Morten Christoffersen, Information Specialist for Novo Nordisk’s Library & Information Centre, is giving the corporate view of collaboration.

“Tools are not collaborative; people are.” Collaborative tools include not just blogs, wikis, discussion lists, but also the coffee machine. Applications and devices: Same data, different wrappings. Maybe email should die, but in the meantime we send a lot of them. But people also delete them and then need the information. The system can retrieve these. Users want support for their BlackBerries and NN will support starting next week.

Focus on the user not the library database. Library is not center of the world, the user is. For premium content, NN includes search strategy in emails, unless it’s a patent search. Search alerts mailed directly to project web sites.

Are BlackBerries collaborative? Yes! And it’s independent of time and place. You can share even when not at the office.

Benefits: Gent what you want, where you want it, in the format you want. There’s one global site, whether you’re in Bagsvaerd or Beijing. Everything seems local. Library gets better questions, not run of the mill stuff.

Challenges: We know the statistics, but not the context. Librarians set up service, but don’t know whether users simply delete emails, feeling it’s too hard to unsubscribe.

Life today in the NN library: Fewer ad hoc searches; less reactive, more proactive; fill needs don’t just serve needs; and understand business processes.