Ballad in Plain E

The 2008 edition of the Canadian Law Blog Awards (CLawBies) is off to a great start – check out the growing list of blogged nominations at Steve Matthews’ Vancouver Law Librarian Blog.

I approach the nominations from the point of view of a law firm library technician.  The heavyweights that have already been nominated multiple times (Slaw, Law21, Library Boy, etc.) are all must-reads, but I wanted to focus on some other blogs that are just as deserving of some recognition.

So, without further ado, here are my 2008 CLawBie nominations!

1) I had to laugh (and feel honoured) when I looked at my feed reader earlier today and saw that Karen Sawatzky of Library Technician Dialog had nominated Ballad in Plain E, because I’m also nominating her! Karen and Brenda Wong are both law library technicians who write on a variety of topics and themes, not always law-specific, but always thoughtful and relevant. (Karen and I both work at Winnipeg law firms and I think we may be the only two legal bloggers in the province. We’d sure love to see some Manitoba lawyers start blogging – it’s a small market, but there’s definitely a need for more Manitoba commentary.)

2) Law & Style, which has both fun and helpful content, but I chose mainly because of the infinitely helpful “Wednesday Roundup”. (For those of you who don’t know about the Wednesday Roundup, it’s a summary of – and direct links to – the content featured in the Globe & Mail’s Law Page and the National Post’s Legal Post.) If you hear about it in the elevator, chances are it’s in the Wednesday Roundup – this quick & dirty way to find out what people are talking about is a law librarian’s secret weapon! (On a related note, I sure miss the old, deliciously snarky Fashionista!)

3)  I’m going to second Connie’s motion for a nomination for Steve (full disclosure: I work for Stem Legal, but have no role in the CLawBies). He was a big part of the reason I started blogging and his Law Firm Web Strategy blog consistently offers practical, timely, and down-to-earthy guidance on, well, web strategies for law firms and lawyers. I think Steve’s blogs (Law Firm Web Strategy and Vancouver Law Librarian Blog) have done so well because of his sense of humour and cut-to-the-chase style and tone. I know he won’t consider his own blogs for the CLawBies, but I also know I’m not alone in wanting to recognize his significant contributions to the Canadian legal blogosphere.

That’s it for me; who will you nominate?

I really enjoyed Laurie Mapp’s latest post over at Halo Secretarial Services. In it, Laurie explains why non-lawyers have an important place in the legal blogosphere:

“Non lawyers are important and valuable assets, whether to brick and mortar law firms or virtual practices. In fact in every law firm I have worked at the non-lawyer staff members were a critical part of the success of the team. The secretaries helped manage timelines, completed dictation and often completed the first draft of pleadings.  Paralegals did the research, helped organize large files and oversaw support staff. The library staff were always so amazing, especially when a deadline was looming and the supporting caselaw for a brief had to be quickly found! Oh and let’s not forget the IT staff who made sure our information was all backed up and accessible!”

I completely agree, and would add that every person – from the hostess to the name partner – who keeps a law firm running has a unique perspective on how it operates: what works, what doesn’t, what’s helpful, what’s a pain, and I think we all benefit from hearing others’ voices.

Just as an articled student learns pretty quickly that a librarian can be his new best friend, and a librarian learns quickly that an ornery partner’s secretary can be her greatest ally, we could all learn something from our fellow support staff. So, in the Canadian legal blogosphere, we’re pretty well represented. We have blogging lawyers, students, librarians and library technicians, webmasters, marketing consultants, and entrepreneurs such as Laurie who support law firms. But do we have blogging law firm IT staff? Paralegals? Secretaries? I can’t be the only one who’d be glad to read about their experiences!

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On a related note, my own nominations are forthcoming, but don’t forget to nominate your favourite Canadian legal blogs for the 2008 CLawBies!

It’s a weird feeling to see my generation being described over and over again in the current business and library literature.

Net Generation, Gen Y, Millennials, Echo Boom…there are a million names and the birth-year range is up for debate, but generally accepted to be anyone born about 1980 or after.

The people writing these articles are always at least a generation ahead of me or more, and it’s pretty disconcerting. As much as they try to understand “us”, they never quite get it. And it’s also sort of annoying to be pigeonholed and stereotyped with these strange backhanded compliments (”They’re amazingly creative! They’re incredibly innovative! But they don’t want to do any hard work! They have an inflated sense of entitlement!”) I don’t need to link to any of them. You know the articles I’m talking about.

These articles invariably describe the characteristics of this generation, then offer suggestions or warnings on what to do or what not to do to keep these people happy and productive. Now, I am probably quite different from someone who is ten years younger than me, but I’m tired of all these trite, generalized accounts. Similarly, a friend of mine (who’s one of the hardest-working people I know) told me she’s tired of being lumped into a generation that’s accused of not having a work ethic.

Here’s what I propose: stop worrying about whether we watch commercials on TV or read newspapers anymore. Don’t waste your time trying to identify and reinvent new marketing rules. Start considering your potential staff and future clients as people with varying skill sets and personalities, instead of demographical categories to be neatly plunked into. I know that the nature of market research is to generalize and identify trends, but I just can’t believe that all these assertions about Gen Y are all that useful.

I know plenty of people my age who couldn’t do up a basic Powerpoint presentation to save their life. Likewise, I know fifty-somethings who know that when they’re having a problem with a piece of software, they can Google it, and chances are, someone will tell them how to solve their problem.

I don’t know. Maybe I fall somewhere in limbo between two generations. Maybe I am mistakenly categorizing myself as a GenYer when I’m actually part of Gen X. I certainly don’t feel like a digital native. Anyway, these are just a bunch of things I’ve been thinking about for a while, and wanted to get off my chest.