Archive for the ‘Law Libraries’ Category

While I was at LegalTech on Monday, I had a chance to attend a session titled “Talking Tech to Lawyers” which could have easily been titled “Talking Tech to Faculty” or “Talking Tech to Library Decision Makers”. The panel was made up of three CIO’s at law firms who gave some pretty solid advice on ways to build relationships for support of IT initiatives. Bob Dolinsky of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, Terry Pressley of Leonard Street and Deinard, and C. Kirk Scruggs from Bracewell & Giuliani LLP offered the following advice.

“You can’t build support sitting in your office”.

1. Have a service attitude.
2. Talk in terms of their businesses rather than the technology, in other words how will the technology help them solve their problems.
3. Express what’s involved in a technology rollout so that they are aware of how much needs to be coordinated in an initiative.
4. Don’t use technology terms.
5. Don’t argue with the attorneys.
6. Realize that the younger, more tech savvy attorneys will want to know more about the technology and it’s okay to talk with them about it.
7. Make yourself visible through periodic user group meetings, committee meetings, etc.
8. Be your own marketing department spinning positive accomplishments and letting people know what’s going on.
9. Start early in your communications if you have a rollout approaching, don’t catch people by surprise.
10. Always be prepared to answer these two questions…Why should they? and What’s in it for them?
11. Be knowledgeable about what other firms are doing with tech.
12. Be sure to align your initiatives with the firm’s core values.
13. Never say no to decision makers, always give them options.
14. Realize that early training is very important prior to a major implementation.
15. Have a decision maker, such as a managing partner send out the email announcement about a new tech rollout so that it won’t be ignored.
16. Manage expectations of decision makers, let them know what you’re doing, what the key steps are, the main issues or concerns, and when everything will happen.
17. Make your email communications visually appealing, succinct, and understandable with tech language in layman’s terms.
18. Work one on one with attorneys to build relationships.
19. Find out what decision makers’ pain points are and try to fix them.
20. Keep educated about what’s going on in your tech community by attending conferences, reading white papers, etc.

I attended the LegalTech conference yesterday here in NYC and went to this inspirational panel sponsored by ILTA. David Neeson, CIO at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger, LLP kicked off the session with some eye opening stats such as:

-There were 25 million iPads sold by June 2011
- the iPad holds 83% of the tablet market

His 80 attorney firm just finished an iPad rollout to all their associates. He shared that while he thinks that the iPad is an outstanding device for the consumption of information, it’s not so outstanding for the production of it. These are some areas where he thinks the iPads really shine:

Reading and Reviewing – great for reading deposition transcripts, reading ebooks, using GoodReader for reading documents.
Notetaking - iPads are excellent for typing notes, using Evernote, Draftpad, Notability, and OneNote. They’re also great when you need a handwritten signature for a pdf.
Research - the iPad is great for conducting searches on Fastcase, researching on Lexis and West apps.
Presentations - while not as strong in this area, iPads can be used to create presentations using Keynote and TrialPad.

The challenges for IT that Neeson identified have to do with device management and what happens when the user takes the iPad home and syncs it with their desktop’s iTunes. Also, app deployment, the update process, and deploying them en masse have all been challenges for his team. However, he mentioned that there are third-party utilities available for mobile device management which can help with deployment and configuration, policy enforcement, app management, remote control, tracking lost devices, and selective wipes of devices.

Brett Burney of Burney Consultants spoke about his recommended list of iPad apps, many of which I can’t wait to try out. These are the apps he suggests:

• GoodReader: This is an excellent app for reading documents. It can carry thousands and they can be organized and synced with Dropbox.
• PDF HD: Place bookmarks in pdf documents to quickly jump to that section.
• PDF PROvider: Read and create PDF documents with this app.
• PDF Expert: Fill out PDF forms and create signatures.
• IA Writer: A simply word processing app that syncs with Dropbox.
• SoundNote: Record audio notes that sync up with your typed and handdrawn notes.
• Noteshelf: Scan in handwritten notes and work with them through a zoomable interface. They can be exported to Evernote or as PDFs.
• Notes Plus: This notes app provides a dual pane interface where you can have your notes up in one and a webpage or PDF alongside it in the other pane. This app will convert written notes to text.
• Favorite News apps: USAToday, Guardian
• Zite: Similar to Flipboard but it makes recommendtions based on user behavior.
• Documents to Go: Create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentation with this mobile office suite.
• Atomic Web Browser: this browser can identify itself as other browsers such as IE, Firefox, and Safari.
• Legal apps: Westlaw Next, Lexis Advance HD, Fastcase HD.
• Find My Phone/iPad: Locate your missing, (or stolen), iPad with this tracking app.
• Klammer: open up files you would normally need Outlook to open such as .eml and .msg
• PST Mail: Transfer Outlook pst files to your device, and have access to your messages.

Valeri Craigle writes for the December issue of the AALL Spectrum about Discovery Layers in Law Libraries: A progress report on how our institutions are implementing this new technology. This timely article reports that 52 percent of [technical services law librarian] respondents are either currently using discovery layers in their libraries or are in the process of implementing them. The article not only discusses which types of discovery interfaces are being implemented, but the issues and challenges involved in such an initiative.

“Discovery layers have transformed our information seeking behaviors and have given us a deeper understanding of the depth, breadth, and value of our resources. They are particularly advantageous for college undergraduates, who must work with a variety of resources across many disciplines. However, based on feedback from students, staff, and faculty at my law school, and based on my own weighing of the issues involved with implementation, I wonder if discovery layers in law libraries introduce an unnecessary element of complexity in an already complex information environment.”