Are IT and Library "Logical Partners" in Leveraging Library Assets?

Are IT and Library "Logical Partners" in Leveraging Library Assets? Greg Lambert discusses an article by Nina Cunningham how librarians should be leveraged in law firms. Worth reading Greg's post and the original article at Leveraging the Assets of the Law Library.

Day 2 at AALL -Boston MA

Hi this is your DALL  reporter on the ground at AALL 105th Annual Meeting and Conference.  My day was busy starting with a tour, "The Duck Tour " of Boston.  It is a 1 hr and 30 minute tour on land and water. By now you have guessed this is an amphibius vehicle, it was first built during World War II to aid with the invasion of Normandy. The Ducks as they were dubbed were made by female workers who took over the jobs in the factories when the men went off to war.

This vehicle rides fine on land and when we approach the water, the captain engages the rotor to go in the water. It was fantastic and ride in this vehicle was smooth and really incredible.  By the time I made it back from seeing portions of historic Boston, it was time for my session: "Driving Utilization and Firm Profitability Through Resource Customization" that had four dynamic presenters each from different law firms:  Molly Brownfiel of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, created a web presence that allowed self registration by user to vendor products, eliminating the third party distribution by the Library passwords.  Also Molly and her staff created a "How to Contact" link that provided the telephone number and name of techinical assistance personnel for each vendor.  This gives the user direct access to this information and a quicker resolution without inserting the Library's involvement  The user goes directly to the vendor to resolve his issue.

Next, Marguarita T. Young-Jones of Reed-Smith LLP, created a Library tab that included all library resources, services and widgets that allows immediate access to users without password input.  This firm had in common the infamous "Look-up Precision Tool"  encountered, compatibility issues with widgets created by vendors but after growing pains were able to overcome them and make available to users get and print, find and print, Matthew Bender Library and e-libraries as part of the library tab.

Emily R. Florio and Gina B. Lynch of Fish & Richardson both used creative ways to push direct access to the user resources in unique ways:  IP authenticating to provide direct access to purchased Surveys by  ALM 100 & 200 Surveys; built webpages that display  e-treatises and e-caselaw  and online training links offered by other vendors. Users can schedule training from the library website to vendors training sessions.

Gina, placed all her Apps on one tab along with instructions. She provided a framework on how to go about restructuring your website to make it more visible to partners and usable to all the staff and attorneys at Bingham McCutchen.  Then created Dashboards for HR Benefits,  Finance and Client development, remarkable .
 

That's all for now from DEINNA, the DALL reporter on the ground at AALL.

Beyond the Shelves: Restructuring the Reference Desk

Betsy Chessler shares her experience of going from the traditional face-to-face reference service to the electronic centralized system that would provide attorneys from different times to receive information and resources at their convenience. Here is the article.