Ultimately, Karen wonders “is it the person in the position, or is it the position that has the value?”

I think it’s both, but in the end, personality matters more.  Personality plays a huge role in what an employee makes of a role. There will always be people who do exactly – and only – as the job description dictates, and that’s fine.  But here’s the problem. A lot of important library tasks (filing, shelving, processing) can be pretty boring if they’re the only tasks you have.   In Karen’s case:

“That wasn’t enough for me, however, so I started adding things that I could do, like creating a monthly newsletter …  expanding the current awareness offerings by reading blogs and other rapidly-updated websites and forwarding the appropriate material on. I kept asking for more to do, and when that didn’t work, I just took on responsibility. I looked for opportunities to go above and beyond what was expected.”

So, like Karen, another type of person seeks out ways to make the job more engaging, more useful – ultimately, they find ways to make the position more valuable. They need to make the work more personal, creative, and challenging to find meaning in it. I felt the same way as Karen. We realised pretty quickly that the status quo wasn’t going to cut it and wasn’t doing our employers any favours, to say nothing of our own career satisfaction!

I’m not trying to brag and say “Look at me, I’m so proactive and so motivated” – far from it.  All that really matters to me, at the end of the day, is whether I’m helping the firm run more efficiently, by helping get the right information to the right people at the right time. That’s what a law library is for. But in my books, to be good in your job – ANY job – you have to be proactive, you have to seek out challenges, you have to question to status quo.

I’m reluctant to play the recession card, but it’s true: these qualities are always critical, especially in these times.

I’ve been lucky – the boss I had in my old job was incredibly supportive no matter what crazy, newfangled idea I wanted to pursue to keep myself entertained. That’s one of the perks that comes with working as a team – there’s always someone to bounce ideas off of, to share the workload involved in big projects, and to commiserate with when the boring stuff just has to get done. In addition to that, we were each other’s biggest champions, and when we felt like no one knew what we did or appreciated us – which I think everyone experiences at some point, no matter how great their jobs  are – we could remind each other of the great things we’d accomplished and of everyone who did indeed appreciate our work.

But in this city, most of the law libraries are solo joints – and we definitely can’t exist in vacuums. This is one reason that informal mentorship and idea sharing could be a part of improving our profession’s collective profile (WALL, anyone?).

We can’t fault our users for not knowing what we’re capable of. Half the world thinks people who work in libraries are just obsessed with keeping their books all to themselves. No, we can’t fault them for not knowing what they COULD be asking us to help them with, which is why we need to TELL them!

We need to tell our employers that we can do a great deal more than process invoices and keep the library tidy. Aside from all the things they know we can do, we can also:

• Monitor the media and legislation
• Help with client development
• Do internet and social media searches
• Help keep the firm website up to date (we see a lot of bad websites and don’t want ours to be one of them!)
• Not only can we do research, but our time can be billed back to the client
• Save lawyers time by gathering materials for papers and presentations

It takes some guts to tell your employer “You’re paying me too much to file looseleaf updates all day. I’m capable of more!” But I did it. I think everyone can – and should.

For the first time in my career, I’m the one dealing with legal publishing vendors directly.  At my old job, I would deal occasionally with generic customer service lines and our vendors on the library software side, but generally my boss was the one who dealt with the account reps. So, when I took my new job, it was one task that I was both excited and nervous to take on.

I attended most of an exceptionally useful session at the SLA conference last June, and learned tips there that I took with me and kept in mind as I began meeting my account reps. At “Tales from the Dark Side”, all the panelists emphasized that vendors are people too, and that a healthy relationship occurs when both the vendor and the purchaser treat each other the way they’d like to be treated themselves. And thus far, I’ve found this to be the best piece of advice.

I want to share some of my experiences dealing with the big legal information vendors so far. Here are some random thoughts on good experiences, bad experiences, and one or two ugly ones.

Personalization and Courtesy

Shortly after starting my current job, my Carswell electronic products rep emailed to ask if she could take me to lunch. I gladly accepted; she met me at a restaurant across the street from my office, and we had a lovely time becoming acquainted both professionally and personally. She gave me a few key tips to make our business dealings run smoothly, including always including the firm name and account number in the subject line of email orders. She also let me know that she was available to help me make a business case to management if I needed assistance in that area. Right there, she presented two easy ways that we could make each other’s jobs easier, and I really appreciated it.

Similarly, I had an in-person visit from my rep at Canada Law Book, who since then I have consistently enjoyed working with and considered my ally, not adversary. The service I receive from her is always personal, pleasant, and prompt – what more could I ask for?

Professionalism

Outstanding vendors are at worst, neutral about, and at best, collegial with and complimentary of, their competitors. It’s refreshing to hear someone acknowledge the hard work of their competitor colleagues. case in point: the legendary Peter Roberts of Canada Law Book, whose recent semi-retirement resulted in overflowing tributes, odes, and thanks for years of excellent service and role modeling from not only his customers, but also from his competitors: fellow vendors.

On the flipside, nothing is worse or more awkward (and not to mention unprofessional) than a rep slamming or insulting another of your reps. I have witnessed both. Obviously, each leaves its own (very lasting) impression.

Contact Points

Dealing with dozens of contacts at a single company is a recipe for disaster and a surefire way to create confusion and frustrated customers. Ideally, there should be one contact person for your account. If that’s not possible, then having different vendors with clearly defined roles is the next best thing (for instance, a rep for electronic products, a rep for print products, etc.).

Marketing Tactics (Unsavoury ones)

One major international publisher clearly employs commission-based sales calls. This is aggravating, as the calls are always from random people who know nothing about your library or work setting. When you ask if you can think about it and decide later, they always want you to call them directly, and not your usual rep. I don’t mind sales calls (much), but I would respond much better to them if they actually came from my rep. I’d also be able to keep track of my orders a lot more easily, and it would save me a lot of time.

With the aforementioned publisher, just when I think I know who our account rep is, an email order goes unanswered and I realise that rep is no longer with the company. How frustrating! I would much rather work with one person who makes an effort to know my needs and who I know I can always call or email.

Recently, Gary Rodrigues wrote a post on Slaw about outsourcing. While his post focuses on legal information databases, I found that his thoughts on outsourcing apply equally well to the customer service side of legal publishers:

“In the past, the publisher sought to identify selected activities that would be suitable for outsourcing when in house personnel were already working at full capacity. The premise was that while it would be preferable to do everything in house, the sheer volume of work made it necessary from time to time to outsource specific projects.

Today the opposite is true. The operating premise is that everything should be outsourced, unless there is a very good reason not to do so.”

I don’t have a problem, per se, with outsourcing call centres if the people staffing them are competent and empowered to handle my questions. I do, however, have a problem with calling the customer service line for a Canadian product and being asked for my zip code! Is it really too much to ask?

In a similar vein, a certain small Canadian publishing outfit is notorious for calling lawyers directly and pressuring them into accepting trials of products that they don’t actually need. Guess who then has to deal with returning these items (at the firm’s expense)? That’s right, the library. We can’t stop publishers from sending blurb to every lawyer at the firm, but we should be able to expect them to respect the library’s role as collection manage (shouldn’t we?).

So, at the beginning of this post, I said that it’s a two-way street. What do I do to foster positive relations with my vendors?

• Be polite, regardless of what form of communication
• Say please and thank you
• Use the rep’s name and not “to whom it may concern”
• Try to remember personal details and follow up on them
• Keep them informed – if I’m in discussion with management, I keep my rep apprised of the developments
• As the AALL Spectrum article advises, “Communicate transparently about constraints” – if we don’t have the budget for it, or it’s just something we need for our practices, I tell them upfront. That way we’re not wasting each other’s time. A good vendor will respect that.

Do you have any tips, experiences, or horror stories about working with legal publishing vendors? I would love to hear them.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the system’s approach to library service — so much so that I’ve ordered documents from them since I’ve been in MB, just because I knew it could easily be the fastest route to go! Courthouse Libraries BC serves a substantially larger user base than the Law Society library in Manitoba does. Understandably, because of that, it has a greater capability to offer outstanding resources. So while I really shouldn’t compare the two, it sure reminds me of how fortunate the BC law library community is.

Congratulations to Virtual Library manager Mandy Ostick and everyone who helped get this project get to where it is. Way to go!

“Both services are unique in what they offer. Until one service seeks to match the other in content, both may be needed. If your interest is Canadian caselaw only, Words and Phrases in the Canadian Abridgment may be enough. If you are looking for more variety and more sources, you need LexisNexis Quicklaw. The ideal database of words and phrases is a combination of the two services, something unlikely to happen anytime soon.”

I’m glad to see someone address this.

My answer to the first question is an emphatic “yes!”

At my previous job in a firm library, we tried to hold several fun events every year. These events would often take the form of “coffee parties” (library staff would bring in home-baked treats, and we’d have coffee, punch, etc.). Sometimes, we’d tie the party into a new library service or product, or a season or holiday, but not always. They were often “just because”, which everyone needs now and then!

Over the years, we also had the firm’s resident lawyer rock band play on more than one occasion and hosted (very popular) annual Easter egg hunts, among other events. I also know of other firm libraries that do used book sales (to fundraise for community literacy groups), doughnut days, and contests.

The point – aside from just having fun – is to reinforce the fact that the library staff are friendly and approachable (not shushing and uptight), and that the firm has a library (people tend to forget!) and it’s an enjoyable place to be. Sure, in some situations, it would have been less crowded to hold the party in a boardroom, but that would have defeated the point of it being a library party.

As for whether anyone has studied this, now that I think of it, wouldn’t that be a good topic for a wiki? Maybe one exists already….

Amazing to see a non-library (actually, any organization, for that matter) advertise using our language. OK, maybe there are a few too many cliches, but overall, the description paints a very clear picture of the right candidate. The desired characteristics are ones that most of us can identify with (and feel proud of), instead of the bland, generic ones that are found too often in library job ads. I especially love the line about the tweezer and scalpel!

“Our ideal candidate is a rare breed – a recent graduate with an education in both Business and Library Science, or coming from a business library environment, coupled with deep knowledge of commercial databases and with razor-sharp Internet and online research skills. You are the classic “devil is in the details” kind of person who thrives on hunting for the proverbial needle in the haystack, using emerging technologies as your tweezer and scalpel. You are the contrarian “road less travelled” kind of thinker with a talent for peeling away the layers and digging ever deeper, in the search for nuggets of gold where others only see coal. You are the original “007”, probably wanting to be a spy or secret agent somewhere along the way, now having honed your craft in knowing what electronic tools to use, when to apply them, where to look, and how long it will take to successfully complete the hunt. Relentless doesn’t begin to describe your degree of persistence in searching for the seemingly impossible.”

Words & Phrases is now available on LawSource!

 

Words & Phrases provides you with fresh strategies for finding the law online. If you need to find how the courts have interpreted or applied a word or a phrase, you will be able to simply enter the word or phrase in a template to see excerpts of decisions where the judge interprets the term.

 

With over 30,000 entries, covering 60,000 Canadian judicial interpretations, Words & Phrases will be by far the most comprehensive service of its kind in Canada.

Not sure if this is Sanagan’s plus the old hardcover Words & Phrases rolled into one, or all that and then some… either way, it’s good news and an excellent enhancement to LawSource.

There’s also a good article on “Navigating the Exhibition Hall” by Devin Gawnemark. Check it out!

After five fantastic years with Alexander Holburn, I decided that I was up for a new challenge. Winnipeg has always been near and dear to me, so I took the plunge and moved out here. I’ve got two jobs and they’re both going well so far. More details about that later.

What’s really exciting for me–since I’m not in Vancouver anymore–is that the Vancouver Association of Law Libraries (VALL), the organization that provided so many opportunities to me both personally and professionally while I was in BC, has just launched a brand-new website built on Drupal. Mega props to Steve, Rob, Andy (my successor at AHBL), and Susannah (my former co-editor extraordinaire) for all their hard work. Now I just have to renew my membership so that I can easily stay in touch with my dear friends and colleagues!

Also, news to me: The Edmonton Law Libraries Association is now blogging.  That group does so much cool stuff. Methinks it’s time for a formal group in Winnipeg!