Adding value @ AALL 2011

I just left the annual conference of the American Association of Law Libraries. I was invited to speak at the Private Law Libraries' one-day summit about adding insight to research. I tweeted like crazy except when I was speaking -- lots of thought-provoking speakers. Interestingly, every speaker brought up the need to be more efficient and cost-effective as well as the need for librarians to add more value to their services. (For great coverage of the summit, see Connie Crosby's blog. I will admit that I got into a virtual smackdown on Twitter with @mdmlibrarian, scheduled at the same time I was, begging Connie to live-tweet OUR talks. Yeah, she's that good. (Turns out she attended a third session! So much for bribery...)

A comment during my talk was "I wouldn't dare provide financial analysis." My response was that, yes, she could provide financial analysis... just make it transparent. Your clients expect you to provide more than just the raw data. Another librarian  told me that she's working on raising her staff's analysis skills and  said "I have to avoid using the A word." I have experienced the same reluctance to providing analysis in some of the private workshops I've done recently.

I spoke for 50 minutes and had enough questions to speak for twice that long. You can see the slide deck at Batesinfo.com/extras