Government Info Pro

Federal Info Pro and Federal Librarian Guest Posters Highlighted

The LexisNexis Federal Info Pro Blog and the LexisNexis Federal Info Pro Podcast got a spotlight article in the August 2007 issue of the LexisNexis Information Professional Update. The article: Federal Law Librarians Get Customized Resources Through Special Info Pro Blog also highlights some of the recent contributions of federal librarians to the Federal Info Pro blog including:

David McBee, Senior Reference Librarian, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Library;

Bob Farina, Director, Trademark Law Library;

Blane Dessy, Director, Library Staff, Justice Management Division, U.S. Department of Justice Libraries;

Cornell Winston, Law Librarian, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California and Executive Board Member of the AALL;

and Adriana Younskevicius, Special Assistant to the Director, U.S. Department of Justice Libraries.

Check out the full article here. You can also view the complete August 2007 LexisNexis Information Professional Update as a PDF.

I read the LexisNexis Information Professional Update regularly and I highly recommend it to you. I had the opportunity to meet with the Managing Editor of this newsletter, Barbara Byrd, while at AALL in New Orleans this summer. My talk with Barbara made me even more enthusiastic about this specialized resource created monthy at LexisNexis just for librarians. Barbara has a lot of energy and expertise and it shows in the depth and coverage of this newsletter. I especially like the articles written by the LexisNexis Librarian Relations Consultants - librarian to librarian. The LexisNexis Information Professional Update is an excellent source of information for law firm, law school, corporate, and government information professionals.

If you are not already subscribed, you can sign up for the electronic version of this newsletter right here.

Web 2.0, Blogs, and Wikis

If your interested in keeping up with technology, drop by Stephen's Lighthouse and check out Stephen Abram's post on James Maquire's article: Top 100 Tech Blogs: The Datamation List. If you want to know more about what Stephen has pinpointed in the way of cool technologies then read my post on Stephen's ALA 2007 presentation: Top Cool Technologies: Stephen Abram Talks About Ten Cool Technologies and PR in Libraries. Stephen did  a couple other recent posts on web resources and Web 2.0:

WikiRage - learn what's the rage on Wikipedia.

Finding Time for Learning 2.0 took me to a very interesting post by Kathryn Greenhill entitled: Ten Ways to Find Time for 23 Things and this led me to the 23 Things that you can do to expand your expertise on the Internet and Web 2.0. Included are: setting up your own blog, working with images, rss, tagging, wikis, and podcasts.

My favorite of Stephen's recent posts was Blog Day, in which Stephen tells us that he currently has 600 plus blogs in his aggregator and gives us five of his new blog finds. I'd like to see Stephen's whole list of blog reads.

LexisNexis Brings You Even More Newstex Blogs

I am a big fan of good blogs and the value they can bring - if well selected - to the librarian, both in addressing aspects of their daily work and in their ongoing professional development. LexisNexis has the award-winning Newstex Blogs and they have recently added more than 100 blogs to their lineup. To learn more about these new additions, visit the August 2007 LexisNexis Information Professional Update and check out this article: More Than 100 Blogs Join the LexisNexis Newstex Line Up. To learn more about Newstex Blogs on LexisNexis check out this Federal Info Pro Post: LexisNexis®, Newstex Blogs On Demand™ Win SIIA 2007 Codie Award for Best Blog Aggregation Service.

Find Your Niche: Research Task Pages

Arielle Goldhammer, LexisNexis Federal Research Consultant, has developed a regular LexisNexis tip series. They are archived on the SEARCH TIPS page link on the right sidebar of the Federal Info Pro. Here's the current tip:

LexisNexis® Research Task pages combine critical information and relevant resources, focused by areas of law.

The Research Tasks pages are tailored specifically for your information needs, offering you quick accessibility to the material you need all in one handy location.

Each Research Tasks page is specific to a particular area of law, but the consistent look and feel of all Research Tasks pages provides convenience and ease of use.

• Choose and combine sources to expand the potential for more comprehensive results
• Select research tasks by practice area or jurisdiction
• Link to productivity tools and search court records, access litigation profiles, compile due diligence reports, and more
• Find the forms that can simplify your work
• Shepardize® your document to see if it is still good law
• Obtain analytical materials, an abundance of information to even more facts from treaties, treatises, and strategic profiling products
• Gain access to key company information and public records

LexisNexis® Federal Info Pro Podcast: Episode 5 - Interview with Chris Black, PTDLP Librarian

Chris Black, Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program Librarian, joins Marie Kaddell, LexisNexis Information Professional Consultant, in a discussion about the Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program and what Chris learned from her experience as an exhibitor this year at ALA and AALL. Find out more about the PTDLP program, how the PTDLP is using exhibit space at professional conferences to reach out to librarians, special products and services that they offer, how the PTDL program is leveraging technology to enhance their training programs, exhibit experience take-aways and more.

Listen from the player, download from the mp3 link and listen at your convenience, or grab it right off iTunes.

MP3 File

To Teach or Not to Teach: Law Librarians Ponder Online Databases and First-Year Law Students

Thanks to Candace Spencer, LexisNexis Senior Research Consultant, for sharing her takeaways from the conference programs at AALL 2007 in New Orleans:  Librarians, Vendors, or Both? Who should be teaching Westlaw and LexisNexis to First-year Law Students?. Read on, and find out what Candace learned...

At this year’s American Association of Law Libraries conference in New Orleans, I had the pleasure of attending a session addressing the topic: Westlaw and LexisNexis: Who Should Teach 1Ls (first-year law students)? As a Senior Research Consultant with LexisNexis, I thought that this session would be extremely thought-provoking and would provide clear points of view from the law librarians on this debate. I was right.

The session was born from an informal survey conducted by Professor Stephanie Pearlman, a law librarian from the University of Nebraska. Professor Pearlman sent out an email asking her fellow librarians whether the librarians thought they should have the LexisNexis and Westlaw vendors teach how to use their respective databases or have the law librarians teach the first year law students these particular research skills. After conducting the survey, Ms. Pearlman found some commonalities in the answers that she received. One common complaint from the librarians was that there just weren’t enough of them to go around. The lack of staff made if difficult for the librarians to be able to dedicate the time to teach these classes to the first year law students. Another factor that played a role in the teaching decision was the relationship with the vendors, whether there was stability with the LexisNexis or Westlaw representative, or whether there was a high turnover rate. Ultimately, however, the general consensus among the librarians was that, while their input was considered, the final call as to who taught what was up to the Administrative Offices of the particular law schools.

The panel consisted of various law librarians from law schools across the country, Sheri Lewis, a University of Chicago Law librarian, Ron Jones representing the University of Cincinnati, and Joe Gerken, a librarian from the University of Buffalo Law School. Each of these librarians offered a unique perspective and insight into their individual programs and the teaching curriculums for the online databases. READ ON FOR ALL THE DETAILS...

Bite-Sized Professional Development

As we move slowly out of summer and head towards autumn, it's a good idea to reflect on what we have been doing with regard to our own professional development over the year and what we can do to further enrich ourselves in this area - even when we are so busy that we think we don't have the time.  Here's some of my thoughts on the topic. For more ideas on professional development check out the 2007 Best Practices Collaborative Document.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Confucius

I’m busy. You’re busy. We’re all busy - really busy. How do we grab hold of opportunities for professional growth and learning without becoming overwhelmed? Sometimes the task can seem so daunting that we become paralyzed. It just seems like too much – too much to do, too much to choose from, too much to make a dent in. So, we put it off – just for a little while we say to ourselves. And then sometimes – admit it – we put it off a little more. We all know the truth - if we are not careful, we can find reasons to put it off indefinitely.

That little voice in the back of our minds urging us past the excuses and enjoining us to just get on with it, is not to be ignored. It makes good sense and we should listen. As information professionals, we have chosen a career that requires that we be in a constant learning mode. We do a lot of that in our jobs. Ask any librarian and he or she will surely tell you – I learn something every day. However, we need more than what we learn in the workplace. We need to find ways to keep up with our field, and all things tangential, that will make us innovators, strategists, teachers, gurus, and imparters of knowledge and expertise to those we serve, as well as to each other, and to society as a whole. Most importantly, we need to do this while retaining our sanity.

So, when we begin to feel that we will never catch up and keep up, we need to consider why we chose our career, and then accept that what we do as librarians is important enough to give us the determination to plug ourselves in as ways that work for us, to stay smart and get smarter and smarter in the complex environments within which we must function everyday.

So how do we manage it in the constantly changing world of the information professional in this century?

I think the trick is to realize the value of small incremental steps to professional learning opportunities. I believe that professional growth has many faces and takes many paths. Like all those piano lessons, dance classes, batting practices, and grad school programs – one thing builds on the next. If you put a little effort in on a regular basis, your Chopsticks will turn into a nicely played Moonlight Sonata and you will hardly remember how you got there. Who would have thought all those little efforts you took week after week would turn into something so compelling and satisfying. Professional development occurs in the same sort of way.

With that in mind, here’s a few tips on making those small incremental investments in yourself and your professional growth and development that will make the difference in who you are as a professional and what you can do for yourself, your organization, and those you serve. You don’t have to do them all. Just pick a few that appeal to you and add them to your repertoire. READ ON FOR THE TIPS...

Adding Custom Source Tabs on Lexis.com

Arielle Goldhammer, LexisNexis Federal Research Consultant, has developed a regular LexisNexis tip series and I would like to share them with you. They will be archived on the SEARCH TIPS page from the right sidebar of the Federal Info Pro. Here's the current tip:

When you sign on to lexis.com, the source selection screen displays with a choice of four tabs: Legal, News & Business, Public Records and Find a Source. It's easy to add your own additional tabs for jurisdictions and /or practice areas that you use most often.

You can add up to 14 custom tabs, in addition to the four standard tabs, and you can remove or reorder the custom tabs any time you choose. Here's how to add a custom tab:

1. Click Add/Edit Tabs in the top left corner of the source selection screen.
2. Scroll through the displayed list until the jurisdiction or practice area you want appears.
3. Highlight the jurisdiction or practice area you want (for instance: Immigration or Patent Law) and click Add.
4. Click Done. The tab(s) you selected will now appear on the menu screen next to the Create a Source tab.

*An additional note on custom tabs from your Information Professional Consultant: Custom tabs are really handy as a just-in-time resource when you are trying to do research in an area of law with which you are not familiar.