When researchers come together, they gain from the experience of talking about research.

In research, there is always a lot of discussion about new sources, new user interfaces, and pricing.

There isn’t a lot of discussion about how researchers use the range of sources available to find the answers they need quickly and easily.

In September, I ran a half day session in Brisbane on 10+ tips for finding business information for information professionals working in university libraries, engineering, law firms, Queensland government and legal and business publishing.

One of the joys of presenting on research tips is opening up the session to have a round table discussion talking about research, and learning from the experiences of the group.

In reviewing the feedback from the session, it was refreshing to read that the attendees particularly enjoyed:

• talking about an approach to business research, and hearing how colleagues working in different sectors approach their research projects
• learning about new information sources, or revisiting some old favourites
• comparing the free and fee based sources available for company research and finding information on business people
• talking about and comparing the strengths and weakness of research sources for business information.

For information professionals, that work with a wide variety of information sources, and need to be proficient in all for both research and teaching, there is much to be gained in simply coming together and sharing experiences on how to become better researchers.