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Law Libraries transformed

The BIALL Blogger really enjoyed reading the first line of a recent article on LLRX.com. So for your enjoyment here it is in full "Law libraries have evolved to become a service offered by talented professionals whose expertise can now be accessed at anytime, anywhere"

High fives for us all, but what does the article "Law Libraries transformed" go on to say? The article starts by looking at how Law Libraries have developed over the last 30 years from "a place" to a service which lawyers can use from their desktop. The article goes on to look at some of the other factors which have influenced the development of Law Libraries including law firms establishing dedicated marketing departments and the reduction of space provides for library services.

Sadly the article then goes on to discuss how "...library service providers have become a viable alternative to the in-house operation and management of information resources" So basically we're talking about outsourcing! The authors, it should be noted that both the authors wokr for Integreon, outline five areas, where they believe there are major benefits to using a library service provider, they are:

• Access to experts with specialized skills
• Access to specialized information
• Regional "super libraries" and "niche" collections
• Lower administrative burden
• In-depth training

I'm not going to discuss these in-depth because someone else has already done it on the 3 Geeks and a Law Librarian Blog you should read that blog post right after reading the Law Libraries transformed.

Sadly for Law Librarians based in the UK outsourcing is a real "threat" and something that we all need to be aware of and if necessary prepared to deal with.

Full post as published by The BIALL Blog on August 18, 2010 (boomark / email).