PIM – Personal Information Management

Abstract

In English the acronym PIM stands for Personal Information Management. This is a new area of knowledge concerning a number of disciplines, so there are more and more monographs and other publications dealing with this topic, nevertheless, till now no overview was born about it in Hungarian. The essay attempts to make up for this deficiency, offering an initial theoretical systematisation from the point of libraries, as well as a series of practical solutions, presenting services with an innovative approach. In an ideal case of information management, the required information is available at an adequate place and time, in the form and quality we require, and in an easily accessible way. The article explores the birth of the concept and its preliminaries, and enumerates the related basic principles. It discusses, among others, the state of PIM abroad and in Hungary, presents certain hardware tools, and lists the various fields of PIM. It focuses on services which are important for librarians, and introduces the figure of the personal information trainer.