Legal Research

Social working: portrait of a new intranet

Posted on March 03, 2010
Managing Partner Magazine has published an excellent article by Steve Perry (ex Freshfields) called "Social working: portrait of a new intranet*" the article looks at the steps taken by Freshfields to increase collaboration across the firm.As Steve explains in the introduction to the article "We wanted to (increase collaboration)...

Rolling with social tools

Posted on February 19, 2010
Stephen Perry (ex Freshfields) has joined Headshift as a partner in Headshift's project delivery network and has written a short but very interesting piece called "Rolling out social tools within law firms"If there is one thing I would take from this article, it is two points within the first two paragraphs of the article;"Many legal professionals have been slow to embrace social networking and social tools for reasons of; fears of security, privacy breaches, perception of time wasting and Internet horror stories but organisations must learn to manage these risks and challenges, as with previous "new" technologies...

Sidcup 10 - new PB!

Posted on February 18, 2010
Last Sunday (14/2) I ran the Sidcup 10 mile, this actually started at Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar School, so not technically in Sidcup, but we won't hold that against them. The race took in some of the residential roads in the vicinity of the school and was a 3 lap race...

Looking after the talent

Posted on February 18, 2010
Earlier this week I attended the ARK Group conference Managing your law firm library and information service through challenging times this was a really interesting conference, which you won't be surprised to learn looked at some of the challenges facing Information Managers and Law Librarians...

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Canterbury 10 mile

Posted on February 14, 2010
On the 31st of January I ran my first race of the 2010 season at the Barretts Canterbury 10 mile race. This was a somewhat of a comeback race, seeing as how I hadn't run a race since September 2009. This was a very well organised race, although parking was a bit of a nightmare...

Will corporate libraries survive or thrive?

Posted on February 12, 2010
The latest edition of the CILIP Gazette carries a very interesting article by Graham Beastall of Soutron asking "Will your library survive or thrive?"Graham argues that in 2010 the corporate library "...has the opportunity to become one of the few constructs in the corporate body that can provide a sense of continuity"Given the developments that we've already seen with another two law firm libraries deciding to outsource their library services to Integreon I'm not sure how many law librarians will agree with this statement...

Tough times = tough libraries

Posted on February 06, 2010
Like the song says, "when the going gets tough - the tough get going" and it's no different for Libraries in this day and age. So it was great to see a Librarian looking at how Libraries could reduce costs by looking at alternative technology solutions...

A world of connections

Posted on February 05, 2010
The Economist recently published a special report on Social Networking which if you have the time is well worth reading. cCalled "A world of connections" the reports looks at the growth of social networks and some of the issues that arise from their use...

Is the law sector dripping talent?

Posted on January 28, 2010
The latest issue of the Library & Information Gazette has an interesting piece on how the recent outsourcing of Library services by Osborne Clarke, Beachcroft and TLT solicitors may have a profound impact on the way legal information professionals work...

Follow changes to any website

Posted on January 26, 2010
We all know how annoying it can be when you're looking for a case or some information that someone has told you is going to be "published soon", you've identified a potential source for the information but heck the site doesn't have an RSS feed or an email alerter...

How powerful are you?

Posted on January 23, 2010
Nina Platt over at the Strategic Librarian blog has written a very interesting post on how ALL librarians need to "re-engage their power", their what you're probably thinking?! Nina's post is essentially a call for librarians to not sit back and accept what might happen during this economic crisis but to stand up for what they believe in and start communicating!So what can we do to become more powerful, Nina makes a number of suggestions:Learn to communicateQuit accepting what others think instead of what you think Manage your anger Quit feeling sorry for yourself Feel fear but keep going Acknowledge you are right more often than not Speak up! Be assertive Ask questions Create a vision for the future Share your ideas If you are in a business library, learn about the business and think of your self as a business person first, librarian second If you don?t like being thought of as a business person, find another type of library to work at where you fit in ? your staying where you will give you a sense of being powerless and helps perpetuate the stereotype Learn the language of other professions to improve communication Keep working at it, you will see changesNow if you've read that list, you might be thinking blimey that is some list and an imposing looking list as well but I believe Librarians are already doing some of these things, we just need to make sure we ALL do them and stand up for ourselves like we've never done before...

Applying yourself...

Posted on January 22, 2010
It's been a while since I've filled out an application form, my last two job applications were CV and interview based. If you are about to fill in an application form and looking for some tips, then "Apply yourself" on the View from the Hill blog has some very good tips...

7 lessons for better social networking

Posted on January 21, 2010
Mashable have published a very interesting guide which lists 7 lessons for better social networking there are some great tips in this guide, the following are the ones I found most useful to refer to.Find a Person?s Preferred Communication Channel - In other words go where the person you're interested in making contact with prefers to communicateClarify Early - This could apply to anything, emails, telephone conversations, social networking...

New year running woes

Posted on January 19, 2010
Late last year I decided that I was going to run a lot more races then I did last year, sadly the best laid plans of mice and men went up in smoke when last Tuesday I "stumbled" down a step leaving my office building.I didn't think anything of it at the time but later that day my ankle started hurting and the following morning it was swollen and tender all the way up from my ankle to my knee...

Using Google Wave

Posted on January 14, 2010
Loads of people have written about it, but not that many people might have used it so the question on everybodies lips is, exactly how could you use Google Wave?Well if you've used it already, you're probably in a better position then me to answer that particular answer...

Knowledge, knowledge everywhere...

Posted on January 12, 2010
Nicola Franklin from the View from the Hill Blog has pointed me in the direction of an article by Larry Prusak in the December 2009 issue of the SLA Information Outlook entitled "You can never have too much Knowledge" In the article, which is summarised by Nicola, Larry argues that "information' is now a commodity which is cheap and easy to find/sell/buy and that therefore information professionals who stick to a gatekeeping role of finding information for users are unlikely to be in demand for long"I'm not an SLA member so unfortunately I cant read the full article, but Nicola raises an interesting issue in her blog post:"Are librarians (information professionals, knowledge managers, records managers...

Merry Christmas...

Posted on December 24, 2009
...to everyone who reads this blog, have a very merry Christmas! and as Tess and Bruce on Strictly Come Dancing might say...keep running!

How to manage those "boundaries"

Posted on December 23, 2009
The Fast Forward Blog published a post earlier this month about the blurring of the "boundaries" between personal social networking and work related social networking. Called "How to Manage Fuzzy Boundaries Between Work, Personal Social Networking"From the blog post "An issue that social networking is bringing to the fore ? and has enormous legal implications for organizations ? is where the social networking for an employer stops and personal social networking begins...

Keeping an eye out for social media snake oil

Posted on December 22, 2009
Kevin O'Keefe has published an interesting post called Law firms should beware social media snake oil in it he refers to a post from Business Week, called "Beware Social Media snake oil" in the post from Businss Week the author argues that "...an entire industry of consultants has arisen to help companies navigate the world of social networks, blogs, and wikis...

Why Law Firms should stop and think about Social Media

Posted on December 21, 2009
The Real Lawyers have Blogs have published an interesting post on the use of Social Media by Law Firms. In Law firms best not to get ahead of themselves on social media they ask whether it's better to learn how to do the basics well, rather then try to do lots of things badly...

The "Tao" of tweeting

Posted on December 16, 2009
In a recent post on Mashable called "The tao of Tweeting" Soren Gordhamer looks at some of the lessons that could be learned from the ancient chinese book the Tao te Ching The four lessons that Soren has identified are:Show versus tell - or how we should provide good, quality information related to a subject matter, rather then just tell people how great we are...

Usability testing toolkit

Posted on December 14, 2009
One of the things I'm likely to be doing in the New Year (yes 2010 is that close) is undertaking some usability testing. So a recent post from the iLibrarian called "Usability Testing Toolkit: Resources, Articles, and Techniques" seemed too good to be true...

Could your next event use Social Media?

Posted on December 12, 2009
Chris Brogan has written an excellent post on using social media at events. Called "How events could use Social Media" Chris highlights three areas where event organisers could use Social Media, they are;Social Media Buzzes Up Potential AttendanceSocial Media Extends CommunitiesVideo and Audio Materials Drive AwarenessI think using social media is a great way to encourage people not only to attend your event but also to talk about it before, during and after...

Outsourcing Library services

Posted on December 11, 2009
The news from Legalweek that two more Law Firms have entered into agreement with Integreon should come as no surprise, but it's still rather depressing especially this close to Christmas.The law firms and libraries involved are Beachcroft and TLT Solicitors and according to the article Integreon are also in "discussions" with a number of other law firms, that statement alone is enough to make many Law Librarians not look forward to the new year...

Google now includes real time results

Posted on December 10, 2009
In case you missed it Google searches now include "real time results" that is results from sites like Twitter so when you run a search as well as the usual suspects in the results lists you should now also see what people are saying at the exact moment in time...

Measuring the ROI of social media and blogging

Posted on December 05, 2009
How does a law firm measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of its Social media or blogging efforts? that's the question asked in this post "How does a law firm measure ROI on its social media and blogging efforts? from the blog Real Lawyers have BlogsThe short answer is that ultimately it's an increase in "legal business" as long as social media and blogging are part of a well run strategic campaign then this should be the outcome...

What is the future of legal research?

Posted on December 03, 2009
Quite a big question this and not one that "The future of legal research and search tools" answers, nonetheless this is a really interesting article on how search tools are developing. Providing a search tool that every fee-earner "enjoys" using and makes the most of is a very difficult task, fee-earners are not only looking for different things but individuals search in different ways...

How much time should you spend on Social Media?

Posted on November 30, 2009
Time, perhaps the most precious commodity we all have, so how much should we be spending on Social Media? This is the question Chris Brogan asks in his blog post How much time should I spend on Social Media?Chris proposes splitting your day into four chunks as follows:1/4 for Listening 1/2 for Commenting/Communicating1/4 for CreatingThis sounds a sensible approach although Chris does say the individuals "mileage" will differ, so this shouldn't be taken as a hard and fast approach to how much time you spend on Social Media.

How Web 2.0 is changing the way we work

Posted on November 25, 2009
The McKinsey Quarterly has published a video interview with Andrew McAfee. Andrew is the author Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for your Organization?s Toughest Challenges in the video interview Andrew discusses how Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way companies do business and whether these tools can help them achieve their goals...

Finding what you need when you need it...how Web 2.0 can help

Posted on November 23, 2009
I know it's almost December but I felt duty bound to report on an article published in The September 2009 issue of Internet Newsletter for Lawyers, which I've only just read. The article called "Using Web 2.0 within your organisation"* is written by Penny Edwards of Headshift...

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