#library operations

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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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…

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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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…

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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