Spectrum PR Column
October 2001
Stuck in the Bargain
Basement
By Joan Shear, Legal Reference Librarian, Boston College Law Library,
Newton Centre, MA
AALL Spectrum, Volume 6 No. 2, October 2001.
You know how some states have those catchy sayings like "Virginia is for Lovers" or "Maryland is for Crabs"? In Minnesota it should be "Minnesota is for Shoppers". It's no wonder the Mall of America was built there: the people of Minnesota are the best shoppers on the planet. Going to Minneapolis for AALL was quite literally a homecoming for me, and being a Minnesotan, I am an excellent shopper, too. But I didn't start out that way; I had to learn an important principle: it isn't the cost, but rather the value of the goods purchased, which is the true measure of a great shopping trip.
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary online [http://www.webster.com/] defines "cost" as "the amount or equivalent paid or charged for something," and "value" as the "relative worth, utility, or importance <a good value at the price>". It is very dangerous to judge goods by their price tag rather than by their actual value. A great way to waste money is to assume that things that cost more are automatically better than those that cost less.
Many people still confuse cost with value. This is a problem that law librarians constantly face: people who don't really know how we add value to our institutions judge us by our lower salaries. And yet, when people don't have a real understanding of the substantial benefits of the work we do, can we really blame them for relying on the only objective measure they know?
Consider the following examples:
This May I had the opportunity to teach for the second time an AALL Professional Development Course on Legal Reference Services. One of the biggest concerns expressed by newer law firm reference librarians was their difficulty answering legal questions posed to them in jargon they were unfamiliar with. Attorneys do this most often when they come to librarians for the librarian's lower billing rate rather than their information gathering and handling expertise. These newer librarians feared that admitting that their reservations or limitations would cause the attorneys to lose faith in their abilities.
I met another newer law librarian while on our family vacation this summer. She's still working on her MLS, and has trouble finding the time to take classes while employed full-time at a busy law firm. What she loves most about her job is bringing information to the lawyers in her firm that they never could have found without her help. She knows that if she completes her degree, her course work will improve her effectiveness and efficiencies in her work for the firm. And yet she has not been completely successful convincing both her employers and herself that putting in the time to finish her degree or taking time out of the work day to attend library school courses not offered in the evenings will actually be worth it.
In both cases a little PR work is needed to educate the consumers of legal reference and research services about the value of law librarians. How do we clear up these misperceptions?
First, be totally clear about the nature of our jobs. We are specialists in legal information. We aren't bargain basement associates. As information experts we provide faster access to quality information. While I was on reference duty last week three different patrons within an hour thanked me not just for helping them, but for saving them hours of their time - and I had thought theirs were fairly quick, simple, and straightforward reference questions. Other patrons have thanked our staff for helping them find information that they wouldn't have otherwise found.
Our expertise is valuable even in areas of law with which we ourselves aren't fully conversant. I find it particularly satisfying whenever I help tax attorneys or tax professors with their research questions. I know they are much more familiar with the content of the documents we are looking through and for, but my superior knowledge of the structure and organization of information allows me to help even these legal specialists quickly and efficiently access the information they need.
Second, acknowledge that our information expertise the result of study, practice, and years of experience. It isn't just because we're more intelligent (although librarians tend to be highly intelligent people). I've had a number of opportunities to watch library employees develop professionally as they pursued their MLS degrees. While all of them came to their library jobs with a strong service orientation and desire to help people, their ability to help people expanded exponentially as they completed their MLS coursework.
And the need for professional education doesn't end with the acquisition of a library degree. Especially in a field as rapidly changing as ours, we need to constantly update our skills and knowledge if we are to continue to perform highly valuable work in the future. We therefore place great importance on attending conferences, workshops, and meetings. These forums are invaluable for sharing professional successes with colleagues and for strengthening interconnections among libraries in addition to their strictly educational aspects. "The Competencies of Law Librarianship", approved by the AALL Executive Board in March 2001, can be a useful tool for making your professional development plan.
So be prepared to make the case for the value we can add to any project, be it a course of instruction, a networking project, or firm management. Never assume people are aware of our expertise in the principles of knowledge management, our ability to evaluate the need for new and evolving technology, or our understanding of the practical application of creating, accessing, and managing information. And if you can add that they get all this value at such a low cost, that won't hurt the sale, will it?
This leaves me with only one question - if we are so valuable, how come our wages are so low? Not low as compared to public or school librarians (I often joke that as a law librarian I actually receive a living wage), but low as compared to other law professionals such as the law professors I work with. I wonder if it's because we actually like our jobs. But enjoying our work shouldn't mean we don't get paid what we are worth. There ought to be a way to make librarians' salaries more in line with the Information Age benefits we provide to our institutions.
Hmmm. Maybe our employers are better shoppers than I've given them credit for - they're getting a great value at a lower cost. Could they all be from Minnesota?
Last Updated: January 28, 2003
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