Librarian of Fortune

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

Insights from "What Law Firm Administrators Want Librarians to Know"

Following are notes from the session at AALL PLL-SIS Summit, led by Joan Axelroth:

Questions inspired by Jim Jones of Hildebrandt

“How will the changes in law firm management have an impact on how law libraries work?”
•    Economic impact
•    The old service model doesn’t work. Everyone used to love us but we can’t sell that. You have to start showing something they need. Our librarians aren’t in the library – they are practice group specialists embedded in practice groups, so they act proactively. Having a physical presence has made a big difference. It’s been very successful.
•    I don’t have enough librarians to devote people to embedded librarians.
•    We use this as a way to get more staff! We’ve doubled our billables by being embedded, so we’re using our metrics to show our value. We develop metrics that will help us get more staff.

What about other pricing models? If lawyers aren’t hourly-priced,  should we be?
•    In my office, each client has their own relationship. For some, we’re included in the contract and the client pays. For others, our time is written off.
•    My firm is known for non-traditional fee arrangements. But that doesn’t mean that librarians aren’t asked to input their hours. They’re not mutually exclusive. Our hours are used to demonstrate value to the clients.  I’ve had very steady demand. My challenge is raising expectations; some of the paralegals’ research skills are rudimentary, and we need to let the attorneys know what else we can do.
•    Is there consideration of tying salary to the practice group? {No, we all handle all kinds of work.}
•    Everyone in our library is a generalist, and we have people who know more about one subject or another.
•    I’ve seen one situation where embedded librarians’ salary was tied to that practice group and it didn’t turn out well for the librarian. There was so much worry about should I do it or should you?
•    In our firm, they hired a librarian for a practice group and they’d still call me to help them. This created a better relationship; we don’t hire them, and they were hired for specialized skills. We cover for them when they’re on vacation. It’s easy to do because we all get along.

Does your law firm management ask you to make sure that info won’t be siloed?
•    If you’re looking for efficiency, just look at how well you’re collaborating. We don’t see a lot of collaboration. There’s no expectation that you’ll get together to spend money the most effective way. We need firm-wide collaboration in order for these to get done. We’ve got vendors selling products to finance; we’re buying the same content over and over again for specific applications instead of collaborating.
•    Our firm’s mantra is we want you all to collaborate. Easier said than done. Regarding the vendors that sell multiple products applicable to multiple groups, we’ve done a good job at consolidating our purchases.
•    They took the part of our budget for electronic info was sent to our CIO. We thought it would be horrible but it turned out well. We have more resources for librarians and the CIO is finding that he can’t just say no to all the things he thought he’d say no to.
•    One of the products we came up with was for when they say they want to buy a branded info product. We get a specialist to write a comparison of what else does the same thing, no more than a page.
•    There are lots of reasons to consolidate data acquisitions – to ensure licensing restrictions are being followed as well as for cost efficiency.
•    All software licensing and agreements go through the library to keep it coordinated. We ensure that the departments they need and ensure that the whole firm is in compliance.

How are you communicating back to management what you’re doing, that you’re sensitive to what’s going on and how you’ve responded to changes made in the organization.

•    Our managing partner asked everyone to write a justification, and as I wrote it I was able to organize everything I’ve done. It set the ground for the next meeting I had with him. Self-evaluations give you an opportunity to present what you’ve done, even though no one likes writing them.
•    Making presentations to practice groups is a great way to communicate value and tailor your description to each practice group. Great way of getting a point across about your value. I’ve sometimes had to force myself into a meeting. “No, really, I need to know what you’re doing; I can develop services specifically for you.” I finally got in by offering to do a presentation.
•    I asked my managing director “What do you want to know about the library” Use the metrics that the MD wants and values.
•    I have monthly meetings with my managing director. What she wants basic numbers: how are you doing on the budget, what kind of programs are you doing, what projects are you working on. You have to address what they want to know.
•    Yes, but how do you get them to listen to what you need to know before startinga project?
•    You put it in terms they understand.
•    Talk about your value, give them a reason to listen to you.
•    It’s our responsibility to get the message across. If one technique doesn’t work, we have to try something else.
•    Once I understood what my manager wanted, I was able to communicate in ways she understood.
•    Do they want an oral or written report? Do they want 2 pages or 20 pages?
•    When you have international firms, things get siloed. An executive director in another part of the world doesn’t care about the library. The power structure may not benefit the library. We sometimes have to get buy-in from the branch manager, promote ourselves.
•    When I deliver results to the head of my firm, I anticipate “well, what about this, what about that?” By making sure she won’t have any questions, it’s easier for her to decide.

Clients are looking for efficiency. How can we show that? There are lots of firms who can do their work. How do you differentiate yourself? How does the library communicate that?
•    Be careful about speaking through channels. If I see an opportunity, I talk with each of the players.
•    Law firms are intensely political. It takes us  a while to understand how information flows, how decisions are made, who the rainmakers are, who the power people are. If you can navigate your environment in a way that’s politically expedient, that enables us to expand our value opportunities around the whole law firm.
•    Go to the group if you know something you are going to do and let them know what’s happen.
•    The org chart of a law firm may not show you where the power and influence is. You have to figure it out, and it’s a moving target.
•    Every area is managed by a person. Come up with a plan and present it to the manager. Ask your vendors – sometimes they know!
•    We have to make it our point to know who’s buying electronic information!

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