Motivation
A friend recently surprised me by saying how arrogant writers are. “How can anyone be so proud and presumptuous to think his or her ideas should be in print?” I winced at the statement, since I enjoy writing and had not considered arrogance as a motivation for scholarship. I began to wonder why each of us would research and publish as technical services law librarians. What motivates us, what drives us?

The four core motivations for much of human behavior (and for much of the professional development side of our profession as well) are 1) power, 2) intimacy, 3) peace, and 4) fun. I learned of this set of character motivations from Taylor Hartman, The Color Code: A New Way to See Yourself, Your Relationships, and Life (1998), which I recommend for its sensible and practical view of why we humans do what we do.¹ The author, a practicing psychologist, likes to look beyond our behavior to what drives our behavior, and he divides our tendencies into four broad categories. (Some of us are driven almost solely by one core value, while most are hybrids of two of the four.) Here’s a look at Hartman’s motivational-types through the prism of technical services law librarianship.

Power
Do we research and write because we think we’re at our most valuable when we’re producing something, because publishing is a means of influence, or because life is too short for non-productive activities?² Praise, pride, power, money and control each attract some of us and lead us to publish the results of our work. Those of us driven in this way tend to get things done, seek practical and useful scholarship, and are impatient with unproductive ideas, colleagues or institutions. We want to look good to others, lead them and often enjoy a good debate (in print or otherwise).

My sense is that those of us driven by the need for power often have ideas on what to write, but what we lack are some tools. Here are a few suggestions on tools:

“You don’t learn to write by writing—you learn to write by revising something you have written.” This and twenty other excellent tools for better writing comprise Phil Agre, “Learning How to Write,” Trends in Law Library Management and Technology, Dec. 1998, pp. 1-4. Highly recommended!

A useful online compilation of publishing opportunities and writing resources is Serials Publications: Resources for Authors. The NASIG Publications Committee compiled calls for papers, author guidelines and related info for 40 serial-related publications at http://www.nasig.org/publications/pub_resources.html.

Check out also Selected Resources on Scholarly Publishing, prepared by the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Law and Political Science Section for an American Library Association program (June 27, 1999) [http://facstaff.uww.edu/hansenc/lpssscholpub.htm].

Printed compilations of publishing opportunities include: Al Joyner, Directory for Successful Publishing in Legal Periodicals (2nd ed. 1997); Dennis Benamati & Evelina Lemlin, Publication Opportunities for Law Librarians (1995); Carol F. Schroeder & Gloria G. Roberson, Guide to Publishing Opportunities for Librarians (1995); and Brian Striman, Publishing Opportunities for Technical Services Law Librarians (1991).

If money motivates you to do research and writing, apply for an OBS/TS Joint Research Grant (awards up to $1000). See http://www.aallnet.org/sis/obssis/researchinfo.htm.

Intimacy
Some of us are motivated by a great internal need to be loved. We research and write in order to serve others, to build a legacy for the future, and to establish friendships. We may write because we care deeply about people, relationships and feelings, and even simply because there is someone we love who values writing. And for some driven by the need for intimacy, writing is motivated by fear and self-doubts—we will be fired from our work if we don’t write and publish. Since we value being good and responsible, we’ll research and write if it is part of our work responsibilities.

For those of us driven by the need to fix people and make the world right, ideas on what to write about (and fix) are important:

ALCTS Research Topics in Cataloging and Classification: A Summary of the Literature, 1995-1998. The American Library Association’s Association for Library Collections and Technical Services compiled this list of references covering the topics of 1) authority control, 2) cataloging personnel, education and training, 3) use and contents of catalogs and other databases, and 4) outsourcing, at http://ala8.ala.org/alcts/organization/ccs/prcsumm.html. The compilation updates ALCTS Research Topics in Cataloging and Classification: Suggestions from the Literature, 1987-1995 (a 42-page list of topics last updated in June 1997) at http://ala8.ala.org/alcts/organization/ccs/researchtopics.html.

Another source of ideas is the research Web site for the Special Library Association. The site includes SLA’s research agenda, funding, surveys, projects in progress, and other links [http://www.sla.org/research/index.html].

Look at the past Research & Publications columns in old Technical Services Law Librarian newsletters. The past co-editors of this column (Brian Striman and Ellen McGrath) contributed an article on research and writing for seven years to TSLL, not missing a single issue since September 1992. There are hundreds of ideas in their old columns.

Peace
Some of us desire lives of peace—far away from conflict, hostility and others’ demands. We are interested in researching and writing about topics that clarify issues, avoid conflict and help everyone get along together. For those of us for whom such independent peace is our goal, writing often is pursued as a way of understanding a topic. We believe Francis Bacon’s axiom, “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”

Having a supportive environment (but not a controlling one) is important to us who are motivated by peace and flowing through life without unnecessary hassles. My suggestion for those of us motivated primarily by conflict-avoidance is to work on building our support networks and community.

For example, an excellent piece on improving research and writing law school-wide is James Lindgren, “Fifty Ways to Promote Scholarship,” 49 Journal of Legal Education 126-142 (March 1999). The author divides his 50 suggestions into five areas for promoting scholarship, most of which could be modified by a law library director: creating the intellectual environment, arranging time, using money, using hiring and retention, and using teaching. A smaller support network is described in Jeannie P. Miller & Candace R. Benefiel, “Academic Librarians and the Pursuit of Tenure: The Support Group as a Strategy for Success,” 59 College & Research Libraries 260-265 (May 1998).

Two broad perspectives on parts of technical services law librarianship, especially for those trying to decide if our profession is an environment where they want to work, include the following: Janet Swan Hill and Sheila S. Intner, “Preparing for a Cataloging Career: From Cataloging to Knowledge Management” (from the ALA Congress on Professional Education 1999), at http://www.ala.org/congress/hill-intner.html; and Mary Whisner, “Choosing Law Librarianship: Thoughts for People Contemplating a Career Move,” LLRX [Law Library Resource Xchange] (Aug. 2, 1999), at http://www.llrx.com/features/librarian.htm (who asks, “Will you like the work?”).

Fun
A final category of motivation involves play,³ praise, popularity, attention and action. Technical services law librarians driven by adventure, variety and life’s ups and downs help all of us better appreciate our world around us. We tend to research and present our ideas verbally rather than in print, but still want to make a contribution to our profession.⁴

If having fun is the ultimate in our lives, some suggestions are to pick small manageable projects rather than large ones, write for the more popular side of the profession (AALL Spectrum rather than Law Library Journal), and to team up with others with stronger skills in meeting deadlines.

Since those of us motivated by fun tend to do our research and writing in spurts, we need methods to help us consistently produce. We tend to want to wait until we feel like being creative and hope for big blocks of time to finally get to the project we’ve been putting off finishing. A suggestion would be:

Robert Boice, “Procrastination, Busyness and Bingeing,” 27 Behavior Research and Therapy 605-611 (1989). This study shows that brief, daily sessions of writing are more productive than writing in binges and chunks of time.

Publishing Opportunities Online
I personally appreciate those of you who are motivated to contribute to our collective professional development and for what I learn through your research and writing. If you are not yet motivated, perhaps some of the following opportunities may get you started.

AALL Publications Committee (looking for ideas and proposals for new AALL publications; includes an online proposal submission form). [http://www.aallnet.org/committee/publications]

The ALL-SIS Newsletter (tri-annual newsletter on academic law librarianship, with next deadline Jan. 5, 2000; you do not need to be an ALL-SIS member to contribute articles or news). [http://www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/NewsLetter.html]

“Biz of Acq” column in the six-times yearly acquisitions journal Against the Grain: Linking Publishers, Vendors and Librarians (edited by Rob Richards at University of Colorado Law Library [rrichard@stripe.Colorado.edu)]. [http://www.against-the-grain.com]

Haworth Press (publisher of many books and journals related to librarianship) has general information for authors at http://www.haworthpressinc.com/AuthorInfo; instructions for article authors for Serials Librarian (quarterly journal) at http://www.serialslibrarian.com/instructions.html; and instructions for article authors for Cataloging and Classification Quarterly (quarterly journal) at http://www.haworthpressinc.com:8081/ccq/ccqinaut.html. TS-SIS Vice-Chair Alva Stone at Florida State University Law Library [atstone@law.fsu.edu] serves on CCQ’s editorial board and welcomes questions on getting published in that journal.

W. S. Hein law book authors wanted. [http://www.wshein.com/publications/book-proposal-form.htm]

Library Consortium Management: An International Journal (new journal covering all aspects of consortia issues). [http://www.mcb.co.uk/lcm.htm]

Library Trends (quarterly print journal covering professional librarianship issues). [http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff/catalog/trends]

LIBRES (semi-annual electronic journal devoted to Library and Information Science Research; guidelines for authors). [http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/dept/sils/libres/authors.htm]

The Technology Source (bimonthly electronic journal integrating technology in educational organizations). [http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/call.asp]

Telecommunications Electronic Review (irregular electronic journal reviewing books and websites related to networking and telecommunications). [http://www.lita.org/ter]

² For example, those interested in power will not devote much time or energy to matters that do not generate results, such as writing book reviews. See Jay Parini, The Disappearing Art of Reviewing Books, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 23, 1999, at B4-B5.

³ A spirited defense of pursuing “mind candy” for its own sake is Francis L. Miksa, “What’s The Big Idea?” (1995) at http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~miksa/bigidea.html.

⁴ Last year a BYU professor explained to me, with some emotion, that his internal drive to be creative is part of who he is as a person. He concluded his comments with the statement, “If I didn’t publish, I would perish!”