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LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES

Library, research and information service professionals are "faced with a lot of seemingly orthogonal issues, related only tangentially, but [...] there are three issues that we keep hearing about, in one form or another:

  • How information professionals are adding value.
  • The importance of collaborating constantly.
  • The necessity of embracing technology."

- Cindy Romaine, SLA President 2011

Cindy Romaine's full article can be found here: Top 11 Lessons from FutureReady365.

10 TIPS FOR BUILDING VALUE

The following tips will help teams target and reclaim strategic-level work while better aligning with the business objectives and vision of their organizations.

  1. Sandra Campbell emphasizes the creation of a strategic plan that shows the business value library service professionals will bring to the organization in the short and long term.

  2. Marlene Gebauer proposes embedding library services staff (researchers) into law firm practice or industry groups - send them into the field!

  3. Lynn Oser recommends implementing Total Library Service Management (TLSM) to align strategic objectives with continual service delivery improvement.

  4. Cindy Adams suggests taking the librarians and researchers out of your library - sit with your customers not your books.

For the full 10 tips click here

A LIBRARY SERVICE MANAGEMENT MODEL

In a world where there is focus on increased leverage, business development and strategic business value, library service professionals need to adapt their approaches to delivering service and creating business models that fit. Total Library Service Management (TLSM) can help.

TLSM Provides a Framework for Superior Service:

  • Customer & Business Benefits Focus
  • Focus on Continuous Process Improvement
  • Definition of Process Responsibilities & Accountability
  • Cost Reduction Through Optimization of Expensive Processes

TLSM Starter Workshop

TRAINING THE GOOGLE GENERATION

“How do you teach efficient, cost effective, and relevant legal research to the Google generation?”

Legal research training has been a problem for over a century – ever since the practice of law departed from the apprenticeship model and left preliminary training and practice basics to the universities:*

  • From 1902: “I have been amazed at the helplessness of law students, and even of lawyers when they go into a library to search for authorities. . . . Law schools should teach their students how to do these things.”

  • From 1949: “I speak from an experience of 25 years on the bench, an experience sometimes painful . . . when I say to you that one of the big mistakes in legal education today is relative neglect of this important subject of legal research in law school.”

  • Now, in the “Google era,” legal research training (LRT) may finally have a chance to succeed. For the first time we have a generation culturally-primed for legal research, experienced in searching for information and evaluating sources; a generation founded in an understanding that the most available information may not be the most accurate, or the most recent.

    To read the full article click here

    IPAD APPLICATIONS FOR LEGAL RESEARCH

    iPads (and tablets in general) can be a powerful tool to help divest the concept of library services from the physical library.

    The Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library at UCLA School of Law has put together a list of 49 iPad and Android applications (with brief descriptions of each) for Legal Research & Legal News.

    For weekly iPad (tablet) legal application and use updates, sign up for Josh Barrett's blog "TabletLegal". Josh is a business attorney out of Portland, OR.