The Intranet Management Handbook

Citation

Calvert, P. (2012), "The Intranet Management Handbook", The Electronic Library, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 876-877. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471211282217

Many organisations have intranets, including large libraries. Yet, how many have an information manager in charge, despite this being a crucial tool in internal knowledge management? The answer is very few. Generally the intranet is the sole responsibility of IT staff who, full of good intentions but without sufficient awareness of staff needs, will get a few important matters wrong in the design and maintenance of the intranet. The first chapter of this book gives a broad introduction to the subject by describing the possibilities of an internet.

White covers all the steps towards making a truly effective intranet; from writing the business case, through identifying user requirements, developing a content strategy, selecting the most suitable software for the purpose, to evaluating and marketing the final product. In the process he will open a few eyes to the possible uses of an intranet, especially for internal collaboration. Because this book is about intranet management it is unsurprising that one half of the book is about management in all its guises. There is a fair bit of attention given to starting an intranet team, something that is actually quite rare in even large organisations and deciding who does what. This brings HR into the picture, naturally, and White covers topics such as how to put intranet management into job descriptions. The author also covers essential matters such as compliance: records management, privacy, data security, and copyright.

There is a lateral benefit to this book that should be pointed out. Many of the techniques described here for the design and testing of an intranet (card sorting, personas, and the like) are also very well suited to websites, and this book can easily be adapted for that purpose if so desired. This is a book that thoroughly deals with its subject and as such will be a good purchase for LIS schools and for information managers currently managing an intranet, or for those who would like to.