My discussion with him about this survey was interesting.
Their motivation for conducting this
research was as a vendor of Business Development (BD) tools, they wanted to get
a sense of the scope of the involvement of law librarians in BD. The overwhelming response of librarians answering
“yes” to the question of could they be better utilized took them by surprise (95%
of the respondents to Question #6). This
is something I’ve been talking about for years (Here’s
an example) and I’m pleased to see
that this is becoming a universal point of view.
He also noted that law firm librarians see themselves as
a resource for the acquisition of work for the firm. This is borne out by the following survey
responses:
Q1: 81% cite pushing relevant information on client intel
directly to individual stakeholders as demonstration of their value
Q2: 72% see BD and CI as areas currently handled has part
of their job
Q3: 66% see BD and CI as logical areas for someone with a
law firm librarian skillset to add value
The numbers clearly demonstrate a recognition by the law
librarian community of the fact that this is a major contribution they can make
to the success of the firm. However, only
18% say their law firm is currently using them in this capacity (Question 5). When taken into account with the previously
discussed results, it appears that librarians are not being acknowledged for
the BD and CI contributions they are making now. The reasons for this could be that these
contributions are funneled through other departments, not recognized as BD or CI, or simply done on
an ad hoc basis.
One possible cause for this was identified by David in
our discussion. He noted that firm BD
initiatives lack consistency from one firm to the next. As result, the quality of the underlying
research and analysis is not consistent.
Using librarians in this capacity is an easy way for firms to utilize an
existing resource to create a consistent high quality basis for strategic
business decisions.
The most interesting post
for me was from fellow Geek Zena Applebaum.
Zena used the survey to point out a path to address the concerns that were
expressed by the respondents. David
agreed with Zena’s assessment that Librarians are natural sleuths and are good
at figuring out the client’s needs early and identifying strategic areas for the
firm to target. Let’s face it, the days
of “they know what I can do and they
know where to find me if they need me to do it” are long gone. Her post should inspire each of us to take
charge of our destiny. Pick up that
phone and ask your Marketing counterpart to lunch. Meet with your practice group leaders and
show them how you help them achieve their strategic goals. Now is the time for action!
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