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1550 results in Knowledge Management, Databases and Data Mining

Page 40 of 78

  • 5 - Legacy Databases

  • from Part II - Types of Database Systems
  • Wilfried Lemahieu, KU Leuven, Belgium, Seppe vanden Broucke, KU Leuven, Belgium, Bart Baesens, KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Book:
    Principles of Database Management
    Published online:
    17 August 2019
    Print publication:
    12 July 2018, pp 93-103

  • Summary

    Chapter Objectives

    In this chapter, you will learn to:

  • • understand why it is important to know the basic concepts of legacy databases;

  • • identify the basic building blocks and limitations of the hierarchical model;

  • • identify the basic building blocks and limitations of the CODASYL model.

    • Opening Scenario

    Sober purchased the customer database of Mellow Cab, who recently stepped out of the taxi business after many years at the top. Since Mellow Cab started in the mid-1970s, it was still using outdated database technology. It used CODASYL to store and manage its customer data. Sober is not familiar with this technology and wants to understand its limitations before deciding to either continue with it or invest in a modern DBMS.

    In this chapter we briefly zoom into legacy database technologies and their logical data models. Although these are outdated and semantically inferior to modern database technologies, there are three reasons to review them. Firstly, many firms still struggle with legacy databases due to historical implementations and limited IT budgets – hence, knowing the basic characteristics of these models is essential to the maintenance of the corresponding database applications and the potential migration to modern DBMSs. Secondly, understanding the basics of these legacy models will contribute to better understanding the semantical richness of newer database technologies. Finally, the concept of procedural DML and navigational access originally introduced by these legacy models has also been adopted by more recent databases such as OODBMSs.

    In this chapter we cover both the hierarchical and CODASYL data models. Throughout the discussion, we extensively discuss the expressive power and limitations of both models.

    The Hierarchical Model

    The hierarchical model is one of the first data models developed. The model originated during the Apollo moon missions program conducted by NASA. To manage the huge amount of data collected, IBMdeveloped the Information Management System or IMS DBMS (1966–1968). There is no formal description available and it has lots of structural limitations. Therefore, it is considered legacy.

    The two key building blocks of the hierarchical model are record types and relationship types. A record type is a set of records describing similar entities. Think about a product record type or a supplier record type. A record type has zero, one, or more records. It consists of fields or data items.

  • 18 - Data Integration, Data Quality, and Data Governance

  • from Part IV - Data Warehousing, Data Governance, and (Big) Data Analytics
  • Wilfried Lemahieu, KU Leuven, Belgium, Seppe vanden Broucke, KU Leuven, Belgium, Bart Baesens, KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Book:
    Principles of Database Management
    Published online:
    17 August 2019
    Print publication:
    12 July 2018, pp 590-625

  • Summary

    Chapter Objectives

    In this chapter, you will learn to:

  • • identify the key challenges and approaches for data and process integration;

  • • understand the basic mechanisms of searching unstructured data within an organization and across the World Wide Web;

  • • define data quality as a multidimensional concept and understand how master data management (MDM) can contribute to it;

  • • understand different frameworks and standards for data governance;

  • • highlight more recent approaches in data warehousing, data integration, and governance.

    • Opening Scenario

    Things are going well at Sober. The company has set up a solid data environment based on a solid relational database management system used to support the bulk of its operations. Sober's mobile app development team has been using MongoDB as a scalable NoSQL DBMS to handle the increased workload coming from mobile app users and to provide back-end support for experimental features the team wants to test in new versions of their mobile app. Sober's development and database team is already paying attention to various data quality and governance aspects: the RDBMS is the central source of truth, strongly focusing on solid schema design and regular quality checks being performed on the data. The NoSQL database is an additional support system to handle large query volumes from mobile users in real-time in a scalable manner, but where all data changes are still being propagated to the central RDBMS. This is done in a manual manner, which sometimes leads to the two data sources not being in agreement with each other. Sober's team therefore wants to consider better data quality approaches to implement more robust quality checks on data and make sure that changes to the NoSQL database are propagated to the RDBMS system in a timely and correct manner. Sober also wants to understand how their data flows can be better integrated with their business processes.

    In this chapter we will look at some managerial and technical aspects of data integration. We will zoom in on data integration techniques, data quality, and data governance. As companies often end up with many information systems and databases over time, the concept of data integration becomes increasingly important to consolidate a company's data to provide one, unified view to applications and users.

  • 10 - XML Databases

  • from Part II - Types of Database Systems
  • Wilfried Lemahieu, KU Leuven, Belgium, Seppe vanden Broucke, KU Leuven, Belgium, Bart Baesens, KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Book:
    Principles of Database Management
    Published online:
    17 August 2019
    Print publication:
    12 July 2018, pp 255-299

  • Summary

    Chapter Objectives

    In this chapter, you will learn to:

  • • understand the basic concepts of XML, Document Type Definition, XML Schema Definition, Extensible Stylesheet Language, namespaces, and XPath;

  • • process XML documents using the DOM and SAX APIs;

  • • store XML documents using a document-oriented, data-oriented, or hybrid approach;

  • • grasp the key differences between XML and relational data;

  • • map between XML documents and (object-)relational data using table-based mapping, schema-oblivious mapping, schema-aware mapping, and SQL/XML;

  • • search XML data using full-text search, keyword-based search, structured search using XQuery, and semantic search using RDF and SPARQL;

  • • use XML for information exchange in combination with message-oriented middleware (MOM) and web services;

  • • understand other data representation formats such as JSON and YAML.

    • Opening Scenario

    For regulatory and insurance purposes, Sober needs to store a report for each accident. The report should include the date, the location (including GPS coordinates), a summary of what happened and the individuals involved. Furthermore, for each individual Sober needs to know:

  • • the name;

  • • whether he/she is a driver driving a Sober car or not, a pedestrian, or a cyclist;

  • • whether he/she was injured.

    • The report should also include information about aid provided, such as police or ambulance assistance. Sober would like to know the best way to store this report.

    In this chapter, we discuss how to store, process, search, and visualize XML documents, and how DBMSs can support this. We start by looking at the XML data representation standard and discuss related concepts such as DTDs and XSDs for defining XML documents, XSL for visualizing or transforming XML documents, and namespaces to provide for a unique naming convention. This is followed by introducing XPath, which uses path expressions to navigate through XML documents. We review the DOM and SAX API to process XML documents. Next, we cover both the documentand data-oriented approach for storing XML documents. We extensively highlight the key differences between the XML and relational data model. Various mapping methods between XML and (object-)relational data are discussed: table-based mapping, schema-oblivious mapping, schema-aware mapping, and the SQL/XML extension. We also present various ways to search XML data: full-text search, keyword-based search, structured search, XQuery, and semantic search. We then illustrate how XML can be used for information exchange, both at the company level using RPC and message-oriented middleware and between companies using SOAP or REST-based web services.

  • 7 - Relational Databases: Structured Query Language (SQL)

  • from Part II - Types of Database Systems
  • Wilfried Lemahieu, KU Leuven, Belgium, Seppe vanden Broucke, KU Leuven, Belgium, Bart Baesens, KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Book:
    Principles of Database Management
    Published online:
    17 August 2019
    Print publication:
    12 July 2018, pp 146-206

  • Summary

    Chapter Objectives

    In this chapter, you will learn to:

  • • understand the importance of SQL in an RDBMS environment;

  • • use SQL as a data definition language (DDL);

  • • use SQL as a data manipulation language (DML) for retrieving, inserting, deleting, and updating data;

  • • define and use views in SQL;

  • • define indexes in SQL;

  • • use SQL for granting and revoking privileges;

  • • understand how SQL can be used to manage metadata.

    • Opening Scenario

    The relational model adopted by Sober needs to serve various information needs. For example, the insurance firm of the company requests an overview of all accidents together with the number of Sober cars involved and the average damage amount per accident. As part of its customer relationship management (CRM) program, the company wants to retrieve the customer with the maximum wait time and offer him or her a free ride-hailing service. Furthermore, Sober also would like to find out which customers have never booked any of its services and target them with a promotion campaign. To implement its eco-friendly tree-planting program, Sober needs to know which customers booked more than 20 Sober ride-sharing services. Finally, the company remembers that one of the limitations of the EER conceptual data model was that it is perfectly possible that customers book either a ride-hailing or ride-sharing service with their own car. To safeguard its data quality, Sober wants to periodically check that this is not the case in its relational database.

    In the previous chapter, we dealt with the modeling aspects of relational databases. In this chapter, we elaborate on SQL, which is the lingua franca of RDBMSs and one of the most popular data definition and manipulation languages in use in the industry nowadays. Its core functionality is implemented, with only some minor variations, throughout all RDBMS products. We discuss the SQL language constructs to express a relational model and to formulate queries that retrieve and modify the data in a relational database.

    First, we provide an overview of the SQL data definition language (SQL DDL) to define a relational data model. We also discuss how the SQL data manipulation language (SQL DML) can be used for data manipulation such as retrieving data, updating data, inserting new data and deleting existing data. We then elaborate on SQL views and SQL indexes, which are part of the external and internal data model, respectively.

Topics at the Frontier of Statistics and Network Analysis

Topics at the Frontier of Statistics and Network Analysis
  • (Re)Visiting the Foundations
  • Eric D. Kolaczyk
  • Published online:
    06 June 2017
    Print publication:
    10 August 2017
  • This snapshot of the current frontier of statistics and network analysis focuses on the foundational topics of modeling, sampling, and design. Primarily for graduate students and researchers in statistics and closely related fields, emphasis is not only on what has been done, but on what remains to be done.

  • 4 - From transaction to transformation: organizational learning and knowledge creation experience within Informed Systems

  • Edited by Marc Forster
  • Book:
    Information Literacy in the Workplace
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 April 2017, pp 41-56

  • Summary

    This chapter will discuss:

    • an organizational approach known as Informed Systems, which builds learning conditions and knowledge creation experiences that result in a workplace which uses information effectively to learn, adapt and perform.

    Introduction

    This chapter describers the Informed Systems approach to building organizational learning conditions and knowledge creation experiences through effective workplace communication systems and information practices. Informed Systems, which has its roots in relational Information Literacy (IL) (see Chapter 2), integrates constructivist learning, systems thinking and knowledge creation theories to advance ‘Informed Learning’, the experience of using information to learn, within constructed workplace ecosystems. Activated as action research and enacted through participatory co-design, this approach focuses on collective inquiry to further learning relationships and Informed Learning experiences (i.e. advances both information and learning experiences simultaneously). Associated professional practices facilitated by both technology- and human-enabled workplace communication systems guide the experience of using information to learn. Such experiences are amplified by dialogue and reflection, to foster knowledge creation for ‘learning in action’. Central to the Informed Systems approach is nimble thought leadership and collaborative information-focused activities, customizable to changing local situ - ations that foster Informed Learning capacity in the contemporary workplace.

    In this chapter, workplace IL is understood to be the experience of using information to learn, in the tradition of the relational approach to IL. In The Seven Faces of Information Literacy and Informed Learning, Bruce (1997; 2008) presents insights into the experience of using information to learn through a relational approach. The early research results include four principles integral to the relational view and seven faces (facets or categories) representing qualitatively different ways of experiencing the use of information to learn. In depicting the phenomenon as a whole, these principles and categories represent an integration of experiential, contextual and transformational information experiences, which departed from the predominant behavioural research and skills-based education in vogue when she released her findings.

  • 11 - The ‘Workplace Experience Framework’ and evidence-based Information Literacy education

  • Edited by Marc Forster
  • Book:
    Information Literacy in the Workplace
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 April 2017, pp 149-164

  • Summary

    This chapter will discuss:

  • • a new approach to IL education for students and professionals based on detailed research into its experience in the workplace.

  • • how the ‘relational’ approach to IL education has, through research methods which yield exceptional detail, made possible the ‘Workplace Experience Framework’. This is a guide to the structure, content and method of an evidence-based IL educational intervention, based on the range of themes and complexities of experience of IL in a workplace or profession.

  • • how that detail of experience can be applied to formulate a new means of monitoring an individual's IL development.

    • Please note: It is strongly advised that you read Chapter 2 before reading this chapter, as many of the research findings and ideas used below are introduced there and often discussed in more detail.

    Introduction

    In order that a professional can begin a career in the workplace using information effectively, in the context of the knowledge development and learning required for individual, team and organizational functionality, part of professional education should involve IL education of the kind appropriate for that workplace. In Chapter 8, page 111, Annemaree Lloyd suggests that students’ IL development requires a transition from an academic or ‘preparatory’ setting to a workplace one:

    Librarians are placed in unique positions to mediate the educational and discipline/workplace landscapes in order to identify knowledge, competencies and skills that students will require while studying and when in transition to the workplace.

    This chapter attempts to show one way in which workplace IL education might be based on detailed experiences of IL in the workplace, so that students are inducted into information experiences relevant to their work culture or profession. The chapter may be of particular interest to librarians attempting to develop IL in professional workers, and academics keen to develop in their students the skills that new professionals need in order to function effectively and ethically in the workplace.

    In what ways has the development of IL traditionally been encouraged? Historically, the literature describes attempts to develop what are felt to be relevant skills and knowledge, based on behaviourist or constructivist approaches (Brettle, 2003 and 2007; Elrod, Wallace and Sirigos, 2012).

  • 7 - Information Literacy's role in workplace competence, ‘best practice’ and the ethics of professional obligation

  • Edited by Marc Forster
  • Book:
    Information Literacy in the Workplace
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 April 2017, pp 85-96

  • Summary

    This chapter will discuss:

  • • how being information-literate in the workplace is to be ethical. The ethically information-literate employee seeks to develop their knowledge to a level which allows them to most effectively address the needs of patient, customer or client. Not to be information-literate may result in harmful outcomes.

  • • how this exhibits itself in IL's role in the achievement of competence, and beyond this in the quest for ‘best practice’: the most effective and efficient way to achieve the best outcome for patients or clients, based on all relevant information effectively analysed and integrated into the knowledge base.

    • Introduction

    As is well known, IL is often ignored, or regarded as a preoccupation only of librarians, or something only relevant in academic settings. How can we persuade businesses and organizations, professionals and other workers of its necessity? In fact, IL has a particular key role to play in work life that is arguably more fundamental than any other discussed in this book: an ethical role.

    This chapter discusses the idea of the necessity of IL in the workplace. That is, its ethical necessity, which is found in the requirement of professionals, indeed all employees, to operate at maximum effectiveness for the highest possible safety and benefit of customers, patients and clients (Forster, 2013). In the information-rich modern workplace, this effectiveness requires the optimum search/differentiation, critique and application of all relevant information. An ill-informed professional is a potentially incompetent, even dangerous, one. A professional who has failed to develop, or sought to develop and maintain, the ability to identify information lack, search for and identify all relevant information and critique it in order to maintain professional knowledge levels, and practises from that incomplete knowledge base, is practising unethically.

    This is not a common way of looking at IL's role and value. However, there is little question that its wider adoption and promotion by librarians would further strengthen its profile, and help increase an awareness of its proper value in the workplace.

    Awareness of Information Literacy's vital role

    This chapter's origins can be traced to something unexpected in the IL experiences of a representative sample of professional workers.

Information Literacy in the Workplace
  • Edited by Marc Forster
  • Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 April 2017
  • This book explains how information literacy (IL) is essential to the contemporary workplace and is fundamental to competent, ethical and evidence-based practice. In today’s information-driven workplace, information professionals must know when research evidence or relevant legal, business, personal or other information is required, how to find it, how to critique it and how to integrate it into one’s knowledge base. To fail to do so may result in defective and unethical practice which could have devastating consequences for clients or employers. There is an ethical requirement for information professionals to meet best practice standards to achieve the best outcome possible for the client. This demands highly focused and complex information searching, assessment and critiquing skills.

  • 9 - Developing information professional competences in disciplinary domains: a challenge for higher education

  • Edited by Marc Forster
  • Book:
    Information Literacy in the Workplace
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 April 2017, pp 113-130

  • Summary

    This chapter will discuss:

  • • the ways in which higher orders of information professional competence, including Information Literacy (IL), can be introduced into programmes of higher education teaching and learning.

  • • how such an approach to information professional education can lead to a deeper and wider dissemination across workplace occupations and domains, and see these competences embedded in organizational learning and personal development.

    • Introduction

    Information Literacy is the child of an age when there was a clear and purposeful link between physical documents as the primary stores of recorded information and libraries and other physical locations as repositories. The principles and practices of librarianship provided the main means of management of content and access. For all the detail and complexity that lay behind this relationship, the user, in any form and from any perspective, was presented with a straightforward and largely linear model of access and use. Information Literacy could be constructed on the premise that a map of the bibliographical terrain could be perceived, tools designed to provide access and means found to obtain what the user needed. Not quite a one-dimensional environment but one in which a clear underlying logic could be presented to help complete the information cycle from production to consumption. The search for information and the mastery of the tools to access it can be viewed as a two-dimensional spatial problem. Providing IL (as it is now called) – or its contemporary equivalents of ‘reader advice’ (pre-1960s), user education’ (1960s), ‘information skills’ (1970s and 1980s) and ‘inform - ation education’ (from the 1990s onwards) – started with a default position of a skill transfer from librarian or information professional to reader and user. Some ideas of the substance and complexity of these issues have been ably reviewed by Nigel Ford (Ford, 2004; 2008) and are carried forward by fellow contributors to this collection.

    However, the impetus was slowly changing from a librarian-centric view towards the user-centric view. Making the goal a shift of power from librarian or information professional to the user was very much in tune with educational and pedagogical theory. The skilled and informed user would be transformed into an independent learner and then be set on a path to independent and critical thinking.

  • 5 - Virtuality at work: an enabler of professional Information Literacy

  • Edited by Marc Forster
  • Book:
    Information Literacy in the Workplace
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 April 2017, pp 57-66

  • Summary

    This chapter will discuss:

  • • how ‘Virtuality’ is that dimension of professional activity that transcends the workplace, through engagement with internet-wide communities of professional communication and practice.

  • • how in professions in which Virtuality is an essential component, Information Literacy (IL) can be experienced beyond workplace boundaries and in more complex ways.

    • Introduction

    Information Literacy has been investigated in a number of professional groups in the workplace. Lawyers (Macoustra, 2004), administrative staff and academics in higher education (Bruce, 1997), senior managers (Kirk, 2004), firefighters (Lloyd, 2005), business professionals (Freudenberg, 2008), ambulance officers (Lloyd, 2009), tele-health officers (O'Farrill, 2010), web designers and developers (Sayyad Abdi, 2014; Sayyad Abdi, Partridge and Bruce, 2016) and nurses (Forster, 2015a) are examples of groups that have been investigated in terms of their experience of the phenomenon of ILin their varying working circumstances and conditions.

    It has been argued that due to variations in environment and conditions, the experience of IL might be significantly different in each workplace (Lloyd and Williamson, 2008; Weiner, 2011). But is IL in fact contained and defined by the workplace? A recent study into IL experiences of web designers and developers (‘web professionals’ hereafter) suggested that we may be able to distinguish experienced IL in the workplace at two levels: as a workplace community and at a virtually connected, wider, professional level (Sayyad Abdi and Bruce, 2015). IL at a professional level does not reflect necessarily the boundaries and essence of physical workspaces. People at professional level have expanded interactions which include their whole professional community of practice. This broader field of performance gives them the opportunity to encounter and recognize a wider range of information experiences than are available in and fixed by specific workplace organizational cultures. This wider information environment, using a relational approach (Bruce, 1997), can be interpreted as a more complex experience of IL. From a relational perspective, IL is about being able to use information effectively in a range of different ways in differing contexts. The ability to experience information in more varied ways, especially at those higher levels of functionality in the professional sphere, is to have a more complex experience of IL. Experiencing IL at a professional level may contribute to its enhancement.

  • 6 - Determining the value of Information Literacy for employers

  • Edited by Marc Forster
  • Book:
    Information Literacy in the Workplace
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 April 2017, pp 67-84

  • Summary

    This chapter will discuss:

  • • how the value of Information Literacy in the workplace might be increased by employing and training individuals who have appropriate and relevant know-how, competency and awareness in the handling of information, in whatever form that takes.

  • • how that value might also be increased by deploying processes and creating environments that help to foster effective uses of data and information.

    • Introduction

    This chapter discusses the value of Information Literacy (IL) in the workplace. It draws from the conclusions of a study that considered, in the setting of a small range of enterprises, the value that is added by employing and training individuals who have appropriate and relevant know-how, competency and awareness in the handling of information, in whatever form that takes; and in deploying processes and creating environments that help to foster effective uses of data and information. The value might be financial, but it might also relate to other factors that are important to enterprises, such as enhanced efficiency, competitive advantage or employee job satisfaction. These questions bear a close relation to the long-standing debate about the impact of IL instruction in school and higher education settings (Todd, 1995; Streatfield and Markless, 2008); we can similarly ask whether and how information know-how contributes to the well-being of enterprises.

    The chapter introduces a practical approach to addressing these questions, and should therefore be relevant to enterprises across all sectors (commercial, public and not-for-profit), and particularly to those within enterprises with responsibility for human resources, training and skills, information/data management and financial management. It is also relevant for information professionals (particularly those in the workplace), information scientists and all those with an interest in the contribution of information, data and knowledge to the workings of enterprises.

    Background

    Recent literature reviews by Williams, Cooper and Wavell (2014) and Inskip (2014) have discussed the importance of IL in the workplace. The reviews counter the bias in the IL literature towards perceiving it narrowly as information-searching competencies of the kind that are deployed in higher education settings (Whitworth, 2014, 74–81). IL can be generally defined as the capacity to make critical judgements about information, and this capacity can be learned. Workplace learning, however, is less structured and more collaborative than most formalized educational settings.

  • 8 - Learning within for beyond: exploring a workplace Information Literacy design

  • Edited by Marc Forster
  • Book:
    Information Literacy in the Workplace
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 April 2017, pp 97-112

  • Summary

    This chapter will discuss:

  • • how the intensification of work and creation of new ways of working can present librarians with challenges in terms of creating Information Literacy (IL) education that provides scaffolding for students’ transitions into professional or vocational practice.

  • • how by addressing this need, librarians must balance students’ transitions at both ends of the process – into higher education or vocational settings, and then into the workplace. This complexity requires a recasting of pedagogical practices to accommodate changes in the nature of work. With this in mind, common themes drawn from practice-based research are used to construct a conceptualization of workplace IL instruction.

    • Introduction

    Modern workplaces are fast places, blending traditional and new versions of work and ways of working. The workplace is now characterized by rapid rates of change; seamless integration of technology; the broadening of networks; incorporation of social media, e-mail and other multimedia platforms; and the ability to work without propinquity (White, 2012). The need to accommodate change and to provide innovative responses to workplace challenges requires employees to continually update, extend and improve their capacity to understand their workplace information landscapes. The increasing messiness of the workplace results in the growth of formal and informal sources of information, which compounds the issue of workers being able to identify, locate and share ‘quality information’ (Martin, 2013). The implications of these changes are increased uncertainty about employer expectations of new workers, and the need to ensure that new workers have the capacity to demonstrate information resilience (Lloyd, 2013).

    This chapter considers the teaching of IL practice in the light of the messiness created by rapid workplace changes and evolving ways of working. Themes which are common to a practice perspective and act as a scaffold to conceptualizing workplace IL instruction are described. A premise of this chapter is that current models and frameworks of IL do not adequately prepare students for workplace learning because they do not account for the preparatory nature of higher education or for the change in learning cultures that new graduates and novices face when they transition into the workplace.

  • 3 - Information Literacy and the personal dimension: team players, empowered clients and career development

  • Edited by Marc Forster
  • Book:
    Information Literacy in the Workplace
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 April 2017, pp 29-40

  • Summary

    This chapter will discuss:

  • • how Information Literacy (IL) helps each professional to develop and find scope for their personal capabilities, and facilitates the relationships which enable them to support and empower clients or patients and contribute in team and organizational contexts.

  • • how research can allow us to observe those experiential meanings and professional information horizons that illuminate IL at a personal level.

    • Introduction

    Information Literacy can be seen as a personal attribute: one which, as a facilitator and enricher of the communicative faculty, can aid a professional to assist and empower patients or clients, and make a personal contribution to mutual endeavours within team and business or organization by supporting, leading or teaching colleagues.

    It also facilitates the development of personal capabilities through its ability to facilitate learning (Bruce and Hughes, 2010), and therefore to engage in new and more sophisticated ways to make a contribution.

    These perspectives on IL are essential to the understanding of its role and value in the workplace. That workplace is often a very complex social environment which is focused on the use of information for specific knowledge goals, often with and for the benefit of patients and clients, and often through teams and networks undertaking complex knowledgegenerating tasks. The sections below are intended to help information professionals, library managers and academics responsible for education in the professions become more aware of some of the likely details of IL's personal and social complexities and value, in order to support professionals in training and in the workplace as they negotiate their information world; ‘likely details’ because, though most professionals will share many of these experiences, further research into specific workplaces and professions is still required for absolute clarity.

    What the research data can show

    Knowledge of the breadth and depth of experience of IL can give valuable perspectives on how individuals, at different levels of responsibility, make their personal contribution to the development of knowledge needed by the team and organization, and the patients or clients they have responsibility for. How does IL allow them to make their own unique contribution in the workplace? In what way does it facilitate relationships with others? Does it inform leadership or form the basis for personal development? If so, how? The answers to these questions may be valuable to those who are responsible for IL education, and professional education in general.

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