You have rolled out your current awareness solution and created 100s - if not 1000s - of relevant alerts and topics populated with articles designed to keep your end users informed.
But how can you ensure that people find, follow and subscribe to what they need? How can you direct them to the relevant content? How does anyone, including the rest of the information/knowledge team, know what has been created on the platform?
What’s in a name?! Your organisation will already have various knowledge organisation systems (KOS) in place. For example, a library classification system, intranet taxonomies, website marketing content tags, learning and development materials indexes etc. What do you call your KOS?
Vable allows administrators to create a bespoke, organisational-specific controlled vocabulary - a list of terms - to ensure effective current awareness organisation. We call them Labels. Labelling is an essential component of organising everything in your current awareness system, from alerts and topics to Inbox rules and MyVable content.
I appreciate that you are information professionals and are familiar with KOS such as controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, metadata, indexing, term lists, labelling etc. However, Team Vable is often asked to assist with this part of a current awareness project, and this post is designed to give you some conversation starters for your next team meeting!
It should be easy to get buy-in for this part of your current awareness project - especially if you already have an information department KOS in place. Information without organisation is a librarian’s worst nightmare! A properly designed label system benefits end users and admins by grouping content by topics, categories, and subcategories, making it easy to browse and access relevant information.
The whole point of a labelling system is to act as an intermediary; to link the end user to the content simply and efficiently. Therefore the system has to reflect the needs of the end users, so that is where we will start - the end users' pain points!
Are your end users experiencing difficulty finding current awareness topics? Are your colleagues and end users wasting time and effort locating material? Are they frustrated by irrelevant content? Are they suffering from FOMO? Are you trying to increase end user engagement with your new current awareness service?
Creating a logical and simple list of terms to apply to your content will solve many of these issues.
As ever, we need to ask ourselves about success and proving value. We have written about success criteria previously and this is a great opportunity to practice putting a list together. Think about it! If every criterion has to be clear, measurable and specific, what quantitative and qualitative data can you collect to demonstrate a label implementation project's success?
For instance, if more people are able to find topics of interest, more people will add them to their alerts and newsletters. You can demonstrate that n% more of your end users are finding and subscribing to content. Once you have the figures, you can start collecting success stories and testimonials. These can all feed into your annual reports, project plans, case studies and other valuable promotional documentation.
We have discussed examples of organisational KOS. Depending on what you already have in place will impact the scope of your labelling project. If you have an effective subject-based library classification system, you have a great starting point.
But be honest with yourself. Does it work for the non-information-qualified end users? Does your BD team have a more user-friendly system? Or what do your departmental knowledge professionals use?
But first, where are you at? Let’s ensure you have a team and a timeline in place.
Once you have considered all these important issues and have everything in place, you can start getting creative with virtual (or real!) post-it notes!
You need to develop a clear and concise labelling system that reflects the content and structure of your current awareness. Consistency is key, so ensure that all labels are applied correctly and that they accurately describe the content.
Whatever you create, consider your end user's needs above everything. What information are they looking for? What labels will be most helpful to them? By taking user needs into account, you can create a structure that is intuitive and easy to navigate.
Hint: Why not try generative AI to see if that assists in creating a relational hierarchy? When I copied the above text into ChatGPT, it gave me a rudimentary list which got me started. If you are clear in your instructions and amend them as you go, you could ask it to find common themes among your existing topics.
Effective labelling is a crucial component of any current awareness platform. By creating a clear and concise labelling system that reflects the content and structure of your platform, you can ensure that end users can easily find and subscribe to relevant content. To create a successful labelling system, it is important to consider your end users' needs, involve stakeholders, and continuously solicit feedback for improvement. With an effective labelling system in place, you can provide a positive user experience that promotes engagement and satisfaction.
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