A Hero [Read: Librarian]’s Quest

At this point, you’re probably all sick and tired of my angst over cataloging a library that was never cataloged before – especially when the available software is limited to Microsoft Excel or Access.  So, I did what I was supposed to (grin and bear it, as they say) and made the best database I could possibly make using Access.  While not ideal, I felt it had more search and sort functionality than Excel, and I was able to create tabbed “library cards” with book information on one tab, and financial/subscription/status information on the other tab.

Bonus picture of one of my firm's well-loved, well-used historical books

 Of course, if you are familiar with Joseph Campbell’s monomyths, you know that the hero [read: librarian] must venture from home [read: Microsoft] at some point.  Microsoft Access is just not user-friendly enough for general use by patrons.  I was forced by my quest for usability to leave my desktop and venture into the depths of the internet.  But the search was totally worth it.

I’ve used LibraryThing, and other websites with similar functions, to catalog my personal library in the past.  However, given that a law library is a little more formal than the books I keep on my own shelves, I knew I’d have to dig for something a bit…more.  And I stumbled across Libib.

Libib is free, unless you want to use the Pro version which is $5 a month.  With the pro version, you can have as many patrons as you want, and you can list up to 100,000 books.  Patrons can check out books or request them directly online.  Basically, for a special librarian managing a small library, this is perfect.  There are even Libib apps that scan bar codes to check books out for you. 

I ran this by our IT guru and firm management; everyone seems intrigued by this.  It simplifies life all around… especially since we are preparing to launch our intranet and the Access database was just too complicated for general use.  The simple solution is to link our library catalog in Libib to our intranet site – and thus, the hero’s quest is finished and the return home can commence!

So, note to self, there is always free/inexpensive software when it comes to librarians.  It’s like our ethics to make information available extends to the tools necessary to provide said information.  That, and I think being helpful is just written into our very nature.

Once I've used Libib for a more extensive period of time, I'll post a part deux so if anyone else is in a similar situation they can consider how it's worked for our firm.

Physical Space and Retired Books

The bane of my existence as a law librarian is finding space for new books.  If you’re not familiar with legal resources, here’s what you really need to know: they’re updated all the time.  I mean, all the time.  The updates for books vary in type.   

Some of the more common types of updates include:

 Cumulative supplements (usually “pocket-parts” for the back inside cover of the book);

•  Replacement pages (resource is housed in a “binder” with easily replaced pages);
• Updated books (literally books – they send you new books to replace the old ones); and
• Supplemental books (could be Volume 1A, to be housed with Volume 1, for example).

And it’s not just books.  Like any library, there are also journals, newspapers, magazines, and directories.  My personal least favorite is the newsletters; nothing against newsletters in general.  I’m sure they’re quite lovely when you’re not trying to figure out where you can store them so people can see what they are.

Updates for the resources tend to run in predictable cycles: weekly, monthly, quarterly, twice a year, annually, and bi-annually.  Because most of these updates are treated as subscriptions, they appear without warning and are invoiced separately.   Once you have received the update is when the fun really begins…deciding what to keep and where to put it.

Maybe it seems like a no-brainer.  You have an update, you can get rid of the old one, right?  Well, sometimes that’s right.  Sometimes it’s not.  Attorneys may need to refer back to specific points from older versions, especially since cases don’t run on the resources’ update schedules.  The way I have handled this is by creating a “Retired Book” Shelf.  As the updates take their place in the stacks, the displaced, out-of-date resources are brought to their retirement home.  I pencil in the date on a label on the spine, and they have 1 year from that point for attorneys to refer back to them or let me know that they need to be kept longer.

Other resources, such as newsletters and journals, I check to see if we have access to archived versions online.  If we do, I try not to keep more than a year's worth on hand.  When we don't have archived volumes online, the attorneys need to step in and help me determine if the information covered is still relevant.  Due to the always-changing nature of law, storing journals from several years back is inefficient since the information has to be cross-referenced with more current issues anyway.

Of course, retiring books and only trying to weed out out-of-date journals and newsletters does not fix the issue of needing more physical space.  As much as possible, I have been electing to purchase electronic resources for the library.  Some are simply not available electronically, or the primary attorneys who use them may prefer to use physical copies.  So, it is a work in progress – but in a fun way, it’s like a jigsaw puzzle.