To make the survey results more digestible this year we have split the results into three reports. Part 2 reports on our participants’ reflections on a range of topics that are shaping their operations including the operating environment, technology and content trends.

In this latest ‘Out of the Box’ article Richardson looks at some of the innovations made possible by the focus on digitisation of existing processes and interactions and the integration of this with real world interactions and bricks and mortar. She explores some of the implications of this new physicality of data from the birth of a digital twin to the death of privacy, and the growing urgency for new approaches to data governance and information lifecycle management.

In this issue of Perspectives Kirkwood looks at different facets of business and professional communication education, research into market intelligence and market researchers’ usage of technology, design-thinking, and the development of entrepreneurship in small cities. He reflects on how aspects covered in the articles in these areas are like situations experienced by business libraries and their users. He also looks at articles that investigate different business and management factors to the responses to the recent COVID pandemic again reflecting on the similar scenarios librarians face and important lessons learned that can be transferred to a library/information team.

This paper is a review of research collaborations in digital transformation which indicates that research has particularly focussed on the following three areas: Technological and Industrial View, Organisational and Managerial View, and Global and Social View and that institutions particularly in Northern Europe have had better performance in research collaborations in this area. It also notes that Technology, Sustainability, Big Data, Information and Communications Technology, Innovation, Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, Business Model, Social Media, and Digitisation.

This article is a good overview on the current literature and importance of knowledge audits. Covering audits, risk, national and international standards the paper seeks to answer the questions around what to consider when an organisations commence with a knowledge audit.