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Reinventing librarians: Part 1 [ABSTRACT]
Friday, 1st July 2011

By Marlene Gebauer

Abstract:

The relocation of law collections to the relevant departments provides the perfect opportunity for librarians and research specialists to embed themselves within practice groups or departments. Marlene Gebauer shows the resultant perception that the librarian is part of that practice area greatly enhances information exchange, and describes how to go about making this change in your organisation

Article:

The relocation of law collections to the relevant departments provides the perfect opportunity for librarians and research specialists to embed themselves within practice groups or departments. Marlene Gebauer shows the resultant perception that the librarian is part of that practice area greatly enhances information exchange, and describes how to go about making this change in your organisation

What’s inside

Historically, legal research librarians have worked as an independent group, often separated physically from the rest of the firm, but collections are now being downsized and what remains is being housed near the relevant departments. So you can consider seating or “embedding” a research expert within a practice group or department. Having a specialist researcher in the same physical space enhances the perception that they are part of that practice group or department team, closer relationships can be forged and more information readily exchanged. Also, the concept of an embedded research specialist takes advantage of the developing project overlap between departments.

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Reinventing librarians, Part 2:

We know the content, we know the prices, and we know who is using what. In Part 2 of this series, I’ll explore the concept of librarians as procurement specialists.

View Part 2 »

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By Marlene Gebauer

Marlene Gebauer is the Director of the Research Center at Greenberg Traurig LLP (www.gtlaw.com). She is an active author and presenter on legal research, training, knowledge management and technology topics. She can be found on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/marlenegebauer.

More articles by Marlene Gebauer  »