In September 2003, fresh from receiving my master's degree in library science from the University of Missouri, I became the first professional librarian in a mid-sized law firm. Beginning my career as a solo librarian in a newly created position was intimidating, but it also offered an exciting opportunity. My goal was to increase our small library's usefulness, effectiveness, and visibility.
The library is physically centered in the law firm, and a large number of employees pass through it daily. I wanted the library's role to reflect its physical structure as a focal point of the office. An additional challenge was to accomplish this with our existing technology and without any large expenditures.
Over the last few months I've discovered some simple techniques to re-energize and revitalize a small law firm or corporate library. These methods can be applied to other types of special libraries. They will particularly benefit any information center that is underutilized or neglected. Implementing these 10 basics steps will help make your library a vibrant part of your organization.
1. Involve your coworkers as much as possible. After all, they are also your patrons, so invite their comments. Solicit suggestions about potential acquisitions. Take advantage of individual areas of subject expertise that employees have.
Ask employees what services they would like the library to provide. Request feedback on the usefulness and effectiveness of existing services. Respond gratefully and graciously to all ideas, even those not adopted.
Involving coworkers means you must be prepared to be flexible. When someone recently requested that I reshelve a book in what he considered a more user-friendly location, the new librarian in me cringed at the thought of something being in the "wrong" place. However, granting that simple request was an easy way to show that I valued his input and that I would welcome other ideas he might have about improving the library.
Enlisting the cooperation of employees gives them a sense of shared ownership in the library. And as a solo librarian, I have found the contributions of others to be invaluable in improving overall service.
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2. Tailor your services to the needs of your patrons. Anticipate their needs. Don't wait to be asked to provide information that is obviously valuable to someone.
For example, if an attorney has written an article for publication, I monitor news and updates on the article topic and keep him or her informed of any updated information. I know that the human resources manager will appreciate being told about online continuing HR education classes, and that the attorneys handling biotechnology patents will be interested in a new DNA website.
Librarians in a small corporate setting often have the luxury of being able to provide very individualized service that time and staff constraints do not allow in larger libraries. This is an excellent way to establish good relationships between the library and every department in your company.
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3. Maximize your print collection. In a small library, every title is obviously important. Soon after I was hired, I completed a very necessary weeding of the collection, but this resulted in our collection's dwindling to approximately 400 titles. I asked employees if our catalog could include books that they personally owned and kept in their offices. This resource-sharing project brought the number of titles to 500, an increase of 25 percent.
Resource sharing saves time and money. There's no need to initiate an interlibrary loan or make a purchase if a title is already available in an organization, even if technically it isn't a part of the library collection. Resource sharing also frees up your budget for purchases that can't easily be obtained elsewhere.
4. Check into the availability of public library resources. Our employees are eligible for St. Louis Public Library cards because they work in the city, even if they reside elsewhere. I conducted a library card drive with almost 50 percent participation. I was also able to arrange library card renewals through myself, eliminating the need for employees to handle this on an individual basis.
Foremost among the public library services we now have is access to the library's extensive collection of electronic databases. We now have free access to articles from several journals that we had obtained previously through a document delivery service.
Several employees have discovered public library databases and websites, such as those pertaining to genealogy, that hold personal interest for them. Although these resources may not be directly related to their work, discovering them helps employees sharpen their online research skills, making them savvier library users. This can only reflect positively on the corporate library by showing the value of libraries in general.
5. Put the catalog on the intranet. No matter how small the collection, making it available and searchable from everyone's desktop is paramount. Use Microsoft Access or another database program if purchasing specialized cataloging software is not practical or economically feasible.
Having the catalog available encourages library use and saves valuable search time. It facilitates collection development by making it easy to assess the contents of your collection. Most importantly, it gives your library a constant, visible presence.
6. Investigate free online resources. Space and finances are usually at a premium in a small library. Free Internet sites are an easy and important way to expand your collection. Invest in a good Internet reference guide such as The Web Library: Building a World Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources, by Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo (Information Today, Inc., ISBN 0-910965-67-6).
Make sure you are familiar with a multitude of search engines and websites so you can offer assistance where needed. Evaluate websites for content and authority before recommending them to patrons.
7. Stay current. In a small library you will probably have limited daily contact with other librarians, so it's highly important to be proactive in your professional development.
Join professional organizations and read their publications. Subscribe to e-mail newsletters like www.resourceshelf.com and http://lii.org that provide the latest Internet information. Regularly review general reference and news sites. Join a listserv to stay abreast of what others in your field are discussing.
8. Take advantage of free trial subscriptions to both electronic databases and print periodicals. Trial subscriptions like the monthly one offered by Ovid (www.ovid.com) allow you and your patrons to sample a wide variety of literature and examine products hands-on before making any financial investment.
9. Both a borrower and a lender be. Get to know other librarians working in similar small corporate settings. Many of these libraries do not have online catalogs, so be willing to share information about the titles in your collection. Arrange reciprocal borrowing privileges. This can be a godsend in corporate libraries that often need to borrow expensive, very specialized, and hard-to-find publications.
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10. Promote your library. Regularly notify employees by e-mail of new acquisitions and useful websites. Consider writing a periodical library newsletter than can be posted on the Intranet or sent by email. The newsletter can contain such helpful tidbits as advice on online searching, book reviews, and library news.
Purchase some inexpensive bookmarks for giveaways. Conduct National Library Week activities. Be helpful. Be available. Above all, be enthusiastic. If you don't love your library, who will?
When it comes to library service, size doesn't necessarily matter. Even the smallest law firm or corporate library can have a big impact. I'm still a novice and I still have many unmet goals for my library. But I have discovered that with a little creativity and ingenuity even the smallest library can become an integral part of an organization.
Donna M. Fisher is the librarian at Senniger Powers, a St. Louis law firm specializing in intellectual property.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Special Libraries Association
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
