New Courthouse Libraries BC Website

Exciting news! As of this afternoon, the new Courthouse Libraries BC website is launched and ready to start offering a customizable approach to BC legal information.

Announced by Virtual Libraries Manager, Mandy Ostick on the CLBC's new blog - The Stream:

We are delighted to launch the new Courthouse Libraries BC website.
As well as greatly improved usability and use of graphics, some of the new features on our new site include:

• website accounts for faster orders, viewing your order history and saving your searches - create your web account today
• easy to use website search with powerful options for refining your searches
• relevancy ranked search results
• practice portals that provide starting points and the latest legal research news on practice areas such as personal injury and family law.

What's striking about the new design is how the CLBC has chosen to fine tune their delivery based on 1) individual user need, and 2) stakeholder groups. I really like the additions of bullets #1 & #4 above (in bold, my notation). This is an important evolution for delivering online services, moving from the 'one size fits all' approach, to a customized delivery approach. First, at the user level, which by adding account logins, allows for a host of custom delivery options. And second, by creating filtered portals for their biggest user groups. Those practice portals could be the start of something big; helping both in terms of creating a community-driven approach & in service delivery.

Also noteworthy, IMO, is the aforementioned blog - The Stream. Many of us in the BC market have tracked the CLBC's 'what's new' blog, which will now carry forward under 'New & Notable'. But in addition to those news-y items, it looks like we'll now have some opinion-based commentary coming from my colleagues at Courthouse Libraries BC.

Congratulations to Mandy Ostick and everyone involved at the CLBC! This site launch is a big step forward.

Quickscribe Manual Update for October '09

Just one Quickscribe manual update to report for October: the BC Environment Legislation Manual.

Don't forget, daily updates to British Columbia statutes and regulations are available for free at BCLegislation.ca.

OnPoint to Host Legal Research Course

The research group at OnPoint Law are hosting a full-day training session on Thursday, November 19th. The course is titled Legal Research: From Problems to Solutions 2009, and includes 6 CPD credits for local BC lawyers.

Also of note, one of my VALL colleagues will be presenting. Susan Caird, Reference Services Manager at Courthouse Libraries BC will facilitate the session on legislative research.

For more details, please see the brochure PDF. The session cost will be $495, with a discount rate of $295 for Students.

Writing for the Web: Redux

Adrian Lurssen has a great piece up on vision for web-based content creation. His post titled, Writing for the Web: Two Basic Rules, neatly addresses the fundamental issue of balance.

In the first part, he describes what he calls The Rule of Three, advising that we make both text and hypertext links work together, and separately. The reader should be able to get 'full value' from any online publication regardless of whether they choose to:

1. read just the text;
2. scan the text and link out to external sources; or
   
3. read the text AND the contextual links.

Adrian goes on to address the concept of writing for the search engines, and highlights a position that we strongly advocate at Stem - write descriptively, especially when it comes to titles. The caveat being, it looks spammy if you write exclusively for search rankings. You also run the risk not connecting with your reader, which trumps all other objectives, including traffic (IMO). ... This is not, however, and either-or situation. Traffic, reader engagement, and relationship conversion can all happen in unison.

Web writers are far better off sticking to descriptive titles, avoiding 'the smart' title (eg: quoting a common phrase or poem), and mildly using target phrases within the text of their content. After that, one's approach to drafting should be all about connecting with the audience.

We should never be forced to make a choice between writing for the engines & writing for people. Again, balance. If you title descriptively, use a Content Management System (CMS) that automates on-page SEO (for page titles, etc.), AND address your topic with passion ... you will put yourself in 'the game' for search traffic.

The link popularity portion of the search algorithms then takes over. Which does have some connection to writing - ie. great content attracts links - but you'd be naive to think your online network with other web publishers didn't also play an important role.

Descriptive writing plus personal networks have always been a great tandem. In a multitude of ways...

CanLII 2008 Annual Report

CanLII's 2008 annual report is now available.

BC Ombudsman on Slaw

Kim Carter, Ombudsman for the Province of British Columbia (soon Ombudsperson?), is blogging this week on Slaw. Her article posted today is titled Administrative Justice in British Columbia – The Road Less Travelled.

Carter is one of five provincial Ombudsmen who are on Slaw this week as part of our firm guest blogging series. The other participating provinces are Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland & Labrador, and Saskatchewan.

Local Law Librarians Making a Difference

It was so nice to see this story in today's Vancouver Sun: Raising the bar: Here's one library that's giving back.

Local law librarians Kathy Barry and Wilma Macfarlane are featured describing their Fiction Friday program, and how they've raised money for charities such as the Raise-a-Reader literacy program, the United Way & the Union Gospel Mission.

Congratulations to you both! Story photo captured below for posterity.

Pacific Legal Tech '09 - Deadline Today!

Reminder: If you were intending to register for this year's Pacific Legal Technology Conference, the deadline for the early bird price reduction is today!

Lambert & Gediman on Reevaluating BigLaw Library Services

If you work in a law firm library, do yourself a favour and go read 3 Geeks and a Law Blog: Reevaluating BigLaw Library Services - Two Views. Great insight from Greg Lambert and Mark Gediman.

Reminds me of an old post I wrote in Mar./05: The Law Firm Library - Customers & Consumers.

Here we are four years later, and still walking that tightrope. Once budget pressures start, anyone who doesn't use the library (including most admin/operations mtg) will have little understanding of (or empathy for) the Library's role in providing legal services. The natural tendency is, unfortunately, to marginalize.

Subject specialists (both research lawyers and librarians) are at times the lifeblood of practice groups; but without vocal lawyer support, almost invisible to administration. I enjoyed Mark's comments on making the Library indispensable, and see this as critical to the survival of the profession.

We often talk about embedded librarianship, but this is where theory meets practice - especially for law firms. I say, put a tech-savvy librarian and an info-savvy technologist into a practice group for six months. Let them work directly with the lawyers - creating practice specific automations, document automations, cultivate precedent collections, research and KM organization. ... Generally optimize everything about routine business engagements at a matter level.

Want a Susskind-ian vision for the future of Law Librarians? This would be a start. Breaking down a few silos. ... Lawyers with billable targets don't have the time for this type of introspective approach. A 'swat team' of others just might.

New BC Bill Tracking Service from Quickscribe

Tracking and monitoring legislation is one of the law library's most critical tasks. Many librarians live in fear of missing or catching an important development too late.

For BC researchers, Quickscribe Online is launching an alert service that may help, their new Bill Tracker.

Developed over the past several months with significant input from various members of VALL, the beta RSS-based Bill Tracker lets researchers track new laws and amendments to existing ones.

"Quickscribe’s new Bill Tracker (beta) uses RSS feeds to notify you when new legislation and proposed amendments are first introduced (1st reading) and again when (and if) the Bill achieves 3rd reading. Once notified, you will be provided with a direct link to the Bill so you can read the proposed amendments. If a Bill has undergone any changes from 1st to 3rd reading you will be able to easily compare the two versions side by side with the changes highlighted in colour.

The Bill Tracker can also be used as an effective tool for catching consequential amendments that can easily get overlooked."

Here's a screenshot:




The Bill tracker feed is now available for QS Online subscribers, and for those that sign up for Quickscribe's free trial.

Quickscribe CEO Mike Pasta notes that the service is "especially useful for tracking consequential amendments and for viewing any changes that occur from 1st to 3rd reading."

LegalResearch.org Re-Launches

Just received an email from Catherine Best announcing the revision & relaunch of her website Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research.

First of all, I'd like to voice a thank-you to Catherine Best for updating a website that has taught so many of us about legal research, especially digital legal research. It was one of the first websites (or at least a generation of websites, from the mid to late '90s) to have a significant amount of Canadian legal content.

Feeling nostalgic, I was trying to recall how long legalresearch.org may have been online. It certainly felt like more than 10 years... Sure enough, a whois search shows the site was first registered in September 1998. Talk about longevity!

In terms of the Canadian legal web, that qualifies as 'pioneer' status. Or at least it should... remember, this is before content management software, before blogs, and everything was hand coded. Not too many Canadian lawyers were web publishing in the late '90s. Catherine Best was.

Oh, and the re-design & updated tutorials? Now ready for a whole new generation to enjoy! Please head on over...

Lawyer and non-Lawyer Cooperation

Mike McBride has a good post up about the cooperation between Lawyers & IT experts as equal parts of a firm's in-house EDD team.

It's an interesting read for both sides; and I must say, Mike nails in-house culture and the difficulties of being a non-lawyer. Here's a taste:

For example, go to your local bar association's CLE seminars on EDD, how many IT people are speaking? How many non-lawyers are ever invited to speak about forensics, searching, deduplication, storage technology, etc.? If these topics are covered, it's typically one of those 100 or 200 attorneys. When was the last time they offered a CLE in data storage, or understanding the basic types of email storage, and how to effectively search an email store? Wouldn't it be great to have someone who knows this stuff talk to your IT people, whether it be from your legal department or outside firm? Sure would keep those IT folks from rolling their eyes as often as they do. (And they do, I've been on that side of the fence. It's not pretty.)

But instead, the legal industry keeps insisting that attorneys are the end all and be all of legal knowledge, when EDD requires a different approach completely. This survey shows it fairly obviously to me. Your clients are crying out for someone who really "gets" the technology involved with EDD, and you keep sending them lawyers who can recite the FRCP, all while keeping your technical staff far away from view, never getting the credit they deserve.

There are obvious consistencies with the other 'support' areas within the law firm environment, wouldn't you say? Marketing, technology, libraries, finance, KM, facilities ... just about any function of the firm where non-lawyers (yet degreed professionals) are retained to help manage operations, but can then be second-guessed because of inequities of the power structure.

What's interesting to me is the collaborative approach Mike is advocating. The best projects I've been involved with over the years were always collaborative. Non-lawyers in firms accept the final decision making power is not in their hands. That's rarely at issue. But as business owners (and hopefully leaders), it all starts with the lawyer/manager's ability to create a collaborative solution and share in the final credit. Even if that means holding out non-lawyers as experts in their field to clients, or a more difficult pill, to the general public.

The thing is, the majority of lawyers are able to let go. There just happen to be a few that can't; similar to the many business owners who won't remove themselves from micro-managing. And hey, I'll even admit to fighting that demon. :)

The bigger problem, as I see it, are the systemic elements that trickle down into firms. The CLE that educates with only Lawyers as faculty is a great example; or the bar association that doesn't integrate other professions. Isn't it interesting that in Canada, where Law Societies are the professional regulatory body, that the CBA doesn't allow non-lawyers an associate membership level as the ABA does? or the US non-lawyer counterpart the ALA does?

If I'm an in-firm lawyer and tasked with leading & managing one of these areas? ... I'm probably a tad frustrated with the rate of change right now. This us-vs-them mentality, pitting lawyer vs non-lawyer, is no longer productive for anyone.

No one would disagree that Lawyers should (absolutely) manage their own profession; but that's not the same as the goal of supporting legal businesses, ie. 'the legal industry', which must be an integrated environment of professions, and accessible to all.

Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day!

Did you know that July 31st is System Administrator Appreciation Day? Yeah ok, either did I until about 5 minutes ago. ;)

In the honour of the day then, see: Mordac The Preventer of Information Services.

And the requisite light bulb joke:

Q: How many system administrators does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, they just keep everyone out of the room.

BC Pro Bono Advice-a-thon!

Pro Bono Law of BC is looking for lawyers to volunteers in Vancouver, Kelowna and and Victoria for Pro Bono Going Public 2009, a free outdoor legal advice-a-thon to raise awareness and funds for the provision of pro bono legal services in British Columbia.

The events are slated for September 11 (Vancouver), September 15 (Kelowna) and September 18 (Victoria), and PBLBC hopes that more than 50 volunteer lawyers will participate.

In each free legal advice-a-thon location, volunteer lawyers will work in one or two hour shifts throughout the day to advise individual clients in an open-air setting. Clients will be low- and modest-income individuals, including homeless people who may otherwise have limited access to traditional free legal advice clinics. Some clients will have pre-scheduled appointments, while others will simply drop in for free advice on a wide range of legal issues.

The event is in need of Vancouver, Kelowna and Victoria lawyers to volunteer for one or two hours at the free legal advice-a-thon. PBLBC also needs friends, family, co-workers and members of the public to pledge financial support for the participating lawyers. The hope is that each volunteer lawyer will raise an amount equal to or above their billable hour rate. The ultimate goals are to serve the public, spread awareness around lawyers’ efforts to increase access to justice, and raise $20,000 or more for BC’s pro bono programs.

For more information, to volunteer, or offer financial support, please visit: www.advice-a-thon.ca.

Highlights from SLA 2009: Competitive Intelligence for Law Firms

I saved the best for last at SLA 2009. "Incorporating CI into Your Services: Real Life Examples from Legal Info Pros" was my favourite type of session: fast-paced and full of practical, concrete examples.

Tim McAllister, Greg Lambert, and J.O. Wallace are all law librarians at BigLaw firms in the US and for an hour and a half, they shared with us their experiences in providing competitive intelligence (CI) to the powers that be. In short, CI is absolutely critical in protecting a firm's bottom line and reputation.

Coming from the relatively small Canadian legal market, I was fascinated to hear about the competitive nature of major law firms in United States. I described it afterwards to a friend as it almost being like the rivalry between McDonalds and Burger King. I knew that the American legal industry was bigger and different from ours, but I didn't realise just how fierce the competition between major law firms is.

Tim McAllister was up first, and discussed the process of creating a weekly CI newsletter for his firm. CI was always being done on a some level, but it was disorganized and disjointed. Administration had asked him to do some collecting, filtering, and distilling of the information to make it more streamlined. He emphasized that "When we do our jobs well, we give people the mental space to do their jobs well", and this seemed to be the guiding principle each step along the way of the newsletter's development.

McAllister created a newsletter that captures information in seven categories: mergers & acquisitions; office openings/closings; lawyer moves; law firm management trends; finances, fees, bonuses, salaries; the firm in the news; and special reports such as AmLaw 100, etc.

He then described the evolution of the newsletter: what works (3 pages, bullet points, facts, numbers, a BlackBerry-friendly format) and what doesn't (anything more than 3 pages, blocks of text or commentary, anything BlackBerry-unfriendly) and what methods he uses for collecting all the data.

The newsletter was very well received and the distribution list has grown from just the senior staff in the beginning, to include several other departments - sounds like a success to me!

Greg Lambert was up next, and he began his section of the session in remarking on the interesting position that CI finds itself in: CI is overhead, and yet CI is necessary to grow revenue. He he described his fascinating and novel experiences in crowdsourcing routine CI tasks using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Lambert talked about the testing, trial and error, and ethical considerations of this sort of outsourcing. It remains to be seen if this set-up will work for Lambert, but I am impressed with his innovative attitude!

J.O. Wallace spoke last, and showed us screen captures of several CI initiatives he's worked on. He helped to develop a sort of "bidding system" for defense work opportunities. Basically, his team works to swiftly assemble and deliver a snapshot of a potential case, which includes information on the firm's current relationship with the potential client, biographies of the client's directors and officers, a client profile, and conflict check information. Wallace also showed us exactly how he formats a CI newsletter that he distributes several times a week.

The presentation left me with the impression that BigLaw's fast-paced, cut-throat environment isn't just a reality for lawyers; info pros also deal with it day in, day out. It seems exciting and glamourous, even - but I think this just McAllister, Lambert, and Wallace's enthusiasm for their work shining through. And while I've not been asked (yet) to do CI in my own work, I feel like I'd have a good starting point if the need arose. An excellent session overall, and I hope to see more of this type at future SLA conferences.

That's it for recaps from me for this year - hopefully I'll be back next year with tales from SLA 2010 in New Orleans!

Highlights of SLA 2009: Painless Negotiation

It's no secret that Mary Ellen Bates is a must-see speaker for me - it's impossible to go to one of her presentations and not come out of it feeling energized and excited about our profession. This year I opted to go to one of her more general sessions, entitled Painless (no, really!) Negotiating.

Bates described how she was one ultra-averse to negotiating, but told us to remember that "negotiation is a moment of discomfort to get a larger payoff". Here's a quick summary of her tips:

• Keep an internal locus of control - do not allow the external world to control you
• First ID your best outcome (not how you will get there)
• ID the other person's best outcome
• Look at all the alternatives.
• Negotiate from a place of interest, not position
• Shift from worst-case to best-case thinking
• Always make a high first offer. If you offer what you'll settle for, you've got nowhere to go but down
• You don't have to be dissatisfied to ask for more
• It's business, not personal

Bates reminded us that in even in a situation that you see as have only two options, "there's yes, and there's no. And then there's apples" - meaning, there may be things you haven't thought of, or that only the other person can offer.

A final, but very important, point: language is important. As with all communication, "I" statements are key. And when you're negotiating, say "I want". Don't say things like "I deserve" (because "we all deserve more than we get") or even "I would like". These are conversation stoppers and won't get you very far.

For anyone in the library field, there are many instances where good negotiating skills come in handy. Salary and benefits discussions and vendor contract negotiations come to mind immediately, but if Bates is right when she says "everything is negotiable", then those are just the tip of the iceberg. Virtually every aspect of life can be improved with solid and confident negotiation skills.

Slides for Painless (no really!) Negotiation along with Bates' other two presentations are available at her website.

New BC Court Rules Include Court Fee Reductions

The BC Government announced yesterday a number of changes that should help reduce Court costs in this province, including:

• the Province picking up the tab for "up to three days of trial time before litigants are required to pay court fees";
  
• "court fees for filing or responding to a legal claim will be eliminated for parties that engage in mediation prior to commencing a civil action"; and,
  
• a new fast track process to simplify procedures for disputes of less than $100K.

The new rules were initiated by the Justice Review Task Force, and come into force on July 1, 2010.

The rationale behind these changes and an overview of the goals involved are also nicely explained in this Civil Rules Fact Sheet.

Highlights of SLA 2009: Critical Thinking

One of the best sessions I attended at the SLA annual conference was "Critical Thinking", presented by Rebecca Jones and Jane Dysart of Dysart & Jones and Deb Wallace of the Harvard Business School Baker Library. With such a short and plain title, this session might have been easy to miss in the program, but I'm extremely glad I decided to attend. I'll share here a little of what I learned.

Critical thinking is an intellectually disciplined process that requires skillful action. It's a way of thinking that requires constant acknowledgment of certain biases and traps that may impact your decisions. It is recognizing that you can't make decisions alone or in a vacuum. According to the presenters, it's hard, and it's worth it.

Critical thinking requires constant mindfulness not to fall into decision traps. The four biggest traps we we fall into are framing, status quo, anchoring, and sunk cost fallacy.

• Framing is the idea that you already have about a situation and the way you approach it. The types of questions you ask will determine the types of answers you'll get. Reframing will take you from "How do we cut 10% of our budget" to "We have X dollars. How will we spend it best?". To avoid the trap of framing, don't accept the first frame or question. Look at it from different perspectives.
• Whether we like something, we have a tendency to stick with what we know. Breaking status quo is psychologically risky because you open yourself up to criticism. Sticking with the status quo is not action, it's comfort. To avoid this trap, identify what IS the status quo, and ask how it is helping reach a goal. Evaluate the status quo against all other options in terms of the future.
• Anchoring seems to be a bit like framing. The first things we hear or see determine our subsequent thinking - you have to take into account your past experiences and the order you learned about them. Awareness and using different starting points can help to prevent anchoring. When explaining a situation, give as little info as possible to begin.
• The Sunk Cost fallacy revolves around people's tendency to want to justify past decisions no matter how the present and future are affected by that decision. It's thinking like, "We've already spent so much money on this. Why stop now?" To avoid it, consciously set aside past investments. Remember that a rational decision is one based on current assets and future consequences. Stop sinking costs into sunk ones. It's important to reward new ideas.

We were encouraged to remember that a little disagreement is necessary, and that disagreement does not equate to disloyalty. Essential characteristics for critical thinking are:

• good listening skills
• a keen sense of self-awareness (what is your conflict style?) and acceptance of that style
• curiosity and interest
• the ability to admit when you don't understand or feel you are missing important information
• a willingness to assess and evaluate the issues at hand for their current value

Immediately, I began to notice the power of reframing: that is, changing the way you look at a given circumstance. I saw this sort of thinking displayed in a recent article in AALL Spectrum, Manhattan BigLaw Libraries with a Smaller Footprint: The analyses and processes of physically downsizing the law library/information center. In the article, one library director described the proactive approach he took to downsizing, whereby he negotiated a loss of space in exchange for an increased electronic resources budget:

“The second you find there is a potential reduction, be forthcoming. Be proactive if you have to reduce the library space,” says Cohan. “Think of ways you can save money. I gave up one half of the space and picked up a huge amount for my electronic resources. View it as an opportunity—not a take-away from the library.”

It's this sort of thinking ("View it as an opportunity") that Dysart, Jones, and Wallace encouraged us to try to develop. I think critical thinking skills are going to become more and more valuable for the library field, as we find ourselves facing change at an ever-quickening pace.

You can see more of Jones' thoughts on critical thinking on the Dysart & Jones blog. Interestingly, she submits that critical thinking comes more easily to Gen Xers and Yers because we were taught to ask "why?" in school. (That may be giving us too much credit, but it's worth considering.) The slides of the presentation are also available at the Dysart & Jones website.

SLA 2009: Alignment Project and a New Name for SLA

Alignment was a more formal theme at SLA 2009, and took the form of SLA's Alignment Project:

"This alignment project will not only help refine our current positioning in the marketplace, but provide a framework for discussing the inherent value in the profession and the Association in a clear, compelling and cohesive voice."

In a nutshell, SLA's working with international PR firm Fleishman-Hillard, futurist Andy Hines, and information analytics firm Outsell, Inc to get a realistic picture of how our profession is viewed by business leaders and decision makers, and to develop strategies to improve our image and raise our profile.

With the Alignment Project comes the very real likelihood of a name change. According to SLA CEO Janice Lachance, "As SLA enters its second century, it is clear that we are burdened with a name that not only causes confusion but also fails to capture the aspirations of our members."

Research done for the Alignment Project shows that the word "special" is vague and doesn't accurately communicate the value of a librarian. SLA members have been told to expect a vote on a new name sometime over the next year. The Knowledge and Information Specialist Society (KISS), Specialized Librarians and Information Professionals (SLIP), and Global Association of Library and Information Professionals (GALIP) are just a few of the names people are proposing. You can see many of the suggestions at the SLA Alignment wiki.

Personally, I'm all in favour of considering a new name. SLA founder John Cotton Dana himself said that the organization's name "was chosen with some hesitation, and rather in default of a better." I think we can find a name that better represents what we do, and I'm excited to be a part of choosing that name.

The 2009 conference was a great one, and SLA's centennial gave us all the more reason to celebrate our organization's achievements. It's mind-boggling to try to predict what sorts of topics and themes will dominate the annual conference agenda 10 years from now, let alone another 100 - but it's sure neat to imagine.

Stay tuned for summaries of my favourite sessions over the next few days!

SLA 2009: ROI for Special Libraries

In addition to embedded librarianship, another high-profile theme at SLA 2009 was return on investment.

There seemed to be more focus than usual this year on ROI; this is not surprising considering the economy. Post-session Q&A almost always yielded at least one question about ROI: how to measure it, how to report on it, how to prove it, etc. Obviously, it's a topic that's on everyone's minds.

But what was different this year was a more straightforward, ruthless attitude towards it. I heard several speakers mention that they review their services regularly - not yearly, but every 90 days. If the service is not being used or aligned with the organization's goals, it's cut. No hemming and hawing - just cut it and move on. Attendees were also encouraged to be mindful of the discrepancy between what's important to us and what's important to the end user - there's often a big difference between the two.

During one session on critical thinking, the speakers emphasized how important it is not to get caught in the sunk cost fallacy. In other words, if a service or activity isn't worth pursuing, don't let the fact that you've invested a lot of time and effort and money into it prevent you from axing it. Just write it off as a sunk cost and get on it with. This sort of blunt, no-nonsense strategy was prevalent.

I don't expect that ROI will become any less important in coming years, and it'll be interesting to hear the innovative ways that info pros track and convey this important measure.

Up next: The Alignment Project and a New Name for SLA