said, Information Management is technical. In this regard, I could have discussed the technicalities in a more relatable sense. In doing this, not only the IM students and practitioners would understand my study but also everybody else who may take interest in pursuing an IM career.
