This is the start of a regular series that will feature members of the committee answering questions about the job they do and some of the professional (and not so professional!) issues surrounding it. The first brave soul is Fiona Henderson, who is a member of the ELIPP Website Sub-group…

Name: Fiona Henderson

Job title: Knowledge Manager

Employer: HM Treasury: managing the economy, creating macroeconomic stability, improving the quality of public services …. (I could go on and on here!)

How did you get where you are today?

My last job was Information Manager at Business Link Norfolk, managing a team of info specialists, customer service people, our webmaster and people running our client management system. Before that I worked for a chamber of commerce, an accounting firm in London, a clearing bank and Aslib, always in information or knowledge areas.

What does being a "Knowledge Manager" actually mean?

The work I'm doing in the Treasury is a pilot project: finding out how knowledge management can help my Treasury colleagues, both policy analysts and people working in Corporate Services. I'm in the Public Services Directorate and so work most closely with analysts who work with other Departments. Current issues include: delivery planning, workforce development and preparing for the next spending review. A lot of our work is about encouraging people not to reinvent the wheel and to use other people's innovations. We see knowledge management as about facilitating the identification, capturing and sharing of knowledge to help people become more effective in their jobs.   We've got several strands of work: we've set up a knowledge pool and e-mail alerting bulletin for children and young people's issues to support policy-makers; knowhow - to help people to network and locate skills and expertise; induction - we've just set up an induction session for people new to our directorate to help them settle in quickly; debriefs - helping people to identify and record lessons learned from projects so that the information can be re-used; raising the standards of our team websites and helping webmasters to learn from each other.

What Key skills do you use in your job?

interpersonal and communications skills: to form/join networks, join people up and communicate our message with enthusiasm, influencing skills are also very important; being able to empathise with the client, understanding the big picture and translating these into marketing activity; learning about new areas and appreciating new cultures quickly - maybe not a traditional skill but pretty critical here; traditional information and library skills to help people to organize and retrieve information - but these are useless without the interpersonal skills!

What do you find most rewarding in your job?

Actually making someone's job easier for them and proving that the km theory works!

Most difficult?

Getting people's time to find out how we can help

Most exciting?

Being so close to the policy-making process - and seeing real ministers in our canteen!

Most surprising?

I didn't expect to find the Budget so interesting and to make a point of watching it live - sad but true!

Are you happy to offer to field questions from those interested in working in your area?

Yes, very happy to do this. (You can contact Fiona by clicking here)

What professional-related groups do you participate in and why?

Government and private sector knowledge management groups; WISP (CILIP workplace panel) - to keep up to date and to extend my networks. I still call on colleagues in the Business Link/chamber of commerce network too.

What question would you like to be asked on the topic of information/ librarianship/ knowledge work?

Is knowledge management just a passing fad? Knowledge management is a whole way of looking at the world - and so no passing fad! It brings information/library perspectives together with management and so is a very valuable area to information professionals. (I can talk on and on about this!)

If you weren't a "Knowledge Manager ", what do you think you would be?

Such a good question - something different every day - today a career counselor, helping people to write their CVs, I think. I did get some career change advice a few years ago - and that showed me that I was in the job I did best!

What are your current top 3 favourite websites?

Freepint; abe.com; and Guardian Unlimited

What was the last stimulating book you read?

Patrick Neate: Twelve Bar Blues or anything by Marge Piercy or Barbara Kingsolver

Enthralling film you saw?

Round Midnight, by Tavernier

Memorable piece of music you heard?

Al Cohn and Zoot Sims: the Note … or any of their other recordings.

What country would you like to visit?

I'd like to go back to Provence more often.

Tell the world about your secret passion for?

Creating a Mediterranean garden in Norwich … two olive trees and one actually produced olives last summer.