Findings

The dissolution of a library often leads one into the deepest pits of archives, storage, offices, and the back of file cabinets. Hidden in the recesses of one of these cavities was a California Continuing Education of the Bar floppy diskette: Marital Termination Agreements.

Now where did I put that old 486 PC and my copy of WordPerfect? Here’s a bonus, care instructions.

If this were a copy of the original Oregon Trail, then I’d see about finding a machine to run it on.

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California Collection Images

A collection of California works: Statutes & Codes back to 1854, Hetch Hetchy (1926), Land & Water treatises, & Colorado River maps (1946)

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Professional Librarian

Blogger and Professional Librarian Ryan Deschamps  has entered a conversation with himself, as referee and contender, in the battle of: “Ten Reasons Why ‘Professional librarian’ is an Oxymoron” [Libraryjournal] [otherlibrarian]. He raises questions that Librarians often hear when other’s challenge librarianship as a profession.  As such, Ryan states that “Each librarian needs to respond personally to the following 10 things to claim their status as professional.” It’s a challenge/exercise from which all librarians can benefit. I’ll tackle his 10 statements from the viewpoint of a relatively new private law firm Professional Librarian.

1.  Librarians Have No Monopoly on the Activities They Claim

In my experience, the library has had a pretty good monopoly on our activities. Cataloging, ordering, routing, storing, organizing, accessing, retrieving, verifying,  & updating are just some of the verbs we monopolize when it comes to caring for the physical library collection and our attorney’s need.  This doesn’t even include: training, contracting, negotiating, searching, maintaining,  testing, & providing, verbs for duties as e-content/database managers. No one else performs these tasks. While budget & adminstration, other departments cover too, but not with library services in mind.

2.  There are No Consequences For Failing to Adhere to Ethical Practices

How about getting fired? There are legal onfidentiality/privacy and HIPAA requirements that exist not only in law firms but in all libraries. Often libraries employ their own set of privacy rules that are in place for patron protection.

3.  Librarianship is Too Generalized to Claim Any Expertise

By nature, generalist is what we are, but in practice we quickly become specific. I chose the law, or the law chose me, other’s go into school media, adult services, health, art, academia, etc. The general knowledge makes us fit for specifics.

4.  ’Librarian’ Assumes a Place of Work, Rather than the Work Itself

Law libraries are always shrinking and in some cases there is no physical collection. In short, the services we provide do define us. We are more than the sum of our books.

5. Peer Review in Librarianship Does Not Work Because There is No Competitive Process to Go With It

There is competition in the information field. Law firms could/do outsource information needs but find that the cost and time are more and the quality of work often lessened. Librarians learn their firm and the people. We know how to best serve our patrons, save on cost, and consistently do so in time efficient ways.

6.   Values Are Not Enough

Not to get too philosophical but without values who are we? Our society is built on values. Librarians put their values to practice, i.e. quality information, freedom of information, right to access, etc.

7.  The Primary Motivation for Professionalization is the Monopoly of Labor

That argument is a bit weak, the first library schools were designed to enable an emerging profession and ensure that they had proper training and backgrounds for the job ahead. This is no different from teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc.

8. Accredited Library Schools Do Not Adequately Prepare Students for Library Work

I couldn’t disagree more. The library field is quite diverse and having a background in the concepts, applications, and history is necessary. Librarianship is a dynamic field and library school prepared me for it. Take a look at a library school course catalog for more information.

9.   Competing Professions Are Offering Different Paradigms to Achieve the Same Goals

Other departments often come to the library for assistance. They know our skill set and the product we provide; other departments don’t do what we do. They have their own jobs on which to focus and do not pretend to be librarians. Afterall who wants bad, incomplete, & neglected information that took several hours to Google and search? Attorneys and other departments want their information right and they want it now, so they come to the library.

10.   Nobody Can Name a ‘Great’ Librarian

Dewey.

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Legal Headnotes

Someone better tell Granny Jones that her nutrition ain’t right:

From Westlaw’s headnote of the day.  Headnotes and the Key Number System lead to case-law through subject areas: food –> what is food  –> tobacco ain’t food judicial case.  This system began in books and revolutionized the way legal research was done. It’s easily done through books and coordinates with West online research as well.  This nifty little system, something like  “links” but before computers, came out back in the age of horse & buggy: 1890. [West History]

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Say what?

A brief news update  from the ABA provides this quote:

A preview of WestlawNext also reveals it no longer requires users to learn the structure of its underlying databases. Instead, it allows users to enter a simple search term in natural language. As of late December, the company was debating whether to eliminate Boolean searches from the new platform or keep them as an option.

I couldn’t imagine a database that was useful, reliable, and worth my time NOT having boolean. It’s hard enough sorting through irrelevant results or finding hits without structured logical search methods.  Many companies are seeing revenues drop (see economy), but when you’re a powerhouse that has grown 5+ % for years, you can ride out a few bad years (w/drops less than 2%);  or you can lay people off, disfigure your business model/structure, and put George Boole into the trash compactor. If you want better market positioning, I always felt that more face time, customer satisfaction and service went a lot further than goofy tech updates and costly ice sculptures (looks like West pulled the images since Law Librarian Blog linked to it).  Perhaps I’m being too harsh, we’ll see how the new platforms plays out and I may soon be championing product(s) and their dedication to progressing humankind!

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Pt. 2 – The Library Wastes Time or How Westlaw Offended Me

Pt. 1 The Library Wastes Time

Westlaw has confirmed the mishap in advertising/marketing and issued an apology. Obviously their “library relations” should have nothing but good intentions. However this lack of judgment will create anti-westlaw fodder for years to come. Many librarians have made their voices heard on the law-lib forum;  will the library community respond en masse or will this simply be another story we hash over at librarian happy hours? Is this battle worth picking?

Personally, I have a career in librarianship of which I am proud. I  explain and stand up for librarianship in the professional workplace and in my personal life. And to have a major vendor, that shares such a heavy and important relationship with the librarian community, put out an ad that degrades my profession and value is upsetting and disheartening. In the end, there is someone at Westlaw who believes that anyone who knows my first name is being afforded a disservice.

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The Library Wastes Time

Are you on a first name basis with the librarian? If so, chances are, you’re spending too much time at the library. What you need is fast, reliable research you can access right in your office. And all it takes is West®.

This brilliant piece of marketing was sent out by the electronic database and news giant Reuters/Thomson/West. Hubris is one word that comes to mind after looking this over. Essentially they are saying, “hey, you don’t need the library, West has it all!” Any bit of information or data that you need can be obtained from West … despite the fact that much of the information on West can be found for free on Government websites or in a book. Asking a librarian would make it harder for West to turn you upside down and shake the change out of your pockets. And, thanks for the added stereotype- the glasses really capture the essence of all things librarian.

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Using the Library

Libraries,  like any other place where you are offered service, have rules.  Those rules may be determined by a committee, printed on a poster, or known cultural norms- however they are important.  This video captures some of the more important rules (sorry lack of embedding on wordpress is giving me a headache)-

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090803112456176

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Government Information

Access to Government Documents in an easy to retrieve and searchable way is in a constant state of flux. One Gov. department may offer superior searching capabilities where another might have TXT versions in a humongous list. Today’s complaint is the lack of RSS being provided by Thomas.gov. The handy web-site that allows you to follow current and previous US Government bills. Luckily, there are other options (govtrack.us and washingtonwatch.com) however govtrack.us has it’s technical difficulties and washingtonwatch.com isn’t inuitive.  Thomas.gov needs to provide RSS status to bills.

Govtrack.us also offers web-code to embed tracking, but it doesn’t play well with wordpress:

.GovTrackEmbed { font-size: 85%; color: black; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; padding: 5px; width: 350px }
.GovTrackEmbedTable { font-size: 85%; color: black }
.GovTrackEmbedTitle { font-weight: bold; color: blue; text-align: center }
.GovTrackEmbedHighlight { background-color: AntiqueWhite }
.GovTrackEmbedFooter { font-size: 90% }
.GovTrackEmbedDate { font-size: 90%; }
.GovTrackEmbed a { text-decoration: none }

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Library update

The law library firm for which I work is relocating. From one side of Capitol Mall in Sacramento, to the other side of the street. Our new building is brighter, bigger, and new! The library space is fantastic and should prove less cumbersome. Our old building was built in the 70s and shows it. I never understood designing a building to look and feel like a WWII bunker:

 

Our new space looks to the future. And by future I mean that it resembles a sand-crawler of Tatooine fame:

     

 

It’s important to work in a place that feels comfortable and values your worth. Moving out of the “dungeon-esque” library space, after 30+ years, will revitalize the firm and position for a better tomorrow.

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