2. LAW LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
• Pressure especially on firm libraries to change their service
model
• Consolidation and globalization of firms
• Increased client demand for cost effective legal services
• Impact of technology
• Focus form library as place to library as resource.
Transformation of library as place is not new but pace of
change more challenging.
• Services the staff designs to connect users to the right
materials regardless of format
• Affects all operational aspects of library management
• Space planning and design
• Acquisition and maintenance of the collection
• Budgeting
• Training
3. LAW LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
• Law firm, law school libraries, and corporate legal
departments, are to some degree affected by these changes
• Although the library setting may be different, when viewed
through the managerial lens, many of the issues are quite
similar.
• Law librarians can leverage their skills to provide leadership
in the provision of research and collateral services to their
patrons.
4. PRIVATE LAW FIRM LIBRARIES
• Financial Management
• Talent Management
• Collection Development
• Marketing
• Practice support
• Competitive intelligence
• KM
5. BUDGETING
• Library manager must consider approaches to intelligent
retrenchment in expenditures while maintaining integrity
of services
• Ability to cancel items that are no longer necessary
redirects monies to item necessary to retaining vibrant
and institutionally centered library operations
6. COLLECTION
DEVELOPMENT
• Review elements of a formal collection
development policy
• Legal resources migrating rapidly from
print to digial format or hybrid of both
• Highlight cost-effective strategies to
enhance a law firm library collection
• How to extend the firm’s collection using
external libraries
• Measuring collection usage
• Answering collection development
challenges & opportunities
7. COLLECTION
DEVELOPMENT
• Draft a policy statement
• Basic elements: selection, maintenance and access
• Core, ancillary, jurisdictional, and topical
• Regional and practice area differences
• Lateral hires with new practices
• Ensure your policy provides the essential print and
electronic resources needed to support the firm’s practice
• Include all stakeholders in your decision-making process
• Establish a budget for each practice based on the relative
size of the group and the economic importance to the firm
• Change strategy from:
“just in case” to “just in time”*
8. JUST IN CASE JUST
IN TIME
• Law firm libraries are migrating from ownership to access
model
• Pressure to continuously cut the library budget
• Reduction of physical plant requires continued migration
to digital format
• Looking to collaborative technology to fulfill the
information needs of attorneys
• Continue same level or increasing service
9. MEASURING
COLLECTION USAGE
• Quantifying activates or functions essential
• Objective way to measure the use of services and
resources
• Important areas to measure
• Electronic resources
• Circulation statistics on print resources
• References services
16. EMBEDDED RESEARCHERS
• Senior staff assigned to practice and
industry groups.
• Attend group meetings
• Cultivate direct relationships
• Develop resource and needs expertise
• Work with managers and group leaders
to develop services & resources
17. MANAGER LIBRARY RESEARCH
SERVICES (“WORKFLOW
COORDINATOR”)
• Centralized reference services
• Leveraging staff skills and availability including
implementation of virtual reference desk
• Workflow coordinators monitor research traffic
and reminds the team about issues that have not
been claimed
• Issue tracking software infrastructure for
receiving, researching and responding to
reference request without in person interaction
between librarian and patron
• Location becomes less relevant when
implementing virtual or shared reference desk
18. MANAGER LIBRARY RESEARCH
SERVICES (“WORKFLOW
COORDINATOR”)
• Virtual reference and Issue Tracking is
• Act of receiving, researching, and resolving a
reference request without any face-to-face
interaction between librarian and client.
• via email, an online chat, a text message, even a
bulletin board post on an intranet web page.
• No longer matters where patron and researcher
are physically located. Laptops, Blackberries,
smart phones, Wi-Fi and a host of Web 2.0
applications allow patrons to quickly get in touch
with researchers regardless of where either
person is at that moment.
.
19. MANAGER LIBRARY RESEARCH
SERVICES (“WORKFLOW
COORDINATOR”)
• But the need for research is constant – it doesn’t just stop
when the ‘local’ researcher is out of the office. Our patrons take
comfort in the knowledge that someone within our network of
professionals is going to be able to respond to their request.
• Our geographic distribution allows us to offer research
services from 9 AM – 9 PM five days a week. GT research
requests are submitted to a common research email address.
GT research requests are submitted to a common research
email address.
• Once the patron clicks the ‘send’ button, the new request
instantly appears on a centralized electronic bulletin board that
each researcher monitors. Occasionally, when the department
is particularly busy, an issue may sit for an undue amount of
time, in which case the issue text goes from black to red.
20. VIRTUAL SERVICES
• Centralized Reference
– Workflow management
• RefTracker
• Numara FootPrints
• Inhouse system
– Metrics
– Research database
– 24/7
• Reference Services Manager/ Workflow Coordinator
21. VIRTUAL SERVICES
• Virtual reference desk with librarians from all offices answering questions from
patrons firm-wide.
• Bring research services to far flung users – tech - Intranet – wiki Simple web page w/
resources, FAQs
• Reengineer workflow to gain efficiencies. firm-wide reference e-mail in order to take
advantage of staff across all of our offices. central email box - easy in Outlook, w/
rules to forward to librarians via email (for blackberry).
• More robust solution - Ref desk workflow tool – use what have (IT ticket / incident
system, Notes, Sharepoint, Metastorm, new matter intake), or bus case for
commercial tool (Reftracker, Numara FootPrints)) – identifies and collects data by
user, manages assignment of research, provides status updates, creates knowledge
base (careful about copyright). Can quantify everything!
• Language, jurisdiction, research expertise --- all present challenges so must manage
users expectations
• Challenge to foster teamwork: Collaborate on projects via technology & old fashioned
phone calls, webinars, video confs., email rules!!. Video phones!
• Share common standards & procedures and technology
• Host retreats, conferences – even virtual
• Put mix of staff from diff offices on project teams – or beta a product
• Provide cont ed across office lines
• Break down silos based on specialization - cross "expose" if can't cross-train. Be
creative with staff you have. Focus on competencies not titles
Reference Services Manager/ Workflow Coordinator - an emerging specialty
24. ACADEMIC LAW LIBRARIES
• Management of Financial and Personnel Issues
• Collection/Resource Management
• Faculty Liaison
• Teaching
• Training
• Scholarship
25. ACADEMIC LAW LIBRARIES
• Driven by accreditation ABA Standards
• Council of the Section of Legal Education
Standards and Rules of Procedure for
Approval of Law Schools
• ABA standards reflect a time when quantity
as measured by the size of the collection
was considered the most important
measure of quality
• New standards proposed recognize current
realities
26. ACADEMIC LAW LIBRARIES
• Standard 606 “the law library shall provide a core
collection of essential materials accessible in the library
as well as provide a collection that either through
ownership or reliable access meets the research needs of
students, curriculum supports scholarship and research
services of faculty
• Revisions to current Standard 606 reflect the change from
an emphasis on ownership of materials to providing
reliable access to legal information. The proposed
Standard also links the choices of format and means of
access to the needs of the institution. Proposed
Integration 606-2 elaborates on the definition of “reliable
access” by providing ways to meets the Standard through
ongoing access to databases or participation in a formal
resource-sharing arrangement with other libraries
27. MEASURING COLLECTION USAGE
• ABA require reporting of statistics of public service
activity
• Number of reference request, training classes, students
trained
• LibAnalytics from Springshare
• Desk Tracker
28. NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL
REFERENCE & INSTRUCTIONAL
SERVICES LIBRARIAN
DESCRIPTION:
New York Law School, a dynamic urban law center in the heart of Tribeca, is seeking a
professional reference librarian. The Library houses more than 500,000 volumes of books,
microforms, and audio/visual materials and offers a full range of electronic subscriptions to
support the needs of more than 90 full-time faculty and approximately 1,500 students in day,
evening and LL.M. divisions. Many of our academic programs are anchored within one of the
school’s research centers.
Our library team works together to provide extensive reference service and research instruction
to the entire law school community. Each reference librarian:
• Participates in our robust Faculty Liaison Program;
• Participates in providing required Electronic Legal Research instruction to the first year
class and teaches in our extensive Research Skills Workshop Program. Formal teaching
opportunities are available through appointment to the rank of Professor of Legal Research;
• Develops instructional materials and related research guides for various curricular areas;
• Promotes new information resources and emerging technologies;
• Serves on various library & law school committees; and,
• Shares weekend and some evening hours.
29. NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL
REFERENCE & INSTRUCTIONAL
SERVICES LIBRARIAN
QUALIFICATIONS:
• MLS and JD degrees are required.
• A minimum of two years of reference experience in a law library
and experience teaching legal research skills classes is
strongly preferred.
• Experience with legal and non-legal electronic information
resources; ability to teach legal research classes
• Excellent written and oral communications skills
• Strong service commitment; and evidence of ability to work well
with faculty, students and staff in a variety of settings, are
essential.
• Reading knowledge of a foreign language, familiarity with
foreign legal systems and interest in foreign, international and
comparative law reference and collection development are
desirable.
30. LAW LIBRARIAN POSITION: EMERGING
TECHNOLOGIES LIBRARIAN: PHOENIX
SCHOOL OF LAW
•The Emerging Technologies Librarian provides technology (software
applications, Web 2.0 applications, iPads, apps, and other
technologies) and research database training to students, faculty,
staff, alumni, and others users of the Phoenix School of Law (PSL)
Library. The Emerging Technologies Librarian is the lead for
implementing new technologies and databases for the Library. The
Emerging Technologies Librarian reports to the Assistant Director for
Collection Services.
•Summary: The Emerging Technologies Librarian identifies,
implements, and evaluates current and emerging technologies for the
delivery of library services, with a special focus on research and
instructional services, including virtual reference, discovery tools,
social networking applications, mobile services, and instructional
technologies; plans, develops and evaluates the PSL Library website;
and ensures that Library technology services and instructional
products are easy to use.
31. EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES LIBRARIAN:
CONTINUED
•Tracks trends, assesses user needs and preferences, investigates new
developments and applications, and incorporates appropriate technologies to
support the delivery of services and resources of the Library
•Provides leadership and coordination for planning, implementing, and training for
the adoption and integration of new technologies and databases
•Serves as the Library liaison for database vendors and manages passwords for
databases
•Serves as the Library’s lead contact for training faculty on courseware systems
such as TWEN and D2L
•Maintains the Library’s social media and website
•Provides usage statistics using web analytics tools and vendor-provided
information
•Collaborates to plan development opportunities for building technology
awareness and supports the PSL community of users in using and adopting
technologies that improve user experience
•Maintains good working relationships with students, employees, vendors, and
other PSL community users
•Works with other PSL departments to assure effective delivery of distance
education and instructional technology such as podcasts, screencasts, animation,
social media and blogs
•Participates in troubleshooting users’ technical problems with library resources
•Provides reference and research services as part of a team
32. •Required Qualifications: MLS from ALA accredited school (will
consider those who are close to completion of the MLS); service-
oriented, innovative, and flexible attitude; demonstrated willingness
to work in a fast-paced atmosphere with multiple projects and diverse
users; strong oral and written communication skills; experience
working in a professional, team-based environment; demonstrated
experience with Web 2.0 technologies; experience training users how
to use technology and databases; excellent technology skills as
demonstrated through the use of current and/or innovative
technologies; experience working in a library.
•Preferred Qualifications: J.D. degree from an ABA accredited law
school or substantive knowledge of American law equivalent to
successful completion of the first year of an ABA accredited full-time
JD program; knowledge of, and experience using, electronic and
other legal research resources; experience in teaching, performing
legal reference services, and working with electronic resources.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES LIBRARIAN:
CONTINUED
34. CORPORATE LAW LIBRARIES
Corporate Law
• Blur between biz and
law
• Defensive
• Everyday biz matters
• Specialized Collections
• Use Outside Counsel
Law Firm
• New Lawyer Training
• Defensive and Offensive
• Precaution/Advising
35. LAW DEPARTMENT PRACTICE
GROUPS
• General Lit
• Commercial Lit
• Office of the Sec./Corp.
• Labor & Employment
• Comm. Transactions
• Regulatory
37. CORPORATE LAW LIBRARY
ECONOMICS
• The library is the first place to get cut in a budget
crisis
• Librarian/Administrator prepare budget
• General Counsel approves the budget
• Be sure to use a line item budget
• KEEP STATISTICS!!!!! Usage speaks for itself!
38. LAW LIBRARIAN POSITION: DEPT OF
JUSTICE
Job Title:Librarian (law)
Department:Department Of Justice
Agency:Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and the Office of the U.S. Attorneys
Job Announcement Number:13-SDNY-11D
SALARY RANGE: $77,585.00 to $100,859.00 / Per Year
OPEN PERIOD: Monday, January 28, 2013 to Friday, February 08, 2013
SERIES & GRADE: GS-1410-12
POSITION INFORMATION: Full Time - Permanent
PROMOTION POTENTIAL:12
DUTY LOCATIONS: 1 vacancy in the following location:
New York, NY United States
WHO MAY APPLY: United States Citizens
JOB SUMMARY:
If you are looking for an exciting and challenging career, this is the position for you! With a
diverse and talented workforce of over 100,000 men and women, Justice leads the Nation in
ensuring the protection of all Americans while preserving their constitutional freedoms. You
will be part of a dedicated team helping to enforce Federal criminal and civil laws that protect
life, liberty and the property of citizens.
The United States Attorneys Office is a great place to work. The Department of Justice ranked
#11 out of 33 large Federal cabinet agencies and the Executive United States Attorneys
Office/United States Attorneys Offices ranked #17 out of 240 agency subcomponents in a
study, "The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, 2011 Rankings" published by the
Partnership for Public Service.
39. LAW LIBRARIAN POSITION: DEPT OF
JUSTICEQUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:
• Applicants must meet the basic requirement, specialized experience requirement and one of the
paragraphs under supplemental education/experience:
Basic Requirement
• A) I have completed 1 full academic year of graduate study in library science in an accredited college or
university, in addition to completion of all work required for a bachelor’s degree. Or,
• B) I have at least 5 years of a combination of college-level education, training, and experience. To qualify on this
basis, the applicant must establish conclusively that the education, training, and experience provided a knowledge
of understanding of the theories, principles, and techniques of professional librarianship; a knowledge of literature
resources; and the knowledge and abilities essential for providing effective library and information services.
Specialized Experience
• In addition to the above, applicants must have at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the
GS-1410-11 level in Federal service. Qualifying experience involves acquiring hardcopy and electronic legal
reference materials and approving requisition of such materials; evaluating library needs and recommending
changes in physical services (library space, collection, acquisitions, retention), and on-line services
(understanding scope of on-line offerings, subscription management, user account management search
procedures, etc).
Supplemental education/experience (for law specialization)
• - A full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university that meets all academic requirements for a
bachelor’s degree that included at least 24 semester hours in the specialized field for which the applicant is being
considered (law) or;
• -Completion of a least 24 semester hours of legal study in an accredited law school for positions primarily
concerned with providing library services in law or legislative reference or;
• - Four years of pertinent experience of such nature and level to provide a knowledge of the basic principles,
theories, practices, techniques, terminology and expressions of the appropriate discipline or subject-matter field;
an understanding of the standard methods, procedures, and techniques of research and analysis in the subject-
matter field.; ability to acquire additional information about the field and related fields; and some knowledge of
literature resources in the field. Such experience should be equivalent to that which would have been acquired
through successful completion of a full 4-year curriculum in an accredited college or university with major study in
40. LAW LIBRARIAN POSITION: US
COURT OF APPEALS
POSITION OVERVIEW: This collaborative and project-oriented
librarian position provides reference service to court staff and the
general public; participates in the creation of library guides and
displays; assists the Head of Research and Reference Services
with creating and presenting training sessions; works across
departments to assist with collection development, digitization,
archiving, cataloging, and library administration-related projects.
This position reports to the Head of Research and Reference
Services.
41. LAW LIBRARIAN POSITION: US
COURT OF APPEALS
REQUIREMENTS: Masters Degree in Library Science from an
ALA-accredited institution and at least one year of
professional law library experience; JD from an ABA-
accredited Jaw school is preferred; solid online research
skills (including Lexis, Westlaw and the Internet) and
familiarity with both print and electronic resources;
experience working with instructional technology and multi-
media formats; ability to work with a diverse patron base;
excellent organizational, interpersonal and communication
skills, including willingness to make presentations, conduct
training sessions, and work in a team environment. Travel
within the circuit may be required.
42. BUSINESS CENTERS
• Core administrative functions
– IT infrastructure & Helpdesk
– Accounts payable
– New matter intake
– Conflicts
– Human resources
• Library
– Acquisitions, cataloging, invoices and budgeting
– Research
– Electronic services management
• Practice support lawyers
– KM, intranet, best practices
45. WHAT I HOPED MY
CAREER WOULD BE
MLIS Reference Librarian at Columbia University
46. WHAT MY CAREER TURNED OUT TO BE
• Librarian
• Technologist
• Writer
• Editor
• Educator
• Speaker
• Consultant
47. MY STORY
•In 2004 I graduated with my MLIS degree and couldn't find a full-
time librarian job.
•I started a campaign (blogging, social media) to raise my profile
and set myself apart from the competition.
•Within 8 months I had a book deal and several speaking
engagements.
•Within the first 2 years I had been written up by the New York
Times, acquired an adjunct faculty position at my alma mater, and
was being offered more writing and speaking opportunities than I
knew what to do with.
•Today, I'm flown around the world to speak at international
conferences and events, I have 23 books to my name, a fantastic
job doing exactly what I love to do, and I've been honored with the
Best Book in Library Literature award in my field.
48. RECOMMENDATIONS
•Today's info pros need to be much more marketable than just
having an MLS degree.
•You simply MUST be computer savvy in today’s libraries.
•Learn to use social media - well.
•Develop a stellar online presence & portfolio.
•Find a niche or specialization and stand out!
•Take every opportunity – even if they don’t pay.
•Read and keep up-to-date in the field.
•Network – your classmates & professors will soon be your
colleagues!
•Write, speak, teach!
49. RESOURCES
•Professional Development for Information Professionals
– http://libguides.metro.org/profdev
•How to Create & Manage Your Online Presence
– http://www.slideshare.net/ellyssa
Thanks!
Ellyssa Kroski
http://www.ellyssakroski.com
ekroski@nyli.org
