Businesses want good information, but lack strategy to manage and retrieve it: many organizations are in danger of being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information and their inability to organize and prioritize it.

Companies rate information as their highest business priority this year, but fewer than half of business decision makers have a high confidence level in the quality and accessibility of information within their organizations, and roughly 40 percent lack both the in-house expertise and a strategy to manage it.

Surveys of business and technology executives in the United States, England, Australia and Singapore revealed that organizations realize that getting the right information at the right time is critical to their business success, but often find it difficult to justify investing in information-related projects. When asked which "information-centric" projects they would fund during the next two years, respondents said document work flow transformation, records management and e-dis-covery/compliance.

Typical e-discovery requirements involve producing specific business information based on requested dates and subject matter. More than 40 percent of companies said their main concern regarding e-discovery was the risk--both legal and financial--of failing to produce documents in a timely manner. However, companies are still struggling with this issue because they don't understand the requirements for responding to e-discovery requests and lack funding for the technology to support finding the information they need.

As much as 80 percent of the content within organizations today is "unstructured," meaning it is not held within a database. This unstructured information is often subject to e-discovery requests under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Hewlett Packard, which sponsored the surveys, recommends that businesses adopt an information management strategy consisting of eight steps, including the following:

1. Obtain senior executive sponsorship and cross-organizational involvement;

2. Leverage information management best practices from records managers, archivists, and librarians; and

3. Prove business value by measuring accomplishments and communicating them in business terms.

For more information, visit www.hp.com/go/imhub.

Google Seeks to Address Concerns about Book Settlement

Representatives of Google have been meeting with SLA members and staff and with other library groups to answer questions and address concerns about the proposed book search settlement, which is still pending approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In May, Derek Slater, a policy analyst with Google, met with staff at SLA headquarters to discuss and address various concerns that have been voiced by SLA members over the settlement. Though many issues were discussed, the conversation focused on four primary areas: institutional subscription pricing, privacy, intellectual freedom, and orphan works (works that are out of print and unclaimed by any copyright holders). Slater said then, and reiterated in comments posted on SLA's Public Policy blog in June, that it will remain one of Google's priorities to work to pass effective orphan works legislation.

On 16 June, at the Public Policy Update session at SLA 2009, Dan Clancy, engineering director at Google Book Search, provided an overview of the scope of the settlement agreement and addressed various concerns and questions from audience members.

Under the proposed settlement, the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild agreed to drop their legal dispute with Google over the scanning of millions of books provided by research libraries. The Authors Guild had been concerned because the settlement lets Google use orphan works without first getting approval from their authors. Authors Guild officials say that because the settlement requires Google to set aside funds for authors of orphan books, the number of such books will diminish over time as rights holders come forward to claim money.

Although the settlement could expand individuals' and groups' access to books, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently opened a formal investigation into the settlement over digital publishing rights and the possibility that the agreement could violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. The concern is that Google, having digitized millions of books, would have a monopoly on them should the judge approve the settlement. Library groups, meanwhile, are worried that the absence of competition for the new services could compromise fundamental library values such as equal access to information.

Should the settlement be approved by the court and pass muster with the DOJ, it will still face government scrutiny. The European Commission has announced plans to study the settlement agreement to review how the settlement with authors in the United States affects writers' rights in the EU.

LSU Library School to Merge with Education, Social Work Schools

The School of Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University will be incorporated into a new entity, the School of Social and Educational Professions (SEP), under a proposed realignment plan submitted by the university's chancellor.

"The fragmented and confusing arrangement of some academic units impedes our efforts in some critical areas ... to mount the best programs of instruction, leverage external funding for research and scholarship, and discharge our land-grant mission as an indispensable resource for the state of Louisiana," wrote Chancellor Michael V. Martin in a letter dated 5 May. "The realignment will achieve a number of objectives designed to increase effectiveness, efficiency, clarity and accountability while preserving current admission and degree requirements and our obligation to students."

Under the realignment plan, the School of Library and Information Science will combine with the College of Education, the School of Social Work, the School of Human Resource Education and Workforce Development, and the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders to form SEP. A new entity, the Department of Family and Child Studies, will also be created within SEP by moving faculty from the School of Human Ecology.

The changes at LSU mark the second time this year that a library school has had its identity subsumed. Earlier this year, the Board of Governors of Rutgers University (New Jersey) approved a resolution to change the name of the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies to the School of Communication and Information. In recent years, library schools at Columbia University, Emory University, the University of Minnesota, Vanderbilt, and many other institutions of higher learning have closed their doors, leaving fewer than 60 such schools in the United States.

Most Information Services Work Being Performed In-house

Organizations that are outsourcing information services responsibilities to third parties say they are pleased with the quality and cost-effectiveness of the work being performed, while organizations that aren't outsourcing say they don't do so because of their concerns about those same factors.

A survey of 71 leaders of information services units in U.S. businesses found that more than half of them are outsourcing at least some of their information services tasks, especially generalist and specialist research services. Even among organizations that are outsourcing, however, the majority of the work continues to be performed in-house, particularly on presentations and legal support.

The practice of outsourcing information services has become more popular in recent years as businesses have sought ways to reduce their expenses. To gain an understanding of how information professionals perceive the practice, FreePint, a publisher of resources for the business information industry, and Integreon, a provider of outsourcing services, conducted an anonymous survey of information professionals across a range of industries to learn their practices and perceptions.

The survey found that the use of out-sourcing is on the rise but that it has not kept pace with the decline in the global economy. Some analysts believe businesses are focusing on traditional cost-saving measures, such as cutting travel expenses and reducing or eliminating bonuses, in hopes that the economy will rebound. If these approaches do not work, outsourcing is likely to become more prevalent.

San Jose State Makes Master's Degree Available Online

The San Jose School of Library and Information Science, the world's largest accredited LIS program, will complete the transition to full online delivery of its 43-credit master of library and information science (MLIS) degree by the time students enroll for the fall 2009 semester.

With the transition, the school will change its name to the Global e-Cam-pus for Library and Information Science to reflect its virtual nature and reach. The school's 2,800 graduate students live in 45 states and 14 countries, and its full--and part-time faculty reside on three continents.

San Jose's investment in information and communications technologies and commitment to distance learning allow students to choose from more than 250 online courses each semester and interact with peers and instructors through Web conferencing, social networking platforms, a Web-based learning management system, and immersive environments. By using these technologies to earn their degrees, students are better prepared to apply them to their professional lives.

For more information, visit http://slisweb.sjsu.edu.

University to Merge Publishing Operations with Library

University of Michigan officials have announced plans to merge the University of Michigan Press with the university's library to allow the press to better serve some of its main clients, including the School of Information, the School of Art and Design, and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

The announcement came approximately one month after the Association of American Universities and the Association of Research Libraries issued a statement urging universities to take a more active role in producing and sharing academic works through digital technologies.

The University of Michigan Press will now digitize scholarly books and only print them after an order has been placed. In the past, the press printed a certain number of copies of a book and stored the copies in a warehouse until orders were placed. Under the new model, the press will be able to avoid printing more copies than necessary and will also reduce physical storage costs.

Books published for the general reader, including books about the Great Lakes and issues of public concern like personal health or poverty, will continue to be published under the current model.

Michigan officials say the move to digitize academic works will give the University of Michigan Press more flexibility in financing projects. Rather than each publishing project being required to show a profit, the University of Michigan Press will need to be profitable overall.