October saw Softlink hold its free Liberty Training and User Group Meetings in the UK, the second of which was held in beautiful Edinburgh. Hosted by Colin McDowall librarian at the Royal College of Physicians, it was attended by a small but enthusiastic group of users who travelled from the West Midlands and North East England to join those more locally based.
The 2018 calendar of the Liberty Training and User Group Meetings (UGMs) ended with the long-anticipated events in the UK. The first of the events kicked off in London on the 9th of October. Full of information sharing and interaction, it was enjoyed by all.
The amount of accurate information required by legal staff is phenomenal. How do legal staff communicate their needs to research center staff? How do research center staff efficiently manage the volume of daily requests for the research services they receive? How do they ensure requesters are updated promptly?
Based in Softlink’s US office, Will is part of the Northern Hemisphere support team. We get to know a little bit more about Will in our latest Softlink Information Centres Employee spotlights.
Just like Harry Potter, librarians can't keep their secret any longer. For all they walk among us in normal clothes and keep a low profile between the stacked shelves of your local library, they can't hide the truth any longer.
Being a librarian is a stimulating job. No two days are the same, and no two users have the same needs. The ability to juggle many tasks is paramount. The demands on librarians are significant. They face constant interruption, and shifting between roles and responsibilities, all while keeping a smile on their face or trying to! And then there’s the need to keep abreast of new information technology to meet their users’ changing requirements and expectations, while facing budget cuts and less staff. Need we go on?
Law libraries accommodate all manner of resources, both digital and physical, to help lawyers in their research. More and more, law firms are relying on the internet, online databases, and web-based services for research, but there is still a need for physical publications.
Your IT team are important stakeholders in any new software decision. It's important they feel confident with the robustness of the technology, security, ease of use, and access to support.
Some further tips for you as a solo librarian! You will be fulfilling many functions — tasks that in a much larger library would be undertaken by different departments. There is quite a bit on your plate; on top of that, you are dealing face to face with members of the public and fielding requests, overseeing circulation of resources, and developing library reference collections.
