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 'Career Preparation on the Web'»
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 'Getting Thrown Out of Court'»
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 'Nominations and Elections Committee Report'»
by Sue Mecklem
In the past year, our firm’s librarians have had a goal of figuring out how we can assist our attorneys more effectively. There are many approaches to gleaning this information, from casual water cooler conversations to electronic surveys to educated guesses. One idea we decided to explore was attending practice group meetings to figure out how we could assist our attorneys in their work. The experience has been a productive learning experience for me.
My approach to attending practice group meetings at first was to ask the practice group meeting organizer if I could attend an upcoming meeting to listen and learn. For my first visits I did not prepare formal presentations or ask to be included on the agenda but gave the group a quick spiel on how we librarians were looking for ways to assist them and how we were interested in learning more about their practices. I always had positive responses to my sitting in on practice group meetings. Continue reading 'How to Benefit from Attending Practice Group Meetings'»
by Sue Mecklem
I love blogs! I like the simplicity of short entries and the ability to receive information on a variety of subjects without committing to reading long articles, and adding to my information inundation. I use an RSS reader to subscribe to my favorite 25 blogs and can quickly decide what looks relevant or interesting. I’m sharing three law librarian blogs I find really useful, and three blogs for fun. I’d love to hear what your favorites are!
Blogs for Work:
The ZRG Blog
I’ve used Zimmerman’s Research Guide at least a few times a month since I started working as a law librarian, so I was pleased to see that Andrew Zimmerman has started a blog where he discusses updates to the ZRG and provides interesting links to websites. In a recent blog post, he provided a link to the Atlas of County Boundaries, which explains the history of changes to counties in the US in every state. Continue reading 'Blogs for Work and Fun'»
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