Top Tips for Turning Information into Insights

Marcy Phelps, Phelps Research

Military Libraries Workshop, Von Braun Center, Huntsville, Alabama

December 11, 2013

Slides at www.phelpsresearch.com/speaking

Twitter - @maryphelps

Can we be replaced?

Clients are drowning in information.  Too many results from DIY (Do-It-Yourself) searching (Bing, Yahoo, Google, Ask, etc.)

We have to learn how to express our value – Show & Tell

Information Analyst – We tell folks what is worthwhile in the information that we retrieve for them.

5 Tips:

1.      Listen & Learn

• Reference interview
• Informational interview – how are customers going to use the information?  That tells us how to deliver the information – a report? A list? A spreadsheet? A chart or other table?
• Include a Table of Contents and a cover letter

2.      KISS – Keep It Short & Simple

• Use 1 or 2 sentences to justify to yourself why you are including items in your response to the requestor.
• Executive Summary: one page, bullets, address questions, summarize answers, include links to more information, add your observations
• Article summaries included with citations

3.      Use visual formats – charts and graphs often tell more than just a table; diagrams, dashboards, data maps, word clouds, timeline

4.      Bring in the Power Tools

• Data mining
• Analysis – SWOT, PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors),
• Using Insights – FAQs, Issue briefs, Powerpoint, Cheat sheet, Intranet/portal deliverables

5.      Create a report toolkit

• Templates for Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• Style Guides
• Chart Gallery
• Map Gallery
• Branding

Resources:

Tools for Charts and Graphs:

• Excel Chart Wizard
• ChartGizmo.com
• Google Developers Chart Wizard (http://snipurl.com/27mnhv5)
• DIYChart.com

Tools for Diagrams:

• SmartArt (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Gliffy.com
• Microsoft Visio (http://snipurl.com/27mnn39)
• SmartDraw.com
• OmniGraffle for Mac (http://snipurl.com/27mnmt8)

Tools for Data Maps:

• Microsoft MapPoint (http://snipurl.com/27mniz8)
• Google Fusion Tables (http://snipurl.com/27mnk8r)
• Click2Map.com
• Mapland (www.softill.com)
• SmartDraw.com

Tools for Word Cloud:

• Wordle.net
• Pajek.com – gives some explanation of word size in a word cloud

Articles:

• Visualization Tools for Turning Information into Insights, ONLINE, Sept/Oct 2012, http://snipurl.com/289v0eg
• Choosing the Right Graphic http://snipurl.com/289v0je

Image resources:

search.usa.gov

• Flickr.com advanced search (snipurl.com/256ipl)
• Google Images advanced search (snipurl.com/256igw)
• iStock.com