About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


26 Legal Info. Alert 1 (2007)

handle is hein.lbr/leinfal0026 and id is 1 raw text is: hat's new in legal publications, databases, and research techniques Volume 26, No. 1 January 2007 Contents Reflections of a Mad Cybrarian: The State of our Profession Database Report New Sources Publishers 15 Index 15 Reflections of a Mad Cybrarian: The State of Our Profession by Linda G. Will At least I knew who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then. - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Life is much like a game of cards. We are dealt hands that we may or may not want to play. Nonetheless, it is our hand, and how we play it out depends on our own wit and intuition. To me this is what my journey in law librarianship has been for the last 30 years: one of shuffling, dealing, and playing the hand I was dealt. With the advent of the New Year, I decided to peruse some of the literature published in the last six to eight years, to see if I could discern any trends in the profession. The findings from my empirical study were interesting. Responsibilities such as the annual budget of the Information Resources Center (IRC) resources had gone unchanged, while other responsibilities such as contract negotiations and content administration had evolved. Some responsibilities such as the IRC's role in marketing and competitive intelligence, which did not even exist a few years back, had taken center stage. Budgets and Price Increases Budgets and the management thereof have seemingly forever been the bane of our existence as librarians, and I do not see this changing. Indeed, information resource centers or libraries are generally found nestled in as the fourth or fifth line item on a law firm's overall budget. (At Dorsey, the IRC is right after Real Estate, Associates Salaries, and Malpractice Insurance on our annual budget.) So IRC continued on page 4