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FROM THE CHAIR
by Cheryl L. Niemeier, Bose McKinney & Evans LLP, Indianapolis, IN
Librarian: Great Knowledge Sprinkled with a Bit of Magic
I'm the Librarian. I'm in charge. #TheLibrarians
"Librarians win because of what they know" -Colonel Eve Baird, #TheLibrarians
"Think like a librarian; it might save your life" ~Jacob Stone~ @LibrariansTNT@ChristianKane01#thelibrarians 4 more days @Dean_Devlin
Fascinated by not only the ancient magic but also the magic of writing and acting #TheLibrarians
This is exactly how all librarians get their jobs, via mysterious white envelopes with glowing script #TheLibrarians
The sampling of above tweets reference "The Librarians" TV Series which premiered Sunday, December 7 on TNT. At one point in the fantasy/science fiction show, Eve played by Rebecca Romjin, asks Flynn, played by Noah Wyle, "How did you know that?" to which he blithely replies "I'm a librarian!" Based on the multitude of tweets generated, the witty and accurate "library" dialogue of the show clearly resonated with many of the real life librarians watching the show and live tweeting their reactions, who no doubt saw Flynns' line coming even before he uttered it and certainly identified on many levels with other aspects of the show and its funny repartee.
Recently, one of our attorneys, asked me "would you work your magic and see if you can come up with an address/phone number?" and similarly "It must be cool to know everything" is a common response upon people outside of the profession learning I'm a librarian. Seemingly others think we do perform magic! Even though in actuality the perceived magic is really our knowledge of the breadth of resources available to help people find information, perhaps, we should let them think that a bit of magic is involved in what we do!
A good portion of our value resides in the well-honed skills we possess for finding and managing information and communicating that to our organization's key stakeholders, aligning our department's goals and strategy with those of the larger organizations for which we work bolsters the idea that librarians win because of the knowledge we possess. As our libraries continue to become less a place and we become less a "keeper of books" we must strive to focus more on continuing to be a valuable, part magical, and irreplaceable part of the organization.
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The Blogosphere and Beyond
Partnering With County Law Libraries as Law Firm Members discusses the power and goodness that can arise from collaboration of law firm and county law libraries.
Look to the Future by Looking Outside Our Context sets forth a concept akin to collaboration in suggesting the legal profession can learn a great deal by looking at, and learning from the research on innovative ways other industries are reacting to the same seismic changes the legal industry is facing in the areas of technology, business costs, and access to services. While doing this would not be direct collaboration, it is similar, in that we can always learn from the successes and failures of others and especially those outside of one's own often narrowly focused industry's bubble.
What To Do With All That Space: Librarians Without� Libraries posits that "the importance of a librarian is no longer determined by the existence of a physical library" and asks the tough questions regarding what we should do about getting out in front of this reality. While the article is largely directed to Canadian law libraries the suggestions made for what can and indeed should be done ring true for all law libraries.
In 5 reasons the corporate workplace needs librarians, Stephen Abram enumerates just that and in doing so highlights the special talents, skills, value (as in low cost), and unique understanding of vendors we bring to the negotiation table that set us apart and shows why our organizations can place value on us and our services.
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Summary of Recent PLL Name Change Survey Results
The recent PLL name change survey generated some controversy, a great deal of informative comments, and not surprisingly, very interesting results. Out of just over 1100 members who were sent the survey 433 responded, which is a 40% response rate! Of the four proposed new names, the top 1st choice was Law Librarians & Knowledge Professionals with 73.74% of the vote and coming in second was Legal & Business Information Professionals with 53.70% of the vote. Whereas, the winning name in the 2nd choice was Legal & Business Research Services Professionals with 65.52% followed very closely by Legal & Business Knowledge Professionals garnering 64.38% of the vote.
While the top choice was Law Librarians & Knowledge Professionals many of the comments alluded to the need to come up with a name that will truly distinguish us from the other SIS's and changing PLL to that choice does not address that concern, as our colleagues who work in academic, court, etc. are also law librarians. Similarly, there is concern that the term legal is too broad as the same aforementioned colleagues also identify as legal professionals as do other non-library staff who work in firms and corporate legal departments.
Moreover, the phrase "law librarians" or the terms legal, law, and librarians separately seem to be highly preferred, as does combining them with terms that distinguish us from the other SIS's such as firm, business, corporate, or law firm. The term knowledge is liked, but the term information seems more popular than knowledge. Several respondents found the term professional off putting (i.e. pedantic, redundant, not needed etc.) as they view the law librarian position as professional in and of itself, and indicated doctors, lawyers, and other professionals don't use that term in referring to themselves. Not surprisingly a small contingent of respondents prefer to keep the name of Private Law Libraries, while some would not mind at minimum changing it to Private Law Librarians thus moving us from being a place to being a group of people.
All-in-all, the survey provided a great deal of good information, and clearly indicated the need for revising the proposed names, narrowing the choices down to two, and doing a second survey before determining the new name to put forth for a vote on the PLL Bylaws ballot in the Spring of 2015. The full results and all comments for the survey are included herewith.
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John Harbison, Director, Library & Information Management at Covington & Burling by Mary Ann Wacker of Bracewell & Giuliani.
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Congratulations!
Congratulations to PLL Members elected to the AALL Executive Board: Emily R. Florio and Mary Eileen Matuszak for the July 2015 - July 2018 term.
Congratulations to Jessica Fields, Library Information Services Manager at Miller and Johnson for being chosen to receive the PLL Travel Grant for the upcoming AALL Management Institute. Thank you to all who applied.
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From the Communications: Resource Guide Subcommittee
The Resource Guide Subcommittee is in the process of developing additional guides to add to the collection. After surveying the membership, the group decided to develop two new guides: (1) Library Management: Developing an Information Audit and Strategic Planning in Your Organization and (2) Library Portals and Integrated Library Systems (ILS): The Critical Skill-Set for Law Librarians. The Group will also work on updating Guide 6: "The Internet as a Legal Research Tool." Outlines for the Guides are in the process of being finalized, but we welcome any members who would like to contribute. If you are interested in helping with the Resource Guides, please email Natalie Lira.
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Welcome New Members
Deanna Carr, Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, D.C.
Martha Stortz, McCarthy Tetrault LLP, Toronto, ON, Canada
Sandra Whitney, Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, Madison, WI
Cynthia Ziegler, Hassard Bonnington, San Francisco, CA
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