LLOPSCited

by Kristine Lloyd

Walking through Nordstrom is a heavenly experience. Gliding from architecturally aligned rack to rack, you feel as though you are in a museum. There are items that you should not touch. Items that famous people wear. You may be accosted by security for touching these items without permission if you are not carrying a Birkin bag. Sweaters are folded as soon as they’re touched and hangars are realigned after being pulled out, examined and rehung asymmetrically. A tour through Macy’s (at least some of the stores) is like walking down an alleyway. Clothes often litter the floor, hangars jut out like elbows, the mannequins look like they’ve had a rough night, and everything is 25% off. Macy’s carries many of the same designers as Nordstrom, that is, if you can find them.

What exactly am I getting at here? Well, such is the difference between two court docket alert services: Westlaw’s CourtWire and Courthouse News Service. CourtWire is, as my grandma would say, real purdy, but it does a lot of the same things that Courthouse News does, which is basically to give you access to complaints before anyone else can, by what I imagine are people who wait like the post-Thanksgiving sales shoppers to get into the courts first thing in the morning. Continue reading »

The Social Committee had a slow year but still managed to offer up some fun and entertainment. In March, we worked with the Program Committee and provided food and drinks for a social hour following Pat Wagner’s presentation: Good, Cheap and Fast or, Perfect, Free and Instantly: Understanding the “Iron” Triangle , held at K&L Gates. Later in the month, we sponsored happy hour in honor of our AALL visitor, Catherine Lemann, AALL President (2009-10) and Alaska State Law Librarian. We had a great time at the top of the Columbia Tower in the Stratus Lounge at the Columbia Tower Club. Crystal Sherman Norton once again hooked us up with access and a reservation, and we had some good food, good drinks and enjoyed great views and conversation. In April, we sponsored happy hour at Red Fin at the Hotel Max after the Professional Development Workshop. We had a full table which included several UW Law Librarianship students and we shared plenty of delicious appetizers.

That was as social as we got for the year. We spent $227 which was well under the budget, but we didn’t schedule very many activities. Our goal for 2010-11 is to be more active and provide some good fun for LLOPS. Please feel free to send any ideas or suggestions for social events to Jennifer Hill, next year’s Chair. Better yet, why not join the committee?

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Hill and Laurel Evans, LLOPS Social Committee Co-Chairs

by Philippe Cloutier

Layoffs, budget cuts, closures, and furloughs are just a few of the dismal words facing today’s libraries. As no stranger to layoffs, I’ve relied on a slew of blogs/RSS feeds and twitter accounts to stay apprised of new openings, job hunting tips, résumé and interview recommendations, and all things encompassing the search for work. Here is my basic platform for job-hunting in the electronic age.

LibGIG

Outside of library associations and my personal network, LibGIG has proven to be the most valuable multi-faceted career assistant. Their services are well-rounded, offering regular updates on job opportunities, news, tips, blogs, etc. Staying on top of LibGIG is made easier thanks to twitter, @libgig_jobs, and their newsletter(presented by their parent company LAC Group). While other sites provide pieces to a puzzle; LibGIG presents a complete web package of job seeking aid. Continue reading »

by Kristine Lloyd

I would like an iPad. Would you like an iPad? Ok, so I haven’t even upgraded my phone to one that takes pictures, but I also don’t want to be branded a “late adopter.” The horrors. Well, if you go to law school at The Monterey College of Law in Seaside (sounds fancy), you can have one, according to this recent ABA Journal article. The school is providing iPads to their 1Ls to increase their study time both during law school and in preparing to take the bar.  Who wouldn’t want an extra 30 to 45 minutes to study while eating lunch, while getting a root canal, while having a romantic dinner with your loved one? Perhaps I’ll just stick with my freebie cell phone and consider a future upgrade to the iPhone. I just want to play Scrabble and manage my wardrobe with the Pocket Closet.

This year’s Marketing Committee consisted of Kate Stockert, Tania Schriwer, and Marcus Hochstetler. Marcus originated as the committee chair, which Kate took over in January of 2010.

The committee focused on assembling a display for the LLOPS table at the AALL Annual Meeting, which will be set up and staffed by generous LLOPS member volunteers, and composing articles for the LLOPSCited Blog on marketing the library and individual job skills. Contributions to the blog included:

• Hochstetler, Marcus. “Marketing Your Need to Survive and Thrive.” LLOPS Cited Blog, 2 Oct. 2009.
• Schriwer, Tania. “BigLaw Twitterters: Flying Solo or Birds of a Feather.” LLOPS Cited Blog, 15 Apr. 2010.
• Stockert, Kate. “Go Viral! Spread the Word with Social Networking.” LLOPS Cited Blog, 10 Dec. 2009.

 This August the committee will need a new Chair. Mort Brinchmann currently holds the committee’s materials bag until the next committee chair is selected. Please contact Mort if you are interested in chairing the committee.

Respectfully submitted,

Kate Stockert

Do you, like me, grit your teeth and death grip your armrests when you get a patent law question? Well, at our first meeting of the year, on the Patent Life Cycle, Colette Napoli of ThomsonReuters broke down the who, what, when and why of patents in a way that even your kindergartner might understand. She went through the front page of a patent, explaining what each section signifies. We also learned about the differences in patent family coverage between Derwent and INPADOC. Turns out Derwent is much more selective than INPADOC when connecting patents to their family members. Colette also tested us on what could / could not be patented. Turns out my flying squirrel cannot be patented.  

Amy Eaton then gave a great presentation about the top five patent-related questions that librarians typically receive. It was nice to be reassured that I am not the only one who thinks researching a company’s assigned patents is a real challenge. I think I’m calling Amy the next time I have a patent research question.

Check out Mary Whisner’s recent article in Law Library Journal, Enact Locally about the importance of including city and county ordinances in the scope of your legislative research.

And this year’s Excellence in Marketing Award goes to . . .

The K&L Gates library newsletter, AsktheLibrary!

Ellen Bowman, our intrepid newsletter editor, and frankly the lead writer too, accepted the AALL for Excellence in Marketing Award for Best Newsletter at this year’s annual meeting.

AsktheLibrary, our quarterly K&L Gates library newsletter, is a great medium for communicating our value to our lawyers. Our firmwide newsletter includes news about the firm’s print and electronic resources, free and low-cost resources available on the web, links to our online training guides  and other tools for navigating the information landscape. Congratulations to Ellen and the library staff at K&L Gates for winning this award.

by Kerry Fitz-Gerald

I was recently lucky enough to be in England visiting my husband’s family. Before heading south-west to see Granny, we spent a few days in London and while there, decided to go see the Inns of Court. These professional associations have existed for many centuries and are housed in a series of lovely buildings in Central London. The buildings, organized around various courtyards and gardens, include offices as well as affiliated churches or chapels. I found it wonderful to meander along and imagine how different practice would be in such a historic context. The kids–4 teenagers including my two boys plus my niece and nephew–were polite enough about the trip, but clearly found the buildings themselves to be a bit boring. In an attempt to make things more interesting, we headed into Royal Courts of Justice and were immediately treated to the vision of a young barrister, complete with robe and wig, conducting an animated conversation over his cell phone. Continue reading »

The Nominations and Election Committee was composed of Brenna Louzin, Nancy Noble and Richard Jost, Chair. The committee was pleased to submit to the LLOPS Executive Board and LLOPS membership two outstanding candidates for the open positions: Crystal Sherman Norton (Riddell Williams) agreed to serve as the new Vice-President/President-elect and Judy Davis (UW Law Library) agreed to serve as the new Secretary. Continue reading »