How to Like a Law Library

“That’s a no for me!”  I still laugh pretty much every time I see that phrase, mostly because it’s so incongruous to me that someone receiving that comment would care.  People who are open like that – sharing their positive or negative sentiment – expose a dilemma for law libraries.  How do we measure more than traffic and transactions, but actually dig into how people feel about our library?

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The Thin Edge of Law Library Funding

The recent legislative activity in California and Missouri on behalf of law libraries reminded me of the Micawber principle, which highlights the narrow margin between financial success and ruin.  Law library funding is frequently disbursed by an entity that has many other valid demands for the funds, and accessing new funds can be difficult.  Recent courthouse law library activity shows the…

There are hundreds of law libraries, and many of them are run by one person or a small handful of people.  This sort of resource limitation can mean that partnerships and collaborations will allow the law library to do more: deliver more services, provide access to expanded content.  It’s interesting to see where the challenges in making these connections happen, and sometimes I wonder about what…

Justify More Reference Librarians

A colleague is working through some staff changes.  Their goal is to work within their current reference / public service head count, but expand the number of law librarians with degrees.  This means reducing the para-professional staff answering reference.  I’m not sure it’s a smart goal but even if it is, it raises the issue of when you measure in order to justify a business case for change.

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When Competing Interests Drive Collection Decisions

The to-and-fro that’s been going on in South Dakota – where the state eliminated duty counsel who performed research and replaced them with tablets– has been interesting to watch.  On the one hand, I saw a law suit brought by inmates, and then recently, a correction officer trade publication posted extolling the virture of tablets.  It’s a great example of the competing interests that impact law…

Don’t Let Titles Hide Strategic Assets

Are you a librarian? Who gets to decide? This evergreen topic arose again last week, in a pair of posts about an American Libraries Association keynote. I’ve written a lot about this in the past but beyond the kindergarten-learned treat-everyone-equallyidea and the fundamental issue of respect, there’s a strategic aspect. All people who work in libraries are resources, and constraining an…

A Web Host Migration

My long-time web host recently announced its new annual price, which was double what I’d been paying.  It meant sourcing a new web hosting company, which is always a bit tricky.  On the face of it, it’s hard to know what the actual service is like.  In the end, I migrated my WordPress sites twice last weekend because the first host was a dud.

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A Tower of Potatoes

We have agreed to disagree on the status of the potato as a vegetable in our family. Culturally, this starch has been a key food in my family, just as rice was for my wife’s. When we started growing vegetables, in part to show the kids how to do it, potatoes became a staple. They’re low maintenance, high yield, and multifunctional. As the garden became more my thing than a family activity, I…

Make Time to Hear and See

I did a project a couple years back, where I took a photo each day of the nature along the river where I walk to the train. The project made me slow down, look around, and not only look but also try to see. It can be hard for law library managers to slow down and see their library operation but also hear what staff are saying. Or not.

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The Law Library Desert

One thing about political upheaval that generates a huge amount of litigation is the knock-on effect of increased discussions about the law.  If you follow the key phrase local law library, you’ll have seen what I have: the law library referred to in arguments as to why the opponent’s statement is invalid.  When I went looking, the local law libraryisn’t always local.  If we require space for…

What Do Law Library Users See

It took me 30 minutes yesterday to sign two PDFs.  This is normally a 15-30 second activity per PDF, but recent changes to my work PC have made a maze where there was once a straight corridor.  We sometimes lose sight of what our services look like from the other side of the desk – or PC, or entry doors – and we can improve our service by stepping outside and looking at our law library the same…

When a Web Publisher is Just a Leech

This is a personal blog.  As the saying goes these days, I write for an audience of one.  I’m on the fence about sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, powered as they are by community content, sending people to my site while simultaneously blocking non-subscribers.  I’m toying more and more with blocking incoming traffic from web publishers that have walled gardens.

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How Many Law Librarians Does It Take?

When we describe to decision makers what law librarians do, it hopefully involves metrics.  The measurements can show activity but, on their own, they invite comparisons that may not be accurate.  In particular, I tend to think that measuring reference activity often lacks the context of capacity.

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I Wished I’d Used Featured Images, Excerpts from the Start

WordPress is a great content management system.  I’ve used it for document management, as a brochure site for organizations I work with, for ebooks, and for this blog.  I’ve recently turned on Automattic’s TwentySeventeen themeand ran into some presentation challenges.  In hindsight, it made me realize – again – that you should populate some elements of WordPress posts even if you aren’t using…

A Tale of Two Library Cards

I think out loud a lot about library value but a second topic dear to my heart is service friction: what can we do to make access to services and information as frictionless as possible.   Library card renewal is one of those things that you think we’d have mastered, but a recent experience contrasted two of the library’s renewal process.  One was great.  And one wasn’t. (more…)

Find the Prestige of a Law Library

A quick web search will retrieve stories about how spending on luxury services and product continued despite the recent recession.  We talk a lot about naming ourselves and our places in law libraries.  This isn’t really a post about naming, although that comes into it.  More broadly, I wonder how a law library can become a prestige brandto act as a keel against funding crises and other foul…

Working Backwards to Paper

I’m speaking [for literally the umpteenth time] on protecting confidentiality in a law practice that uses technology.  This year, instead of starting my CLE materials in a word processor, I’ve started on the web and worked backward.  For me, it required a bit of a mind shift.

The CLE organizer distributes a print binder of materials to participants.  Except for my paper which, over the years, has…