learning re-imagined

New Year’s Resolutions: Reading more… by reading less

According to at least one study 40-45 percent of American adults make resolutions, mostly related to health, wellness, and personal finance.  One of my new year’s resolutions for 2010 is to get more reading done – both fiction and non-fiction, work and leisure. (in case you’re wondering,  no, checking status updates from friends on Facebook doesn’t count as reading!)  And, if you’re anything like me, the pile of stuff to read is constantly growing and never seems to get smaller. 

At Books24x7, we have a great way to help with this resolution.  Our ExecSummaries collection  provides summaries of the most popular business books from today's foremost business authors.  We deliver three or four each month – a number that even the busiest person can consume.   Each summary expertly encapsulates the salient points and ideas of full-length books into digestible, 8 page summaries.  Each contains the core essence of the author's work, conveying content, style and spirit.  Designed for ease of use with short passages, bulleted lists and other useful elements, ExecSummaries titles are thorough, yet concise.  In addition, MP3 audio files are available for each title, offering the option to listen rather than read which are great for use in the car, or at the gym (reminds me of another resolution….).

Think of ExecSummaries as your “personal shopper” for business books – just the key books that people are talking about and that you need to read, delivered in short form, in a manageable quantity each month.  If only it was this easy to keep up with my other resolutions!

By: Pam Boiros

Taking a Different Road

So many of us commute to work each day. We go over bridges, through tunnels, take highways. We seldom think about it, beyond hoping that there isn’t a huge traffic jam that will make us late.

Reading about the closure – and reopening – of the Bay Bridge in California started me thinking about my commute and the roads I take to work every day. What if a road closed? Would I know another way to work? Can I even get there another way?

This is the sort of thing that happens at work every day. I have to solve a problem. I start down one path to do so and realize, at some point, that perhaps the method I’m embarking on will not get me the result I want.  So, I have to re-orient my thinking – take a different road – to get me the result I want.

The trick to being able to do that successfully is having the knowledge of the resources around me that can be used to solve the problem. A project going off the tracks? Perhaps a quick refresher on managing projects would help me get the endeavor back on track.  Can’t create a pivot table in Excel? Reading a few lines of a book on Excel 2007 would walk me through the steps. 

So, in essence, I spend every work day finding the right road – the right path – to get me where I need to go.  In this context – the work context – I am good on my feet. I can toggle between doing my job and finding an answer pretty easily. I know what tools I have – courses, books, videos – and I know how to find them via SkillPort and use them.  Sadly, in my car… well… I have a bad sense of direction.  If someone closed my road to work, I’d sit there until it reopened. Perhaps it’s time to invest in a GPS.

By: Rachel Levine

Cloudy with a chance of clear skies ahead

Between blog posts by book publisher Tim O’Reilly, and the recent announcement by Google about the pending release of the Google Editions ebook store, there has been a lot of talk recently about “books on the cloud” and the concept of a “cloud library.”  The terms are borrowed from the broader “cloud computing” concept, which encompasses a wide range of managed services, including; software as a service (SaaS), software on demand, and platform as a service (PaaS) technologies. Basically, cloud computing offers new, flexible and generally more affordable ways to build, deliver, and purchase software.   

The truth is that “books on the cloud” are nothing new.  Here at Books24x7, we’ve been doing it for over 10 years.  In the fall of 1999, Books24x7 released its first online, on demand, reference collection.  At launch, ITPro consisted of 200 technical books delivered in a “24x7” web based environment.  In those early days, we didn’t need to do much more than put the content online and offer the solution in a simple subscription-based model to drive huge demand and create raving fans.  As hard as it is to imagine, in 1999 we weren’t all living in a 24x7 on demand web world.  But IT folks and other technical professionals were.  As the early adopters of what are now considered to be rudimentary web technologies -- listservs, text-only email, early HTML websites painfully delivered over dial up networks -- techies the world over were more than ready for a new delivery method for trusted technical content.   Our publisher partners saw the potential, and most jumped at the chance to provide a new means of access  to their readers, while deriving new revenue streams for themselves.

Over the years we have  exponentially grown the number of titles available, as well as the range of Books24x7 topical collections, and enhanced the platform feature set and delivery methods to encompass deep portal integrations, mobile access, and more.   But, from day one, the content has always resided on web servers ready for instant “anytime, anywhere” access.   Today, “books on the cloud” may be the fashionable buzzword; but regardless of terminology, a great idea that puts knowledge in the hands of people who need it most is always in vogue.

By: Pam Boiros

Book Review: Aligning Training for Results

 

We are constantly adding new titles to our Books24x7,On Demand reference collections.   For example, the new book Aligning Training For Results: A Process and Tools That Link Training to Business by Ron Drew Stone (© 2009, Pfeiffer) was recently added to the BusinessPro collection.   

Ron Drew Stone is an author and an international consultant and presenter, and one of the world’s most recognized and accomplished authorities on improving training and performance interventions and measuring results. Ron is president of the Center for Performance and ROI.

Stone advocates his Performance Alignment and Linkage Process (PAL).   Written for training professionals and consultants at all levels, this book will help you learn how to identify , measure, and sustain alignment throughout your training and performance process.  You can use the PAL methods and tools presented and integrate them with what you are doing now to improve results, or start from scratch with new methodology.  

This book is designed to get you thinking about your programs, and inspire new ways of measuring success. BusinessPro subscribers can access this book on Books24x7.

 

By: Pam Boiros