Softlink IC Blog

How long have you worked at Vinson & Elkins?

I’ve been with Vinson & Elkins a little over 8 years now, prior to this I was a librarian at another law firm for almost 12 years.

What are your main responsibilities in this role?

Overall, my role focuses on department operations and building strong partnerships to support the firm’s goals. I oversee the end‑to‑end management of research resources and ensure the department’s tools and workflows effectively support the discovery and delivery of information.

I supervise operations staff across several of our offices and manage key administrative responsibilities such as budgeting, invoice approvals, and contract renewals. I also step in to assist with research requests as needed. It’s a role that touches a bit of everything across the department.

Ultimately, it all comes down to fostering the right connections between our resources, vendors, and practice group leaders to keep the department running effectively.

Can you describe what a typical day looks like for you (if there is such a thing)?

I usually start my day by reviewing email – flagging and responding to urgent items and following up on open projects or tasks. Lately, much of my time has been spent coordinating a few pilot programs for platforms our attorneys are interested in, along with managing a number of major resource and subscription renewals – for which Liberty Digital has been especially useful for storing and referencing vendor contact information. It’s a lot of email!

I also make it a daily habit to verify that our feeds are functioning properly across all systems and to troubleshoot any issues that arise.

In addition, there are almost always invoices to review and approve for payment. And if I’m lucky, I even get a bit of time to catalog new books or resources.

How long has Vinson & Elkins used Liberty Digital and illumin?

We implemented both soon after I joined the firm, so about 8 years now.

How have Liberty Digital and illumin evolved to support legal library management?

Softlink has released numerous updates to both illumin and Liberty Digital since we first began using the products. One of the things I value most about Softlink is their customer service; the team is consistently responsive, open to feedback, and willing to consider user suggestions.

One of the most significant recent changes to Liberty Digital is the rollout of the ERM module. While I haven’t yet had the opportunity to fully explore this new feature, I’m excited about its potential. Previously, we modified a distribution list category within serials subscriptions to maintain user lists for electronic resources.

The ERM module now provides this functionality more directly, which should streamline workflows and improve how we manage electronic resources.

In illumin, the addition of the graphical dashboard provides clear, at-a-glance insight into active requests across our researchers and teams. As a manager, I find this view especially helpful when I need a quick operational overview.

Why did Vinson & Elkins choose Liberty Digital and illumin?

When I joined Vinson & Elkins, the research team had already selected illumin for reference tracking. One of my first responsibilities was to evaluate and select a new ILS. I reviewed several options, and we ultimately chose Liberty Digital for its strong functionality and flexibility. In particular, we valued the ability to customize the OPAC landing page by office location, as well as by groups or individual users.

The Translation feature was also appealing, as it allowed us to adapt fields to our own naming conventions. We were able to implement both systems quickly and successfully within a few months of each other.

Who on your team uses Liberty Digital, and who on your team uses illumin?

Our attorneys and administrative professionals access Liberty through the OPAC, while our research team and other operational team members use the management functionality. The RKS team highlights the Liberty OPAC during onboarding sessions and consistently promotes it as an effective entry point for research.

These efforts have paid off:

From 2024 to 2025, searches increased by 33%, with an average of approximately 150 searches per month and a 90% successful search rate. 

Access to illumin is limited to our seven‑member research team, and it plays a critical role in how we support and serve the firm, particularly in how we allocate, manage, and respond to research requests.

Without illumin, those requests would need to be coordinated through tools like Zoom chat or Outlook – making it significantly more difficult to compile meaningful statistics, while also creating a fragmented process that costs both time and loss of robust data/statistics to share with firm management.

But rest assured, researchers have illumin open all day, which I’m sure Alex the alpaca is pleased to hear that!

How do lawyers submit research requests – directly in illumin or via email?

Our attorneys predominantly email their queries. When they do call, stop by in person or send a chat message, our team uses a new request template to fill out the details.

What is your favourite feature in Liberty Digital and in illumin? Feel free to share more than one for each!

In Liberty, two of my favorite features are Bib Types and Global Change. I use Bib Types to differentiate MARC records for various resource types, and the associated images in the OPAC make it easy to visually identify categories in the search results.

Global Change is another powerful tool, allowing me to update groups of records all at once. It’s incredibly efficient, though I always feel like I’m living a little dangerously when making global changes!

Additionally, another one of my favourite features in Liberty Digital is the internal information boxes – I can customize them to show training content exclusively to summer associates, hidden from other attorneys. Such a useful tool!

In illumin, I particularly value the advanced search and filtering capabilities, along with the robust analytics. These features provide us with meaningful data that we can share with firm management to effectively demonstrate the impact and value of our department and team.

For example, we saw a 30% increase in requests from 2024 to 2025, driven by growth in primary research, BD research, retrievals (articles, cases, filings, etc.), and alerts (news, dockets, legislative, etc.).

The Litigation group remains our primary practice group client, followed by Corporate and the combined BD/Comms groups. All of this data is captured directly through illumin.

How do Liberty Digital and illumin support a high-performing legal library?

Liberty provides a single, customizable portal for firm vetted resources, making information easier for attorneys and business professionals to find and use.

illumin centralizes and tracks research requests, improving efficiency, transparency, and service quality and includes actionable analytics.

Together, they enable the Research & Knowledge Services team to work more strategically, enhance the attorney research experience, and support consistent, high-quality legal work across the firm.

What inspired you to specialize as a legal librarian?

I actually just happened upon the career if you can believe that. My initial plan was to be a school librarian and the majority of my classes for my MLIS focused on that. I worked in an elementary and middle school library while I was completing my degree. Then a family friend who was an attorney told me about an opening at my previous firm. I applied and the rest is history. I will say, there was a steep learning curve!

If you could try any other job for a day, what would it be and why?

Over the past couple of years, I’ve volunteered as a Standard Bearer at PGA and LPGA events around Houston, and I’ve been consistently impressed by the condition of the courses. I also enjoy playing golf myself. Because of that, I think it would be interesting to spend a day as a Golf Course Superintendent – mainly to learn what goes into maintaining a course at that level, rather than as a potential career change.

If you could visit one place in the world, where would it be and why?

There are so many places to choose, but I’d love to visit Scotland. My mom’s side of the family – the Frasers – is Scottish, and the country is also known as the birthplace of modern golf. I’d love to visit Edinburgh, explore the Highlands, and make a stop at St. Andrews.