PERSONAL INFORMATION

MANAGEMENT (PIM)Helen Nneka Okpala

Website: www.helenokpala.com E-mail: helen.okpala@unn.edu.ng

Presentation done at University of Abuja Library Staff Training, 3rd May – 6th May, 2016.

Information Flash!!!

•“The trouble is not getting information, it is sorting through and organising the information that does exist”

(Etzel & Thomas, 2000:14)

WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT?• the activities people perform in order to acquire, organize,

maintain, retrieve and use personal information items such as documents (paper-based and digital), web pages and email messages for everyday use to complete tasks (work-related or not).

• how people organize and maintain personal information collections, and methods that can help people in doing so.

• PIM considers not only the methods used to store and organize information, but also is concerned with how people retrieve information from their collections for re-use.

•PIM places special emphasis on the organisation and maintenance of personal information collections in which information items, such as paper documents, electronic documents, email messages, web references, handwritten notes, etc., are stored for later use and repeated re-use (Klazar , et al.).

WHY PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT?

• To save time and energy• For easy retrieval of Information• For proper organization of information • To help you work efficiently and effectively• To help you deal with information overload• Better quality to our lives• Within organizations, better PIM means better employee

productivity and better team work in the near-term.

EXAMPLES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

• Personal file collections (digital and physical): documents, music, photos, videos and similar• Personal notes/journal• Legal Documents• Education Records• Address books• Lists (including task lists)• E-mail notifications

SIX WAYS IN WHICH INFORMATION CAN BE PERSONAL

•Owned by "me"• About "me"•Directed toward "me"• Sent/Posted by "me"• Experienced by "me"• Relevant to "me"

Barriers to Effective Personal Information Management (PIM)

•Procrastination•Lack of Expertise•Avoidance•Lack of time

KEEPING THINGS FOUND… AND MANAGING OUR SPACE

MAINTAINING INFORMATION FOR NOW AND FOR LATER

• Backups What back up strategies do we implement for personal information.

• •Running two systems at once Transferring between computers, operating systems, or organisations.

• •Syncing with cloud service (s) Duplicating across different cloud services.

HOW DO WE ORGANISE OUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

• Folder structures • Subject related • Date related• Personal taxonomies• Lists, family trees

• File naming principles • Social media • E-mail • Web bookmarking/ tagging

Benefits of PIM

• Make your information accessible; • –Streamline the way you deal with information; • –Remove islands of information; • –Reduce your information overload. • –Improve your personal effectiveness; • –Improve the effectiveness of your team/colleagues; • –Change the culture of information management and

organisation for all those around you – if people practice PIM for personal items, it will flow into the organisation; • –Increase your satisfaction