Owned and operated by Infoactive Media Ltd, British Services UK lists major governing bodies, government departments, associations and resources of over 100 industries in the UK along with non-profit organisations, charities, groups, clubs and businesses. My particular interest in this site was the list of trade associations and regulatory bodies at http://www.britishservices.co.uk/associations.htm. Trade associations are often an excellent starting point for general information and key resources on industry sectors.
You can browse by service type, for example Trade Associations or Chambers of Commerce, and narrow down your results by location. There is no option to browse by industry sector and the absence of a proper site search engine makes it even more difficult to find information. Overall, the coverage of trade associations and regulatory bodies is good but not as comprehensive as the Trade Association Forum.
The search box at the top of the screen fails to pick up any results from the listings and at best only displays advertisements. You could, of course, use Google Advanced Search to carry out a site search, but this was when I began to suspect the quality of some of the data. A search on my own professional body CILIP, which is also a registered charity, did indeed find the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals but it is listed under Bloomsbury Newspapers along with Benjamin Dent & Co, Northcliffe Newspapers, The Friend Publications and The Spectator.
This site has potential, but the navigation needs to be improved and a working search engine ought to be added. Some of the services are incorrectly listed and there are more comprehensive listings elsewhere. British Services UK has an advantage in that everything is in one place, but use with caution.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to review British Services, Karen, and for providing such valuable feedback. The site search engine is definitely in need of work and it's on the cards for the next version of the site. Currently it requires an area as well as a heading which can sometimes cause problems for those who do not specify a location.
ReplyDeleteAs to the listings, these are provided in part by Bizwiki which is a user contributed directory. Although Bizwiki aims to vet each entry there are sometimes errors. On the plus side they are easily and quickly corrected as in the case of CILIP. The correction will filter through to British Services in a few days.
Again, thanks so much for reviewing the site. We really appreciate it.
Hi Jurge,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your response and the update on what is happening with British Services UK. I'm very interested in the Bizwiki contribution to the site. Having been involved in several wikis I understand how difficult and time consuming it is to moderate and vet entries.
I shall now be monitoring developments on British Services UK but do please keep me up to date with major changes and initiatives.
Regards
Karen