Private Law Libraries Special Interest Section
American Association of Law Libraries

CONTENTS

What's New

POSSIBLE PLL ACTIVITIES

1. Market the tool kit. We recognize that the AALL Tool Kit is a valuable aid in promoting the value of law librarians. Since this has already been created, we need to find ways to get it into the hands of the membership.

2. Consumer Alert. We know that our institutions are ultimately concerned with the bottom line. We would like to respond to those concerns by focusing on ways we can educate our membership to become better consumers. We would like to provide consumer information in detail - how much we spend on pocket parts and supplements for each title, % increase in price, etc., so that our members can make informed decisions.

3. Research on the Value of the Law Librarian. Research is needed on how we as librarians are being perceived in our institutions, similar to the Matarazzo study by SLA entitled, "The Value of Corporate Libraries: Findings from a 1995 Survey of Senior Management." Once we know how we are being perceived by managing partners and by law firm administrators, we can respond with appropriate educational materials and programs. It will also allow us to measure success or failure in changing that perception in future studies of this sort.

4. Resource Material for our members. We recognize that our membership is varied, but that there are some reoccurring requests for practical information that would be helpful to get into our membersí hands. We talked about compiling this information into a notebook, and we called this handbook, "Resources /Information in Private Law Librarianship," or "RIPLL."

5. Needs Assessment Survey. What do our members think they need from PLL as an organization? How do we go about finding that out? We explored ways to carry out a membership survey of PLL that would help us identify areas we should be addressing.

6. Address our broader membership. What can PLL do to support librarians in corporate environments, independent librarians, and those librarians who handle records or technical services? Are there resources we can make available for those in one-person libraries, or for librarians in multi-location firms? Are there other constituentsí needs that are not being met?

7. Group Buying Coalition. We like the idea of our members getting some sort of discount on goods and services for being a member. PLL members should be able to point to something concrete and say, "This is one advantage to being a member."

8. Boost Membership. Create an outreach to private law librarians who are members of the chapters, but have not joined the national organization or the SIS. How do we reach them, get them involved? What could we offer them that would make it worth it for them to join?

9. Credentialing. We recognize that there is no course of study in most library schools that prepares librarians to work in law firm settings. We talked about the possibility of setting up a credentialing program for both professionals and nonprofessionals.

10. Training resources. We discussed the development of training videos or pamphlets that our members could use with paraprofessionals that would help them do their job, such as "how to shelve," or "how to do looseleaf filing," perhaps as part of RIPLL.

11. Product reviews and comparisons. Often we are forced to choose between competing products, especially with ever-shrinking budgets. We thought it would be very helpful to have librarian "experts", who deal with the specific subject areas, rate and evaluate the resources so that others can make better informed choices.

12. Target legal administrators and lawyers. We identified the need to "get the word out" on the value of professional law librarians to decision makers in our firms. Ways to do that include: publishing in their journals; develop training sessions that we can address to their needs (such as the internet); get on programs for their organizations; make presentations on law librarianship; link our webpage to their webpages; and develop materials that will encourage them to see us as resources.

13. Develop marketing programs and training sessions for librarians. Marketing is the key to success, but few of us have the training on how to market ourselves and our services effectively. The Tool Kit is a great start, but we thought it would be great to build on that and offer a regular course of study to our members.

14. Target library schools. Offer a lecturer in special or law librarianship. Get our material into their hands to encourage new librarians to enter the profession.

15. Identify and promote the competencies of law librarians. The tool kit has identified these competencies. Now, how do we spread the word? How can we package this information so that employers will use it in hiring?

16. Encourage leadership in PLL, in AALL, and in our firms. Leadership was identified as a major need. Ways we could encourage leadership might be programs on confidence building, developing a leadership institute, or focused articles in upcoming issues of PLL Perspectives.

17. Scholarships and Grants for librarian training. Develop scholarships and grants so that librarians whose firms cannot or will not support them can attend educational programming.

18. Adopt a major theme or topic for the year. Focus on one major theme per year, and make it the subject of newsletter articles, educational programming at the annual meeting, regional programming, or a pamphlet or packet on the topic.

19. Research on vendors. Do we know enough about our vendors? We could analyze their annual reports, and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

20. Focus on vendor relations. Given the amount of discussion of this topic on the listserves, we identified this as a major concern. We should: become advocates for librarian interests; develop consumer reports for librarians; use resources at our disposal (web site, broadcast fax, listserves, newsletters) to educate our members; do subject reports with a comparison for products, or member product reviews; use our leverage to educate our members and partner with information providers.

21. Share best practices. With 1700 members, we have a great deal of collected wisdom. Wouldnít it be great if we could tap into that resource to do practical problem-solving? Sharing best practices could take place in a variety of formats on a variety of topics.

22. Pre-Conference and follow-up sessions at the Annual Meeting. We recognized that we get together as an SIS just once a year, and that we could make more effective use of that time by planning additional meetings and sessions before and after the meeting.

23. Develop librarian negotiation skills. Librarianship in the late 1990's requires a great deal of negotiating, and yet most of us never learned to do it effectively. We should develop programming and educational materials to help librarians learn those skills.

24. Annual Conference scheduling modifications. We believe that, in order for the educational programming at the Annual Meeting to meet the needs of private law librarians, we need to begin to think more creatively. We should encourage varied time slots (not solely limited to 90 minute sessions), programs that are presented in a variety of learning styles and formats, doing our own programming back to back on Sunday, etc.

25. Pursue partnerships with other, non-library groups such as the ABA or the ALA. The two organizations that we as private law librarians should work most closely with are the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) and the American Bar Association Law Practice Management Section (ABA/LPM). Identify and develop ways we can interact with these two groups more effectively.

26. Brain trust/Summit meeting. On key issues, we should call together the noted leaders or ìexpertsî in the area to brainstorm on possible actions that should be taken. This accomplishes two tasks: It addresses the concern, and it helps establish us as a major player in the industry.